I work with a lot of public sector staff who are overwhelmed by workload and find it difficult to appreciate the importance of rest. One recent client when asked how she ‘switched off’ replied that she just looked at nature. According to science – this is just the thing, as explained in Oliver’s Burkeman’s article which I have copied extracts from below.
Spending time in nature, as you’re surely aware by now, is good for your mental health. US academics Rachel and Stephen Kaplan argued, nature does something different: it exerts “soft fascination”. First, it’s effortless: you don’t need to “try to focus” on the wind in the trees, or a moor top blanketed in heather. Second, it’s partial: it absorbs some attention, but leaves some free for reflection, conversation or mind-wandering. The result is what the Kaplans called “cognitive quiet”, in which the muscle of effortful attention – the one you use to concentrate on work – gets to rest, but without the boredom you’d feel if you had nothing to focus on.
Countless famous thinkers – Darwin, Thoreau, Wordsworth – swore by daily walks in nature.. But they were still thinking as they walked.
Sara Willis Coaching 