The Mel Robbins Podcast

Neuroscientist Reveals The Shocking Science & Benefits of Taking a Simple Walk | Mel Robbins Podcast

Order your copy of The Let Them Theory 👉 https://melrob.co/let-them-theory 👈 The #1 Best Selling Book of 2025 🔥 Discover how much power you truly have. It all begins with two simple words. Let Them. — In this episode, a renowned Oxford-trained #neuroscientist teaches you the most incredibly simple, science-backed hack that will change every single part of your life in just 10 minutes. Professor Shane O’Mara, bestselling author and Experimental Brain Researcher at Trinity College in Dublin, walks us through the mind-blowing #research behind, of all things, walking. You’ll be shocked to learn how the right kind of walking can lower #depression and #anxiety without medication. Professor O’Mara explains 3 different types of walking: one way will boost your creativity, another will make you more productive, and a third way will make you a rockstar problem solver. You’ll also learn about the incredible cognitive, mechanical, and physiological chain reaction that happens in your brain and body during a simple walk. The research and neuroscience will empower you to use walking to help you: - Conquer your fears. - Make your brain younger. - Reduce your stress and feel happier. - Double the number of your creative ideas. - Be more focused and productive at work. - Turn off anxious thoughts. - Decrease inflammation in your body. - Improve your relationship with yourself and others. If you’re short on time, bullshit. Put your earbuds in and get outside. Are you ready? Hit play, and let’s walk. Xo, Mel In this episode: 00:00 Intro 07:28 why you should walk with others for social reasons 12:22 Want a younger brain? Start moving. 14:51 What the heck is a “walking mind”? 19:55 Is your environment working against you? 22:06 This is what happens when you get outside and into nature. 24:17 Here’s how walking is just as good, if not better, than your antidepressant. 28:11 You won’t believe these benefits of a 10 minute walk. 36:01 Walking makes you more creative if you do this. 43:38 The shocking study that explains how walking changes your personality. 45:56 Don’t have enough time for a walk? I call BS. Here’s why. 48:28 Professor O’Mara suggests your walking routine should look like this. 51:38 5 easy ways to get in more steps everyday. 57:01 Feel like you don’t belong? Here’s how walking can help. 59:59 This is why you want to make it a habit to walk at night. — Follow Mel: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melrobbins/ TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@melrobbins Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melrobbins LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melrobbins Website: http://melrobbins.com — Sign up for Mel’s newsletter: https://melrob.co/sign-up-newsletter A note from Mel to you, twice a week, sharing simple, practical ways to build the life you want. — Subscribe to Mel’s channel here: https://www.youtube.com/melrobbins?sub_confirmation=1 — Listen to The Mel Robbins Podcast 🎧 New episodes drop every Monday & Thursday! https://melrob.co/spotify https://melrob.co/applepodcasts https://melrob.co/amazonmusic — Looking for Mel’s books on Amazon? Find them here: The Let Them Theory: https://amzn.to/3IQ21Oe The Let Them Theory Audiobook: https://amzn.to/413SObp The High 5 Habit: https://amzn.to/3fMvfPQ The 5 Second Rule: https://amzn.to/4l54fah

Mel RobbinshostShane O'Maraguest

Jul 31, 20231h 5mWatch on YouTube ↗

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Neuroscientist Explains How Daily Walking Rewires Mood, Brain, Longevity

Mel Robbins interviews neuroscientist Dr. Shane O’Mara about the underestimated power of everyday walking on mental health, brain function, creativity, and longevity.
O’Mara explains that walking is not just locomotion; it’s a profoundly social, cognitive, and biological activity that challenges the brain and body in ways modern sedentary life has largely removed.
They discuss long-term studies linking inactivity to negative personality shifts, brain decline, and higher depression risk, contrasted with the structural and functional brain benefits of regular walks.
The conversation ends with practical encouragement: frequent short walks, ideally in nature and often with others, can meaningfully improve mood, thinking, health, and sense of connection.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Regular walking improves mood both immediately and over time.

Studies show even 10–15 minutes of walking boosts self-reported wellbeing, lowers stress hormones (especially in natural environments), and over years is associated with lower rates of depression and anxiety compared to being sedentary.

Inactivity subtly changes personality and accelerates brain decline.

Longitudinal research indicates increasingly sedentary people become more asocial, less open to experience, and more prone to negative emotion, while imaging studies in older adults show that walking several times a week helps preserve and even increase memory-related brain regions.

Movement is “medicine” because it simultaneously engages multiple body and brain systems.

Standing up, balancing, navigating, adjusting heart rate and breathing, and processing optic flow all challenge and stimulate neural circuits that remain largely idle when sitting, helping maintain cognitive function and resilience.

Walking powerfully supports creativity by freeing the mind from over-focus.

Stepping away from the desk and walking—especially without a phone—facilitates incubation, lets default brain networks recombine ideas, and helps you alternate between big-picture perspective and detail, often leading to new solutions or “aha” moments.

Short, frequent walks can be more realistic and beneficial than one long session.

Humans in non-mechanized societies move in distributed low-level bursts all day; similarly, getting up for a few minutes every half hour or adding several short walks daily can deliver meaningful health and cognitive benefits without feeling overwhelming.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

Movement is medicine.

— Dr. Shane O’Mara

We underestimate, dramatically, how exquisitely attuned we are to each other when we walk.

— Dr. Shane O’Mara

Humans made our journey out of Africa on foot. We did it in groups, families, tribes, and communities.

— Dr. Shane O’Mara

If we design societies where people minimize their own physical activity, we’re also designing societies where people are going to be prone to really unpleasant psychiatric disorders.

— Dr. Shane O’Mara

Your body and brain are built for movement. Those of us in our ancestral past who didn’t move got eaten.

— Dr. Shane O’Mara

Walking as an evolutionarily fundamental and social human behaviorNeuroscience of movement: how walking challenges and benefits the brainImpact of sedentary lifestyles on personality, mood, and brain agingWalking and mental health: mood regulation, stress reduction, and depression riskWalking and creativity: default mode activity, incubation, and idea generationEnvironmental design: how cities and buildings either promote or suppress walkingPractical guidance on step counts, pace, frequency, and types of walking

High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.

Get more out of YouTube videos.

High quality summaries for YouTube videos. Accurate transcripts to search & find moments. Powered by ChatGPT & Claude AI.