I used to think that taking a walk wasn’t real exercise.
Real exercise should involve special clothing.
You should break a sweat.
You should track your time, distance, speed, and heart rate.
Ideally, you should also take a photo afterward that makes you look both exhausted and full of accomplishment.
As for walking around the neighborhood for ten minutes in regular clothes?
That’s just getting from one place to another.
Without a fitness watch to celebrate the achievement, that walk seems to have no health benefits.
One afternoon, I sat at my computer for a long time.
My shoulders felt stiff.
My concentration started to wane.
I read the same sentence three times and still didn’t understand what it was trying to say.
I knew I should get up and stretch my legs.
But a whole series of complicated steps immediately popped into my head:
Change clothes.
Find my sneakers.
Plan my route.
Walk for forty minutes.
I might even have to take a shower when I got back.
At that thought, I decided to stay seated.
This was something I used to be very good at:
Making a simple action seem complicated enough to justify giving up on it.
Later, I simply told myself:
“Go for a ten-minute walk.”
No need to complete a full workout.
No need to prove anything.
Just get up from the chair and go outside.
I headed out wearing my usual clothes for the day.
No specialized workout gear.
No playlist.
I didn’t even bring my fitness watch.
For the first few minutes, my mind was still racing.
How should I reply to that email?
Have I scheduled anything for tomorrow yet?
Why did I forget to buy laundry detergent again?
After passing a few intersections, those thoughts began to fade away.
I noticed the weather was actually quite nice.
Someone nearby was walking their dog.
In a family’s garden, a few flowers I couldn’t name were in bloom.
Ten minutes later, I was back home.
Of course, my life hadn’t undergone any dramatic changes.
My work was still there.
The laundry detergent hadn’t magically appeared in the cabinet either.
But my mind didn’t feel quite so cluttered anymore.
Since then, I’ve started to let go of the idea that “exercise must be formal enough to be meaningful.”
The *Physical Activity Guidelines* recommend that adults engage in at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week, along with muscle-strengthening activities on at least two days a week; the guidelines also emphasize that some activity is better than none at all, and that prolonged periods of sitting should be minimized as much as possible.
This doesn’t mean that every session of activity has to be complete, perfect, or impressive.
Ten minutes can be a start.
A walk around the block after lunch counts.
Standing up and moving around while on the phone counts, too.
Parking a little farther away isn’t necessarily a punishment from life—it can be an opportunity to take a few extra steps.
即使现在，还是会有那么几天，我完全不想锻炼。
Sometimes the weather’s bad.
Sometimes I have too much work.
Sometimes I just want to sit on the couch.
But I no longer think that failing to complete an hour-long workout means nothing I do is worth it.
I can walk for ten minutes.
I can stretch for a few minutes.
I can move my shoulders while waiting for the water to boil.
Health isn’t just about “success” or “failure.”
There are also many small, ordinary, fleeting choices that aren’t worth posting on social media.
That ten-minute walk didn’t completely transform my life.
It didn’t solve my work problems, nor did it turn me into someone who loves early-morning runs.
It just made me feel a little better on a tiring afternoon.
And “a little better” is already a very good reason.
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