Latest / Real STRength with Sarah Draper / The Ancient Power of Walking | #6
Transcript
- Sarah Draper: It's a walk you take with a key person at the start of your week, and it's your antidote to disconnection. You start to see clearly what you couldn't see before. Walking creates the space for self-discovery and transformation. The Camino de Santiago, where extended walking gives you time to decompress, process, and find clarity. Welcome to the Future Walk Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Drapert. Each week on the podcast. I explore tools to help you lead your best now and into the future, and I talk with top leaders to see how they stay focused when life gets cluttered. It's time to stop reacting to your life and start leading it. Welcome to Future Watch. The Future Walk Podcast. I'm Sarah Draper, and I'm so glad you're here. And if you're new to the podcast, an especially warm welcome. I spent three decades in the Army and the FBI leading national security programs and running high-stakes operations. And through that work, I learned that even the best leaders, and I've worked with some extraordinary ones, struggle when they don't create the time to step out of the noise and think clearly. That's why I created the Future Walk, a practice that changed my life and my leadership. Now, over the past few episodes of the podcast, we've explored three types of future walks in depth. The daily walk for your daily priorities, the strategic walk for better decisions, and the visioning walk for long-term clarity. So before we dive into today's topic, I want to introduce something new to the Future Walk Framework. And it's something I've been reflecting on since developing and launching this podcast. I've realized that there's a gap between that daily and the strategic walk. That daily walk helps you prioritize today. And the strategic one helps you make better decisions for the next month or quarter. But what about your next week? What about staying connected to the people who matter the most? So I'm Adding another walk into this framework, which I'm calling the weekly future walk. It's a walk you take with a key person at the start of your week. And it's your antidote to disconnection. You take this with someone, like a spouse, a partner, a close colleague, a key friend, or another relationship that you really want to protect. Someone who really holds space for you, adds a lot to your life. And this Gives you the opportunity to actually connect with that person by walking side by side, checking in with each other, aligning on your week ahead, you're protecting that relationship from getting buried under the busyness of your week. And the practice is simple. You walk together for 20 to 30 minutes and you ask each other, what's most important to you or for you this week? How can I support you? That's it. No agenda. No problem solving unless it emerges naturally. Just your presence, your connection, and that alignment. This walk elevates and protects your most important relationships. And you'll see how this practice connects to ancient wisdom about walking and connection as we explore today's topic. So today we're going to go on a journey. It's a little different kind of journey because we're going to explore the ancient roots of walking for transformation, the cultural practices from around the world that have known for centuries what neuroscience is only now confirming. Walking for clarity and vision isn't a new idea. It's ancient wisdom backed by modern science. From Aristotle's Greece to Indigenous Australia to the mountains of Japan. Cultures around the world have understood that walking creates the conditions for transformation. By the end of this episode, you'll see that when you take a future walk, you're connecting to a timeless human practice, one that spans continents, centuries, and cultures. So before we dive into specific practices from these different cultures, I want to explore why ancient wisdom even matters. When we have modern neuroscience? Well, it's because these practices have stood the test of time. They've survived centuries, even millennia, because they work. And they've been refined through generations of lived experience. When neuroscience confirms what ancient cultures already knew, it's not just validation, it's a reminder that we are tapping into something fundamental about. How humans think, reflect, and grow. How we always have thought, reflected, and grown that way, and we always will. So as I was developing, as I've been developing this podcast and exploring the future walk and looking for evidence to support what I personally was experiencing, I kept finding the same pattern across cultures, which is what led to today's episode. Walking. plus nature plus intentional questions leads to transformation. Whether it was Aristotle teaching while walking in ancient Greece, or Aboriginal elders guiding young people through a walkabout in Australia, or Japanese doctors prescribing forest bathing today, that patterns consistent movement plus nature plus reflection leads to clarity and growth. So when you take a future walk, you're not just Using some productivity hacker leadership tool, you're participating in a practice that connects you to thousands of years of human wisdom. You're walking in the footsteps, literally, of philosophers, pilgrims, indigenous elders, and some of the greatest thinkers in history. That matters because it means this practice isn't fragile or trendy. It's enduring, it's human. So we're going to now explore some of these ancient practices. But before we do that, I want to ask that if you like this podcast, if you're getting some good things from it, please share it with someone it could benefit. Sharing this is a perfect way to invite someone to do a future walk with you or help them create the time they need to step out of the noise in their own life. Okay, we're gonna go back to fourth century BC at Where the philosopher Aristotle founded what became known as the peripatetic school. That word peripatetic comes from the Greek word peripateticos, which literally means given to walking about. He didn't teach from a podium or a desk. He taught while walking with his students through the covered walkways of the