Ever noticed how ideas flow more easily when you’re moving? Having your mouth going helps too; the words come out without thinking about them. Why not have business meetings walking along the Rillito, hiking up the road in Sabino Canyon, or wherever you live? You don’t have to get dressed up and it’s free. You can’t take notes? Bring a tiny tape recorder. Make an agenda — that would be one creative question you want to talk about with a friend or colleague. If anything comes up that’s worth remembering, trust that you will.

And now there’s proof that exercise helps thinking. Apparently, only 20 minutes walking before a test– even if a kid is otherwise unfit or obese — can improve her score (not that I care about scores, but it shows that your brain is functioning). http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/phys-ed-can-exercise-make-kids-smarter/?src=me&ref=homepage

An added benefit is that walking clearly helps your mood. Why do I find myself humming after strolling for 15 minutes in the desert? (Maybe I’m happy that I haven’t stepped on a rattlesnake, which happened to my friend Penny once).

Watch for my story about Steve Stone, a 70-year-old exercise physiologist, in the Oct. 1 Arizona Jewish Post. He says that “mind and body are the same thing,” and there’s this misconception about each influencing the other. And, if you hold stuff in, he says, you don’t feel the sensations in your body, which thwarts emotions. This all makes me think of James Brown belting out, “I feel Good.”