One of my favorite authors is Nassim Nicholaus Taleb, author of “The Black Swan” and “Fooled by Randomness”. His writing introduced me to the concept of “Flaneuring” - essentially a relaxing slow walk with no particular goal; wandering. The purpose isn’t to get somewhere in particular, or to map out an area. It is just to wander.

This has long been a habit of mine, but I didn’t know what to call it. When I first visit a new city, I wander. The first morning I woke up in Israel, in a beachfront hotel in Bat Yam, I immediately got dressed and headed out. It was 6:30 in the morning, and I had no where I needed to be, except out. My only concerns were - staying in areas that looked relatively safe and being able to find my way back to my hotel. Otherwise I just wandered.

I didn’t get a picture from the window when I left on the wander, but here is the view on my return.

I found a great cafe with a line up of other early risers getting their morning fix. I found multiple bakeries that smelled so good that I had to sample the pastries. I came across a souk, a market, filled with the freshest produce. I walked along the beach and admired the Mediterranean.

There was no goal, other than the journey. It seems so often everything we do has a goal, that just being present, in the moment, with no particular ambition, was the greatest relief. This walk wasn’t for exercise, or to find breakfast, or to help cope with massive jet lag resulting from being 7 time zones away from home. It wasn’t to calm any anxieties over being on an expensive trip 4 months after quitting my job and starting a business. The walk accomplished all of those things, but that wasn’t the purpose. The purpose was just to wander.

The effect of this sort of wandering can be powerful. You might reach an insight on a problem with which you have been wrestling for days. Boom. It comes to you as you are noticing, as if for the first time, the architecture of a building you have driven past 100 times. Or you might read the menu in a restaurant window, and know that you will be returning there for years.

Sometimes the effect is more subtle. The stress in your shoulders eases, a little at first, and then a lot. The early morning sun (if you do the walk in the morning) adjusts your circadian rhythm, and 16 hours later you drop off into the most natural sleep. The chaotic thoughts in your mind, the million inner voices hopping from subject to subject quiet down, just a little.

One of the most powerful benefits we seek when we go on a vacation is to de-stress. But letting go of stress once or twice a year, while beneficial, is nowhere near enough. We need to find a way to put down the weight much more often. Let the mind find its own way. Many family members and friends will go to the forest for exactly this reason (they live in a part of Canada where forests are everywhere). They don’t go to hunt of fish - at least not all the time - just to be in nature. To wander a forest trail and see where it leads. Summer or winter they let go of the noise of life and take in the music of the forest.

I have to say, I do understand the appeal

Oddly enough, the same effect can happen in a city. Especially in the morning, before the full force of the traffic noise is present, can the little moments be felt. If your walk is in an area with too much chaos - turn down a side street. Stop and discretely look through the window of a business getting ready to open. Discover new places in your neighborhood, or wherever you happen to be.

Let your feet wander, and your mind will follow.