Owen - The Art of Flaneuring: How to Wander with Intention and Discover a Better Life

To my ever-inspiring brother Ryan (the Good One), who taught me that understanding how your body moves is one of the greatest acts of self-care you can participate in. This is also for all of the people who have seen me silently stomp out of a room; I promise, it was for your own good.

You know those feelings that often have a German word associated with themwords that you have no chance of pronouncing correctly? Take Fremdschmen, for example. This word defines a feeling we all have experienced: a deep shame for someone else in an uncomfortable situation, one that doesnt exactly involve us. A stranger tripping and falling, spilling his entire coffee on the innocent bystander dressed in white in front of him. A server trying to explain to a vegetarian that her veggie burger is actually a real meat burger after shes already taken a bite. Your manager berating one of your coworkers about something that wasnt his fault. Flneur isnt a German wordits Frenchbut it falls into the same bucket of expressions. It describes an action and a way of being that you may never have realized there was a word for.

In the nineteenth century, the word flneur referred to a well-to-do, dandy type of white manand usually a Parisianwho would idly stroll through the streets of a city, carefully observing his everyday surroundings and finding the beauty in what many would consider the mundane. The kind of strolling these early flaneurs did was always done with a romantic mind-setor a greater focus on finding meaning in the cracks in the street than getting somewhere specificand more often than not it was also done while slightly drunk.

But much like the beloved Danish concept of hygge, which emphasizes the value in being comfy and cozy, behaving like a flaneursomething the French originally called flnerie and many have since colloquially starting calling flaneuring, without the diacritic over the acan also be a lifestyle. Over the years, and as more and more people have discovered flaneurings many benefits, to flaneur has evolved to more generally mean to wander with intentionor, in other words, to be intentionally aimless. Flaneuring, essentially, is taking a walk for the sake of taking a walknot to stop by the bank, not to get some exercise, not to get directly from point A to point B. All these things can happen while youre flaneuring, but the objective of a flaneur is to enjoy the journey for what it isto look outward and let what you see influence your inward thoughts, to be a part of the scenery while also taking a moment to deeply appreciate the environment that surrounds you.

Here are a few brief examples of ways you can easily incorporate some flaneuring into your everyday life:

Killing Time Before Meeting Friends for Dinner

Weve all been there: arriving at a restaurant before our dining companions have shown up and needing a way to kill time. Instead of mindlessly scrolling through your phone (yet again), try taking a walk around the block. Read all of the storefront names as you walk by, making mental notes of ones that make you giggle, think, and scratch your head. If there isnt a block to walk around, find a spot to perch and people-watch. Count the cars that drive by. Read their license plates and try to make out meanings for their letters as acronyms.

Searching for the Perfect Picnic Spot

Pick a park or a beach and start walking. A picnic can be anything you want it to be: a random selection of snacks, a bit of bread and cheese, a single beer, a full-on tapas-inspired spread. There are no rules when it comes to picnic foods, and anyone who tells you differently is certainly not a friend, in my opinion!

Exploring a New Park

Parks are the perfect places to practice your flaneuring. Not only do the preset boundaries create a safe space for exploring, but there are often a lot of different scenes to take in: dog runs, playgrounds, ponds, forested areas, bike paths. If youre finding yourself fighting against the distraction of having a wide choice of scenery, focus on making a mental map of the park. The next time you visit, spend time acknowledging more of the details.

Window-Shopping While on a Trip

Window-shopping is another fantastic way to flaneur, so the next time youre on a trip in a new location, head into a local store and take in the details. Are the signs and advertisements in English or the local dialect? That will tell you a lot about how many tourists an area sees. Are you seeing a local artist pop up more than the rest? What style of clothing or what kinds of items do you see being soldand does it inspire you? Observe what all of the shopkeepers and employees are wearing. You can learn so much about a new place based on the items sold in its stores.

Taking a Walk to Calm Your Mind

If youre working through something tough or anxiety inducing, pulling yourself out of a familiar environment can often give you the kick you need to come up with a solution, or something close to one. In this instance, dont push yourself to calm down. Let your thoughts wander, and remember that your brain is still working hard on big problems even when you arent consciously thinking about them, and it might just take some fresh air to clear out all of the noise.

Walking Your Dog

What better way to flaneur than letting an excited pup on a leash guide you on a walk? If you dont have a dog, chances are good that a friend who does have one will leap at the opportunity for a break as the designated walker.

As I hope to have shown in these examples, flaneuring is relatively simple, but to truly appreciate its many benefits its worth learning about its origins as well as the many forms it can take. If flaneuring sounds like something you might like to doand Im assuming it is since youre reading this bookbut getting started is a bit intimidating, take solace that youve likely already flaneured at some point in your life. Id even go as far as saying that babies, with their nerve-racking crawling and tendency to get into things they probably shouldnt, are the ultimate early-life flaneurs. (Too bad most of us cant remember what discovering a stairwell for the first time felt like.)

Flaneuring can bring a lot of unexpected and beautiful moments into your day, and when you wander with intention, youll find your brain can do some pretty great work. Not only is flaneuring a good way to clear those daily nagging thoughts out of your mind and replace them with more positive and productive ideas, it can also be a great way to get some fresh air. Everyone could always use more fresh air.

By reading this book, my hope is that youll ultimately come to better understand how embracing your inner flaneur can help you experience the world in a new way, spark creativity you never knew was in that brain of yours, switch up your daily routines, more effectively deal with stress, and so much more.

Ready to begin? Lets get started.

At the most basic, a flaneur is someone who strolls. But in the late nineteenth century, to be called a flaneur was a much more exclusive description. It often meant that you were a middle- or upper-class white man who had achieved a level within society with the privilege of living a life of leisureor at least enough time in your day to walk without a care in the worldand a level that arguably made you an interesting and intellectual person to talk to at parties.