< 5 minute walk & talk: Manoush's journey to spend less time on her laptop

MANOUSH ZOMORODI, HOST:

Hey, it's Manoush. For this week's BODY ELECTRIC walk and talk, I was supposed to meet up with a mail carrier by the name of David (ph). He is actually my sister's mail carrier. And I was like, I wonder what his life is like since he's walking all the time. I had lots of questions for David, and I was supposed to meet him on his route. And right now, I can't find him. So, for this week, I'm going to talk about my own movement habits. I'm really kind of struggling because as much as I love to move, the dog doesn't, so - my sweet little dog.

So I am now known as the woman who goes for walks with her dog, either carrying her dog, who I've started to think of as a kettle ball, getting a little upper bicep-tricep action, or I - when she's doing her business or doing a sniff, I walk or do high knees in place. People give me weird looks. They think it's strange. But this is just the only way to make it work with my life.

And what I'm happiest about is that over the pandemic, I insisted that my kids go for a walk with me at least once a day. And now, they walk themselves. If they haven't moved enough, they're like, oh, I need a walk. And they go out the door. And It's interesting to me how it becomes ingrained in your body. My German grandfather used to say or postulate that it was a gene - like, the you-got-to-move gene, and that he had it, my mom had it. And I just never thought that I had it.

And now I've come to the conclusion that you can cultivate it, that you can train your body to crave that good feeling you get from moving it. You just have to, A, continue to do it, even when you're hating on it, and, B, observe the hints that your body gives you, that it does like it when you feel - like, measure how you feel before you go on a walk. Are you at like a six out of 10, five out of 10? Maybe you're at like a six and a half, seven, when you get back. That's progress. That's an easy way to say, I feel a little bit better. And then it just becomes habit, a good habit. Anyway, I've now been walking for three minutes with you, minding my own fricking business, and I can't find the mailman.

So I'm going to keep going and tell you about one of the most important things you can do when you are going on your walks is not look at your phone. I know that sounds obvious. Also not listen to anything. I know, I'm a podcast host. That sounds stupid. But when you allow your mind to wander, you activate a network in your brain called the default mode. This is the network where you do your most original thinking. You do your best problem-solving. You come up with your most creative ideas. It's that thing where you look down and suddenly all the laundry is folded and you don't remember doing it, but you came up with an interesting idea for work or now you know what you want to make for dinner - small creative acts, big creative acts. They require mind wandering.

And sometimes that can feel like boredom. I wrote a book about this. And boredom doesn't always feel so good because sometimes we have to think about things that make us uncomfortable. And putting in your earbuds or getting on your phone even while you're walking is an easy way to avoid ideas, conflicts, thoughts that don't make you feel so hot. But we got to think about those things too. So, if that's hard for you, baby steps. Maybe like baby steps around your block just for five minutes and then increase it, get comfortable with your thoughts, get comfortable with moving with your thoughts.

It was one of the things that some of the greatest writers on the planet used to do, they'd write all morning, and then they'd go for a mega walk. And a lot of them said it was the only way that they could continue to generate prose. I don't want to generate prose. Well, sometimes I do when I write you guys. But sometimes, I just want to get out of my own head and think bigger about the world. And remember that my little (laughter) concerns don't matter much. I am but a small organism on this vast, beautiful planet. Oh, it's over five minutes. There's my walk, all done - definitely a six and a half, maybe even a seven, maybe even a seven and a half. OK. Bye, guys.

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