Walking

After a health scare earlier this summer, which turned out to be stress related, I'm back to walking for exercise again, and it is good. I didn't realize how much I missed having this ritual or routine in my life until I started doing it again.

You see, I used to walk 4-5 days a week with a friend and then things sorta fell apart when our husbands had a bit of a falling out and then walking with this friend became too painful emotionally, for both of us I'm sure, so we just quit. That was a little over two years ago. I tried taking my dog with me when I went for my walks, but she's getting pretty old and I feared it was too much for her. So walking alone, without my friend or my dog was a new experience and I wasn't very excited about returning to this type of exercise on a regular basis until about two months ago when my doctor encouraged me to exercise more to help relieve some of my stress.

Like I said earlier, walking again has been good in many ways. My four mile walk is much more than just an exercise routine; it's a necessary thing in my life. I know I'm not alone in my thinking regarding this solitary time. For me it is an opportunity to commune with God, to think, pray or just meditate on the Scripture. I also like to listen to music, but my current favorite is listening to "the Bible Experience", a dramatization of the Bible and I love it.

So with iPod in hand I head out, usually early in the morning, with great anticipation about what I'm going to glean from listening to the Word of God while enjoying the beauty of my neighborhood and getting a bit of beneficial exercise at the same time. I think my ability to cope with stress has improved thanks to the release of endorphins that resemble opiates that produce analgesia and a sense of well-being released when one exercises. (Thank you WordWeb online.) But mostly I think I feel like I have a bit more control of my life, even though the idea that any of us has much control of anything is truly an illusion in itself. But at least I feel like I'm doing something positive, making my body a little stronger, rather than allowing my nervous energy destroy my body, and that IS a good thing.