Exhausting, exhilarating, healing. At 44, the Princess of Wales has just completed the National Three Peaks Challenge, which involves scaling the three highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales in 24 hours. She did it, she shared on Instagram, ‘not simply as a physical endeavour but as a chance to explore life beyond diagnosis and to give something back’.

‘This challenge will support the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, helping to transform access to, and understanding of, holistic care that will enhance recovery and healing for patients across the UK,’ the Princess shared in a caption. ‘Healing, whether personal or collective, is not just about fixing what is wrong. It is about finding balance in how we live. Between effort and acceptance, between control and trust, between thinking and simply being. Because in the end, bravery isn’t just about pushing forward. It is about knowing how to stay grounded, connected and present, no matter the terrain or landscape you are walking.’

The more you walk, the better you feel – and the more you heal, as science shows. Recent research shows that distance walking over several consecutive days has profound effects on the body and brain, accelerating and enhancing emotional recovery.

Although many of the benefits of distance hiking kick in immediately, others manifest later. When Professor of Physiology Franca Deriu from the University of Sassari monitored a group of postmenopausal women on a five-day hike in Sardinia, she found astonishing results – lowered blood pressure, improved metabolic health and increased bone mineral density, to name a few – which were comparable to many weeks of regular physical training.

Psychologists believe long walks give us the time and space to process difficult memories, which can fester in the busyness of day-to-day life. In 2021, Danish researchers concluded that lengthy walks reduce anxiety and depression partly because they give us the room to think, feel and reflect. The longer the walk, they found, the more dramatic the effects.

Walking somewhere new seems to help, too. Dr Martin Mau from the University of Southern Denmark thinks immersing ourselves in a novel environment can help us see more clearly, forcing the brain to be more alert and to reflect from a different perspective – unlike our local park, which can harbour difficult memories.

As we walk, our muscles produce cascades of pain-relieving, mood-boosting compounds, which scientists call ‘hope molecules’. These have been shown to mask pain and anxiety in endurance exercisers. Biologists now believe that endurance walking prompts the body to shift into a very specific metabolic, hormonal and cellular pattern, leading to lower blood pressure, reduced inflammation and a brain awash in ‘happy hormones’.

It’s time to get our walking boots on.

The Walking Cure (Bloomsbury Tonic) by Annabel Streets is out now.