Pair philosophical practice with physical exercise
Use a regular physical practice (walking, exercise) as the occasion for philosophical reflection — as the ancients did.
Why it works
Hadot notes that ancient philosophers used physical exercise as a companion to philosophical work, not an alternative to it. The walking or exercise state releases attention from the fixity of seated deliberation, activates default-mode processing (where associative insight occurs), and embeds philosophical reflection in the body — making the exercise a form of lived philosophy rather than abstract contemplation.
How to do it
- Before your next walk or workout, set a single philosophical question to hold lightly.
- Do not force answers — let the question be present as you move.
- After the session, spend five minutes writing whatever arose — insights, images, fragments.
- Over time, track which kinds of questions benefit most from this format.
Evidence
Walking and exercise promote divergent thinking and creative insight through increased default-mode network activity and reduced prefrontal fixation; this supports the ancient pairing of movement with philosophical reflection. (observational)
The walking-creativity research supports the mechanism; the specific pairing with philosophical questions rather than creative tasks is a Hadotian application not separately tested.
Sources
- Oppezzo, M. & Schwartz, D.L. (2014), Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
Common mistake
Turning the walk into a planning session or a worry session — which closes down default-mode processing and prevents the reflective quality the practice is designed to create.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for Pierre Hadot’s Spiritual Exercises
- Prosoche — the practice of attention
Maintain constant, vigilant attention to your own thoughts, judgments, and impulses as they arise.
- Melete thanatou — meditation on death
Briefly contemplate your own death today to clarify what actually matters.
- The view from above — cosmic perspective
Zoom out to see your situation from a vast distance — then return to act more calmly within it.
- The written dialogue — inner dialogue as philosophical exercise
Write a dialogue between yourself and an imagined wise interlocutor on a question you are genuinely struggling with.
- Act as if sages were watching — the practice of the philosophical community
Before any action, ask: would a person I genuinely respect — who embodies the values I aspire to — approve of this?
- The Pythagorean evening examination (Hadot’s version)
Before sleep, review the day in three questions: Where did I go wrong? What did I succeed at? What remains undone?
Related concepts
- Stoicism, as a Set of Practices
The six exercises that turn the philosophy into a daily discipline
- Phronesis: Aristotle’s Practical Wisdom
The ancient art of knowing what to do when the rules run out
- The Pythagorean Evening Review
The ancient nightly practice of honest self-examination
- The Stoic Discipline of Desire
Wanting only what is yours to have, and resting in that