The Life-changing Power of Daily Walks | Libby DeLana

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Episode Transcript:

Libby DeLana: [00:00:00] I was more myself than I ever had been. I recognized myself, but for me, the walk was the tool to make sure that I was outdoors. It was this recognition that, ah, this is where I blossom, where I’m comfortable. It became my creative time. I mean, my walks become my best therapists, my best creative partner. My walk has become a place where I am so comfortable in my own skin and my own body that I am more me. I often don’t really know what I feel. If you say to me, how are you feeling? Live? I’ll probably answer with a smile on my face. I feel good and it’s kind of a non-answer. It’s not and it’s not real. And that’s in part because I’m not sure I know how to articulate to you what I feel. But when I add motion to my emotions, I understand what I am feeling more deeply.

Jonathan Fields: [00:00:57] So I don’t know about you, but I feel like sometimes we overlook the simplest things ways to reconnect with who we are and the life we want to live. That had been more or less hiding in plain view our whole lives. Walking is one of those things. And from my guest today, Libby Delaney, who has now walked every day for 12 years traversing more than 25,000 miles. That’s the circumference of planet Earth. This simple practice profoundly changed her life, and it just might change yours, but in ways you also would never imagine. So, as you’ll hear that intentional act of lacing up her shoes and striding out into the world, it reawakened parts of herself that had gone dormant. Her creativity, her sense of who she really was, her sense of wonder and profound appreciation for the natural environment around her. And Libby’s daily walking practice became kind of a portal back to her most authentic self. In our conversation, she shares how this ritual allowed her to honor the essence of who she really is, which had become obscured by the demands of a very high powered creative career. And Libby is the creator and co-host of This Morning Walk with Alex El, author of the book Do Walk Navigate Earth, Mind and Body, Step by Step, and a leading voice on the emotionally transformative power of walking. An award winning creative director and founder who has worked with top brands for decades, she took this unexpected turn in her 50s to become a model and vocal advocate for embracing new chapters and possibilities as we age. So excited to share this conversation with you! I’m Jonathan Fields and this is Good Life Project.

Jonathan Fields: [00:02:46] I have to ask you about something before we dive into sort of like my fascination with your walking adventure. You have a notation on your LinkedIn profile. That and the job title is stuntman.

Libby DeLana: [00:02:56] Right.

Jonathan Fields: [00:02:57] And that was the last year you got to take me into this.

Libby DeLana: [00:03:02] Okay, well, this is a little off the walking story, but believe it or not, about three years ago, I was reached out to, uh. I have Instagram DMs, actually, by Clinique, and they said, hey, would you like to be part of this campaign that we’re doing? I had never spent any time in front of the camera. It wasn’t something I was particularly thinking about, but there were some other really interesting women. And I said, sure. As a result, I now spend quite a bit of time in front of the camera, which for a number of reasons, I’m very happy about because I have chosen to age naturally, however, anybody wants to do it as beautiful and appropriate for them. But I never had a role model in the ecosystem of who to look to and how to do that. So that’s why I spend time any time in front of the camera, actually. But the stunt man came from a campaign for Verizon where I had to jump off a I happen to love to get in the cold water. So I was jumping off this dock into the cold water over and over again. And when I finally got home, I really looked at the contract actually. And I was listed as a stuntman. And and I think that’s simply because I wasn’t simply standing on a set and smiling. So. Yeah. Um, yeah. So that’s.

Jonathan Fields: [00:04:23] Too funny. I just love that, you know, like you get to put stuntmen on sort of like the, like the resume.

Libby DeLana: [00:04:28] Yeah, yeah. So I just found it completely hysterical and ridiculous as a 62 year old to have that even be anywhere in my ecosystem.

Jonathan Fields: [00:04:38] So it’s fantastic.

Libby DeLana: [00:04:40] Yeah. Thank you.

Jonathan Fields: [00:04:41] So bigger picture. You have a long and I’m going to use the word storied career in the creative world. In the advertising world, um, spending a solid chunk of time at Mullenlowe and currently then co-founding Mechanica, your own creative and branding agency. Just doing incredible, incredible work, winning all the all the awards, all the yada yada, all the amazing things. Then in 2011, you start taking a daily morning walk. And between that time and now you have effectively walked the circumference of our planet Earth. You’re sort of like the Forrest Gump of walking, right?

Libby DeLana: [00:05:16] Fair.

Jonathan Fields: [00:05:17] So, like my initial, the question that comes to my mind initially is, is why?

Libby DeLana: [00:05:21] Well, first, thank you for having me on this beautiful podcast. It’s really a go to when I’m walking. Honestly. It’s a place of calm. It’s a beacon. So thank you for inviting me on. So yeah, 2011 I feel very, very fortunate. Life was grand. I feel one of the most privileged people on the planet. I probably am a wealthy family, lovely career that I was proud of and dear friends close by lived in a beautiful space. So there was absolutely nothing in my world that created aside from the usual, you know, ebb and flow of life that was problematic. And yet this one morning happened to be my dad’s birthday, who passed away a long time ago. I woke up and was sort of reflective, and I think the best way I can articulate it is I felt incredibly grateful and incredibly fortunate, and yet I didn’t feel whole. And what do I mean by that? I think I felt as if there was some key piece of who I was growing up that I wasn’t paying attention to honoring hadn’t sort of consciously woven into my day. And what was that? Well, growing up, I was I’m 62 now, so a long time ago, the way we all grew up in backyards and slightly feral and running around round.

