Changing one’s life, caring better for one’s health… it all seems so hard, in such need of radical cuts.

Selling all your stuff, moving to an exotic country and living off online enterprise, that seems just about enough to change things around – but who could do that?Eating only raw foods, running marathons and showering cold, that seems the way to an adventurer’s physique – but that’s just for crazy people.

Meanwhile, the things that make happy are really rather simple, except that it’s real hard putting them in practice.
Why? Because convention and convenience says to just work, buy, and be entertained. And the longer that goes on, the more it just seems normal, and the harder it gets to do anything that requires that we get up and going.

The crazy thing: better lives come from that getting up and doing, and are well within reach of most of us. We just let ourselves get trapped without even noticing. We think our lives are good, or at least normal, and raise the alternatives that are worth it to the extremes described before, just so we feel even more justified when we don’t even try.

Meanwhile, what is the most effective intervention against low cardiovascular fitness (one of the “developed” countries’ worst killers), the treatment of depression and anxiety that has the best effect with the fewest (negative) side effects, and so much more?

Steps. As in: walking. As beautifully explained here:

So, next time you are thinking that it’s just too darn exhausting to do something for your health and fitness, go for a walk. When you think that life can’t be changed for the personal and public better, go for a walk in the woods, or some other more-natural outdoors.

Consumption will be lower, and thus your impact on the world. You may come to remember why nature is necessary, even and especially in urban areas: both psychologically (as Richard Louv has been very active in pointing out), and ecologically.

From there, there are still many ways to go, but it will be a start.