Need inspiration? Try some Manchester walks
Walking has always been a big part of my life. I discovered mountains, fells and peaks from about 25 with colleagues from Failsworth School, Manchester and those new vistas simply supplemented a working class childhood of walking.
I walked to primary school, with my mum, as we all did in the 70s. I walked to high school and sixth form in Doncaster. On degree interviews, I caught the train to King’s Cross and walked to Tottenham or Camden or Kentish Town, ignoring the Tube.
City living in recent years has augmented walking. Why would you get a car out of parking when most things are within such easy reach?
I never measured walking in previous years – but my Apple Watch does it now and last week I averaged over 22,000 steps a day. Proud of that as it is some feat (or feet) and it does have major physical and mental health benefits.
Walking has become self-therapy for me
I enjoy the physical process of putting one leg in front of another and moving. I enjoy the clarity of thought it brings, but mostly it’s the things I see that delight. In a car, you don’t notice the finer detail of a cityscape or Peak District valley. On a bike, you see more but not the micro-detail that walking brings.
It’s also highly sociable and in my job, working alone now from home in north Manchester since early December, this is wonderful too. People pass the time of day with me, passers-by admire Cassie, my border collie, I initiate and learn about others and my surroundings.
But most of all, walking allows me to reflect.
It allows me to think, to process events, assimilate conflicting emotions that stem from marital separation: like relief, grief, sadness, second thoughts, idealising.
A one hour walk of 5km twice a day lets me do all this and more.
Walking is probably the best form of therapy invented, and it’s free.
Do you walk?