Libby DeLana: [00:06:50] And I what I recognized at that moment was that the place where I was most me and most happiest had just happy was in the outdoors. And my life, while about while really wonderful, was a lot of carpools and grocery store trips and meetings and conference calls and all wonderful. And yet I think that little key that made me, me. I wasn’t consciously building into my day. And so literally one day I decided, you know what? I’m just going to get up an hour early and go for a walk. And it wasn’t about exercise. It wasn’t about 10,000 steps. It wasn’t about miles. It was really I’m just going to build into my day a conscious act of being in the outdoors, and I’ll just do it for 30 days and see how it feels. And you know, what I’ve come to learn is, um, that brought me closer to who I am and became an essential part of my day. Like brushing my teeth. It’s a non-negotiable. And so I go every day and I have for 12 years, almost 13 actually, at this point.

Jonathan Fields: [00:08:00] So when you wake up, what time of year was this when you when you said, okay, I need to do this.

Libby DeLana: [00:08:05] It was November.

Jonathan Fields: [00:08:06] Okay. So this is November in New England. Yeah. So probably starting to get kind of cold outside. And if you’re waking up first thing in the morning, probably in the 30s and 40s in the morning.

Libby DeLana: [00:08:16] Yes.

Jonathan Fields: [00:08:16] When you open your eyes that first morning, you’re like, oh, I made this commitment. Am I really going to do this?

Libby DeLana: [00:08:24] Well, you know, I guess there was a strong enough recognition that that being in the outdoors and seeing my breath and, you know, we’re very blessed with good gear these days. Right? It’s a matter of layering up and hats and pocket warmers and a headlamp. And so initially it was sort of a playful thing. Right? I’d just I’d go out for an hour, but as time went on, I went out. Even in the rain and the snowstorms and the ice storms. And, you know, I had some pictures of me where, you know, my whole hood is covered in ice and my little goggles are covered in ice, and I’m wearing crampons around my neighborhood. And I think what happens on those days, I often say it’s the day I don’t want to go, or that that little sort of persistent, kind of sexy and really annoying voice shows up that says, you know what? Stay in bed. Don’t worry about it. You’ve walked for a whole month. Take a break. I actually have given her a name. Her name is Ruby Debinha and Ruby is just trying to keep me protected. It’s too cold. You need more sleep. But I found what I do is I simply say to Ruby, I am grateful to you, Ruby. Thank you for trying to keep me safe. You go back to bed. I’m going out for a walk. And it’s often on those days where I don’t want to go is where there’s a lesson or there I see something that just makes it magical, and it seems to happen all the time. Sometimes it’s a snowy owl. Where I live there’s snowy owls, or there’s this absolutely beautiful blistering silence. It’ll be snowing and nobody else is out. And there’s very few places where I get that kind of silence. And it’s in that silence that I often hear myself clearest. So I often find that the weather days are bring some kind of special magic, honestly, to the walk.

Jonathan Fields: [00:10:25] It’s so interesting that those days where like that voice, Ruby for you, you know, is kind of saying, stay, stay inside, stay inside, that almost invariably those are the days where there’s something special waiting for you. I think so many of us have experienced that when we actually have pushed through and said, okay, so I really don’t feel like it. But I made this commitment. I’m gonna do it. And then you go out and do it. Maybe the first five minutes you’re kind of dragging, and then something seems to open up and it’s almost like, okay, this is I’m meant to be here today. I don’t know why. And but, um, there’s something that unfolds. I’m in Boulder, Colorado, as you were talking earlier. And, um, and what I learned coming out here pretty quickly after 30 years in New York City, when the weather gets cold and it’s gray outside, everyone goes inside in Boulder. That doesn’t happen. It doesn’t matter what the weather is. It can be really hot. It can be absolute. You know, like just deep, deep, heavy snow. Everyone’s out. Nobody. It’s a completely it’s a mindset shift that is really powerful. People are just like, no, like like you said, get good clothes and get outside. Like there’s nothing that stops people from going out into the mountains here on a daily basis, no matter what’s going on. And it’s a habit that I started to pick up as well. Beautiful. It really does. Something shifts in you. I’m curious about the 30 day window for you, though in the very beginning when. So the initial commitment was, let me do this. Let me wake up every morning, go for a walk for for 30 days. When you hit day 30 and you’re like, okay, check, I’ve done this. What makes you then extend it for another, you know, almost 13 years now. What makes you say more like this? I can’t actually stop now. Like, this needs to be a part of my life forever.

Libby DeLana: [00:12:06] Yeah. I think, um, it’s that feeling of I was more myself than I ever had been. I recognized myself, I was honoring the thing. I mean, I feel really grateful that 30 days earlier, what I recognized was that there was an essential key that I wasn’t using to unlock who I am. And that just is me. It’s, you know, I happen to think going for a walk and we’ll probably get into this is great for a lot of people, maybe everybody. But for me, the walk was the tool to make sure that I was outdoors. So I think it was this recognition Ignition that are. This is where I blossom, where I’m comfortable. And then it became a beautiful tool. As mentioned earlier, I was fortunate to spend some time in the creative space and ad world. It became my creative time, you know, it became a place to. I mean, my walks become my best therapists, my best creative partner. I actually just recently wrote a book that’s coming out next September, and the way I did it was actually on my walk. I would speak the chapters into being, transcribe them, and then edit from there. So my walk has become a place where I am so comfortable in my own skin, in my own body that I, I am more me. I’ve often said that, and this is probably too revealing about me, but I often don’t really know what I feel. If you say to me, how are you feeling live? I’ll probably answer with a smile on my face. I feel good, and it’s kind of a non-answer. It’s not and it’s not real. And that’s in part because I’m not sure I know how to articulate to you what I feel. But when I add motion to my emotions, I understand what I am feeling more deeply.

