Enjoying walking is absolutely essential for a digital nomad

Walking is good for physical and mental health and for having ideas

This is the fourth post of the series "7 traits that make life easier for a digital nomad".

Read what I've already published:

1. Your life needs to fit in a suitcase

2. A digital nomad must know shit happens all the time

3. A digital nomad will forever live with loneliness

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As I write this post, I've completed my daily step goal 114 days in a row. I am thrilled. It's at least 6 km daily (with several days over 10 km and some over 15 km).

In 23 days in Budapest, I walked around 350 km. Photo: Mateus Camillo/No Direction Home

That's a record. Before becoming a nomad, I could achieve only 20 or 30 days. Difficult face-to-face daywork always left me with no energy. Or some external circumstance like rain or cold was used as an excuse.

This is past. If it's raining, I pay for a gym. If it's a day I'm traveling, I walk around the airport as much as possible. I walk even if it's at dawn or in short spaces.

Counting steps has become an obsession, so much that my friends make fun of me. "There goes Mateus with his steps app".

The nomads need to enjoy walking for many reasons. The first and obvious one is they tend to be constantly on the move (although there are nomads who stay months or years in the same place).

But the most important one is that nomads need to know where they live for this lifestyle to make sense.

And nothing introduces a place more than exploring it randomly on foot. Walking around the surroundings right after leaving the bag on Airbnb defines our relationship with the area throughout the stay.

Walking randomly through non-touristy Budapest. Photos: Mateus Camillo/No Direction Home

If we like this initial contact, we will be delighted in the coming days. And then, the following hikes increase our mental map of the city. You start to feel at home —and a nomad is indeed at home.

While walking, we realize how local life works, and this is fascinating, both for the similarities and differences that cities or countries can offer.

Walking brings benefits to the body and mind. Numerous studies have shown that it is good for the heart, cholesterol, bones, etc. Walking also collaborates with mental health. Forcing myself to walk daily has brought me an inexpressible quality of life.

When things aren't going well, I leave the house with my computer in my backpack, with no time to return. I walk, stop at a cafe, work, walk some more, go back to work, and all problems are forgotten.

But I want to highlight how walking is productive for ideas (maybe even surpassing singing in the shower). The New Yorker wrote everything I wanted to write on the subject in the article "Why Walking Helps Us Think". I strongly recommend reading it.

To summarize, walking makes the body pump more blood to the brain, which is good for creative thinking —studies show how this works. Contact with nature or different environments also helps in this process. Several writers adopted the technique to have ideas, such as Virginia Woolf.

Well, time to walk back to my Airbnb. See you around.

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Ps: I make my goal of completing 365 days public. If I hit it, you'll know by 4/12/2023.

Ps': remember to have suitable walking shoes.

Ps'': listening to music makes the walking even better.

Ps''': I almost forgot an important point: you save on public transport and Uber by walking so much. Your budget thanks you.