One of my favorite pastimes is beachcombing. I love strolling down a long stretch of beach gathering treasures and found objects. It brings me joy and restores my soul.

Sadly, I don’t live by an ocean so I don’t get to do it often enough. Which is why I got so excited when i learned a new term — street-combing.

Have you heard of it? Me either!

Richard Stomp, a Dutch innovative consultant, coined the term. As a designer, he found a way to get unstuck and stay creative to go out and “street-comb.”

Streetcombing is simple: Pick an interesting street to explore. Take out your camera. Pay attention to your surroundings and look for what catches your eye. Snap a photo. In fact, he says to snap lots of photos. Then return to the office and analyze them for inspiration.

Obviously, he is speaking to designers looking for inspiration, but perhaps we can borrow the concept and street-comb in our own backyard.

This occurred to me when I was reviewing photos of my recent trip to Europe where I was mixing a little business with a little R&R celebrating Doug and I’s 40th wedding anniversary. I was street-combing and didn’t even realize it.

No wonder we are energized when we travel! Each day we are seeing something new and pay attention in ways we forget to do when we are back home. Travel not only expands the mind, it expands your soul. I’ll post a peek at my camera roll below and you’ll see what caught my eye.

You wanna hear some good news?

You don’t have to travel to exotic lands to street-comb (although it does help!). It’s something we can do right where we live. It’s the perfect activity when you’re looking for ideas when dating yourself. After all, you usually have a smartphone with you. It doesn’t cost anything — except intention.

It’s a great way to tune into to our surroundings and see things that are easy to miss in the busyness of life. If we stop and pay attention we discover all kinds of things we might have missed otherwise. Plus, when someone asks you why you’re taking a photo of that crack in the sidewalk you can reply, “Oh, I’m street-combing!”

Why not Ikea-combing? Supermarket-combing? Museum-combing? City Park-coming? The possibilities are endless. At the end of your “date” take a moment to scroll through your camera roll and review what you saw while sipping a little bit of something-something. Your soul will thank you!