LIZZY HADFIELD

Over the past year walking has become a huge part of my life and daily ritual. I grew up often going on a walk with my Mum and Grandma, but only in the past year has it been something I rely on day to day. Nothing clears my head like a long walk. If the weather isn’t pouring rain, I try to walk any journey that takes under an hour. It isn’t the most efficient way to do things of course, and often my schedule doesn’t allow me to be so leisurely, but whenever I can, I choose to walk a journey rather than get the tube. I don’t walk in a way to get a certain amount of steps done per day, it’s very much a mental health thing for me.

When I am walking I listen to music the entire time, I am a very quick walker and the music speeds me up even more, letting the walks be a bit of a work out too. I daydream a lot. Imagine conversations with people that allows me to get things off my chest, I try to manifest things I want to happen with work and daydream about how I will get there. I overthink things - go over and over scenarios that have happened in my head. This isn’t always a good thing, but it’s very much a part of my personality, and doing it on a walk gives this sort of thinking an end point to when I have to stop those thoughts. As soon as I walk in my front door, I try to stop them, so I don’t spend an evening home alone overthinking. It works pretty well, like a designated time to worry about things, but it’s unrealistic of me to imagine getting rid of the worry altogether. I also have ideas when I walk, it’s when I feel the most creative. I brainstorm loads, look around for inspiration, often take my camera or shoot things on my phone as I go.

At the moment I walk around five miles a day. I know if you work in an office it’s not a realistic thing to do day to day, you can’t just pop on a half an hour walk because you need to have an idea. But if you could walk to or from work, or go for one in the evening, or a very long one over the weekend - then I can’t recommend it enough. I never thought something so simple would be such a huge part of my life and what motivates me day to day. I would love to do a series all about it from different cities around the world, from different parts of London even! Maybe this can be the first one, from a walk from Holland Park to Hammersmith, to Portobello Road, and back to Holland Park