You may have noticed, but it has been a while since I have sat down and written. Life has happened, which in other words means illness, mini-breaks due to public holidays, work and other things that come your way. I have been pondering how I was going to be honest and say: I’ve been too busy to write when I am meant to be espousing good self-care and caring for your soul.
Then I read this article about the art of Niksen. This is a concept designed by the Dutch that means spending time doing basically nothing. The art of Niksen is spending time avoiding being productive or achieving, so putting aside time to simply be rather than doing. In reality what does this look like? This might mean putting aside five to ten minutes to just gaze out of a window or look at a piece of furniture in your room and allowing your mind to wander. To just let it go. Imagine if you were lying in a hammock on a beach with the wind blowing gently and you can hear the sounds of birds and waves and the rustle of trees, and with lying there, your mind wanders and wanders and wanders. That is Niksen.
Now if this is done well, then apparently it can assist with period of burnout by giving your body the rest it needs and your brain the space it needs. When we provide adequate rest to our body, then our emotions can reduce in intensity and we deal better with anxiety and tension. When your brain has space created then it can provide for new ideas, creativity and an increased capacity for problem solving.
The only problem with this that I could perceive (as a therapist), is that clients who struggle with rumination of anxious thoughts and the impacts of this such as difficulty sleeping and focusing on tasks, may be unable to hold their thoughts back within a timeframe of five minutes or so. I would encourage them to try this and to have a notepad with them to document the thoughts that keep coming up and to remind themselves that they can come back to those things after spending a few minutes letting their mind wander.
It is definitely worth giving this a go and seeing what works for you. It may be letting your mind wander on a walk. It could be sitting looking outside your window as you drink a cup of tea. It could be anything really and definitely worth a try. I am going to pop the kettle on now and see if I can just sit and let my mind wander rather than writing a to do list. Wish me good luck!
