By their very nature, nooks are tucked away.
Cosy corners and crevices. Hole-in-the-wall coffee hatches, cabins and tree houses, reading snugs and higgledy-piggledy alleyways. Medieval homes and once-upon-a-time outposts.
Moody and mysterious, enticing and intimate, it’s when the world is in silence that the nooks come out to play. A sub plot to normal city life or a hideout in the wild, grasping onto what little light they get, barely noticeable to passers-by.
As temperatures drop and the light fades, one silver lining of mine is the extra appeal of nooks.
They offer shelter and sanctuary for tired or curious souls. For the imaginative, they come with their own miniature worlds. Enthralling dramas in compressed form.
Few things in life are as endlessly versatile as a run. What we lose to darkness this time of year, we gain in other adventures, such as these. The bittersweetness of running in autumn.
How to run this theme: nooks
If city centres are excessive and extravagant, nooks are the footnote to the fore. Their illusionary nature calls for you to enter your flow state, where you lose track of time, distance and worries, to allow your mind to wonder.
Nooks could be:
- higgledy-piggledy alleyways
- medieval streets and buildings
- secret passageways
- benches carved into stone walls
- tree houses or cabins
- window seating in a café
- a cosy balcony with fairy lights
- vantage points atop a tower
- the canopy of a giant tree
- a bird house
- a ramshackle cottage
…and the like.
This week’s theme should take you on one of those runs that feels like play. You’ll exercise your imagination and discover the totality of your surroundings.
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Where the joy of nooks took me
You could build a ladder to the top of the minster with York’s nooks. In many ways the city’s crowning achievement is that it’s kept so many of them intact.
There’s the Shambles, one of the best-preserved medieval shopping streets in Europe, and year-round attraction thanks to its resemblance to Diagon Alley of Harry Potter fame.
You can dart in and out of the Snickleway shortcuts. Run along 3.7 miles of intact city walls.
Gargoyle-spot in the shadows of one the world’s most magnificent cathedrals – said to be a vision of heaven on earth crafted in stained glass and stone.
Grab a coffee from one of its converted toll houses. Or explore one of York’s many secret gardens.
And as the self-proclaimed most haunted city in Europe, York also boasts more than its fair share of spooky nooks.
I’m lucky to live somewhere so rich in eclectic running routes. It’s one surprising turn after another, many of which are hundreds and thousands of years in the making.
How running aids creative thinking
I’ll admit it, running to a theme of ‘Nooks’ takes a leap of faith. In exchange, I hope it brings a feeling of aliveness as your creative juices flow and you start to see the world around you with new eyes.
I’ve always found exercise as the best route to breakthrough ideas.
Science backs me up…
In 2014, a team of Stanford researchers sought to examine how creative thinking was impacted by walking and running. They conducted experiments with 176 participants that placed them in different situations:
- Using a treadmill facing a blank wall
- Walking outside
- Sitting inside facing a wall
- Sitting in a wheelchair outside
In each situation, the participants were asked to complete a range of tasks that are typically used to measure creative thinking.
The results were incredible: participants were dramatically more creative while on the move than sitting around. The average increase in creative output was around 60%.
Getting outside mattered too: 100% of those who walked outside generated at least one novel high-quality idea compared with 50% of those seated inside.
Leg movement, visual stimulation, and the better moods associated with exercising outdoors all contributing to better ideas, and more of them. A free activity that leads to a more vivid imagination.
So, I hope you enjoy exploring every nook and cranny of your town and that it gifts you a windfall of ideas.
→ Other ‘Running To Wonder‘ themes
