The best mental health tip that no one is talking about
Week 10: The Brilliance Experiment
Whenever I tell people how much headphone-free walks have changed my life, the objections come in thick and fast:
“I’d rather not be alone with my thoughts, thanks!”
“Oh, I have ADHD, I can’t do that.”
“As a Scorpio, I’d better not…”
Ironically, these are the people who would most benefit from the practice (especially the Scorpios with ADHD… I should know.)
At some point in the last decade, walking became another thing to optimize.
It’s no longer just a walk. Walks have become an opportunity to catch up, learn, improve, or entertain ourselves. And dear god, I am so tired of feeling like a constant self-improvement project.
When was the last time you took a walk without trying to optimize it?
During the US Election last Fall, I re-read Pride and Prejudice for a gajillionth time, because I desperately needed to disassociate into a familiar and predictable world.
But one of the things I never noticed before was how often the characters are going out for walks. And why wouldn’t they? There’s really not much else to do.
Walking wasn’t just a functional form of transportation, it was also part of their entertainment, and how they got their social needs met.
It’s basically Opposite Day now, where a headphone-free walk sounds absurd and impossible to most people. Why take in the slow, quiet beauty of the outside world when you can plug your ears with Bryan Johnson telling you how he’s going to live forever?
At this stage in history, we are choosing to be inundated with stress and stimulation so often that we never stumble into boredom anymore. We have to fight for silence and actively create space for it because it’s good for our creativity, motivation, and overall will to live.
For week 10 of my Brilliance Experiment, I was reminded that silence isn’t scary and being deliberately unproductive on a walk might be exactly what we all need to feel more alive and connected to ourselves and our communities.
Welcome to The Brilliance Experiment — 52 weeks of tiny experiments to help you feel more alive, creative, and connected.
I started this project because I was burned out, restless, and missing the spark that makes life feel meaningful. Each week, I try something small and I write about my experiences. If you're craving more joy, energy, and vitality, you’re in the right place.
We listen and we don’t judge
The headphone-free walk is deceptively simple: You walk, you don’t listen to anything, you keep your phone tucked in your bag or your pocket, and you just plug back into the real world that’s happening all around you.
For those of us who live online (hi), this is quite unusual.
Most of us are in some state of overstimulation 100% of the time. We scroll, consume, and binge podcasts in an attempt to rescue ourselves from the real world or even worse — having an original thought.
But the headphone-free walk is simple, analog, and gloriously uneventful. It’s an antidote to the overstimulated brain-rottified world we’re living in.
It’s not meant to be productive. It’s not even meant to be “healing,” necessarily. It’s just there to help you calibrate and find a little equilibrium again.
If you’re enjoying this article, you will also like this one:
At first, you might feel twitchy, like you forgot something or like you should be “using” your time more productively.
A 2014 study showed that 67% of men and 25% of women would rather shock themselves than be left alone with their thoughts.
Yikes!
Now, we also have to consider that this study was probably done in an empty lab room, where yes, I might also get a little fidgety and bored and want to see what would would happen if I pressed that little button too.
But when you’re alone with your thoughts on a nature walk or a walk in your neighborhood, things are very different.
If you give it time (for me it’s about 10 minutes) you can feel your energy start to re-calibrate. Your thoughts slow down. You become less reactive, less jittery, and more centered.
You’ll probably get a great idea! You might even figure out how to solve that impossible problem you’re facing.
And even if you don’t, it’s very unlikely that you’ll regret having walked around, listened to the birds, observed what’s blooming this time of year and/or looked into the eyes of the dogs and babies in your neighborhood.
Here’s a few notes from our community this week:
There’s science to back this up.
Walking is one of the most reliable balms for the body and mind. It boosts creativity, helps stave off depression, and may even add years to your life.
Quick! Someone tell Bryan Johnson about the healing powers of walking around and getting a little treat!
One study from The Journal of Environmental Psychology found that just 30 minutes in an urban park reduced how long people dwelled on negative thoughts.
That’s not nothing! Especially in a time when it seems like our best options to deal with the collapse of society are to fall down a Tiktok scroll hole or anxiously ruminate while picking at our fingernails.
I can’t tell you how many times I came home from one of these walk with a better idea than the one I left with, and not because I was “working on it” but precisely because I wasn’t.
I was daydreaming, mind wandering, petting dogs, and staring at trees and flowers.
That’s the magic. You stop trying, and suddenly, you’re open.
I like the way my thoughts tumble around when I give them the space to do so. I like the weird tangents my brain goes on when there’s nothing trying to steer it.
And I think we could all use more of that… more movement that isn’t optimized. More moments that aren’t filled. More walking around for no reason at all. Take that, Bryan Johnson.
Want to join the Week 11 experiment?
Upgrade your subscription for $5/month for instant access to the article and live community 🔐
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Ambitious Softie to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.