Libby DeLana: [00:13:51] I might not be able to put language to it, but when I’m out for a walk, I’ll often do sort of a little body scan, you know? Do I have tightness in the back of my throat is, you know, am I struggling with a conversation I need to have? And therefore the walk is a place to practice or think it through, or sometimes I find myself speaking out loud. So it’s a place where all those emotions are safe. They’re a place where I can begin to sort of pull them apart as a visual person. One of the things I, the way I sort of visualize it is that my emotions might be sort of a ball of string or a, you know, a sort of knotted, beautiful might be, you know, beautiful colored threads. And it’s sort of knotted up now. Do you know that feeling when somebody hands you a baby and you just naturally hold that baby and you start rocking without even thinking about it, you start swaying and you just hold that little infant and you just naturally, from hip to hip, from weight shifts from one side to the other. So now take that ball of string and that swaying motion. The way I visualize it is now, that ball of knots and begins to loosen, and the threads become individual threads that I can look at and identify. And so that feeling of understanding what that ball of emotions is only happens when I add the motion to it. And so I think back to your original question why did I keep going? I think I understood myself better. Carving out that time of the day was essential.

Jonathan Fields: [00:15:33] You said that you in those moments when you’re out walking, you most recognize yourself. You’re. You said I’m most me. Yes. What is it that you were seeing that you weren’t experiencing or recognizing or seeing before then that was maybe either new to you or being you were being reacquainted with.

Libby DeLana: [00:15:52] I’m not sure I have precise language for it, other than to say, in order for me, Libby, to be Libby, I need to have the outside, the outdoors, the changing leaves, the sound of the the bumblebees, the beautiful flowers every season. I need them to be a vital piece of my day. And if I am indoors all day, I don’t have access to that. It’s this sort of, you know, the awe of the natural world. And that’s a place where I am most comfortable. So when I take that out of my day, I can do the tasks, I can do the work, but I am not as lit up. I’m not as grounded. Undoubtedly. And I’m not as dialed in to what it is I’m thinking or feeling in a really true way. You know, that time of of the walk in the morning, I can actually really begin to sort of acknowledge and understand what’s what’s happening for me in my heart and, and that, you know, sometimes you just get out of bed and you start your day and you start the tasks and you jump to the to do list and accomplish all the things that need to be done and make breakfast. And don’t allow that space for a deep breath or a recognition of what you’re really feeling. And so I think that’s I think those were the key components.

Jonathan Fields: [00:17:16] Yeah. I mean, it occurs to me also the way you’re describing it is, and I think so many people would relate to this notion of you open your eyes. The first thing you do is you grab whatever device is nearest to you, and you start to look through like the litany of inboxes and DMs and things where everybody else like immediately within seconds is starting to set the agenda of your day. Like this is beautifully said. This is like, who am I going to react to? When and why and how? For the rest of this day, until I lay my head back down on the pillow. And what you’re doing is saying, kind of like, I want to start my day with a more intentional act. Does that make sense?

Libby DeLana: [00:17:49] Oh, 100%. It’s so well said, and I think the language I use around my practice currently is. And everybody has their own practice, right? It might be seated meditation. It might be on a mat. I view my practice as fairly meditative, but I think, you know, I think that the thing about about it is I use this word fidelity that the I don’t skip a day because I view going every single day as a radical act of fidelity to myself, that that time in the morning, I don’t think it’s too far for me to call it a sacred time, but to be faithful to who I am and what I need in order to flourish each day. And to your point, take an intentional moment and time to catch my breath. Focus on the day. Days. To me, this radical act of fidelity to me, which is often a hard thing to take time to take when you’re parenting and working and living. And it’s a hard thing to do.

Jonathan Fields: [00:18:51] Yeah, just the practicalities, I think. Everyday life. Yeah.

Libby DeLana: [00:18:54] That’s right.

Jonathan Fields: [00:18:55] And we’ll be right back after a word from our sponsors. Is there an opposite side of this? You know, is there a dark side to fidelity? And what pops into my mind is I meditate every morning. That’s one of my early morning practices. I have for about the same amount of time you’ve been walking, actually. And and I use an app to just as a timer for me. So I have like little chimes that go off every five minutes. And I know kind of when it’s over and, and the app also is gamified, you know, so for every ten days in a row that a meditation, a little gold star appears, and then every 50 days I get a green star. And then and I know the teaching of it. Like you don’t meditate with a goal in mind and like. And I found myself recently, I’m like 572 days into meditating or something like that. I have to wake up at 3 a.m. for an international flight. I’ll do it on the plane, I get on the plane, I fall and it just doesn’t happen. It’s a long, crazy travel day with multiple flights and multiple countries. I finally get home late at night. I’m exhausted, I crashed, and the next day I get up, I look at my app and I’m like, oh damn. Like the streak is broken. And I’m not typically an obsessive person, but I’m thinking to myself, is there any way I can, like, rationalize any part of the last day and call it meditation so I can get my star? So because I’m like, so committed, like I’m obsessing over fidelity to this one practice, and I wonder if there’s almost like another side to that where it becomes obsessive.

