THE FACT OF THE MATTER
BY PAUL HOPKINS
I have taken to walking again. Weather permitting, a daily ‘constitutional’ as my late father called it. And that word used in the context of a walk applies to the health benefits of such. I think, perhaps, it was an old Irish expression.
And, while I have never had the prowess my dad showed when it came to walking, swimming and cycling, I have endeavoured to have a daily walk, about 4,000 steps, for all the proven benefits of such. Any physical activity is a boon to your health.
Walking, though, comes with a host of benefits such as counteracting the effects of weight-promoting genes, helping tame a sweet tooth – studies from the University of Exeter found that a 15-minute walk can curb cravings for chocolate! – and in women reduces the risk of developing breast cancer, according to the same research.
Now, I learn that the optimal number of steps needed to benefit from walking shows you can say goodbye to the arbitrary “10,000 steps a day” target, as a new study shows that your health starts to see benefits from walking fewer steps than previously thought – my 4,000 or so.
Covid put paid to my daily ramble, initially. However, when that lovely summer of 2020 came where Nature was alive and palpably breathing – thanks to no airplane pollution – I ventured out, having spent months in solitary confinement. I felt strangely like an ‘extra’ in a Sci-Fi movie where things were beginning to feel somewhat surreal as I would head off for a walk over the mill and down by the playing fields. There were more than a few around and those I passed looked at me sheepishly, because I was wearing a bright yellow bandana over my mouth and nose. I wanted to say to them: “Don’t you just love TK Maxx for these kind of everyday essentials?” But I thought better, knowing right then they might have had a lot on their plate.
Now I am back in action, though a little slower and sometimes with the aid of a stick, thanks to an operation on my lower spine during Covid. It’s an age thing too – the balance and the gait are not what they were.
While I may not agree with the philosopher Nietzsche’s contention that “all truly great thoughts are conceived while walking”, I do find myself more often than not walking and planning my next column in my head, though whether such musings are “truly great” is debatable.
One of the great pleasures of going for a walk is in meeting other people out on a similar exercise, though coming from the opposite direction, and – they must think me mad – I inevitably stop them in their tracks. Some I know, some are complete strangers. We talk, more likely just pleasantries. But we’re engaging with each other for however brief a period. And such engagement, human contact however brief, is imperative for our well-being. Or, at a very basic level, makes you move on thinking: I have been out and about and met and engaged with someone. And there’s the ‘kindness’ of strangers, written all over their faces, saying thanks for stopping and for the chat.
Those I stop and engage with are of all ages and creeds but the older among us move on like Yeats’ paltry thing upon a stick, if a little wiser and a little kinder. Wiser for me in the sense I learn a little more about the wonderful history of the surroundings I dwell in – from a five-minute chat with a passing stranger.
In his best-selling book The Five People You Meet In Heaven, author Mitch Album says: “Strangers are just family you have yet to know.” My very good friend John K was, until seven years ago, a stranger to me. Now, we meet regularly and, yes, talk often about Nietzsche.
Loneliness has been cast as many things: an epidemic, pervasive, deadly even when it comes to our health. It was exacerbated by social distancing measures during the pandemic but predates that. The charity Alone reckons there are 400,000 considered ‘lonely’ in Ireland, particularly in rural areas, where the post office, the local bank and mart are no more – once places for social interaction.
I am never one to be lonely but often some people I stop and chat with momentarily I suspect are lonely. Their conversation, their countenance implies it.
I may be the only person they talk to all day.
