“Intelligent Life” On The Powerful Relationship Between Walking And Thinking

In the latest issue of Intelligent Life, travel writer Colin Thubron writes on the powerful relationship between walking and thinking.  “The choice to travel on foot is a transforming one,” Thubron writes.  “The unhurried pace brings a sense of things restored to their natural proportions.  Time slows down and geography stretches out.  The details of the land — its small topographical changes, its chance noises and scents — become more potent and absorbing.  Some of the finest works of travel, from the sagas of George Borrow two centuries ago, to those of Patrick Leigh Fermor and Bruce Chatwin, were achieved on foot.  Many people have remarked on the curious relationship between walking and thinking.  The rhythm of the body seems to free the mind, just as the rhythm of a mother’s walk (it is imagined) puts at rest her babe-in-arms.  ‘Solvitur ambulando’, declared the ancients: ‘it is solved by walking’.  Wordsworth wrote many of his poems on the move, as did John Clare.  Nietzsche claimed to have made all his philosophical discoveries while walking, and Kierkegaard wrote that ‘I have walked myself into my best thoughts.'”  You can read the entire piece by visiting MoreIntelligentLife.com.