Workers find calm and focus by weaving nature into the workday

For office workers confined to windowless cubicles and back-to-back meetings, even small doses of nature — a lunchtime walk to a nearby garden, a potted plant on the desk, or a video call taken on a wooded path — can ease stress and sharpen focus, workers and workplace wellness advocates said.

The challenge is real for many professionals, particularly in winter and in dense urban settings, but workers and employers are developing strategies to weave the natural world into the nine-to-five, from structured walking programs to corporate campuses redesigned around outdoor access.

Bringing nature to a windowless office

Anna Rose Smith, a psychotherapist who grew up climbing trees and playing soccer in South Dakota, said she struggled when her first job required working in a windowless office in Utah.

She adapted by spending lunch breaks walking to nearby fountains or gardens. She picked up flower petals and leaves and brought them back to her desk. She also listened to recorded bird songs at work, sometimes incorporating the sounds into sessions with clients.

“It helps to just have that reminder that these things are going on outside,” Smith said. “I can remember, no matter what happens in this room or with my job today, there’s still going to be birds singing.”

Smith now lives in North Carolina and sometimes asks to join video meetings by smartphone and headphones, stepping outside while colleagues remain at their desks.

“I do definitely feel more calm,” she said. “I think it helps with focus as well. I’m just feeling more peaceful and optimistic.”

Outdoor meetings and walking groups

Meetings do not have to happen indoors. Smith sometimes suggests “walk and talk” meetings at a nearby greenway — an approach that Atlantic Packaging, a sustainable packaging manufacturer headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, has adopted company-wide.

Becca Schusler, Atlantic Packaging’s wellness director, said the company encourages employees to hold meetings in facility courtyards or while walking. In 2024, the company launched a nature challenge in which employees across the country tracked time spent outdoors — dog walking, eating meals outside, watching sunsets — and uploaded photos to a shared group chat.

“It was just so wonderful because we got sunrises in the mornings, sunsets at night from all different areas, from the beach to the mountains in Nevada,” Schusler said.

Some participants reported feeling they handled stress better as a result. A separate group of employees gathers for “Walk it out Wednesdays,” a weekly group stroll.

“It helps provide a quick break in the day where they can reset and refocus,” Schusler said.

Designing for the outdoors

Ford Motor Company took a structural approach when it redesigned its Dearborn, Michigan, headquarters in 2025. The automaker included native plants, walking paths, and outdoor pavilions and encouraged employees to use the grounds for meetings. The parking lot was placed further from the main building so workers would walk past tall grasses, rocky outcroppings, bridges, and flowers on the way in.

Jennifer Kolstad, Ford’s global and brand design director, said the company placed offices in the center of floors so exterior walls with tall windows could be enjoyed by everyone in collaborative spaces, rather than reserved for private offices.

“We are very careful about how we are engineering space so that our brains and our bodies react positively,” Kolstad said. “Designing for human health is our priority, our responsibility.”

Finding moments outside

Individual workers are finding their own approaches. Erin Mantz, vice president of marketing for public relations firm Zeno Group in Washington, D.C., walks to a Pilates class before work four times a week. On days she works from home, she takes breaks to walk her dog on the paths in her neighborhood.

Mantz said she grew up in Chicago running outside with neighborhood friends and found it hard to maintain that connection when prior jobs required full-time office work.

“Growing up Gen X, we were always running around outside, and you have that great feeling of freedom and fresh air,” she said.

With a hybrid schedule now, she said she has rediscovered what outdoor time provides.

“It’s so good for me,” Mantz said. “The fresh air reminds me of that youthfulness of being outside, and I think it’s physical and mental, honestly. I feel reinvigorated.”

For workers in cold climates or stuck in windowless spaces, smaller accommodations can help. Smith kept a low-light pothos plant in her windowless office for years, moving it on weekends to a colleague’s windowed space to catch sunlight. When extreme weather makes outdoor access impossible, she said, even a view matters.

“If it’s really ugly weather, extreme, then I think that’s where windows are truly a godsend,” she said.