© irene waters 2014

Walking Zach, our German Shepherd dog is not done just for the his benefit nor for the exercise that it gives him and his two human companions but it is simply the best time I find for thinking.

Our first walk takes place early in the morning. We almost always walk through the park, pause for some stick throwing and a quick dip in the river and then, once at the park’s end, we decide which route we will take for the rest of the walk. All choices are scenic, quite and serene. The world is only just waking and has that fresh, still asleep look about it.

My husband and I on this first walk of the day are usually lost in our own thoughts; still in that twilight zone where communication outside your own head space is neither welcomed or desired. That comes later in the day but for now we are cocooned in our own little world. My husband, I think, wakes up thinking about his golf game and the technicalities of it and ponders this as he walks, with the occasional practice swing.

I wake up with wonderful ideas and solutions. The perfect phrase has come unbidden to me and I have to give serious thought to these developments. Often by the time we reach our favourite coffee shop an hour or so after we started out, I have a whole chapter ready to write or my toastmasters speech formulated, or solved the dilemma I had been wrestling with.

My theory on why this is so is simply that ,whilst sleeping, the inhibited part of my brain is in bed and the constrained brain is free  to go where it wants. On first waking and in our case walking, because the day is so young the brain has not yet become cluttered with “I must remember I have the watering system on”, “I have to remember to…….”, the daily news, articles from the newspaper and, conversations had. This decluttered brain is still in a state that it can draw on what the creative ideas it formulated whilst I slept.

Whether this reasoning is correct or not, there is no doubt that this time spent walking simply the best dog is also simply the best time to think.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/daily-prompt-best/

1. A Distracting Ramble Through Nowhere in Particular | As I please
2. A Heroe’s Welcome Home | The Jittery Goat
3. My bed is the best spot | Now Have At It!
4. DP Daily Prompt: Simply the Best | Sabethville
5. Daily Prompt: Simply the Best | Awl and Scribe
6. The best place | Pen And IPen And I
7. Daily Prompt: Simply The Best | Another Blog
8. My insane mind | all my likes
9. Daily Prompt: Simply the Best | Under the Monkey Tree
10. on a wire, happiness | y
11. daily prompt: simply the best | aimanss…
12. My best thinking: no exact time, neither exact place, but exact conditions. | Write for learning
13. Unafraid? | alienorajt
14. The Best Ideas | Edward Hotspur
15. All good really, aside from the prunage… | thoughtsofrkh
16. Daily Prompt: Simply the Best « cognitive reflection
17. Think, Thank, Thunk. | Short and Feisty
18. Daily Prompt: Thinking Cap | One Starving Activist
19. Back to Reality… And My Couch | The Janie Doh Daily
20. Daily Prompt : Best Thinking | Code Name Incog
21. I Think, Therefore . . . When I Can! | meanderedwanderings
22. A Certain State of Mind | SouthRiverside
23. Simply the Best | Geek Ergo Sum
24. Walking a path to better writing | Jeremy Podolski
25. Thinking | Flowers and Breezes
26. my brain and I | Steinsdotter`s Saga
27. Emotionally Simple | tembalimbo
28. Daily Prompt: Simply the Best. | ginnysblogspace
29. Daily Prompt: Simply the Best | Misifusa’s Blog
30. Daily Prompt: Simply the Best | Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss
31. Simply the Best | The Story of a Guy
32. Daily Prompt: Photography: My Best Senior Portrait Work | Daily Prompt & Blogging Progress
33. Daily Prompt: Simply The Best | Finding Life
34. Bring on the night | Pen Kisses Paper
35. Warning: Loading Inspiration. Do Not Disturb. | Blue Loft
36. The best time to write | MC’s Whispers
37. Thinking? HA! Mom’s don’t get to do that, what are YOU talking about sir? | From One Crazy Life To Another
38. SIMPLY THE BEST TIME TO THINK? WHAT’S SIMPLE ABOUT IT? | SERENDIPITY
39. When Everything Aligns | Liv(e) Photography