Life Won't Get Better Ruminating at Home
Why I Try to Walk 10,000 Steps Daily
The second half of my twenties is a time of transition. What worked ten years won’t work now. The social environments, and thus the rules, have changed. In the first half, I learned about my limits. Now in the second half, I’m trying to see just how far I can take the things that I’m good at.
10,000 Steps Daily
I’ve had a fixation on mental state for quite some time now. This began when I was 20 years old and went to Paris for the first time. I caught a red-eye, and found myself on a different continent the next morning.
I remember walking around for several days, full of life and energy.
I was in flow state.
I was hyper-social and was able to overcome the crippling shyness that plagued me throughout my childhood. This feeling wouldn’t last, and by the time my travels brought me to Lyon, the momentum was lost.
I spent several years since ruminating on this feeling; why was I so open on that trip? What made Paris different? I had a goal, to reactive this mental state at will. It was illusory.
I recently had an idea – maybe it was the enormous amount of walking that brought me into this flow state?
Whenever I find myself in a new city, I walk around day and night, intently focusing my attention on my surroundings.
Sure, I’ve walked around plenty in New York, where I lived at the time, but things were different in Paris. I was able to express myself. I was able to be the real me (the real self doesn’t exist, by the way).
I’ve been trying to live more intentionally, and is seems that movement is key in doing so. I’m making 10,000 steps a day a habit.
But movement isn’t enough. I walk plenty Tbilisi, and I can’t quite get in that same flow state. However, sitting in a cafe in Tel Aviv writing, I’m hyper-present, in a peak flow state.
Unfortunately, changing cities and countries seems to do the trick. This isn’t necessarily good for the environment, but the existence of humanity itself isn’t good for the environment, and I would be a fool to advocate for the destruction of humanity.