The Benefits of Walking for Mental Health

“The sum of the whole is this: walk and be happy; walk and be healthy. The best way to lengthen out our days is to walk steadily and with a purpose.” –Charles Dickens

Besides obvious physical benefits like improving cardiovascular health and maintaining or losing weight, walking regularly can help reduce stress, put you in a better mood, improve how well you sleep, and even lower anxiety and the risk of depression.

A recent review and meta-analysis of 33 studies and more than 96,000 adults published in JAMA Network Open found that the more steps someone took in a day, the less likely they were to show signs of depression. Specifically:

• Those who walked more than 5,000 steps daily had fewer depressive symptoms compared with adults who walked fewer than 5,000 steps a day.

• Those who walked more than 7,500 steps each day had a 42% lower prevalence of depression.

Another study showed that just walking an extra 1,000 steps per day can decrease the risk of developing depression and that walking 3,500 to more than 7,000 steps a day may have a progressively protective effect against depressive symptoms.

Mindful walking may also help you be more present, clear your mind, or solve a problem you’ve been stewing over.

When your life is all about animals and you have little to no downtime at work, you need to schedule time for yourself so you can continue to be at your best for your patients, your clients, and your team. So why not take a walk? It’s one of the easiest forms of exercise you can do. It doesn’t require anything more than a good pair of walking shoes (unless you want to get more serious and carry weights or add a weight vest, for instance), and you can do it at any time of the day:

• For some, this may mean getting up a little earlier to take a walk before heading to the clinic.

• Or maybe walking at lunchtime is ideal, if you can get away.

• After hours may work better for others, especially if that means setting boundaries and actually leaving work on time.

• Rather than packing the day to fill every possible timeslot, consider asking your staff to leave the last appointment of the day open, and take that opportunity to go for a walk.

You may be wondering whether the intensity of your walk matters. If you’re aiming for mental health benefits, then how fast you walk or where you walk (such as on a flat surface or up and down hills) matters less than if you’re looking to lose weight. However, in a study of older adults, both moderate (3.0 to 5.9 metabolic equivalent of task (MET*)-hours/wk) and vigorous walking (6.0 or higher MET-hours/wk) were reportedly better than light walking (less than or equal to 2.9 MET-hours/wk) at improving perceptions of mental well-being. So upping your pace a bit could be more beneficial for your mental health.

You can also add other benefits by walking with a friend or group. The social connection you gain can help prevent feelings of loneliness and isolation. Committing to walking regularly with someone else also helps to keep you accountable. It’s more difficult to back out of walking if you’ve made plans with a friend or have signed up to be part of a walking group.

And yes, walking with your pet counts as well (unless they tend to stop and smell all the smells). In addition to the other mental and physical benefits we’ve covered, walking a pet increases the chance of social interaction.

Where you walk can also make a difference.

Although you can walk indoors on a treadmill or in a mall, getting outside provides more advantages. Walking in nature—whether in a park or the woods or in your own neighborhood if there are trees—can boost cognitive benefits by reducing rumination (repetitive negative thought) and lowering the level of salivary cortisol (a stress biomarker). It may also help decrease inflammation and enhance your immune system.

When you live and breathe veterinary medicine, taking the time to literally step away and simply go for a walk can help you feel refreshed and ready for your next animal care adventure.

*Metabolic equivalent of task (MET) is the ratio of the rate at which a person expends energy (relative to that person’s mass) while performing a specific physical activity compared to the rough equivalent of the person’s energy expended when they sit quietly.