A walking practice: A physical wellbeing practice for thinking

The Whisper Collective Podcast

Welcome to a series of eight episodes that focus on writing well and being well for writing. This is the first.
Put your headphones on, lace up your shoes, and plan to get away from your desk with a walking practice to help stir up thoughts and get your writing going.

This practice comes from Chapter 1, ‘Reading and Thinking’ in Writing Well and Being Well for your PhD and Beyond.

In A Philosophy of Walking, Frédéric Gros explores ways that walking and thinking are intertwined. Rebecca Solnit in Wanderlust and Walter Benjamin in The Arcades Project are two of my favourite examples of people walking and thinking through urban spaces. In ‘Kinds of Water’, the poet Anne Carson walks the pilgrimage trail to Santiago di Compostela, accompanied by epigraphs of Japanese poets. Above Heidelberg University is a beautiful walk called the ‘Philosopher’s Way’, and behind some of the oldest colleges in Cambridge is a walk called ‘The Backs’—both places where scholars could jog their thinking by getting physically moving, either alone or in company.

Come along on a thinking and planning walking practice.

Read more of Katherine’s reflections and practices on her blog, Research Degree Insiders https://researchinsiders.blog

Read Katherine’s other books https://researchinsiders.blog/books/

Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-firth-0786b026/
Wellbeing and Self-care in Higher Education: Embracing Positive Solutions (Book series that Katherine’s book is about) https://www.routledge.com/Wellbeing-and-Self-care-in-Higher-Education/book-series/WSCHE

Find out more about the book series edited by Narelle Lemon http://www.exploreandcreateco.com/book-series-wellbeing-selfcare-in-higher-education