Walking Prayer: A Higher Walk To Better Health

“Just a closer walk with thee,” says the old hymn, referring to our relationship with God. You’ve got to “walk the talk” meaning to actually DO what you advocate. The “walking’ metaphor permeates our discourse. Why? Perhaps because walking embodies the idea of forward movement, progress. From the Hoosier Sierra Club to the River City Ramblers, Indiana is walking! My colleague from England (where walking was once the national pastime), Tony Lobl, writing for the October 6, 2014 edition of The News Hub, suggests a new dimension to this simple activity. He explores the inspiring idea of praying while you walk and shares a healing of foot pain.  Here’s Tony:

Did you know there is a “wonder drug” that isn’t available on the NHS, but is still freely available? All we have to do is use it.

That was probably the most intriguing message at this year’s British Science Festival. Dr James Brown – from the University’s School of Life and Health Sciences – claimed a 30-minute daily walk could revolutionise people’s health. He insisted a half-hour stroll could positively impact everything from Alzheimer’s to obesity and from diabetes to depression. Additionally, it could reduce anxiety, halve arthritic pain and even lower the risk of dying.

In other words, you can do yourself a world of good with a daily walk. Or if you can’t motivate yourself to get out and about, get a dog who will take the lead. And if you do stroll through your neighbourhood you will be in the company of such luminaries as Charles Dickens, William Wordsworth and many others who regularly walked in order to get their creative juices flowing.

“There is something about the pace of walking and the pace of thinking that goes together,” says Geoff Nicholson, author of The Lost Art of Walking.

As someone who has long loved walking for the sheer joy of it, my only question is why anyone who could do so would choose not to indulge in such a wonderful activity…. Yet what if there was a “higher” walk that could take us a significant step further? My experience would suggest walking “with God” – i.e. adding prayer to our promenading – can prove even more beneficial to health.

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