Libby DeLana: [00:20:21] Yeah, I think, I think it’s a fair point. And I think, and maybe you found this over the course of these 12 years that you’ve been doing it. I think there have been chapters where maybe it’s been obsessive. It isn’t for me anymore, and I think I’ve become softer around how I practice. So, for example, on those travel days, you know, I’m going to get up at 3 a.m. and how do I how do we do it? I now really call a walk. I might get to the airport early and do a couple of laps. You know, in terms of number of steps, I have no idea. But it’s not nearly the mileage I do any other time. There might be a time when, you know, it’s very hard to do my usual loop or mileage, and I just park as far away as I possibly can from the front door of the market. It’s the only time I can do it. And as I step out of my car to walk to the park as far away as possible, I just try and get into that place and be very intentional about it and try not to be critical of, oh my gosh, you didn’t go enough steps, you didn’t go enough miles. And so I think there’s just a tenderness, a softness to it. And it’s, um, but I hear what you’re saying, and there were certainly chapters in this practice where I think I probably would have said, well, I didn’t walk far enough today. I walked, but I didn’t, and now I don’t have that same sort of, I don’t know, mindset around it. I think there’s a maybe a little bit more generous understanding about it. I think initially it was probably for me more about how long I did or how far I went. And now it’s about intention. And that intention can come in a much more modest package.

Jonathan Fields: [00:22:01] Then that makes sense. I like the language you use. There’s a softness about it. Now. I wonder if part of the, um, the fidelity also is that over time, this fidelity to this practice shapes your identity. You shift from somebody who says, like, oh, I walk to somebody who says, oh, I am a walker. It sounds like that is that’s true for you like it is. But what else does that bring to you like that? Shifts in identity. How else have you experienced like what does that change within you? Well it’s.

Libby DeLana: [00:22:31] Interesting. Think of runners or mountain climbers. They they will identify. I’m a runner, right. I’m a and in general, I think those of us who walk or hike or wander or saunter, um, probably don’t identify as that, I think. Well, number one, as I mentioned, I’m 62. I got my first tattoo when I was 60 and it says This morning walk.

Jonathan Fields: [00:22:54] That’s commitment right there. Right?

Libby DeLana: [00:22:57] It’s on my left leg, on the inside of my ankle, left on the side of my heart and on the inside because it’s just for me. And it’s in a beautiful typeface. Gotham, the poor type, the poor tattoo artist was, um, very patient with me because I really wanted to make sure it was curved perfectly. As someone who loves typography, rule.

Jonathan Fields: [00:23:17] Number one, know Helvetica.

Libby DeLana: [00:23:18] Know Helvetica, know Comic Sans. Um, but yes, I think as sort of I do define myself as a walker now. So what does that look like? What does that mean? It means even small things. I spend quite a bit of time in New York City, and, you know, someone will say, well, let’s, let’s hop the subway or I’m like, no, no, no, we’re walking, we’re walking. We’re going to see life. And for me, if I’m traveling and I arrive someplace, one of the first things I do after dropping off my luggage is walk the neighborhood of where I am. And I find that just, you know, feet on the ground. It’s a it’s a way to ground where you are. It’s a way to it is a defining attribute of how I move through the world now. And so, yes, I think I do identify and and call myself a mom, a walker and a stuntman. Yeah.

Jonathan Fields: [00:24:10] It would also make you the ultimate oddball in LA because. Right, nobody walks.

Libby DeLana: [00:24:16] Certainly.

Jonathan Fields: [00:24:17] That’s right. Like two blocks away, it’s like, oh, of course you just drive everywhere.

Libby DeLana: [00:24:21] That’s right. I mean.

Jonathan Fields: [00:24:22] It’s interesting also, right? Because if your default mode of transportation or just like navigating the world within a certain range, let’s say if there’s something you know, you have to do and it’s within, you know, a 20 minute walk or like a five minute drive, and your default is always going to be walking. I would imagine you also you start to experience your world profoundly, differently, profoundly.

Libby DeLana: [00:24:43] It’s much more intimate, I think. I also think the pace of walking is really beautiful. I think it’s more in alignment with the way humans move through the world. You know, I see things very differently when I walk through a neighborhood than when I ride a bike or drive. Here’s one thing that I really realized early on, which was, I thought quite interesting, was that my walking practice actually really taught me how to see things, not just look at things. And as an art director, that was kind of a profound moment. So, you know, I had this one walk that I do very often. I walk past this beautiful neighborhood barn. I think it’s been there for probably 60 or 70 years, and I used to drive past it all the time on my way to work, and I knew it was over there. I, you know, the barns over there, but I never really saw it. And as I started to walk past it, you know, anthropomorphize this barn to a she. But, you know, I began to see her shape and her impact on the community. And this was a dairy barn. It’s no longer operable, but undoubtedly this barn nourished our community in a really meaningful way.

Libby DeLana: [00:25:57] And every time I would walk past, she would look different. So in the snow, the snow falling, the sun hitting her differently, the fading placards or clapboards. So it was this really beautiful lesson that this object was important within our community. But I barely even noticed Notice that, and then how this one singular barn would look absolutely different every single day. And after realizing that, which probably feels and seems very obvious, what I realized is not only did it look different, I was different every single day I would bring to my walk something new. So the combination of different ecosystem, different weather pattern, and my own ecosystem and weather pattern meant every single walk. Despite the fact that I was walking exactly the same path right next to the same barn time and time again. It was dynamically different, and I think probably seems very obvious to your listeners. But for me it was a sort of revelation that in walking I was going to see my neighborhood and my community differently, and that I was actually different on each walk. So it was those little lessons became sort of very magnificent.

