Why we owe it to ourselves to spend quiet time alone every day

By not giving ourselves the minutes — or hours — free of devices and distractions, we risk losing our ability to know who we are and what’s important to us, says physicist and writer Alan Lightman.

In 2016, the Harvard biologist emeritus and naturalist E.O. Wilson (TED Talk: Advice to a young scientist) published Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life, in which he proposes that half the earth’s surface be designated and protected as conservation land. Just since 1970, human beings have destroyed more than 30 percent of forests and the marine ecosystem, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature. The destruction has been an unintended consequence of population growth, the desire for increased material wealth and comfort, and the associated need for more energy. It’s also been driven by the inexorable imperative of capitalism and the powerful desire of certain individuals to increase their personal wealth. Wilson’s proposal might be difficult to achieve, but it represents a recognition of the importance of our natural environment and the forces that threaten it.

The destruction of our inner selves via the wired world is an even more recent, and more subtle, phenomenon. The loss of slowness, of time for reflection and contemplation, of privacy and solitude, of silence, of the ability to sit quietly in a chair for fifteen minutes without external stimulation — all have happened quickly and almost invisibly. A hundred and fifty years ago, the telephone didn’t exist. Fifty years ago, the Internet didn’t exist. Twenty-five years ago, Google didn’t exist.

The situation is dire. Just as with global warming, we may already be near the point of no return. Invisibly, almost without notice, we are losing ourselves. We are losing our ability to know who we are and what is important to us. We are creating a global machine in which each of us is a mindless and reflexive cog, relentlessly driven by the speed, noise, and artificial urgency of the wired world.

I would like to make a bold proposal: that half our waking minds be designated and saved for quiet reflection.

What can we do? Somehow, we need to create a new habit of mind, as individuals and as a society. We need a mental attitude that values and protects stillness, privacy, solitude, slowness, personal reflection; that honors the inner self; that allows each of us to wander about without schedule within our own minds.

Wilson’s proposal is bold, and I would like to make a similarly bold proposal: that half our waking minds be designated and saved for quiet reflection. Otherwise, we are destroying our inner selves and our creative capacities. Different moments throughout the day can be devoted to contemplation and stillness, free from the external world.

How do we cultivate a contemplative habit of mind? Twenty years ago, a friend who taught high school in Arlington, Massachusetts, started something new with her students. At the beginning of each class, she rang a bell and asked them to remain silent for four minutes. As she wrote later, “I explained [to my students] that I felt our school days were too fast-paced and filled with noise, that silence could help us leave behind the previous class, and prepare to be present for this one. That it was a time to clear our heads. I said we were aiming for internal and external stillness.” The results were miraculous, she told me. Both she and the students were calmer and more centered.

In recent years, numerous organizations — such as Mindful Schools and Mindful Education — have been created to introduce periods of quiet and meditation into primary and secondary schools. For example, in 2015, mind-body educator Stacy Sims started a program called Mindful Music Moments in which students listen to four minutes of classical music during the morning announcement period — similar to the idea of my friend in Massachusetts. Mindful Music Moments now operates in 65 K-12 schools, camps, and social service organizations, most of them in Cincinnati.

Perhaps there could be mandated screen-free zones in public spaces and labor laws that guarantee workers a half hour each day of quiet time at the workplace.

To develop new habits of mind, different groups must use different methods. I have some recommendations, which should be viewed as starting points rather than comprehensive solutions:

• For K-12 students, a ten-minute period of silence sometime during the school day. Students could quietly write down thoughts in a notebook during this time. Different schools have different cultures, and each school will know how best to institute this period of silence.

• For college students, “introspective intensive” courses created by each academic department. Each student would be required to take at least one such course each semester. Introspective courses, while based in the particular subject matter of the department — for example, history or chemistry — would have a reduced load of reading and assignments and encourage students to use the free time to reflect on what they are learning and relate it to their lives and life goals.

• In the workplace, a quiet room or similar space where employees are permitted and encouraged to spend a half hour each day meditating, reflecting, or simply being silent. Smartphones and computers would not be allowed in the quiet room. This period of quiet would not be part of the regular lunch break.

• For families, an unplugged hour during the evening, perhaps during dinner, in which all phones, smartphones, computers, and other devices are turned off. Dinner should be a time for quiet conversation.

• Individuals should think about how they spend their time each day and try to build in a half hour away from the wired world, such as taking a walk while unplugged, reading, or simply sitting quietly.

• For society as a whole, mandated screen-free zones in public spaces, where digital devices are forbidden, and labor laws in which workers are guaranteed a half hour each day of quiet time at the workplace.

Don’t we owe all of our children a world in which their contemplative lives are valued and supported? Don’t we owe it to ourselves?

I believe that we can develop a new habit of mind toward the wired world, but it will take time. We will first need to recognize the danger. Certainly, younger people should take some responsibility for their addiction to the wired world at the expense of their inner selves. But shouldn’t we who created that world take more responsibility? We are victims ourselves, but we are also the perpetrators. Don’t we owe all of our children a world in which their contemplative lives are valued and supported? Don’t we owe it to ourselves?

