Mike MichalowiczBusiness Author & Keynote Speaker Empowering Entrepreneurs

De-Stress Fast: Walk in Nature!

24 Jul 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:05

In this brief segment of his YouTube video, Mike Michalowicz explains that walking in nature—whether in a park, city, or countryside—is the cheapest and most effective way to cleanse the mind and reduce anxiety. He distinguishes this activity from formal exercise, emphasizing simple observation of the sky, clouds, trees, and small natural details. Michalowicz shares a personal story from his commute in Mountain Lakes, where he stopped on a bridge, watched a spider meticulously build its web for several minutes, and experienced a transformative, meditative state that washed away mental clutter. He frames the experience as a form of spontaneous meditation and urges listeners to incorporate nature walks into their daily routine to achieve presence, calm, and mental reset.

I'll tell you the greatest, cheapest form of kind of mental cleansing for me, just walk in nature, just go outside. And you can be even in a city, but just— And we're not talking about exercise.
We're just talking about walking in nature.
Yeah. Look at the sky. Just look at the clouds if you have access to that or see a tree. For me, at least, it starts deconstructing the anxiety of I need to get things done. I need to move along. It brings about a presence. I was working here in Boone. I used to ride my bike to work. And when I lived in Mountain Lakes, I didn't have to go on any main roads. Here, I would bike to work and I could. Only problem is there's some main roads with a lot of cars and it's rough. But when I lived in Mountain Lakes, it was kind of side roads. There was maybe 3 cars I'd pass the entire way into Buton here. Or one day coming in, I got all stuff to do. I pulled over on that bridge that crosses the reservoir between Buton and Parcibining, and there was a spider web on there. I was like, "Oh, that's kind of interesting." I looked at it and I saw a spider. It felt like I was immersed in that for a half hour just watching the spider meticulously build a structure. Maybe it was there for 5 minutes, but it was such a transformative moment of just being present and everything just washed away. And I was like, "Oh, this was a form of meditation." of disconnecting and cleansing the brain, of just observing. And nature is the best source for that. So I invite everyone to do that.