Shadows & Sunlight – creative thoughts abound … Setting: St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth (Photo:B.Gardiner)
Our WOW Group in the library at NUI Maynooth was officially four years old last Thursday 24th April, 2014. The day passed unnoticed so it was especially interesting and timely at the weekend when my colleague Marie alerted me to the following article about walking. May Wong writes in Stanford News/Stanford Report, April 24th, 2014 about discoveries made by Stanford researchers linking walking and creativity.
“Stanford researchers found that walking boosts creative inspiration. They examined creativity levels of people while they walked versus while they sat. A person’s creative output increased by an average of 60 percent when walking.” (Wong, 2014)
The article reminded me of a comment my colleague Della made in a previous Walk on Wednesday post when she said:
“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” (Della, 2014)
The article certainly reiterates this sentiment. It is makes for interesting reading and it surely would inspire you to keep walking. The full study is published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition and is available as a PDF if you wish to read it.
So back to our experience here in the library, we have the added benefit of having a ready-made peaceful walking trail on our doorstep, as you can see from the photo included in this post. We definitely return to work after our walks in better form and feeling glad that we ventured out, regardless of the unpredictable Irish weather. On reflection we only had to walk in snow once during the four years so that’s not a bad record! So finally just to wish my follow walkers a belated Happy Birthday, looking forward to our walk today and here’s to many happy and creative walks over the next few years.
Library Staff Development 