The British Bank Holiday is traditionally a wet wash-out replete with failed BBQs and trips to DIY stores. But in an unusually clement move, the weather gods have gifted us the most glorious week of weather ahead. My sympathies lie with our examination candidates who must continue to work whilst the rest of the world enjoys leisurely strolls in baking sunshine. There is something particularly jarring about the sound of an ice-cream van as you are pouring over revision notes so my advice for anyone revising is to heed the peals of the van and head outside for a Mr Whippy with a flake.
One of my own plans for the half-term holiday is to do a little wandering in woods. Woods are one of my favourite natural features and the Chiltern Hills is one of the woodiest areas in England. There is plenty of good evidence for the benefits of spending time in woodland specifically and I was reminded of this in a book I read recently called The Brain at Rest. It is by a neuroscientist called Dr Joseph Jebelli who has devoted much of his career to studying what the brain does when we are resting. One of the chapters is devoted to the benefits of the Japanese past-time of shinrin-yoku (‘taking in the atmosphere of the forest’) the act of wandering slowly through woodland. A Japanese immunologist, Dr Qing Li, found that the white blood cell count of a group of Tokyo businesspeople went up by 40% after three days in the forest and even a month later it remained 15% higher. EEG sensor analysis from other studies also suggests that people are more creative and better able to solve problems whilst wandering in woods.
Another interesting aspect of the book is his insistence on activating our brain’s default network by giving it sufficient time to rest. This is not about sleep, though adequate sleep is just as important. It is about giving our brains enough time to wander with no particular agenda. He deplores modern working practices and technology which leave us constantly ‘on’. He devotes at least an hour a day to just lying on his sofa thinking about nothing or else walking, which is well-known for its ability to help us think. Peripatetic philosophy has been around since the days of Aristotle when his School of philosophers would wander around the olive groves of the Lyceum.
An hour a day, Dr Jebelli acknowledges, would be a challenge for many of us and I suspect a number of you reading this would think this impossible. I too thought this utterly impractical but decided to start practising his advice of starting with 20 minutes a day. And so for the last six weeks, helped by quitting social media, I have spent either my tube journey to Canon’s Park or the tube journey home, just thinking. It has been blissful. I am convinced that it has helped the quality of my thinking about work as well as being a calming practice. It’s not nearly as difficult as mindfulness, which I confess I am sceptical about (and do not have the temperament for). It’s actually very easy! All it involves is not taking my phone out of my handbag.
I recommend Dr Jebelli’s book to you and your daughters and the importance of giving their brains adequate rest. You may also enjoy reading a valedictory speech by Jonathan Haidt, social scientist and author of The Anxious Generation, to undergraduates at NYU.
He urges them to ‘Treasure your attention’. Giving our brains sufficient time to de-frazzle and wander is essential, and I so I hope your daughters enjoy some time this holiday doing nothing at all! It’s not a teenager being lazy. It’s an investment in their future selves. (Note ‘nothing at all’ does not mean watching Netflix.)
