The power of doing nothing
Niksen, the Dutch art of deliberately doing nothing, and what it does for a tired brain.
You may have noticed it has been a while since I sat down and wrote. Life has happened, which in other words means illness, mini-breaks over public holidays, work, and the other things that come your way. I have been pondering how to be honest and say “I’ve been too busy to write” when I am meant to be espousing good self-care.
Then I read an article about the art of niksen.1 It is a Dutch concept that means spending time doing basically nothing. Niksen is deliberately avoiding being productive or achieving: putting time aside simply to be, rather than to do.
What does that actually look like? It might mean putting aside five or ten minutes to gaze out of a window, or to look at a piece of furniture in the room and let your mind wander. Just letting it go. Imagine lying in a hammock on a beach, the wind blowing gently, the sound of birds and waves and the rustle of trees, and your mind wandering and wandering. That is niksen.
Done well, it can apparently help with burnout, by giving your body the rest it needs and your brain the space it needs. When we get adequate rest, our emotions reduce in intensity and we deal better with anxiety and tension. When your brain has space, it can produce new ideas, creativity, and a greater capacity for solving problems.
The one difficulty I can see, as a therapist, is for clients who struggle with rumination and its effects: trouble sleeping, trouble focusing. They may not be able to hold their thoughts back for even five minutes. I would encourage them to try it anyway, with a notepad beside them to write down the thoughts that keep surfacing, and to remind themselves that they can come back to those things after a few minutes of letting the mind wander.
It is worth trying and seeing what works for you. It might be letting your mind wander on a walk. It could be sitting looking out the window with a cup of tea. It could be anything, really.
I am going to put the kettle on now and see whether I can just sit and let my mind wander, rather than writing a to-do list. Wish me luck.
