Going on a Walk For My Health
Grumpy Bald Eagle Marches Through Water
It knows it will feel better at the end but resents the need to do it.
I always feel a little cranky about the fact that going for a walk helps me feel better. When I’m stressed out, going for a short walk can sometimes bring me back to baseline. And one memorable summer I dealt with my stress by going for a run every morning before breakfast.
Have you ever been told to go for a walk to clear your head? Or has someone suggested that exercise might help your depression? What about yoga to cure your anxiety? It can be annoying to have someone tell you that moving your body will help your mental health, especially if you’ve tried it and it hasn’t helped enough. As with everything, the truth is more complex and nuanced. Exercise can’t fully cure any mental illness, but there are a number of ways it can help.
We already know that exercise is beneficial to our bodies. Doctors and health teachers have been telling us this our whole lives. I think it’s important to know why and how it helps so we can choose how to do it in ways that work for us.
A recent study found that any exercise is better than no exercise and exercise outdoors is better than indoor exercise. This makes intuitive sense, but what do we do with this information? We have evidence from other studies that just being around greenery can be helpful. Sometimes even just having a photo or a painting of trees can help us feel better. So if you don’t have the energy to go for a run outside, you could choose to walk outside or run indoors to still get some benefit.
There is also evidence that the act of alternating our legs while walking can help reduce stress. Just like with EMDR therapy for trauma, alternating from side to side of our bodies helps the brain integrate information better and calm things down. You might find that going for a walk with your friend or partner might make it easier to have a difficult conversation than if you are sitting still.
And if nothing else, getting your body up and moving prevents stagnation. If we’re sitting at desks all day and not moving our bodies, it’s easy to feel bogged down. Some people use treadmill desks to get more movement into their day. But there’s more evidence that taking a short break to move your body helps with mental health more than continuing to move while working. Even if you’re only able to get up and wiggle every 30 minutes, that will help more than sitting still all day.
So go ahead and roll your eyes at me. I’ve just spent a page trying to convince you to move your body to help your mental health and boy is that a cliche. But roll your eyes while you’re walking and see if it helps you feel a little better. Moving your body just a little can shake the mental cobwebs out and help you get enough energy to work on bigger goals.
Sources-
Duran AT, Friel CP, Serafini MA, Ensari I, Cheung YK, Diaz KM. Breaking Up Prolonged Sitting to Improve Cardiometabolic Risk: Dose-Response Analysis of a Randomized Crossover Trial. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2023;55(5):847-855. doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000003109
Liang Y, Wei DY, Min S. Comparative efficacy of green exercise versus indoor exercise for depression and anxiety: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Front Public Health. 2026;14:1831073. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2026.1831073
Qin G, Yang J, Liu F, Zhang Z, Pan C. Forest therapy for psychological stress and emotional disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Public Health. 2026;26(1):1736. doi:10.1186/s12889-026-27255-x
Luo Z, Chen J, Liu Y, et al. Treadmill exercise prevents stress-induced anxiety-like behaviors via enhancing the excitatory input from the primary motor cortex to the thalamocortical circuit. Nat Commun. 2025;16(1):939. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-56258-2
Koziel N, Vigod S, Price J, Leung J, Hensel J. Walking Psychotherapy As a Health Promotion Strategy to Improve Mental and Physical Health for Patients and Therapists: Clinical Open-Label Feasibility Trial. Can J Psychiatry. 2022;67(2):153-155. doi:10.1177/07067437211039194
