You can see them right away on the sidewalk at 8:42 a.m. With their heads tilted slightly forward, earbuds in, and bags bumping their hips, they weave around strollers and tourists as if the sidewalk were a video game level to be cleared. Their legs move quickly, almost too quickly for the narrow street. It would be terrible if someone behind them caught up to them. You feel like it’s less about getting somewhere and more about getting away from something you can’t see.
At some point, you may have called them “fit” or “disciplined.”
But what if they’re just too scared to slow down?
Why people who walk quickly look healthy but feel like they’re being chased
The same rhythm can be heard in any city in the morning. Some people take their time with coffee cups and phones, while others walk quickly, arms swinging and feet hitting the ground like a metronome on double speed. They seem like the kind of people who color-code their calendars and use their blenders.
We admire them in silence.
But if you look closely at their faces, you’ll see something else: a jaw that never quite relaxes, shoulders that are halfway to their ears, and eyes that are already three blocks ahead.
I first noticed it with Lena, a coworker who everyone said was “so sporty” because she walked everywhere at lightning speed. She said she couldn’t walk slowly unless she was sick. During phone calls at lunch, she would pace; during meetings, her leg would bounce; and on the way to the subway, she would pull you into her rhythm without meaning to.
One day she told me that when she wakes up, her heart races and her mind goes through the worst-case scenarios for the day. “Slow down,” she said to me once at a crosswalk. “I start to think.” And that’s not safe.
She wasn’t getting ready for a marathon. She was running faster than her own thoughts.
Some studies have found a link between walking faster and living longer, and that headline stuck. Do you walk fast? It has to be better for you, right? But those studies don’t often separate physical ability from mental noise. Someone can have strong legs and a nervous system that is in a state of panic at the same time.
What looks like being fit on the outside could be being alert all the time on the inside. People who are restless can act out by walking quickly. You’re not “anxious”; you’re “productive.” You’re not “unstable,” you’re “driven.”
The body doesn’t care that we’re changing our name. It just knows it can never breathe out.
How to tell if your fast walk is stress in your shoes
Next time you walk alone, try this simple trick: slow down by half for a full minute. Change your speed, not your route. Pay attention to what happens in your stomach, chest, and jaw. If your brain starts yelling “come on, move,” that’s not your quads complaining. That’s your nervous system, which is twitchy because it’s always on.
You could also try walking without your usual “armored” gear, like your phone, a podcast, or a list of things to do. You, your footsteps, and your breathing. Look how bare that looks.
A lot of fast walkers say the same thing. They walk quickly to work, run up the stairs, switch between apps every few seconds, drink coffee, and answer messages while crossing the street. They hardly ever sit still during the day, and then they power-walk home like it’s a race. They crash at night, scroll again, and then wonder why they wake up tired.
One woman I talked to timed how long it took her to get to the store in ten minutes. She was proud when she got it to seven minutes. Later, she realized that in three years of living there, she had never once looked up at the sky.
Her speed had turned the world into nothing but problems and times.
There is often a shaky core beneath all this rush. People who had strict parents, unstable schedules, or chaotic homes as kids learned early on that “moving fast” means “staying safe.” The nervous system remembers that speed as the starting point. It feels like danger when things are slow.
So, as adults, they don’t sit in silence, walk around, or stay too long. They overbook, walk hard, fill silence with noise, and don’t notice stress until it causes migraines or insomnia. **This leak of anxiety shows up in a lot of different ways, like when you walk fast.**
It’s not a health thing. It’s a nervous system that runs hot all day, every day.
Re-learning your pace without feeling weak or lazy
“Arrival breaths” are a small, almost silly thing that can change how you feel about walking. Every time you go through a door or step off a curb, take one slow breath in and one slow breath out without changing anything else. You can keep going quickly and still get to your destination. Just show your body that it’s okay to take short breaks.
After a week, add thirty seconds of slower walking to the beginning or end of one of your daily routes. Not even ten minutes. For just thirty seconds, relax your shoulders and let your arms swing more freely. *Your body doesn’t need a personality change overnight; it needs small, awkward experiments.
The trap is making this yet another show. People who walk quickly often make “walk slower” a goal for self-improvement, and then they beat themselves up when they go back to walking quickly on a stressful day. Let’s be honest: no one really does this every day.
Don’t think of it as failure when you catch yourself power-walking again. Pay attention to what set it off. Was it an email? A talk? An idea? That curiosity is more important than the speed itself. **Guilt just adds to the stress you already have on your shoulders.**
You don’t want to become a monk who moves slowly. You just want to show your nervous system that you can get around without always being ready for something bad to happen.
Sometimes, the most courageous thing a fast walker can do is let an old lady with a shopping cart pass them and deal with the blow to their ego.
Instead of inching forward like a racehorse at the gate, stop at red lights.
Once a week, walk a route you know well without headphones and write down five things you see.
“Soft focus” means that you should look at the horizon sometimes, not just the next three steps.
Say to a close friend, “If I’m speed-walking while we talk, please remind me to breathe.”
Don’t use your walk home as a last-minute sprint.
Maybe the real strength is not running away when you walk.
The idea that fast walkers are automatically healthier fits in well with our culture’s love of hustle. We reward people who are “busy,” we clap for people who are “productive,” and we silently rank people by how many things they are juggling. A quick walk looks like proof that you’re in charge of your life, not just barely holding on.
But with that fast pace, there could be a nervous system that has never learned to rest without feeling guilty or be quiet without feeling scared. A childhood full of surprises, a job that is always in crisis mode, and a life lived mostly in the future tense.
It’s not just about your health when you slow down your walk. It’s a quiet way of saying no to the idea that your worth is based on how fast you are. That you have to cross every street like someone is watching you. You can only feel that calm after you’ve “earned” it by racing through enough tasks, days, and years.
You don’t have to be the kind of person who walks around the city like a tourist. You can give yourself these few meters of relaxed jaw and these few breaths that aren’t a countdown. If you get there two minutes late, the world will not end.
It might even feel like you really got there.
Important pointDetail: What the reader gets out of it
Walking quickly can hide anxiety.Speed often comes from stress, not fitness.Helps you see “being productive” as a possible source of stress
Simple pace checks show how you’re doing.Taking a break from moving quickly shows hidden restlessness.Gives you a simple way to test your body.
Small changes can help the nervous system relax.Short, regular breaks help you make new, safer habits.gives you realistic tools without putting you under stress
Questions and Answers:
Question 1: Does walking quickly always mean I’m nervous?
Question 2: Is it possible for me to be both a fast walker and truly healthy?
Question 3: How can I slow down without feeling like I’m not getting anything done?
Question 4: What if my job makes me work quickly all day?
Question 5: Is it possible that walking more slowly could help my mental health?
