The Nature Fix

(Romina) #1

The idea of solvitur ambulando (in walking it will be solved) has


been around since St. Augustine, but well before that Aristotle
thought and taught while walking the open-air parapets of the
Lyceum. It has long been believed that walking in restorative settings
could lead not only to physical vigor but to mental clarity and even
bursts of genius, inspiration (with its etymology in breathing) and
overall sanity. As French academic Frederic Gros writes in A
Philosophy of Walking, it’s simply “the best way to go more slowly
than any other method that has ever been found.” Jefferson walked to
clear his mind, while Thoreau and Nietzsche, like Aristotle, walked to
think. “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking,” wrote

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