Take a walk in your shoes.

Most of us live fairly fast-paced lives. It’s get up and go from the minute your eyes open and it doesn’t stop until you collapse into bed later the same night.

Changing nappies (diapers), breakfast, feeding the dog, feeding the kids, school runs, waiting for public transport, working, dinner parties, cooking dinner, drinks with friends, committee meetings. These are a few of the things that happen in our house weekly, oft-daily.

I walk, every day. I walk to work from the bus-stop. I walk home from the bus-stop. I never took much notice of what was around me, walking, always on autopilot.

I have been missing out. It took a few days of travelling to and from work - by car - last week to realise how much I missed the walks and what I was missing from the walk.

You see, while it’s the same path I walk every day, its not the same walk I walk, every day. The experience is different, the smells, the sights, the sounds, the people - all different. I hadn’t noticed. I hadn’t noticed the calm it brought about.

I walk an average of 5 kilometers (3 miles) each day between the morning and afternoon trips. I walk through various places of interest. I take more pictures, get my head into (and out of) work mode. When I get home, I am excited to see my wife and children, and the stress of the day is mostly gone.

Walking allows me a chance to shift focus, but not in a flick-of-a-switch way, which can be destructive. It allows me a chance to gather my thoughts, and smoothly transition between work and life.

I’ve now added a lunch walk to my day. Each day when I have taken the walk, it’s helped control the stress of the day.

When last did you take a walk in your shoes?