The following Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Marksissons

and is narrated by Brock Armstrong

Just Walk It Off, how walking can improve your emotional well-being.

A few years ago, a friend of mine went through a particularly rough patch, one of those

stretches in which life unraveled in continuous layers.

She'd taken multiple trips through the emotional ringer.

I was happy to catch up with her recently at a dinner party where she was looking and feeling

recovered, even content and happy again.

Lingering at the table with the few of us, she ended up sharing some of the strategies that

got her through that time.

Practices, she explained, she still uses when serious stress takes hold.

There were days, she described, where I would be so upset, so wound around a particular

event and unable to let go, that it was either continue wandering around the house, slamming

doors and making large demonstrative arm movements as I played out the infuriating script running through my head,

or just get outside and go for a, you, walk to let the bad energy burn itself out.

By the time she got back, she explained, she was dealing with embers instead of an all-out inferno.

In other words, things felt manageable again.

Over and over, as simple as it was, those walks were one of the main things that got her through,

recognizing when she needed the release and letting the steps work their magic.

While she didn't venture all that far from the house most

times, if not the streets of her own neighborhood itself, then maybe the beach or a nearby

state park. Others have clearly taken the concept to new lengths. With best-selling memoirs and

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