Lyceum. Aristotle understood something profound. Movement. enhances philosophical inquiry. When you're walking, your mind is more open, more curious, more capable of complex thinking. And his students didn't just learn philosophy, they embodied it through movement. The act of walking together created a different kind of conversation, a different kind of learning. I mean when you think about what he was teaching, ethics, logic, metaphysics, politics, these are not Simple subjects. They require deep thinking, the ability to hold multiple perspectives, and the capacity to question assumptions. And he knew that sitting still wasn't the best way to access that kind of thinking. Walking was. So when you take a strategic future walk to think about a complex problem, whether you do that alone or with a colleague, or when you walk side by side with someone you're coaching or mentoring. You are doing what Aristotle did 2400 years ago. You are using movement to enhance thinking. You're creating the conditions for deeper inquiry. You're recognizing that the best conversations don't happen across a desk. They happen side by side, moving forward together. Okay, we're going to move to Australia now. Indigenous Australia and the walkabout. In Indigenous Australian culture, the walkabout's a rite of passage, typically undertaken by young males between 10 and 16 years old. Although the practice varies across different Aboriginal groups, the walkabout's a journey through the wilderness that can last up to six months. And during that time, the young person walks alone or with minimal guidance, living off the land, connecting with ancestors, and discovering who they are. The walkabout isn't about reaching a destination. It's about the transformation that happens during the journey. It's about spiritual development, connecting to the land, to ancestors, to the stories that have been passed down for thousands of years. It's also about survival skills, learning to read the land, to find water, to navigate by the stars. But most importantly, it's about self discovery. Who am I? What's my place in the world? What is my responsibility to my people in the land? The walking itself is the teacher, the solitude, the challenge, the connection to nature. All of it shapes who you become. So when you take a visioning future walk to reconnect with who you want to be in three to five years or longer from now, you're tapping into the same principle the walkabout embodies. Walking creates a space for self-discovery and transformation. The journey itself changes you. You're not just thinking about your future, you're becoming the person who can create that future. The walking, the solitude, the time in nature, it all works together to help you see clearly and choose intentionally. Okay, now we're headed to Spain for over a Thousand years pilgrims have walked the Camino de Santiago, the way of Saint James to the Cathedral Santiago di Compostela in northwestern Spain. The most popular route, which is the Camino Francis, is about 500 miles and takes most pilgrims 30 to 35 days to complete on foot. While the Camino began as a Christian pilgrimage, Today, people walk it for many reasons some spiritual seeking, personal transformation, healing from loss, grief, divorce, career transitions, or simply to step away from their lives and reflect. The Kamina works because it gives you time, time to decompress from life, time to think about what matters, time to ask the big questions without the noise of daily life drowning them out. Pilgrims often say that the first week is physical. Your body adjusts to walking 15 to 20 miles a day. The second week is mental. You process what you've been carrying the stress, the grief, the questions. And the third week and beyond is spiritual. You start to see clearly what you couldn't see before. There's a saying on the Camino the Camino provides. What pilgrims mean is that the journey gives you what you need, whether it's clarity. Healing, community, or simply a space to breathe. So when you take that extended visioning future walk, 30 to 50 minutes or longer, you're creating like a mini camino. You're giving yourself time to move through the layers, to decompress, to process, and finally find clarity. That first 10 to 15 minutes, you're decompressing. Your brain's still processing all the noise, your to-do lists, your emails. All those immediate pressures. Around 15 to 20 minutes, you start to settle, your stress hormones drop, your mind begins to wander in a productive way. But it's in that 30 to 50 minute range that something deeper happens. You access what researchers call deep attention restoration. You're no longer problem-solving the immediate, you're thinking about the long term. You're asking bigger questions. That's the Camino effect. Okay, let's move to Japan. In the 1980s, Japan developed the practice of Shinrin yoko, which translates to forest bathing or taking in the forest atmosphere. This isn't a new age wellness trend, though. It's a medical practice. Japanese doctors prescribe forest bathing to patients dealing with stress, hypertension, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders. The practice is simple. You walk slowly through a forest. Engage all your senses. Notice the light filtering through the trees. You listen to the bird, the wind, the rustle of the leaves. Feel the texture of the bark. Maybe take off your shoes and socks and feel the ground beneath your feet. Breathe deeply and be present. Japan has even established a field of force medicine to study the physiological and psychological effects of time and nature. They've found through research that. Stress hormones improve, so cortisol drops significantly, blood pressure improves, immune function improves, your natural killer cells increase, mental health, both anxiety and depression can decrease. Force bathing works because it combines movement, nature, and mindfulness. It's not so much about the exercise as the presence and restoration. Now Every future walk incorporates elements of Shinran Yoku. When you walk outside and you leave your phone and you move at an easy pace, you're creating the same conditions for restoration and clarity that Japanese doctors prescribe. You're not just thinking