It's All in My Mind

Trinity College Professor Shane O'Mara says that walking has benefits in addition to those associated with physical exercise, it helps the brain:

2011: 4 miles to the top of the ridge in Rancho
San Antonio Park, then 4 miles back

In our evolutionary history, walking upright set our hands free, allowing us to carry food and tools and children and also to point and gesture. Because we could point to predators and prey in the distance, we could look in the same direction, paying shared attention to what someone is pointing at—a capacity that demands an elaborate brain system.

Walking is also how we find our way around the world. It is how we created our own internal GPS maps before there was GPS. This gives the lie to how we might think we navigate—that is, by sight...After all, we can find our way around in a suddenly darkened room. Close your eyes and point to where the door is: That’s your cognitive map at work. Moving is the thing. It silently updates your position in your GPS without your even realizing it.

Beach and lagoon, Foster City

Movement through the world changes the dynamics of the brain itself. Recent experiments show that walking increases the strength of the signals in parts of the brain concerned with seeing and other senses, such as touch...

Experiments by the psychologists Marily Opezzo and Daniel Schwartz of Stanford University have shown that walking boosts creativity. They asked people to quickly come up with alternative uses for common objects, such as a pen. They found that people whom they got to walk before coming up with alternative uses came up with almost twice as many novel ideas as those who remained seated.

I've been going on regular long walks for nine years. The good professor says that walking enhances my social intelligence, internal GPS, sensory signal strength, and creativity.

Yes, I can feel the brainpower growing. It's unfortunate that my family and friends haven't noticed...