WHY do we walk? The obvious answer would be, “we walk to go somewhere” because that’s human nature. But then there’s walking to go nowhere, which isn't typical human nature, right? You go nowhere and then return home. Some would call it a walking meditation; you discover a new tree, a new place, a new sign. “You’re alone in the world with no company left but your own. Yet you are surrounded by all the world,” says Rousseau in The Reveries of the Solitary Walker. I’m talking about leaving home with no goal. When the purpose of walking is walking: flâneuring.

Flâneur is a French term popularized in the nineteenth century for a type of urban male "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", or "loafer". A flâneur is an ambivalent figure of urban affluence and modernity, representing the ability to wander detached from society with no other purpose than to be an acute observer of industrialized, contemporary life. Flâneur derives from the Old Norse verb flana, "to wander with no purpose”.

This brings me to intentions: walking with the intention of having no intention. Still with me? It’s funny that it’s easier to have a “wandering mind” sitting at home than to “wander” by putting your legs to work. So how about leaving home with no intention except to be a flâneur, to find tranquility and serenity from walking?

I live my life with the king of flâneurs, a connoisseur of the street—my boyfriend is French and has a master’s in flâneuring, to say the least. From him, I learned to trace it all the way back to The Arcades Project by Walter Benjamin, who observed that in Paris, for the first time, people were going out without intention but driven by goodwill. Through him, I learned that urban life is defined by walking. People are made to  walk, hence why there are sidewalks. The forms of cities are traced and defined by sidewalks that go all the way back to Haussmann’s modernization of Paris.

Now that we know that walking is essential, people who say “I don’t like walking” might as well be saying, “I don’t like breathing.” There’s a rule we’ve all heard before: “walk 10,000 steps a day if you want to stay in shape and have a good life.” We’ve become obsessed with health today. With wellness, getting better, joining boot camps, and following trends of different workouts, we’ve forgotten that walking is our essence. We are made for walking. Walking is a non-negotiable, not a trend.

Having said that, one of the basis of being a flâneur is walking with style. No one said you need to be wearing leggings, sportswear, or Nikes to go out and wander. In fact when the term was coined leggings were not around. I have a few tips for you. Privilege linen or light organic cottons, and prioritize clothes that are not too tight and can flow. Remove the idea of going for a walk to work out; you’re walking because you are an Urban Explorer. In his poetry and his 1863 essay The Painter of Modern Life, Baudelaire described the flâneur as an archetype of the urban experience. So reframe walking as an exercise for your brain, not just your body.