[NEEDS UPDATING – CTG ORIGINALLY POSTED THIS ON LI]

This Global Wellness Day, as over 170 countries join together under the banner of #ReconnectMagenta, calling us back to five vital connections – to nature, self, loved ones, community, and longevity – I want to share the most overlooked wellness practice that facilitates all of these connections (and more). Walking.

Not walking as productivity or performance. Not the kind where steps are counted or intensity intervals are timed. I mean the kind of walking that invites you to be fully alive in your body. The kind where your thoughts find focus, your soul breathes, and your nervous system settles like water in a still glass.

In a world that glorifies hustle, glorifies faster, glorifies more, more, more, walking is an act of quiet rebellion. It’s literally putting your foot down, one step after another, and reclaiming your health and well-being. Reclaiming your humanness in a culture that expects us to function more like machines. 

But the fact is: Humans weren’t built for the car, the office chair, or the couch. We were built to walk.

Walking is a return to the body.

It’s easy to forget, but we’ve been walking for millions of years. Our bodies are designed for walking. Our entire structure – from the curves of our spine to the swing of our arms – was made for it. It’s nature’s original wellness plan, written in the architecture of our skeleton.

To walk is to reinforce the foundation of the body’s vitality. Each step carries us closer to the physical self we are meant to inhabit – stronger bones, healthier hearts, and lungs that breathe deeply, fueling every organ, tissue, and cell in your body.

It’s time to rethink walking, not as something we do between sitting sessions, but as an activity that is hardwired into our very DNA – which means it’s the most essential form of human movement. When I walk, I remember this. I feel the medicine of my own mechanics. I come home to a body that isn’t “broken/lazy” and needing to be optimized (faster, harder, stronger), but one that feels beautifully human doing exactly what it’s supposed to.

Walking supports emotional regulation.

As a founder, father, and human being living in a hyperconnected age, I’ve felt the cost of constant stimulation. The too-muchness of everything. The burnout that comes from constantly running without pause.

Walking is my pause.

When I walk, I release what’s been pent up. Emotions move through my system instead of calcifying and clogging wherever they can find a home. Thoughts that were stuck suddenly find their full potential. Even my parenting shifts: I can show up differently after a walk – more curious, more grounded, more available.

Walking gets me back to myself.

In a world that’s constantly in motion, it’s easy to feel like we’re running on a treadmill of stress, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion. But the simple act of walking with intention offers something else – something rare. It offers space. Space to breathe and think. Space to let the mind wander without expectation. Psychologically speaking, it’s deeply healing.

The question is: Why does walking work? Why is it so universally effective in helping us manage our moods, reduce anxiety, and even alleviate depression?

The answer isn’t that complicated. Walking does one thing that we usually forget to do in our fast-paced world: It brings us back to the present. And in the present, we can often find what we need. 

It turns out, not only are our bodies designed to walk, our brains are hard-wired for it, too.

Walking is relational.

Some of the best talks I’ve had weren’t across a table, but side by side, stride for stride. There’s something about walking that unlocks a different quality of connection. And there’s science behind that, too. 

Studies have found that walking side-by-side naturally synchronizes body language – even without speaking – creating an instant, natural rapport. It also allows us to release the innate tension of static eye contact that triggers our “fight or flight” instincts. No longer locked in a potentially charged stare, we feel safer and freer to speak our minds.

I’ve seen this play out many times myself: colleagues bring ideas to life that never surfaced in a boardroom. Friendships deepen without the pressure of eye contact or performance – just steps, trees, air, breath.

Walking is how we be with each other in a more human way.

Walking is soulful.

I’m not someone who’s quick to use the word “spirituality.” But when I walk with presence, I feel the sacredness of the ordinary.

The feeling of a breeze across my face. The way the light hits the leaves at dusk. And outside of nature, it could be the sound of a child laughing from down a city block. These are tiny revelations that I relish.

There’s a mystical quality to walking – especially when done alone, in silence. It opens your senses and grounds you in the world around you. It invites you to inhabit your life more fully. It’s a return to your original rhythm. A gentle reawakening of the human beneath the noise of modern life.

We tend to not even think of walking, it’s background noise: something we do to get from here to there. But it’s so much more than locomotion.

Walking is meditation in motion.
It’s movement as meaning.
It’s philosophy written with our feet.

Walking is not a break from life. It’s a way into it.

When we choose to walk, we choose to reclaim the present moment. We interrupt the myth that faster is better, that sitting is the default, that presence is reserved for special occasions. And in that simple act, we offer ourselves – and show our children – a better and new way forward (based on the oldest movement there is). One not fueled by frenzy, but by breath. By joy. By intention.

This year’s Global Wellness Day theme is a vital reminder that we’re not here to grind ourselves into the ground. We’re here to feel and breathe and connect to nature and the people around us. 

And there is no more elegant, accessible, powerful way to reconnect than through walking.

You don’t need a membership.
You don’t need gear.
You just need to say yes to your own aliveness.

So let this be your permission slip.

This Global Wellness Day (and every day moving forward), don’t wait for the perfect conditions.

Just walk.

Walk slowly.
Walk nowhere in particular.
Walk to listen.
Walk to reconnect.
Walk to remember who you are when the noise dies down.

Because walking is not just how we move through the world, it’s how we return to ourselves. And it’s biological brilliance. One step at a time, walking lowers cortisol levels, lifts mood, strengthens bones, balances hormones, and rewires the brain for calm, connection, and creativity.

It’s not just good for you. It’s essential to you.