better, you're healing. You're reducing stress hormones, restoring your capacity for attention and focus. That's why the future walk works best outside. Nature isn't just a nice, like Drop is an active ingredient in your transformation. Okay, we're going to move to Buddhist traditions across Southeast Asia, Tibet, and East Asia, where walking meditation has been practiced for over 2,500 years. In Zen Buddhism, it's called Kinhin, the slow, mindful walking between periods of seated meditation. In Vipassana traditions, walking meditation is practiced as a way to Cultivate mindfulness and presence. And the practice is simple. Walk slowly, pay attention to each step. Notice the sensation of your foot lifting, moving through the air, touching the ground. When your mind wanders, just gently bring it back to the walking. Walking meditation works because it integrates mindfulness with movement. It teaches you to be fully present in your body and in the moment. It's a practice of attention and awareness. Walking meditation isn't about clearing your mind or stopping your thoughts. It's about noticing when your mind wanders and gently bringing it back. That's the skill. And it's the same skill you need for strategic thinking, the ability to notice when you're distracted and bring yourself back to what matters. And when you take a daily future walk, you use the first few minutes to decompress and settle into your walk, you're practicing a form of walking meditation. You're using movement to bring yourself into the present moment before you ask your question. You're not trying to force clarity. You are creating the conditions for it to emerge. It's exactly what Buddhist walking meditation teaches. You can't force insight. You can only create the conditions for it. Okay, now we're moving to Germany. Heidelberg, Germany. And there there is a path called the Philosophon Wag, the Philosopher's Walk or the Philosopher's Way. It's a scenic trail that overlooks Heidelberg's old town from the north side of the Neckar River. When I was stationed there in the army, it was my favorite place to run. Back then, Runner's World magazine had a monthly rave run column, and I wanted to submit this Philosophin vag because it was just that inspiring. Now, on visits I've taken back there over the last five or six years, I've gone back and I've now walked there at a slower pace. And that's exactly what university professors and students have done there for centuries. They've walked this path because the view and the environment were considered conducive to intellectual pursuits and philosophical thinking. The Philosoph invig works because it combines beauty, movement, and solitude. When you're walking in a beautiful place, your mind opens. You think differently. You see connections you couldn't see before. There's also something about elevation. When you're walking uphill and you're looking down at the town below, it creates perspective. You're literally above the daily noise. You can see the bigger picture. And in leadership theory, this is considered the balcony view of leadership, stepping up to see things more. Completely from a different perspective. Now, when you choose where you take your future walk, you're doing what those Heidelberg professors did. You're selecting an environment that sports a kind of thinking you want to do. Maybe it's a trail with a view. Maybe it's a quiet neighborhood street that's lined with trees. Maybe it's a path along a river or a lake. The environment matters, beauty matters. So choose a place when you can, especially for the longer walks where you're scheduling those. Choose a place that opens your mind. Okay, so let's take a step back now and look at what we've explored in the last few minutes together. We've got Aristotle's Peripatetic School where walking enhances physical inquiry and complex thinking. Got the aboriginal walkabout where walking creates the space for self-discovery and transformation. The Camino de Santiago, where extended walking gives you time to decompress, process, and find clarity. Shinrin Yoku, where walking in nature restores your body and mind. Buddhist walking meditation, where walking cultivates presence and creates conditions for insight. In Philosoph and Veg, where walking in beautiful places opens your mind and creates perspective. Do you see the pattern? Across continents and centuries, cultures have known this. Walking in nature creates the conditions for transformation, clarity, and purpose. The Greeks use it for philosophical inquiry. Indigenous Australians use it for spiritual development. Spanish pilgrims used it for life reassessment. The Japanese use it for healing. Buddhists use it for mindfulness. German professors use it for intellectual breakthrough. The future walk isn't new. It's ancient. And that's why it works. When you take a future walk, whether it's your daily walk, a new weekly walk, a strategic walk, or a visioning walk. You're not doing something new or trendy. You're participating in a practice that has roots in every corner of the world and every era of human history. You're walking in the footsteps of Aristotle, Aboriginal elders, pilgrims on the Camino, Buddhist monks, and German philosophers. That's not just inspiring, it's also grounding. It reminds you that this practice is enduring because it's fundamentally human. So this week. When you take your future walk, remember that you're part of something much bigger than yourself. You're connecting to ancient wisdom. You're honoring a practice that has transformed lives for centuries. And you're creating the conditions for your own transformation. Okay, in our next episode, we're going to explore some life design practices from around the world. Cultural wisdom about how to live with intention and purpose. We'll look at Ikigai, Plande Vida, Ubuntu, and Vision Quests. And I'll show you how to set a solid vision for your future before you even get to setting short-term goals. And if you haven't listened to episodes one through four yet, go back and listen, especially episode one, to get the full framework of the four types of future wacks and how to use them. Thanks for joining me on the Future WAC podcast. I'm Sarah Draper, and I'll see you soon. Until then. Joey Walk.