The Stress Solution Page 14
Buy an old-school CD or record player: Two years ago, when I really started to become aware of how addicted I was becoming to my phone, I bought a CD player with no wi-fi connectivity at all, despite the shocked shop attendant trying to talk me round. This has been life-changing for me. I turn my phone off, choose one of my favourite CDs and kick back for an hour or so, oblivious to what’s happening on social media or in the wider world. If you’re too young to own any CDs, you can buy a non-internet iPod on eBay for as little as £15. If you absolutely have to use your phone, try at least to put it in aeroplane mode.
Chapter 11
BATHE YOURSELF IN NATURE
What’s the opposite of sitting down and staring at your phone for hours and allowing yourself to be sucked into its vortex of endlessly moving pixels? Nature. Getting outside into the open air is the antidote to technology. Nature is expansive and forces you to look outwards, while technology encourages you to gaze inwards. Being in nature tells your brain and body you’re in a restful place, while your smartphone produces an abundance of information that tells your brain you’re in a realm of anxiety and pressure.
Nature is profoundly good for us for a simple but easily forgettable reason: we’re a part of it. Humans are members of the animal kingdom. We’ve evolved in nature over the course of millions of years. That’s why most of us feel such a deep connection to the open air. I’ve got some simple gym equipment in my house that I enjoy using, but as soon as it gets to about March I’m not in there, I’m in the garden. I’ll go barefoot, do lunges and jumps, listen to the wind in the trees or smell the damp soil. There’s something almost magical about being grounded on the earth and in a playful frame of mind. It doesn’t just give you a physical workout; it feeds your soul and nourishes your mind.
It’s also much easier to exercise outside. It’s been found that our perception of the intensity of a workout is diminished in nature. Just think: how easy is it to walk for miles in the countryside, compared to counting down the timer on your gym’s treadmill?
There are many studies that confirm the multitude of benefits of spending time in nature, including:
• Improved mental focus
• Reduced anxiety
• Reduced stress levels
• Improved job satisfaction
Results like these resonate deeply with most of us. We feel their truth intuitively. We’ve all felt that inner sense of peace and wellbeing we get from wandering the lush paths of a forest or playing on a blustery beach. And yet, by 2050, it’s thought that as much as 70 per cent of the world’s population is going to be living in an urban environment. With increased urbanization comes poorer health outcomes, including increased levels of mental illness. I’m seeing more and more patients in my surgery who I believe are suffering from a brand-new diagnosis – nature deficiency.
FOREST BATHING
The Japanese believe in a comfort instinct they call shinrin-yoku, which translates literally as ‘forest bath’. Put simply, forest bathing is about spending time among trees. Experts argue that trees emit essential oils, or phytoncides, which are their natural protection from germs and insects and might even be part of the way different trees communicate with each other. One study of 280 people found that time spent among trees leads to lower cortisol levels, reduced pulse rate and lower blood pressure. Another found that phytoncides can reduce stress levels, increase the quality of our sleep, improve our mood and wellbeing, lower blood pressure, decrease anxiety and increase heart-rate variability (high HRV indicates low stress levels; see here). Another, undertaken at the Mie University School of Medicine in Japan, showed that people suffering from depression saw a reduction in symptoms when treated with the citrus fragrance of phytoncide d-limonene. It’s also been found that forest bathing increases the activity of Natural Killer cells, part of our immune system’s defence against infection (see here).
Benefits of forest bathing
Reduced blood pressure
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Lower stress levels
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Lower levels of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol
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Lower blood-sugar levels
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Improved symptoms of depression
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Improved sleep quality
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Improved memory and concentration
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Enhanced immune-system function
THE NATURE CRAVING
My wife’s parents recently got rid of their back-garden lawn. Initially, we were horrified by their decision. But we were wrong. They decided to create a Japanese-style urban forest complete with water fountain. Just sitting listening to the sound of running water you feel this incredible calm washing over you. The last time I was there I started thinking about all the ways in which our modern, urbanized brains continually crave the natural environments they evolved to thrive within. If we’re not building Japanese gardens, we’re putting pot plants in our homes, enjoying open fires when radiators do a more efficient job, holidaying by the beach, gazing ecstatically at the stars and at wide views of rolling fields or lying by the pool, even if we have no intention of putting a toe in the water.
Nature helps us put some distance between the ‘noise’ of daily life and ourselves. It encourages us to look beyond ourselves. Even the simple sound of birds singing or waves crashing can be unbelievably relaxing. One study examined the stress responses of people in a waiting room. Some listened to silence, some to classical music and some to the sound of waves. Those who listened to the waves experienced the greatest calming effect: it reduced their pulse rate and their perception of stress. Researchers in the UK found that listening to the sounds of nature increases thrive-state activation and suppresses the stress state.
