The art of doing nothing well
Relaxing and resting mean different things to different people, and can mean different things to our bodies too, writes Caroline Zielinski.
As this longest, hardest, most-insane of years draws to a close, there is one thing on most people’s minds: rest. You need it and I need it. And while it may appear pretty simple, some researchers say not everything that makes us feel rested, or that feels relaxing, is actually rest.
To put that another way: you can rest wrong. So take it seriously.
Dutch journalist and author of Niksen: Embracing the Dutch Art of Doing Nothing,
Olga Mecking, says she decided to write a book about, well, doing nothing, after reading one too many articles about self-improvement.
‘‘I was reading a lot of wellness articles, and felt they were telling me whatever I was doing – whether it was eating or moving – I was doing it wrong,’’ she says.
‘‘It was annoying and made me feel terrible. So niksen, which told me it’s OK to not have to be improving myself all the time, was very helpful.’’
Mecking says practising niksen, a Dutch word which literally means doing nothing, actually makes us more productive.
A conclusion also reached by scientists, who found that switching into the brain’s so-called ‘‘default mode’’, the mode our brains go into when we’re just resting and thinking, is essential for its optimal development and functioning.
What’s more, turning our ‘‘focus’’ brain off also helps us to be more creative, as it helps retrieve memories and link ideas. Research also shows that engaging in simple external tasks that allow the mind to wander, such as walking or cleaning, may help creative problem solving, as well as inspire us to achieve our goals and gain clarity about the actions to take to meet those goals in future.
Mecking says that while we understand that our bodies need breaks, we don’t extend the same courtesy to our brains. ‘‘We expect our brains to work all the time, yet after a while without a break, we become distracted and can’t focus,’’ she says.
‘‘That’s why people don’t get their best ideas when they focus on a problem; they get their best ideas when they sit in the bathtub, when they’re taking a walk, or when they simply do nothing.’’
Yet as simple as doing nothing sounds, the reality is much different.
As various studies have shown, people around the world prefer to do just about anything other than be alone with their thoughts (even getting electrocuted).
But don’t despair. If you’re one of those people who simply cannot switch off, neuroscientist and postdoctoral fellow at Neuroscience Research Australia, Dr Steve Kassem, offers some hope.
‘‘What truly makes the brain feel rested is a feeling of exhaustion without stress, and recovering from that,’’ he says.
‘‘Anything from a big hike to watching movies all day, even labouring outside, can provide you with rest, provided it’s something you enjoy and your day hasn’t been filled with stress, anxiety and fights.’’
Despite common assumptions, Kassem says that sleep is not the only way one can rest. ‘‘It’s not as simple as going to sleep. Studies show that sleep itself doesn’t always result in rem [deep] sleep.
‘‘You can be awake for 18 hours (or 72, as my artist friend was while doing art), and you won’t feel tired but instead exhausted at time well spent; a pleasant day.’’
He points out that doing something you love not only taps into flow (a feeling where, under the right conditions, you become fully immersed in whatever you are doing) but also can help you engage in its close cousin, mindfulness (the idea of learning how to be fully present and engaged in the moment, and be aware of your thoughts and feelings without distraction or judgment), both of which are expressions of the default mode network, which needs to be engaged to feel rested.
‘‘Resting is doing things automatically and not consciously trying to process information. It’s being focused on what you’re doing but not being wholly conscious of what you’re doing,’’ says Kassem.
So what is the best way to rest? Some experts are divided on whether sleep is the only way to achieve true respite.
‘‘Only sleep can be fully regenerative for the brain,’’ says Dr Thomas Andrillon from Monash University’s Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health.
He says that when we’re awake, we keep our neurons active and firing by thinking and behaving. As a result of all this activity, we produce new connections between neurons; this is how the brain learns, and how memories are formed.
‘‘Everything we need to feel rested, such as getting rid of all that metabolic waste and erasing certain short-term memories we’ve made while awake, happens preferentially during sleep,’’ he says. ‘‘If you have a finite amount of neurons and keep accumulating connections, it becomes detrimental in the long run by overloading the brain.’’
Aside from sleep, which can be made up for with napping, ‘‘tapping into things that all brains appreciate such as physical activity, being outdoors in nature, playing with animals and babies and making something [with your hands] can all help relax us’’, Andrillon says.
‘‘Sometimes finding activities that help you relax without specifically focusing on the goal of relaxing makes it come as a result.’’