Take a Walk

You don’t literally need to stretch your legs to clear your head and refresh your spirit—you can do it in your mind’s eye.

For those times when you feel you’ve reached the end of your tether, snap on the (virtually) real thing at discovery.com and take a sedate excursion in zero gravity to repair the International Space Station. The interactive stroll is based on an actual mission in 2000.

Wander Philadelphia on a self-guided ramble at theconstitutional.com and stop by the Betsey Ross House, Independence Hall and the Christ Church Burial Ground, as well as lesser-known venues such as the B. Free Franklin Post Office. It’s the only active postal center in the U.S. that doesn’t fly an American flag, because a national banner didn’t exist when Ben Franklin became the first postmaster general in 1775.

Take a Swim

Feeling down? Return to a buoyant mood with an imaginary dip.

Poolandspa.com ushers you into hot tubs (a Japanese tea house model looks invitingly serene) and diving, lap and negative-edge pools of every conceivable design. Photos of yellow rubber duckies will have you reminiscing fondly about your first swim buddy.

The federal sanctuaries showcased at marinelife.noaa.gov are just the place to set your thoughts gently adrift. Contemplating these coastal, island and undersea parks from Hawaii to Monterey Bay and the Florida Keys is nothing less than restorative.

Take a Seat

The right chair can ground you foursquare in tranquility and harmony.

The on-line catalogues of two Maine enterprises—Green Design Furniture and Thomas Moser Cabinetmakers—feature handcrafted chairs that combine fluid lines and sumptuously grained woods. Take a load off your feet and your mind at thomasmoser.com and greendesigns.com

Take a Bite

We talk about it, prepare it, share it and savor it—glorious food!

Let your mind linger on the pleasures of eating at a recipe-sharing site such as bettycrocker.com or foodnetwork.com. For thought as well as food to chew on, try slowfood.com. This is the website of an international movement that urges setting your table with locally-grown and regionally distinctive foods. Some 80,000 people in more than 100 countries have organized meal-sharing “convivia” or eating clubs to discuss and practice this lifestyle and gastronomic alternative to a diet of increasingly uniform foods farmed on an industrial scale.