Five Ways to Spice Up Your Daily Walk
By: Star McCown ‘21
Daily walks have become a staple part of most people’s quarantine routine, but taking the same walk every day for over a year can make the walk feel dull. Here are five ways you can spice up your daily walk and make it more fun!
Discover Nature
It’s Springtime! The flowers are blooming and nature is beautiful right now, take the time on your walk to learn about it. See a cool-looking plant or flower? Take a picture of it! Want to identify the plant and learn more about it? Download the PictureThis - Plant Identifier app. With this app, you can take images of plants and flowers and the app will identify the plant for you. Set your inner botanist free on your daily walks!
If you want to take it to the next level, start a botanical sketchbook where you document your discoveries! There are many resources available online and tutorials on YouTube to help you get started.
Count the Wildlife
The best thing about the outdoors (and, by the “outdoors” I mean any place outside of your house) is the wildlife. Take the effort to be mindful of your surroundings by noticing the life buzzing around you. Count the zooming little lizards you see! (The most I’ve ever seen on my walks were seven tiny lizards. I’ve tried to catch them, but they’re too quick for me). Take pictures if you see a fancy-looking bug or butterfly! Even the not-so-wild domesticated dog or stray cat can join your wildlife count. At the end of your walk, decide on what was your favorite wildlife creature to spot that day. Tap into your inner child on your daily walks and make it fun!
Listen to an Audiobook
Have a list of books you’ve always wanted to read, but never got around to starting? Combining Audiobooks and your daily walk is the perfect way to spice up your walk. Pace yourself by listening to either one chapter a day, or timing your walks so you can come home looking forward to finding out what happens on your next walk.
Schedule Calls with Friends
Let’s be honest for a minute, we all miss our friends like crazy during this pandemic. I know phone calls aren’t the same as hanging out in person, but it definitely helps with the loneliness that comes with being isolated. Text your friends over the weekend and plan out your phone calls for the whole week. Catch up with people who you haven’t spoken to in a while to see how they’ve been. Even if it’s the same person every day, that is completely fine! (Sometimes, I call my best friend Diane every day for a week because she lets me). Walking while on the phone is a great way to curb any boredom that could come during your walk, and you may end up enjoying your conversations so much that you lose track of time!
Listen to One New Album a Day
Daily walks are a great opportunity to diversify your music library! Most albums are on average 30 minutes long, which is the perfect amount of time for a walk. Try making an album calendar for yourself where you plan out the album you’re going to listen to for the day. You could plan week-by-week or day-by-day, whatever works best for you and your routine. Unsure of where to start? You could start by going down the list of Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”, which you can check out here: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-of-all-time-1062063/arcade-fire-%EF%BB%BFfuneral-1062733/
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