Stroll with it
Get your health back on trek
It took a pandemic to quiet the city that never sleeps — but with all New Yorkers over the age of 16 eligible for vaccination starting Tuesday, apartment-bound locals have a simple way of rediscovering their outdoor surroundings.
Lace up a pair of comfortable shoes and head outside for a walk. But don’t even think about hurrying down the street with your eyes glued to your phone or your fitness watch, says avid NYC ambler Jennifer Walsh, who advocates for getting New Yorkers safely back outside.
“You’re not rushing — it’s more witnessing the life around you and the growth around you,” said Walsh, an Upper East Side resident who leads meditative “Wellness Walks” around the city. An entrepreneur who created and later sold the Beauty Bar brand, Walsh is also behind a “Walk With Walsh” video series interviewing corporate figures on the go.
Walsh advises New Yorkers to slow down and take in the sights without headphones or sunglasses.
The many health benefits to this kind of stroll include decreased anxiety and depression and increased circulation and blood flow.
During a recent trek near Bethesda Terrace in Central Park, the 50-year-old spied nine rowboats gliding by the just-reopened Loeb Boathouse. Small groups of tourists photographed the scene, framed by a weeping willow whose leaves had recently sprouted.
“I’m so happy to see the boats back out,” said Walsh. “I just feel like it’s life again!”
Walsh, a Bronx native, published an essay on Medium last month recounting her daily walks in the early days of the pandemic and how the desolation made her see them in a new light.
Despite hearing the frequent screams of ambulance sirens, she wrote, “I could see the buildings, the architecture, the spaces of sheer beauty without the rushing and whizzing and bustling of locals, tourists alike and cars and everything else that gets in the way of the actual seeing.”
That included hearing the rhythms of nature, such as birds singing along an empty Park Avenue.
“It just seemed like it cascaded in a way throughout the buildings [because] it was so much louder,” she told The Post.
Today, locals can still benefit from a quieter atmosphere to reconnect.
“I think now is the time to witness the city before it gets busy again — very busy — and make it a mindful, meditative practice,” Walsh said.
“The little things you start noticing, because you’re giving yourself the permission to notice them,” she said.
Taking heed of all these seemingly insignificant aspects, she said, can help cure “the atrophy of the senses.”