Dog Walker

I always find that when I take longer walks with my dogs in the morning and evening that it becomes almost meditative exercise for me. A time that I can work out things in my mind that are going on in my life. I have two dogs, and I can tell you that they are always in favor of longer walks or going to an open place that they can run around. When I am on these longer walks, usually 25-45 minutes, it turns out to be a time that I can work out a problem I’m having in my life or help me to refocus myself, put together a plan for the day, or work out a decision I need to make whether it’s something in my personal life or in my professional life. I find these longer walks are especially helpful if I am upset about something or having difficulty with one of the people in my life that I am close with.

I live in a great neighborhood and more than a few of the houses around me have great gardens. Something about the smell of the crisp morning and evening air amplifies the smells of the vegetation and helps me to find a much more focused clarity. I think it also helps that I am moving and I always feel like I think better when I am moving.

This same type of clarity sometimes happens when I am at the gym, so I have come to the realization that something about moving and being physically active is extremely helpful to find those moments of clarity for planning and decision making.

At first the dogs and I have a clear purpose and objective for our walk. The have business to attend to, but once that is taken care of they enjoy the walk just as much as I do. I get to stop what I had been doing, literally stepping away from everything.

Towards the mid-point of our walks is the time that we really get into a rhythm and that is when I find my best thinking occurs. It becomes the time that my mind truly wanders and I find myself in a wonderfully peaceful state of mind. The dogs are sniffing all the smells of the neighborhood, sometimes we stop to interact and socialize with other dogs and people in the neighborhood. It never seems to matter if we go left or right, we just keep moving forward and we keep going until the dogs start to get tired or I need to get back to start my day or finish up things that evening.

These longer walks always prove to be a great beginning or ending to my day. Normally our longer walks only happen a couple of times a week usually on the weekends since I work in the film industry and my work days tend to be pretty long. This year my resolution is to go on more of the long walks with my dogs. Instead of only doing three or four long walks I think that I can achieve seven long walks a week.

That means if I only add three more long walks during the week to the three or four we tend to do on the weekends that I can easily achieve seven long walks a week. That’s almost double the number of longer walks. I already know that these longer walks make a huge difference on helping my mental state and I am happier and more productive as a result. Imagine if I can keep that type of mindset throughout the week by adding just three more long walks with the dogs. And think about how much happier the dogs will be!