Although changing habits of mind is difficult, it can be done. With a little determination, each of us can find a half hour a day to waste time. And when we do so, we give ourselves a gift. It is a gift to our spirit. It is an honoring of that quiet, whispering voice. It is a liberation from the cage of the wired world. It is freedom. Decades ago, when I was that boy walking home from school through the woods, following turtles as they slowly lumbered down a dirt path, wasting hours as I watched tadpoles in the shallows or the sway of water grasses in the wind, I was free. We cannot return to that world, nor would we necessarily want to, but we can create some of that space within our world today. We can create a preserve within our own minds.

Excerpted from the new book In Praise of Wasting Time by Alan Lightman. Reprinted with permission from TED Books/Simon & Schuster. © 2018 Alan Lightman.

This article originally appeared on ideas.ted.com Alan Lightman

Floatation Therapy: What to Expect When You Float

About 30 minutes into my 60-minute session, I was so relaxed I couldn’t tell if I was still breathing. Every once in a while, I’d have to remind myself that I had a body. Seriously.

I’m an eager guinea pig. When it comes to wellness-related stuff, I’ll try anything. If a friend swears by it, I’m in. I always learn something – even if it it’s “ummm … this is not for me.”

(My timing can be a little off, though. Case in point: trying a neti pot for the first time on my honeymoon.)

So when my sister told me how much she loved floatation therapy, I decided to try it. I had no idea there are so many float tank centers out there! I chose one nearby, a full-service spa where I could get a microdermabrasion facial after my float. (I should have scheduled the facial after the float – I’ll explain why in a minute.)

So if you’re curious about floatation therapy, here’s what to expect. You’ll spend 30 to 60 minutes submerged up to your chin (with your ears under water) in a tank of salt water that’s exactly 98.6 degrees (the same temperature of your body). It’ll be totally dark and totally quiet (unless you decide to have gentle music piped in). The idea is to drastically reduce environmental stimulation: temperature, touch, sight, sound – even gravity.
 

MENTAL BENEFITS

My Float.

About 30 minutes into my 60-minute session, I was so relaxed I couldn’t tell if I was still breathing. Every once in a while, I’d have to remind myself that I had a body. Seriously. You know that deep, heavy, effortless relaxation that you drift into right before you fall asleep? It was like that – only I never fell asleep. I hovered in that semi-conscious, in-between space. It was delicious.

That much said, the first 30 minutes were rough. I’m not claustrophobic, but I panicked when the lid came down over me. I felt like I was being buried alive. I’m not afraid of the dark, but the darkness spooked me. I kept opening and closing my eyes in the darkness. I love being in water, but at first I was flailing. The warm salt water was pleasant, but I couldn’t tell where my body ended and the water began. I know that’s the whole idea, but it freaked me out. I couldn’t get comfortable. My neck ached. My breathing was shallow and fast. I was a mess!

The key was surrender. I reminded myself to breathe. I slowed down my breath with simple pranayama, deepening each exhale. After a while, I calmed down. Slowly, slowly, I began to feel the weightlessness that float addicts rave about … it truly was a blissful out-of-body experience.

The Science.

Float tanks screen out nearly all external stimuli, giving your nervous system a break. It’s estimated that 90% of your brain function is spent dealing with environmental stimuli: everything you see, smell, taste, touch, and hear … all that stuff that’s busying your brain without you even knowing it. Studies have shown that when sensory stimuli is removed, your senses have less to process, and your mind is free to relax in a deep state of calm. It’s a powerful setting for meditation.

Here’s where it gets interesting: when the brain is deprived of external stimuli, sometimes it creates its own. This can result in the often-reported hallucinatory effects of floatation therapy. Some people report light dancing behind their eyelids; others hear a ringing in their ears or even music.
 

PHYSICAL BENEFITS

My Float.

When I got out of the tank, I felt like an alien taking her first steps on Earth. All those sensations that had been quieted were now very loud. The dim lights in the room were glowing magically. The sound of the water sloshing in the tank was tinkling in my ears. The firm pressure of the floor beneath my feet was like a massage. As I dried off with a super-soft sheet, my skin prickled and tingled and my muscles came back awake with fresh exuberance. It astonished me. I wondered how long this high would last.

Turns out, it lasted right up until the microdermabrasion started. It was a great facial, but I was literally gritting my teeth the whole time. With all my senses on fire, the “sanding” of my skin was almost excruciating. By the time I checked out and got back on my bicycle, that blissful otherworldly feeling I had when I rose from the tank was completely gone.

The Science.

Some argue that deep muscle relaxation and other physical sensations experienced in floatation therapy is due not to the tank or the sensory deprivation but to the magnesium salt solution of the water. (Think of the way an Epsom salt bath soothes aching muscles, and then multiply that times 10.)

As a holistic health treatment, athletes and people with minor physical injuries use floatation therapy to speed up the healing process and promote tissue regeneration. There’s also evidence that transdermal magnesium absorption promotes detoxification, stimulates hydration, relieves joint pain, and improves respiration.
 

THE VERDICT

Yay or Nay?

YAY! Floating was intense – more so than I thought it would be. It was an exploratory experience. I plan to try it again – my sense is that you need to try several floats before you know if it’s for you.

Tips & Tricks.

Follow your breath to calm yourself as soon as you get in the water. Use slow, deep breaths – especially on the exhale – to ease out of any mental anxiety or physical discomfort. And don’t schedule anything after your float – give yourself plenty of peaceful, uninterrupted, sensory-soft time to enjoy the effects.

This article originally appeared on booksforbetterliving.com and was written by KIRA ROARK.