no 46

Have you accidentally looked into the sun or bright light and then looked away, and the image burned into your eyelids? That’s an afterimage.

I've finally found a good name for my dog. His name is Shadow.

Here's what I saw, heard, or sensed that’s stayed with me the past week. Let’s begin.

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What my Body Ordered: Circ Walk

“Go for a circ walk.”

On Tuesday, I woke up just after 5 AM. Instead of morning yoga first, I opted for a circadian walk: getting sunlight as early as possible, outside on a walk.

I'm making a conscious effort to improve the quality of my sleep to improve the quality of the hours I'm awake. Imagining oxygen filled to the brim in two shot glasses, I took two deep breaths and gave myself a quick pat-down and full-body massage. It’s something I’ve started to do over the last few weeks, in place of drinking coffee. I sipped a small glass of warm water, dressed, and took Shadow out for a walk.

Sometimes I wish I didn’t need Shadow to go for a walk. If it weren’t for Shadow, going out into the thick of snow wouldn’t have been a welcome option this past winter. Seeing his excitement when I picked up the leash, I’d smile and brace myself for the biting cold.

I commit to seventeen minutes of cardio and some kind of strength training every morning, but committing to regular walks during the day feels hard. I’m working on caring enough about myself to take these walks. But in the meantime, I’m glad Shadow's around to force me to get out.

We never go out quite this early, but I wanted to taste the early morning air. So we went our usual way up the street, uphill to the dead end, across and down for a walk around the park. After some hellos to the other neighborhood dogs, we came home.

Shadow is big, shiny, and has a powerful stride. Sometimes I'm unsure whether I'm walking Shadow, or Shadow is walking me.
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What My Body Remembers: The Walk and Talk

Around the time my nephew turned fifteen, I noticed some changes at the dinner table. He started speaking the way he texted. Anytime anyone asked him anything, he’d reply with monosyllables: Ya. Nah. Idk, with a shrug.

But whenever I tagged along with him to walk Oliver, his eight-year-old black lab, I noticed something: he'd tell me so much before I could ask him anything. He talked to me about school, he told me about soccer, and he spoke about the invisible lines in the neighborhood divided by partisan politics. He told me about the girls in his orbit, thought aloud about money-making projects, told me about friends' parents, and talked to me about his grandparents (my parents).

He was an open book whenever we walked. He’d come up with cool project ideas and connect exciting thoughts that seemed initially unrelated.

So in the spirit of Oliver and Kai, I decided to get a dog. Taking Shadow out allows him time with the neighborhood dogs and to relieve himself; and me some fresh air, a change of scene, and an opportunity to sort my thoughts.

I got Shadow since I travel too much to benefit from the companionship of an actual dog.

My dog Shadow, you see, is imaginary.

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Afterthought

During my training as a coach, I learned how walking could improve creative thinking. Seeing the passing of objects or a landscape stimulates our system to calm stress. Walking side-by-side can be experienced as less confrontational than sitting face-to-face, making a difference in talking about something potentially challenging.

For some of my coaching clients, the walk-and-talk became an important or favorite part of their sessions during the pandemic. They continue to be, for some.

Instead of logging on to Zoom, we grab our jackets, go outside, call each other on WhatsApp, and have an audio-ambulatory session. If it’s terrible weather for either of us, I'm on audio and walk figure eights in my office. My client will either walk on a treadmill, or walk around in their house.

Go for a regular walk every day. Have a conversation with yourself, or with another person, and see what happens, Shadow or no Shadow.

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For those curious, here’s a Standford study on the effects of walking on creative thinking.

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