The Magic of Walking

»Walking outdoors is a wonderful, long-tested, simple way of finding oneself.«

Christian Sauer coaches creatives. He brings the movement of walking home to them again and paves the way for inspiration and recharging in the creative everyday-life.

For millennia, walking in the countryside was the most important form of locomotion; our bodies are made for it. Today we sit in front of screens and bring nature indoors on our Instagram feed.

This book will lure you outdoors. It will take you on the way to the closest source of inspiration: the landscape on your doorstep. Because walking outdoors is a wonderful, long tested and proved, easy way of finding oneself. Of finding recreation and a successful life. Walking outside in dialogue with the landscape and oneself is an effective anti-stress method, accessible and easy on your money. It increases the power of your ideas and makes you more productive as well as more composed. It makes the inner murmurings, the voices of daily stress, go silent. Those who walk breathe more deeply- and think more freely.

Maybe, in your life, some things would run smoother too if you walked more…

Walking lifts us from controlled thinking into a deepened focus, into a special consciousness. Tea then tastes like fine wine, bread like roast, biscuits like cake. It is not the foods which are tasty, it is the landscape. It is the time we take for ourselves to let every impression come and go with relish. The awe. Intensely and with all senses.

Walking saves the walker from himself.

Christian Sauer shines a light on the creative technique of walking outdoors from the coach’s perspective, from that of psychology and philosophy. He does not leave it at theory though, he invites his readers to accompany him on his paths. The ones right in front of his doorstep in Hamburg, the long-distance hikes in the Alps, weekend hikes in the German low mountain range. We walk a great part of the way with him and the legs are beginning to get restless while reading, the hiking boots want to be released. He provides useful tips without ever slipping into lecturing. He describes his experiences as an offer and impulse for thought, more or less inviting you to go take first inept steps by his side. Until movements become smooth, thinking flows and the mind calms down.

Just as important as setting off are the breaks

While reading this valuably equipped book, you will pause from time to time. Remembering paths of your own and asking why they lie back so far. Because you will be reading the texts slowly and mindfully, Franca and Klaus Neuburg have placed abstract illustrations as well as pages on which small impulses for thought get a lot of space throughout the book. Just like hikes, reading comes alive from giving things the chance of setting. Making a stop-off. Breathing deeply. And then continuing to walk- or to read. In order for you to not go astray, we have laid a linen bookmark inside that picks you up right where you have left off.

Features and design

Maybe you will discover only at a second glance that the texts in this book have not been printed in black and white but rather in two shades of green. Subtle color grading, composed of four special colors. Just like in the landscape. Four Pantone-colors- a rather cool rose, a saturated shade of mustard, a sky-blue as well a shade of olive lend charm to the illustrations. Printed in differing grades on top of one another, they make up the green nuances of the text. We thank the team from Kösel in Altusried for the fitting print and a binding that is flexible without being fluffy and solid without hardness. Just as smooth as your steps will be after having treated your legs, which have become a bit unapt from sitting too much for too long, to the first kilometer of exercise…

The Magic of Walking
Inspiration and Relaxation in Dialogue with Nature
design: Klaus Neuburg
2^nd edition
176 pages
with 20 colorful illustrations by Franca Neuburg
printed throughout in 4 special colors
size 14.3 x 23.1 cm
colorfully printed linen flexcover with rounded back and inlaid linen bookmark