How 10 minutes of walking a day can improve your well being

In recent blogs, I have spoken about the importance of daylight, SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and my light diet I completed in May with LYS technologies. From this, I learnt how vital it is to get lots of light throughout the day to make sure you regulate good sleep and energy patterns. It also highlighted how I personally, don’t actually get enough of it!

Coincidentally, today I decided to work from our sister company’s warehouse out near Heathrow. It’s a very cosy work environment, with the inside decorated like a ‘Shed’, as it is so lovingly referred to by all our Sketch workers. Once you are in there, it’s like a cocoon – no windows to the outside world upstairs. However, at the end of the day when I was sat on my sofa, I was practically crawling to my kitchen to get some water, wondering why I was feeling so lethargic. My Wednesday evening swim was a write-off, I just couldn’t get myself motivated. I put it down to the fact that I had neglected my Flu Jab, even after the numerous reminders from our HR team, and was coming down with a cold. Resigned to an early night, I messaged my friends telling them how I was feeling. One of them instantly replied with the advice I probably would have given them were the roles reversed: ‘Go for a walk’.

Within 5 minutes I was marching up my road headed in no particular direction. Walking at an alarmingly fast rate, I realised just how much energy I had couped up inside me. Turns out I was walking pretty quickly up a hill and my energy burst ran out close to the top of it, but I felt so happy. I was outside, in the fresh air, moving my legs! My outing only lasted 20 minutes, but I don’t think it would have mattered if it was 10 minutes. As a ‘Wellbeing Consultant’ it is literally my job to advise people on how to work better and healthier – but it’s comically ironic how you can forget to do it yourself.

2 years ago, I took part in RED January (Run Every Day January) to help raise money for the charity Mind, a mental health support charity. It highlights the important of physical activity for people who are living with depression, anxiety or any other condition that affects them on the day to day. It was a tough challenge, but all the benefits came flodding back when I was out doing my walk. Walking/running really does release the happy hormone!

If you don’t do ‘walking meetings’ or have a ‘lunchtime walking group’ I would HIGHLY recommend going for a 10-minute walk around the block in the evenings. Just get moving, get some fresh air and get out!!

3 tips from me:

Wear high vis! I think it’s crazy how most of outwear is black – be seen, be safe!

Take your phone! If you have ignored tip no 1, you might need to make an emergency call

Bring some change… You might walk past the local Co-op and fancy a snack...

By Saskia Lorrison, Wellbeing Consultant