Jonathan Fields: [00:27:18] Yeah. I mean, it’s what you’re describing. Sounds a lot like what happens from meditation over time. Also, it’s, you know, there’s a sense of presence and awareness that starts to develop. It starts to drop into you where, you know, you could meditate on the same breath, the same body part, the same mantra every morning. And yet over time you experience that exact same thing, the exact same place, the exact same seat. Like the differently you start to just using your language instead of just looking like you’re actually seeing. It’s interesting the way you describe walking. If I think about walking compared to driving the same route, like every morning, we’re so autopilot when we drive these days, usually we’re not even driving like we don’t even know what we’re doing. Like the act of driving is just completely automated. You know, it’s habit for us. Our mind is completely somewhere else. We’re processing the to do list, the meeting, whatever it is, you know, you may be on a call and the walk brings you the physicality of it and the practice of it, and probably the repetition of steps and you being actually exposed in nature rather than enclosed and. Excluded from it, changes just the way that you experience it and makes it a moving meditation. This is part of what you write about. Like it really becomes, you know, probably not every day, but you know, you get to drop into that mode on a regular basis. And I’m wondering if that sort of trains your brain to start to be more present and to see more outside of the walk, like as you move throughout the rest of your day. Are you like, oh wow, I’m so much more. I see what’s happening in this conversation with this person who I’m with now, or I see the colors and the wall and, you know, the cubicle or the office differently.

Libby DeLana: [00:28:53] Yeah. No, I think it does, I think, and maybe you feel this with your meditation practice. I think there’s much more comfort in the quiet which which, you know, in terms of a conversation, the ability to drop into deep listening that happens on my walk. I’m sure it happens on your meditation. So that happens then outside that practice and with others. You know, the other thing that happens as you walk through an ecosystem is I believe you because you see it more intimately because I saw that barn, because I saw this morning, the leaves changing. There’s this one pathway that I walk. And the light was just sort of magnificent this morning. You can’t help but fall in love with where you are. And when you fall in love. Even a walk in a new city, when you arrive someplace new, even down the streets of New York City being able to see a window box, there’s this one pine tree in Chelsea that I’ve fallen in love with, and every time I walk past it, I sort of greet her every morning. But you can’t help but fall in love with the space that you walk through every single day. Or I can’t I? And when you love those spaces, you want to take care of them. You want to protect, care for them. You know the paths that I walk now I feel very tender about. I feel I see trash, I pick it up, I see a tree come down. I thank the tree for its hundred years of shade. So and I think that’s a beautiful impact, that simply going for a walk potentially enables you to understand, to ground and to fall in love with the space where you are and therefore want to care for it. You can’t help but want to care for the things we love. And I love my walks. So I guess in some ways it’s an environmental practice as well.

Jonathan Fields: [00:30:50] And an act of gratitude to a certain extent as well. It’s sort of like it just drops all around you. I think the timing also, I wonder about the timing, you know, and you shared how often when you drop into a new place, you just immediately go out and walk, regardless of what time it is. There is something magical to me. Also about the early morning walk up until recently, I was going out and every morning at 7 a.m., you know, I would just put on my shoes and I would go and hike and I’d start to shift that to later in the day because I sort of like, see the weather changing. You’re inspiring me to say, maybe I need to just gear up a little bit and stick to the 7 a.m. hike and see what comes my way, because there’s something magical about being out there when you’re still in, like, the quiet moment of the day before, it feels like the rest of the world wakes up. There’s just an energy that’s qualitatively different when you’re out there that I think, at least for me, it really affects me differently. And I hike, you know, all times of day. But there’s something that’s a little bit more magical about sort of like that early morning, just get up and go hike. There’s like I experience it very differently.

Libby DeLana: [00:31:53] I agree, that’s certainly true for me. I’m not sure it’s true for everybody, but I happen to be an early riser anyway. And so that the gap between waking and walking, I’ve now gotten to be very, very narrow and very short. Meaning I know all the gear I’m going to wear. I know what the temperature, what I need to keep warm and safe and dry and often. And so I honestly, I just wake up and I have a little cup of tea and I head out, which in my case is a little earlier than seven. But there is something about watching the world wake up that, for me is really a pretty magical time. There’s a beautiful, beautiful Mary Oliver poem called why I Wake Early. And, um, you know, in the first few lines, hello sun in my face. Hello, you who make the morning and it talks about the sunrise. And she calls the sun. You know the best preacher that ever was. Dear star, that just happens to be where you are in the universe. There’s something about getting up before everybody else wakes up. And watching the lights come on in the houses before the traffic is picked up. Before you know, too much energy has entered the space.

Libby DeLana: [00:33:03] There is something that, for me, and it sounds like for you as well, is a really beautiful time of day, and I think we were talking about how we wake up. Sometimes we turn on our phone and the to do list moves in, and everybody else’s needs begin to enter into our space. There’s something about getting up and getting out before the rest of the world has even woken up. That begins to, I don’t know. It carves out a bigger space, I don’t know. Last night the Comet Atlas was in the sky and I didn’t see it in the morning. But that’s the kind of thing I do see when I’m up. And I do see a lot more wildlife because cars and people haven’t pushed the wildlife back. So. And the thing I also really love about it is there is a little small community of us that get up. At the same time, I’ll see another runner or hiker or walker out and we don’t know each other’s name, but we kind of had this secret, you know, I see you, you see me, we know each other, but we’ve never had a cup of tea together or even really said anything other than just hello.

