By Louise Rumball

For years, everyone I followed on TikTok and Instagram told me to “visualize my dream life,” “repeat the affirmations,” and act as if “my wish was already fulfilled,” with a bit of “repetitive scripting” thrown in for good measure. And while some of those manifestation techniques had merit, they didn’t move the needle, at least not for my nervous system, my health, or my actual life. I found it hard to integrate this advice into my daily routine, and truthfully, I’m just not a “sit-still-and-meditate” kind of girly (even though I’d love to be). At this point, I had gone deep into my therapy journey and then crossed the threshold into ‘somatic healing’ and ‘nervous system regulation’. At the same time, I became a qualified Integrative Health Practitioner and a Holistic Wellness Coach and I started to realize that the manifestation world was missing a ton of information that actually was circling around the Nervous System world. So, I started to combine it.

The more I researched, the more I realized that manifestation and brain rewiring don’t have to happen sitting still and through ‘meditating’. I started to realize that at the core, manifestation is about laying new neural pathways that can hold new beliefs that shift how you think, feel, act, react and attract. When new pathways are activated repeatedly (and become stronger than the old), they start shaping a new identity with new choices, feelings and emotions. And the ‘frequency’ of these emotions in our internal world starts to emanate out into our biofield, through which the ‘law of attraction’ should then theoretically attract more abundant experiences into our external reality. My research showed that this process of neuroplasticity and energy shifting was not only possible through movement, but in many cases, it could actually be more effective through moving too. And the deeper I went, the more I discovered that walking might be one of the most overlooked transformational tools in the entire self-help space.

Here’s why walking rituals (done right) might be the most powerful practice you’re not doing yet on your self-help, healing, transformation and manifestation journey:

1. Walking Activates Bilateral Stimulation, Just Like EMDR Therapy

You might have heard about EMDR Therapy because a lot of people are REALLY obsessed with it. It’s a type of therapy that uses Eye Movement Densensitization and Reprocessing to help release the ‘energy’ of traumatic events that overwhelmed your nervous system and got logged in the hard drive of your body. But what no one taught me is that every step you take - left, right, left, right - triggers bilateral stimulation, a core mechanism used in EMDR therapy. While it’s not a replacement for expert EMDR-therapy, and the safety a practitioner-client relationship can provide to the nervous system, this rhythm of walking can also help release energy stored in the body, release old memories, and rewire the brain. According to Wilson (2018), bilateral stimulation allows the brain to safely revisit and reprocess old experiences while laying down new, healthier neural pathways. That means intentional walking and walking elevations can help release the past and also open up spaces to rewire the future.

2. Your Nervous System Doesn’t Speak Logic—It Speaks Rhythm, Emotion & Sensation

I thought this was super cool. You can journal or try to manifest all day, but when you understand the limbic system, you realize that specific parts of our nervous system do not respond to logical analysis. Instead, they respond to feelings, sensations, emotions, and ‘safety’ (or lack thereof). Ever wondered why telling yourself to ‘calm down’ doesn’t work during a panic attack? This is exactly why. Our body responds to the feeling of safety, not the conscious analysis of it. And walking? It is rhythmic and is one of the easiest ways to tell your subconscious mind and nervous system that you are safe. It regulates your heart rate, reduces stress, and creates the calm needed for neuroplasticity (your brain’s ability to lay those new pathways).

3. Change Feels Hard Because of the Default Mode Network

We’ve all tried to change, or lay new habits, and most of us have fallen off. Ever feel like you're stuck in a loop, repeating old patterns or limiting beliefs and not really sure why? That’s partially because the Default Mode Network (DMN) in your brain at work. It’s your brain’s autopilot - constantly running and reinforcing your current identity literally on a loop. But elevated walking rituals? They can interrupt that loop. And once the loop has been interrupted, you can then start to open up space to lay down new pathways. This is most effectively done through repetition (because repetitive ANYTHING develops more connections between the neurons in our brain and also adds Myelin to the neurons, which increases the speed at which impulses travel along the new pathways). So walking can interrupt the brain loops - opening you up space to start considering the possibilities of feeling new ways.

4. Movement + Music = Frequency Shift in the Nervous System

Ever been moved to tears by a song? That’s because music taps directly into the emotional and sensory parts of the nervous system. It’s this emotional layering that accelerates manifestation. When a thought, experience, or decision is paired with a strong feeling, the body remembers it more deeply than if it’s processed through logic alone. Now bring this into walking. If you combine your daily steps with music (which speaks to the limbic system), breath cues (which lower cortisol and strengthen the vagus nerve), somatic scripting (which speaks to the subconscious), and repetition (essential for neuroplasticity and belief rewiring), you’ve got more than a walk—you’ve got a transformation ritual.

This turns a simple walk into a portal for embodied change. Because at the heart of manifestation is the goal of shifting how we think and feel—and every emotion holds its own vibrational frequency, as shown by Dr. David Hawkins’ work.

5. Big Life Changes Spike Cortisol. Small Ones Create Lasting Transformation

This is such a cool fact. Studies show that cortisol levels increase by 30–40% in response to sudden life changes or intense new workout plans (Len De Nys et al., 2022) so those huge identity overhaul plans that you decide on at 2am after wondering how those TikTok girls got so pretty!? They’re not actually conducive to effective change. When the body is stressed by big changes, big pressure, or the shame of not being able to execute, and experiencing cascades of cortisol (and other stress hormones like adrenaline and norepinephrine). These biochemical experience can shift the nervous system out of safety into survival mode, again blocking change, nervous system regulation or neuroplasticity / laying new neural pathways. So, what this teaches us is that the most sustainable growth ACTUALLY comes from daily, realistic actions that add change incrementally to our lives, bodies and brains. Walking is simple, already familiar to us, stress-reducing and for many of us, already part of our daily routine - making it a great way to start change. Getting outside for a 20 minute walk, for most of us, feels much easier than going to a new gym, signing up to a new subscription, or committing to a new therapist or work out plan.

6. So, Walking Actually Hits

So, when you start to understand everything I’ve just run through, you start to understand that we’re not walking just for steps. (Though the cardiovascular, hormonal, metabolic and circadian-rhythm benefits are great too!). Outside of this, we can also start to work into Worthiness, Confidence, Emotional resilience, Purpose, The future self version of you. All without needing to “sit and meditate” or “talk it out” in therapy. This is nervous system-safe, time-efficient, and energetically potent.

7. The Future of the Hot Girl Walk? It’s called Walking Elevations.

As an Integrative Health Practitioner, I realized that the Walking Meditations on the market felt limited. They were either too short, or they were all focused on ‘calming’ the nervous system (which is only a small part of experiencing real change). I was going on daily walks (either outside or on the treadmill) and it was STRESSING my nervous systems out to have to scroll through Spotify and find a playlist, podcast or audio book to listen to. I knew that any sort of stress/apprehension wasn’t going to help me ease into a walk, or help my nervous system rewiring. Because of that, I got to work, producing audio tracks that I call ‘Walking Elevations’ that combine daily steps with subconscious rewiring, frequency shifting, somatic breath cues and emotional scripting into my daily walk. For me, they are the ultimate hot girl habit stack.

Now I’m sharing them with you.

Ready to Rewire While You Walk?

🦋 Step Into Her: The Walking Elevation Challenge
💡 6 days. 6 transformative walks.
🎧 Powerful audio tracks blending bilateral stimulation, emotional scripting, breath cues, and subconscious rewiring.
🎧 Each day has a theme. Each walk has a purpose
📱 Delivered daily to your phone through the Daily Devotion™ app.

👉 Join the challenge here.

xo Louise

How to Manifest While Walking

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