Niksen “literally means to do nothing, to be idle or doing something
without any use,” says Carolien Hamming, managing director of CSR
Centrum, a coaching center in the Netherlands that helps clients
manage stress and recover from burnout. Practicing niksen could be as
simple as just hanging around, looking at your surroundings or
listening to music — “as long as it’s without purpose,” she says, and
not done in order to achieve something or be productive.
Think “simply sitting in a chair or looking out of the window,” says
Ruut Veenhoven, a sociologist and professor at Erasmus University
Rotterdam in the Netherlands who studies happiness. Whereas
mindfulness is about being present in the moment, niksen is more about
carving out time to just be, even letting your mind wander rather than
focusing on the details of an action.
These days, with the pandemic and drastic changes and challenges to
our daily routines, stress levels are climbing in the US and globally.
In the U.S. the term "The Great Resignation" has emerged indicating
how much people are burnedout from their current routines. Everyone
needs a little break sometimes. 🙂
Laziness
A bad thing
Healthy!
A stress reliever
Boost creativity
Fight the common cold
Curtail aging
Science tells us that letting the mind wander too long isn't a great
idea either. You may get caught up ruminating. This may lead to
increase heart rate and trouble falling asleep if it happens for too
long.
“We need to train our minds to wander in a way that’s imaginative and
creative,” Ekman says. Some “gateway” practices to niksen could be
taking a walk in nature or writing a letter of gratitude, she
suggests, as a way of easing into what true downtime feels like.
Of course, we can't practice niksen constantly. There is a time for
doing nothing and a time to be busy.
The secret is to find that balance.
Coded by Stéphie-Anne C. Dulièpre