Jonathan Fields: [00:34:10] It’s kind of like the the. We get it way. Way. Right. That’s right. As you’re describing that, I had sort of this flashback. Um, many years back was in Bali and Ubud, and this was like a chunk of years after Liz Gilbert wrote about her time there and about had really started to change and become like much, much. It wasn’t the place of sort of like that a lot of people had read about many years ago if you were there during the day, but I was adjusting to the time zone, and I found myself up at about 4 a.m. and so I’m like, let me just get up and walk around the town and, you know, the sun is just coming up over this town. And as I’m walking through town, the only people out at that time were people who were laying out worship offerings for like, the the gods and like incense and small offerings of flowers and small offerings of food being laid out in front of all the different homes in front of the storefronts and stuff like this. And there was just this deeply meditative presence that was there as the sun was coming up over the town, and I knew like two hours later, this would be overrun by scooters and noise and light pollution and madness and frenzy. And it just it allowed me to see the exact same space and the exact same people and the exact same culture in a profoundly different and stiller way. And to see it gave me easier access to beauty that was there the whole time, but I felt was really obscured when I stepped into it later in the day. Mhm.

Libby DeLana: [00:35:41] And I think that’s right. I wonder if the same would be true if you took sort of a similar walk later at night. I don’t know the answer. I know for me the morning is when I have I don’t know, I feel very welcome in the mornings into the space. But um, going for a walk it really any time of the day. I mean, we think about the Italians who go for, you know, the Passeggiata, which is at the after dinner walk. And I think that has an equal sort of meditative, sacred quality of going out with your family after a meal and just it’s not long. It’s just walking the community together has sort of the same kind of energy. So I think, you know, I think we can find it at many times a day. But it sounds like you and I enjoy the morning the most.

Jonathan Fields: [00:36:28] Yeah, indeed. And we’ll be right back after a word from our sponsors. You also mentioned earlier, and this is something you write about as well, which is this notion of the relationship between walking, especially walking outside, especially in nature and creativity. And I have experienced that so many times. But take me a bit deeper into this relationship for you.

Libby DeLana: [00:36:50] Yeah, I’ve looked into it over the course of time. And, you know, we hear stories of Steve Jobs, Virginia Woolf, you know, Henry David Thoreau, who used walking really as their sort of primary tool for creative problem solving. And I guess, as I have found, that’s true for me as well. In fact, uh, used to be in my old agency days when our team would get together and we’d get sort of stuck on a question that nobody was coming up with particularly terrific ideas or like, okay, everybody go get your shoes. We’re going to walk around the community and we’re just going to talk about this. And what often happens is there’s all this new, beautiful stimulus. There might be the juxtaposition of some colors that provoke a response or provoke a new way of thinking about it, or a little snippet of an overheard conversation that might be like a little provocation that makes you think about something differently. And again, it’s sort of back to that sort of concept of just moving our bodies often will bring will inspire our brains to think differently, that sitting at a desk, looking at a computer, stationery. Sort of. I call it static. I don’t know that we’re bringing enough information or dynamic newness into what we’re seeing or thinking about to really be creative. So I’ve just found that if I get stuck on something, I’ll go for a walk or if I need to come up with a solve.

Libby DeLana: [00:38:22] As I mentioned, I was just finished writing another book and and the way I did it was completely with walking. I would use my voice memo and I would talk a chapter into being, transcribe it, and then go back and edit it. And I found that to be a much more comfortable place than sitting at my computer, typing out words that I’m not sure I had all that much confidence in my writing, but I had more confidence in my ability to sort of tell a story. And it was easy to do it then. But I think if we look back historically, some of the people I admire the most definitely used walking as a tool and A place for. I think it’s a very innovative tool and accessible to all of us if we’re able bodied. And I’ll just note that I don’t I do not take for granted my able body. I wasn’t always the case. I actually was born with club feet and learned to walk with two casts on. And so I often am reflecting on, gosh, it’s such a privilege to be able to experience this practice because it’s been such a as I said, it’s a, you know, it’s a tool for innovation, creativity. It’s certainly been my best therapist ever.

Jonathan Fields: [00:39:33] It’s interesting that you bring that up also, because my brain sort of translates what you’re talking about into just a practice. Like part of me just says, okay, so what is your version of this? Like, what is your walking? Whatever your abilities or your limitations are like, what is your version of this that gets you to that place, to that feeling like, what is the thing, the practice in your life that will allow you to feel more me, that will allow you to access to greater problem solving, more creativity, to just seeing the world differently and being more present in it. For many it may be walking. Yes, I almost look at it as more of like, well, you’re almost using walking as a metaphor and everyone can swap in whatever it is for them into that metaphor.

