Wandering is at the core of what makes us human.

We even have an enlarged hippocampus to help us catalogue, store, and interpret spatial information.

We used wandering to explore and settle this entire planet, and stumbling on food or fuel or other resources after making an intuitive decision is a great way to get a hit of dopamine and serotonin at the same time.

Good for the Body

This one mostly applies to physical wandering but study after study show the value of walking for personal and public health. Walking improves your endurance, vascular health, muscle tone and more. It also produces alpha-dominant brainwave patterns - the flow states sought after by athletes, artists, and other high performers.

Good for the Mind

Like they say, as the body moves, the brain grooves. The wanderer seeks the edges and the uncomfortable because they know that they don't know what they don't know, and that by breaking out of their silo and confronting new people, places, and ideas, that their brain will necessarily adapt, adding new territories to their cognitive map and creating new neuronal connections in the brain, helping them to make better decisions and live on a bigger map.

Good for the Spirit

Wanderers are lucky, because they appreciate what they experience. Wandering gets you out of the mundane and takes you to new places inside and out. Industrial Society has a lot of benefits, but it also produces vast quantities of the toxic by-products alienation, isolation and indoctrination. Wandering dispels all of these by adding lots of new little perspectives, helping them to 'see' reality more clearly. Like Mark Twain said,

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness."

5 Benefits of Wandering

  1. Moves the bones, builds strength and endurance
  2. Relaxes and stimulates the mind
  3. Builds confidence and people skills
  4. Yields loot
  5. Connects you to people and places

Wandering is good for you.

The link has been copied!