Even looking at nature can enhance your recovery from a stressful experience. Research done at the University of Essex has shown that people who are exposed to a nature scene have higher heart-rate variability (see here) and greater thrive-state activation, compared to a group that is exposed to an urban image. Why not set your phone lock screen to a beautiful picture of nature so that every time you’re tempted to look at your phone you get a dose of nature? Nature has also been shown to help us break through creative blocks. One study found that when we spend time in nature our ability to solve problems and be more creative improves by an incredible 50 per cent, which will obviously have a positive effect on work-related stress levels. This is thought to be due to an increase in the activity of the default mode network (DMN) that we learned about here in the Purpose pillar. In fact, as I’ve been writing this book, one of my strategies to break through writer’s block has been to walk in nature for thirty minutes. Sometimes, just sitting out in the garden and listening to the birds for a couple of minutes has been enough.
THE HEALING POWER OF FRACTALS
One of my personal favourite experiences is seeing golden sunlight flicker and glint through the trees. I find the shapes the light makes through the leaves utterly mesmerizing, and it gives me a unique and joyous feeling. One intriguing theory as to why the sights of nature can be so healing involves patterns called fractals. It’s been found that fractals emerge naturally in clouds, snowflakes, raindrops, streams, lakes, trees and along coastlines. Professor Richard Taylor, professor of physics at the University of Oregon, has shown that we’re hard-wired to respond positively to these patterns. One of his studies found that we can recover from stress 60 per cent more quickly than otherwise after exposure to images containing them.
According to Benoit Mandelbrot, the Polish-born mathematician who is credited with originally coining the word ‘fractal’, our ‘visual system is in some way hard-wired to understand fractals. The stress reduction is triggered by a physiological resonance when the fractal structure of the eye matches that of the fractal image being viewed.’ He found that when we look at fractals even for a short amount of time we get a spike in alpha-wave brain activity which is present when we�
�re in a thrive state. Brain scans reveal that looking at fractals can activate the para-hippocampus, an area of the brain which helps us to process and regulate emotions.
DE-CLUTTER
I once met a guy who’d served with the British Army and had done training in the Belize jungle. He told me that one of the things soldiers learn to help them spot enemy forces hiding in the landscape is to look for straight lines. Why? Because there are no straight lines in nature. I was reminded of this when I visited Times Square in New York a few years back. It’s no exaggeration to say I felt almost as if I were being attacked. It’s the opposite to how I feel when I’m walking through my local park.
I’m also reminded of my army friend whenever I see a cluttered shelf or tabletop at home and find myself sighing. That clutter is like a mini Times Square. It’s an MSD. It’s not only giving your brain information that you’re in a place of disorder and worry, that clutter will be made up of straight lines and unnatural colours and shapes that are discordant. What’s more, studies of brain activity reveal that being surrounded by mess is physically taxing. The brain uses resources and energy to ignore distractions and untidiness. This is why it’s harder to concentrate when you have a messy desk or a computer that’s crammed with open windows and old documents.
Clutter can begin to take over entire rooms and even houses. One of my colleagues has just hired a new cleaner. He was mortified when the cleaner saw the downstairs spare room, as it was full of junk, cardboard boxes and kids’ toys. When he told her how embarrassed he was, she surprised him by saying, ‘Don’t worry, I see this in every house I go into. Everyone has a dumping room.’ So many of us have a clutter problem. It’s why a multimillion-pound industry has developed over the past few years to provide storage and contributed to the bestselling success of Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying, which has inspired millions around the world to de-clutter, including myself. The problem is that we simply haven’t evolved to live like this. In Affluence without Abundance James Suzman writes about a hunter-gatherer tribe, the San, who live and hunt in harmony with nature’s natural rhythms, as they have faith that nature will provide for them. This way of life is entirely sustainable for them and their environment. If there is more food available than they need, they leave it. They never over-consume. They just take what they need. This is how we’re supposed to live.
FIVE WAYS TO DE-CLUTTER YOUR LIFE
1. Choose to keep things that give you pleasure. This simplifies the process immensely. If you focus on what nourishes you and makes you smile, you will start to give your brain the right kind of information – that life is good, and not a stress. The brain is constantly responding to the world around us. We want to feed our brains positive emotions.
2. With respect to clothes, how many do you actually wear? Look at what you regularly wear and what you need for special occasions and ditch the rest. It will also simplify the process of what to wear each morning. Many top CEOs are well known for wearing the same clothes every day to work to conserve more mental energy for the important decisions.
3. Throw away sentimental things. Of course, this is only when you are ready to let go. I recently threw out my late father’s shirts, which I had been keeping in my wardrobe since he died. I realized that I had no reason to hold on to them any more. I looked at them, fondly remembered my dad wearing them, and happily gave them to the charity shop.
4. Take photos sparingly. In the pre-digital world, we would take care over each photo we took. With the advent of smartphones, we take tens of photos each time we want to capture something. Be more mindful about how many photos you take. If you do take more than you needed to, ensure that you go through them and only keep the photos that you love.