Libby DeLana: [00:40:19] I think that’s very true. It might be painting, it might be singing, it might be birdwatching. That being said, I don’t know. I’d love to hear what you think about this. I probably have rose colored walking glasses on, but I do think walking is a unique. So is a seated practice in yoga. But I do think that there’s something about walking that is in particular a unique practice. And maybe part of it is I like to think of it as a very democratic, small d democratic practice, meaning you don’t need to buy anything for it really the only thing we need And again, I don’t take my able body for granted, but is to make sure that we can walk in a place that’s safe and that may be a unique thing. I don’t want to say it’s particular to women. I know I’ve spoken with many women who feel like, you know, going for a walk is a it’s an interesting way to move through the world. And so safety is certainly a key component of this. And yet, I do think going for a walk is a pretty unique thing. And it doesn’t have to be long. I mean, I, I sometimes think, gosh, you know, what the, the best thing I can do right now is simply walk around the block, which might take me 3 or 4 minutes, and it’s going to change my whole outlook. It’s going to change the energy in my body. It’s going to make me feel much more grounded and perhaps painting or singing does for others. But I think I’ve come to believe that walking is can save the world.

Jonathan Fields: [00:41:52] Yeah, no, I think there’s there is something magical to it. And also it’s not just walking, it’s walking outside. I think that’s really what because I think, you know, can you walk inside on a treadmill? Sure. And if that is what is available to you and accessible to you, like that’s your life situation. Great. Yes. And still there is something different being outside about actually moving your body at a pace that’s comfortable for you in a natural environment that I think is just really changes something about not just the experience, but about you when you’re in it. I think.

Libby DeLana: [00:42:25] That’s right. Yeah. I think, as you beautifully said, if what you have available to you is to walk indoors or on a treadmill, that’s fabulous. And yet I have to agree with you that you know, the exposure to the outdoors. And again, for me, this all started because I wanted to be outside. And in fact, quite honestly, Jonathan, it took me about two years to get over my own athletic ego. I grew up as an athlete all through college, and so when I decided to go for a walk, I took me literally two years to get over the ego in my head, which is like, why aren’t you going for a run? I mean, you’re an athlete. Go for a run. And I had to keep reminding myself, this is not about a workout or exercise per se, by the way. It’s incredible. As we age, it’s an incredible tool. But the reason I was going outside, it was not the athletic component of it or the exercise component, it was the being in the outdoors component. I would have to agree that the beauty that comes, the healing that comes from being in the natural world is undeniable at this point. And I love reading about it’s in perhaps in Norway, where physicians are now prescribing to people time in the outdoors. And yeah, I would have to agree with you.

Jonathan Fields: [00:43:45] Somebody on recently who wrote a book about I guess I think it’s often called social prescribing. That doesn’t mean being social with people. That means like engaging in the world, like outside of you. And like literally there are physicians starting to write scripts to go to nature, like, like five days a week, like go be in nature for 20 minutes or whatever it is. And there’s early research that actually shows really profound benefits, like on the level, on par of a whole bunch of more traditional medical interventions, which I think is fascinating.

Libby DeLana: [00:44:15] Fascinating. Well, and we perhaps have all heard of forest bathing. Right. And that’s it’s undeniable what the impact of that will do for all of us. So I think that’s right.

Jonathan Fields: [00:44:26] What’s been your experience with having a walking practice in hard times, challenging moments, whether it’s, you know, something’s going on in the world around you, whether it’s a tough moment in a relationship, in your life, maybe it’s betrayal, maybe it’s grief, maybe it’s loss, maybe it’s just, you know, like struggle, stress, anxiety. How has this practice woven into those experiences for you and change them in a meaningful way?

Libby DeLana: [00:44:50] Yeah, I can say that honestly, there have been times in this last 13 years that I don’t know what I would have done without my walking practice. Quite honestly, there was one time, about five years ago, where I was at the office, and I got some very challenging news that honestly changed my life forever. And I thought, you know, without going into the details, I thought, well, gee, I could go home and crawl into bed and pull the covers up over my head. This was after work. Or I kept thinking, oh my gosh, well, at least I have my walk. I think I got home and I thought, you know what? The best thing I can do is go for a walk. And I eventually ended up sort of realizing, not only did I have my walk, but my walk had me. My walk was. And so literally, Jonathan and I put on my walking shoes and I did my usual loop, which is out my back door. I don’t have to drive anywhere. I loop around. It’s about five miles or so. And I thought, okay, well, I’m just going to do one loop or maybe two loops. I’ll come back to my front door and I will just do a kind of a body scan. How am I feeling? What you know, what do I need now? Do I need to call a friend? Do I need big cry a glass of bourbon? I don’t drink bourbon, but, um, just a, you know, sort of a check in.

Libby DeLana: [00:46:12] And what I realized each time when I finished the loop was I needed to keep walking, and each loop ended up being almost a chapter of grief or a, you know, the first loop was shock, the second loop was pure anger. And I put on some music and listened to the music and kind of stomped it out. And I literally walked all night, literally all night. I got back at 730, the after one loop and I took a quick shower, had a beautiful cup of chai and went back to work. And that’s not to say that it completely solved it, but I knew that actually I needed to move that emotion through my body. I needed to express it. I needed to say it. I needed to get it out. I needed to stomp it out. Luckily, I was in a place where I could holler if I needed to. I was angry, I felt betrayed all the all the emotions. And as I noted before, I don’t know that I grew up really being able to recognize what it was that I was feeling or how to even express it.

