I’ll retire to a remote island with my wife and we’ll go off grid BEN FOGLE
people who live quite physical lives where they have to get up and be outdoors all day long collecting their firewood or putting in water piping, whatever it is, they’re more connected to nature, which is something that I’ve long been an advocate of.”
Ben added: “We have a mental health crisis right now. The more people that spend time outdoors the better, and all of these people on the show get to do that.
“So they look after their mental health, their physical wellbeing, their diet, what they drink, even their digital diets.
“Stripping all that back, going back to basics, means you cut out all the noise.”
Ben isn’t judging anyone for being sucked into the “gluttonous” lifestyle of the modern world because he fully admits he’s caught up in the cycle too. He engages with social media but towards the end of last year he realised it was becoming a problem.
While he admits he’s “someone who doesn’t really have addictive traits”, changes in his habits sparked concern, so he decided on a digital detox.
“I’ve had to try and step back a bit from Instagram because I could see it becoming addictive,” he said.
“The amount of time I was spending on it, just picking up my phone every time I had an empty moment and scrolling for no specific reason and then obsessing over what people would comment on my own posts… it just felt like it was becoming more important than other things in my life.
“So I deleted all the social media apps from my phone.
“I tried to make it harder for myself to access it and that really helped.
“I actually deleted Twitter completely a year ago and that was so liberating.
“It totally changed my life because I think one of the problems with social media is that you’re living in a virtual world.
“You’re just showing people what you want them to think, which is a heavily edited snapshot. Then you’re looking at what other people are doing which… induces jealousy or anxiety.”
As we look to the year ahead, many will be thinking of changing their lives and may be inspired by Ben’s show.
So what advice does he have for anyone thinking of throwing caution to the wind and heading into the wild?
He said: “It’s about adding life to your days, not days to your life.
“I think all the people that I have visited have really embraced that. I would say as we, hopefully, begin to recover from this pandemic, just follow your dreams and live your life. Just go for it.” ●The 16th series of Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild begins with Alex’s story tomorrow at 9pm on Channel 5.
I’ve had to try and step back from Instagram. I could see it getting addictive BEN FOGLE SAYS GIVING UP SOCIAL MEDIA HABITS CAN BE LIBERATING