Taking a restorative walk is always good for the mind, the heart, and the soul. Even when the weather is awful (heat, snow, what have you), a walk almost always clears the mind and puts you in better shape to do whatever lays ahead.

In Kathleen Rooney’s Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, a great new novel about a New York flaneuse and wordsmith, Boxfish is a great proponent of going for lunchtime walks through crowded midtown Manhattan in order to juice her writing:

For me, a peaceful atmosphere devoid of noise and distractions is absolutely the worst place for poetry, likely to wind me up in a doomed attempt to stare down a blank page…. Talking to the pavement always helps me find new routes around whatever problems I’m trying to solve.

So when in doubt or when stuck, get away from the desk and jump into the world, feet first.