Libby DeLana: [00:47:16] And the thing about walking and feeling all those things, I didn’t need to label it. I didn’t need to explain it. I didn’t need to try and understand it. I just knew what I felt, and I just expressed it the way that felt healing in the moment. And it was truly everything from stopping to crying to screaming. And I will say that after those 12 hours of walking, I was in a much more, I’ll call it a much healthier place, because I had been able to not sort of squash down and tuck away all these emotions, but in fact, to hold them generously, tenderly, and honor them. And I don’t know how I would have done that otherwise. It would have been a lot, in my perspective, from where I sit, to express all of that to my dear friends. I mean, that was just a lot. So I didn’t happen to be in therapy at the time. So my walk was my therapist and and trusted and tender and loving. And I would just imagine some of these emotions sort of bubbling up out. And I would leave them on the side of the road and I’d walk away from them. So it’s been an exquisitely faithful practice back to me.

Jonathan Fields: [00:48:37] I mean, how powerful. Also, because I feel like so many people don’t have easy access to language when it comes to moments like this, or they may not have easy access to to friends, to intimate partners, to professionals to sort of like, you know, to go back and forth and actually, like, do this in a conversational way and to have a physical outlet to let what you’re feeling move through you and then eventually out of you, out of into the world. It’s like it opens up a pathway of processing hard things for a lot of people who I think just they’re not going to sit down and have a conversation about this. Even if you do have the people in your life that you’re just and you bottle it up and that, like only leads to festering and, you know, trauma eventually. And this is sort of like, you know, it’s a it’s a release valve, which can be really powerful.

Libby DeLana: [00:49:26] Um, I’m not sure it replaces therapy. I think therapy is a, you know, a beautiful option if you, you know, it’s an expensive, can be an expensive and beautiful option. And yet I think it’s a it’s another tool. And I felt so safe with my and so comfortable in that space with it, with my walk that I could trust the space that showed up as we as I walked.

Jonathan Fields: [00:49:51] You right about which I thought was really interesting. So like the notion of walking mantras take me into this a bit more.

Libby DeLana: [00:49:57] So there are definitely as I go for a walk, I often will head out the door with some kind of intention. Not always. It’s not always clear or pure or even. But there are some days when I want to hold with me an intention about how I’m going to move through the world, say something’s coming up that’s going to be challenging or a hard conversation. I will often take with me some language and walk with it tucked in my back pocket. Sometimes I’ll say it out loud and just kind of put that energy into the world, right? I just hold it with me and I have felt that it has made whatever is coming next easier and clearer often, and it can be whatever you want. And that’s the thing that’s also really helpful. Whatever is happening in your day, to be able to think about how you want to move through the world, or how you want to bring some kind of energy to a conversation or to an event. I find it helpful sometimes to just say those words out loud and carry them with me.

Jonathan Fields: [00:51:03] Mhm. Yeah. I almost wonder whether, you know, simultaneously works deeper into the essence of you but also moves out into the world. I remember a chunk of years back sitting down with Sharon Salzberg, a wonderful meditation teacher, and we were in New York City then, and she was telling me how she on the walk over to her studio as she sort of like walking on the sidewalk behind the museum on the Upper West Side, lots of people coming by her. And as she’s looking at each person, she’s in her mind. She’s kind of like she sees them for a minute, and in her mind, she’s doing a loving kindness and metta meditation. One person walks by and she’s thinking, May you be well. The next person walks by. Yes. May you be healthy. Next person may be happy. Next person. May you live with ease. And the classic line she said a gazillion times in her loving kindness meditation. And just as she’s walking through the world and noticing other people, and maybe it’s maybe you’re in nature and you can offer these same things to to animals, to trees, to the environment, whatever it is. I thought it was. And she said, it just really changes the quality of just every day and every day walk through the city for her. Yeah, it made it almost like a moving, like prayer. Yeah.

Libby DeLana: [00:52:13] Well, you know, I this little book I wrote about walking in the last page or so is, is this sort of mantra. And, and what I often say is it’s not unlike what Sharon just said. You know, may you find happiness in walking. May you find joy in walking. May you find energy in walking. May you find beauty in the day. And just saying some of those out loud into myself are comforting tools.

Jonathan Fields: [00:52:41] Beautiful. It feels like a good place for us to come full circle in our conversation as well. So here in this container of Good Life Project., if I offer up the phrase to live a good life, what comes up?

Libby DeLana: [00:52:52] Going for a walk and being grateful for it every single day.

Jonathan Fields: [00:52:56] Mm. Thank you.

Libby DeLana: [00:52:57] Thank you.

Jonathan Fields: [00:53:00] Hey, before you leave, if you loved this episode, safe bet, you’ll also love the conversation we had with Cyndie Spiegel about finding joy in life’s small moments. You’ll find a link to Cyndie’s episode in the show notes. This episode of Good Life Project was produced by executive producers Lindsey Fox and me, Jonathan Fields. Editing help by Alejandro Ramirez. Kristoffer Carter crafted our theme music and special thanks to Shelley Adelle Bliss for her research on this episode. And of course, if you haven’t already done so, please go ahead and follow Good Life Project. in your favorite listening app. And if you found this conversation interesting or inspiring or valuable, and chances are you did. Since you’re still listening here, would you do me a personal favor? A seven second favor and share it? Maybe on social or by text or by email? Even just with one person? Just copy the link from the app you’re using and tell those you know, those you love, those you want to help navigate this thing called life a little better so we can all do it better together with more ease and more joy. Tell them to listen, then even invite them to talk about what you’ve both discovered. Because when podcasts become conversations and conversations become action, that’s how we all come alive together. Until next time, I’m Jonathan Fields signing off for Good Life Project.