Walking for Creativity and Problem Solving

An excerpt from my book Walking Your Blues Away: How to Heal the Mind and Create Emotional Well-Being

Walking Your Blues Away

Chapter 9

Walking for Creativity and Problem Solving

The legs are the wheels of creativity.
—Albert Einstein

Creativity and problem solving are psychologically similar processes. Both combine a linear approach—“How do I get from here to there?”—with the need to randomly access memories and ideas that may, in a linear world, seem completely unrelated.

         One of the unique hallmarks of bilateral activity is that it gives access to the whole brain, making walking and other forms of bilateral work/play useful for enhancing creativity and problem solving. Resources and strengths, useful learnings and experiences, that date all the way back from childhood are available when walking, and can be brought to bear on current problems or creative endeavors.

         Walking is a grounding experience, a step-by-step, moment-by-moment contact with the earth. Whether by some mystical force or some as-yet-unexplained psychological phenomenon, perhaps deeply rooted in our genes and stretching back over millions of years of evolutionary ancestry, feeling connected with the earth produces a liberating experience for most people.

         Walking also provides us with a break from the state of normal everyday existence. Looking at the same walls, the same furniture, the same place and people often anchors us to a particular state of mind. When we go out for a walk that state is broken, and new states of mind and emotion provoked by new sounds, sights, smells, and sensations offer access to new ways of knowing and understanding ourselves and our problems or opportunities.

         The process for walking to solve problems or encourage creativity is straightforward. Decide on the issue you’re going to bring to the walk, whether it’s solving a business problem or deciding how to finish a painting. Then, while walking, keep returning your mind to that specific issue, while at the same time allowing it to freely roam in the intervals between your internal mental reminders.

         Another quick technique that can aid in both problem solving and enhancing creativity is to ask the creative part of you to participate in the walk. Although this may sound a bit odd, try this simple exercise right now and you’ll discover how real and useful it be.

After you finish reading this paragraph, put the book down, close your eyes, and ask yourself, “Is there a creative part of me in here?” Do it now.

         Nearly everybody will hear or sense some sort of a “Yes!” answer to that question, because we are complex beings with different internal mental and emotional aspects of ourselves that have taken responsibility for different tasks in our lives.

         When you’re going to walk for problem solving or for encouraging creativity, before you go on the walk ask the creative part of you if it will participate in the process by tossing out possibilities and helping you see or hear or get new ideas as you’re walking.

You may also want to ask if there’s a part inside you that has taken responsibility for the creative project or problem you’re trying to solve. When that part of you says agrees, ask it if it is willing to receive some help from your creative self. Again, the answer is almost always, “Yes!”

        Once you’ve accessed both of those parts of yourself and put them in touch with one another, go for the walk.