On Friday, for 20 minutes or so, stop working, walking, thinking, and talking, and "sitty-sit" yourself down in Pioneer Courthouse Square, on one of the provided cushions or chairs. Gradually let the stresses of the cityscape melt into a subconscious mantra, or just the incessant flow of your breath.

Portland City Sit, sponsored by Southeast Portland’s Buddhist bastion Maitripa College, is a walk-in mass-meditation; the first of its kind, designed to establish an annual tradition of tranquility in Portland’s living room.

Lest this sound too "hippie woo-woo" for your tastes, bear in mind that meditation has many practical advantages, from lowering blood pressure, to better integrating the right and left hemispheres of your brain. Let star director David Lynch further explain:

So stop by sometime between 9 and 5, to defuse…de-stress…decompress…and unwind.