From the process of creative self-discovery one emerges an artist. More often than not, our internal spiritual restoration is accompanied by a physical transformation.  Weight loss is a frequent by-product of creative recovery. Overeating blocks our creativity. In my book, The Writing Diet--born from over 25 years of experience at the front of a classroom observing creative transformations--I use creativity tools to attack our overweight. Let us alter our physical ill-health by attacking our consciousness.

One of the most powerful tools of self-discovery, and weight loss, is walking.

Writing brings motion into our lives. A habit of daily Morning Pages brings us into contact with our thoughts and feelings. We learn “what’s eating us.” This self-awareness is as good as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go quite far enough. We need to exercise as well as exorcise our demons. The best way to do so is by walking.

None of us has time to walk, not in our hard-driven lives. Walking seems so frivolous. Where is there time for walking in a life led on the run? Time is what we all need more of--or do we? Twenty minutes a day can be chiseled out of the busiest life simply be replacing our worrying with walking--and waking does help teach us not to worry.

For many of us, walking brings a sense of heightened vitality and even youth. A step at a time, a calorie at a time, we burn away our lingering malaise and step up our metabolism. We walk of out of the door with problems, we return with solutions.

We tend to think of creativity as an intellectual construct, something rather disembodied and vaguely “spiritual.” This notion is nonsense. Creativity is not something ethereal. It is something very real, an energy that best serves us when it is grounded. And we ground our creativity through our bodies, most easily and most sensibly through walking.

Put on those boots made for walking, and step outside. Breathe deeply, and explore.