Make your walks more fun!
Walking is very beneficial to your health. It helps to reduce stress, improve your mood, build up your confidence and self-esteem. Even getting outside and exercise for 5 minutes can make a big difference in your day. As we stay in our 5 km radius, our daily or weekly walks can seem a bit dull. Would you like to try something new? From going on a mindful walk to playing games with your kids, here’s how to bring some novelty and make walking in your neighbourhood more fun!
- Listen to a podcast, an audiobook or learn a new language. Find free resources online: TED Talks, Classic authors, Audiobooks, Languages Podcasts
- Listen to your favourite playlist
- Challenge yourself. Try to do the same route a little faster every day, walk for 5 more minutes…find your own challenge!
- Download a walking app like Peloton or Digme
- Call someone or invite your friends to walk with you virtually
- Take the route backward, change your starting point, head out a different time of the day….Seeing the sights from another angle may revive your motivation
- Work on your photography
- Go on a mindful walk: see how to practice it here
- Focus on what is around you, what you see, smell or hear
Do you have kids? Check out these few ideas!
- Go on a picnic
- Play follow the leader game: One player, the Leader, begins moving around with actions that the rest of the players must mimic. Anything — including wildly flailing his hands or furiously scratching his head — what the leader does, the others must follow. Those players who disobey, or lag behind the leader’s motions are out of the game. The last person standing becomes the new Leader.
- Go on a scavenger hunt: Make a list of things to find and cross off as you walk. Why not trying a bugs scavenger hunt, colour hunt or this outdoor scavenger hunt
- Turn the walk in an obstacle course
- Play “I spy”: Choose an object within sight and announce to the other players that “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with…”, “something blue”. Let the other players guess!
- Play “Guess of an animal”: Ask your child to choose an animal. Encourage your child to move like the animal they’ve chosen. Try and guess what the animal is. Ask each other questions to help you guess. For example, ‘What noise does it make?’, ‘What does it eat?’, ‘Is it fast or slow?’, ‘Is it little or big?’ or ‘Do I like it?’
What would you like to try? Don’t forget to enjoy the moment and be grateful for what you have!