5. Often clutter builds up because our minds are cluttered. It’s not simply a case of clearing out the physical clutter, you need to work on your mind as well. The tips in the Purpose pillar will help you understand yourself better. In turn, you will be able to de-clutter your material possessions much more easily.
A DAILY DOSE OF NATURE
Can you create a space at least weekly, but ideally on a daily basis, where you can access nature? Can you bring more nature into your office or your home? After I’ve dropped my kids at school, if I’ve got a bit of time I always walk the long way back through the common, past the lake and the ducks. I’ve found that if I walk through nature I have a different, calmer feeling about me for the rest of the day. The common is giving me stimulation that’s nourishing me rather than draining me. If you work in a city and there’s a park nearby, make going there a habit every lunchtime. Most towns, villages and cities have a local park or a canal you can walk along.
Try and access some form of nature each day. Even if you can’t make it out to a local green space, use the suggestions on the page opposite to bring nature into your home. The aim is to ensure you are receiving a daily dose.
SURROUND YOURSELF WITH NATURE
Below are some suggestions for bringing nature into your home. If you don’t like some of them, that is no problem at all. Pick the ones that appeal to you.
• Make your phone/computer screensaver a picture of nature.
• Put up pictures of natural terrain, such as oceans, mountains or forests, in your home.
• Light nature-scented candles. (You could even try reading by candlelight before bed, which will help you relax into sleep.)fn1
• Consider getting a fish tank or try to create some running water in the garden, for example a small fountain.
• Arrange some sea-shells that you picked up at the beach in a dish.
• Walk barefoot in the garden or in the park.
• If you have no outside space, consider getting a window box or house plants. (You can also save money by growing your own fresh herbs.)
• Before you go to bed, step outside and look at the stars.
• Consider making space in your life for a pet, or offer to look after a neighbour’s while they are away. Having a dog can increase the likelihood that you are pulled out into nature at regular intervals.
• Bring health-giving phytoncides into your own home with essential-oils diffusers. My own personal favourites are thyme, lavender or eucalyptus, especially in the winter months.
Chapter 12
TAKE TIME TO BREATHE
The stress that comes with twenty browser tabs being open at once while all the world shouts at you through news and social media and parades their spectacular lives and bodies all over Facebook and Instagram tends to be felt in a particular way. We can often feel panicky and anxious and our pulse rate seems to soar. I don’t know of a quicker, more effective way of reducing this kind of stress than breathing. It’s something we all have access to, all the time, and yet so much about how we live our lives today conspires to prevent us from doing it properly. It’s as if the modern world has got its hand over our mouths. If you’re sitting hunched over a computer at work all day, you can’t breathe properly. If you’re bending over a screen on the train, you can’t breathe properly. If you’re wearing tight trousers or a tight skirt, you can’t breathe properly. Today’s culture puts a vastly outsized value on having a perfectly flat stomach, and the effect of this is that many of us are continually holding our bellies in. Pushing it out is almost seen as socially unacceptable and yet, if you’re not breathing with your stomach, you’re not breathing efficiently, and this is going to be nudging you closer to a stress state.
Breathing properly encourages full oxygen exchange, and that’s been shown to help with a whole variety of conditions, whether it is pain, depression or stress. If you wake up stressed and anxious and you’ve not slept well, the simple act of doing some deep-breathing practices will start altering your biology and move you closer to thrive state. Breathing is a wonderful therapy after experiencing a stressful incident. It’s a way of telling your brain that things are OK, even if you don’t feel that they are.
BREATHING IS INFORMATION
Breathing
is information. The more stressed you feel, the faster you breathe, and your brain will notice this and read it as a signal that things are not going well. That fast, shallow breathing which happens when you’re stressed is effectively telling your brain that you’re running from a lion. But the reverse of this rule is also true: if you breathe slowly, you’re giving your brain a signal that you’re in a place of calm. You will start to feel less stressed. Studies have even shown that the right kind of breathing can reduce our perception of pain. Both the pace at which you breathe and how deeply you breathe change your stress response. If all you do for one minute is slow your breathing down and aim for six breaths (one breath is in and out) in that minute, it will reduce the stress state and stimulate the thrive state.
One of the ways in which this process may work involves a small cluster of interlinked nerve cells that reside within our brainstem known as the ‘breathing pacemaker’. We know that a heart pacemaker determines the beat of our pulse. We have known about the presence of this ‘breathing pacemaker’ that helps regulate our breath for about twenty-five years, but it was only recently that we started to learn more about how exactly it works. In 2017 some brilliant researchers at Stanford University discovered that within the breathing pacemaker there exists a specialized group of neurons that spy on our breathing. Is our breathing regular? Is it excited? Is it panicked? This small group of neurons observes what’s happening and then reports this information to the part of the brain responsible for arousal.