Anecdotally, a friend living in Amsterdam tells me hiking has become a “thing” out there, too. Another person in New York says they hike with Outlandish, and travel an hour or two out of Brooklyn for walks. Are we embracing the mental health benefits of being outdoors, while looking for company? Is the low-cost factor appealing? Annabel Streets, author of 52 Ways to Walk, says all of this is valid, but the truth is walking sets you up for building connections — whether we realise it consciously or not. “We find it much easier to open up to people when we don’t have to be eyeballed by them,” Streets explains. “There’s a rhythm to walking that helps us relax, in a way that we don’t sat across a table from someone. We’re more compassionate when outside than in spaces with low ceilings, research suggests. Studies have also shown that we often fall into step with people we like or expect to like, which psychologists call synchronisation. When we walk at the same pace and rhythm as another person we produce oxytocin — sometimes called the love or bonding hormone — which makes us feel closer to our walking companion, happier and more relaxed. This means we’re more likely to share information or self-disclose, and therefore to bond more quickly.” Hiking with a group also makes us feel safer, she adds, and speaks to our deep history, in that we “evolved walking as groups of nomadic hunter-gatherers, so walking in a group feels very natural.”
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