The Walk of Life: 24 Benefits of Walking
Do the walk of life daily while you can
Dire Straits understood the foundational metaphor of walking as an expression of life — and they sang about it.
There's just a song in all the trouble and the strife You do the walk, you do the walk of life [1]
But, man never invents true metaphors, we only discover them. God has written hundreds (maybe millions) of metaphors into the very fabric of human existence. Some we have the joy of discovering; others He has clearly told us about in the Bible.
Here’s a link one of the ten greatest metaphors of life — the first was The Breath of Life. Interestingly, walking was not one of the 10 I had intended to write about.
Yet, as I was preparing to write this post, I realized I had made a mistake. Walking is among one of the greatest metaphors for life. So I suppose I will have to make it eleven (or more).
A Child's First Steps
Have you ever considered why humans value the first steps of their children? When a child it born, the first thing he or she does is breathe the breath of life. Next the child needs nourishment to survive. Soon the child begins to crawl. However, if a child crawled its entire life — it would indicate that something was wrong with the child's development. Tests would be done, physical therapy, and maybe even surgery would be done in order to get the child walking.
Walking is a fundamental part of human life. Those who can't walk, would do anything lawful to regain that ability.
Walking is how we move from task to task each day. It's how we move to the dinner table. How we get out to the garden. How we get from one place to another. It is what made these words so important for history when man first walked on the moon: "One small step for man, a giant leap for mankind." And walking was the primary mode of transportation from city to city for millennia. Read about transportation in the Bible here.
With the invention of cars, it is no longer necessary to walk from city to city — or even to the grocery market as once was normative. As a result the amount of walking has declined dramatically. This can be a detriment to our health. On the upside, we can easily reverse this by making a point to do regular walking for exercise. If a person does nothing else for exercise, walking is a must to keep the body healthy.
Benefits of walking daily
According to Dr. Mercola, walking can [2]
Add 7 years to your life
Decrease risk of COPD
Reduce risk of coronary heart disease
Improve blood pressure and blood sugar levels
Improve blood lipid profile
Maintain healthy body weight
Lower risk of obesity
Enhance mental well-being
Reduce risk of osteroporosis
Reduce risk of breast cancer
Reduce risk of colon cancer
Reduce risk of type 2 diabetes
Benefits of Taking off Your Shoes
Take off your shoes while walking under the sun and you may get these additional benefits [3] (maybe this is why the Amish are so healthy):
Better sleep and help with sleep apnea
Decrease muscle and joint pain
Improve respiratory conditions
Decrease symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis
Help with PMS
Easy hypertension
Improve energy levels
Improvement in immune system
Level heart rate
Reduce indicators of osteoporosis
Improve fasting glucose levels
A dose of healing sunshine
Read more about the benefits of walking.
If you are not getting your daily dose of walking in, get started now. Here's how:
Go to your closet
Put on comfortable clothes
Find a good pair of shoes (optional) and put them on
Walk to front door
Open it
Walk outside
Set your timer for at least 20 minutes
WALK somewhere interesting
Come home
Smile
Next: Little Secret: Jump Your Way to Good Health
Return to: Biblical Health Study
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[1] Dire Straits, Walk of Life.
[2] http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2015/09/11/daily-walk-benefits.aspx
[3] http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2015/09/11/daily-walk-benefits.aspx