Week 7: filling empty time
Hi there…
This is my newsletter where I write weekly about deleting all of my social media accounts and getting rid of my smartphone.
This week I went looking for a way to zone out and relax without my phone.
I spoke with Ali Foxon, author of ‘The Green Sketching Handbook’ She told me about the many benefits of sitting around doodling leaves.
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I hope you enjoy reading.
Week 7: filling empty time
I have been thinking a lot about ‘empty time’ recently; bits of time when I don’t have anything specific to do, the time in between things.
You know, like:
When I’m on the bus by myself…
Or on my lunch break at work…
Or sitting on the couch after a long day…
Or laying in bed in the morning, putting off the inevitable ‘get up’…
I could go on - because there are countless moments like this in the day.
Maybe this is one of those moments for you? You have nothing specific to do at this moment, so you are taking a few minutes to read through this email… In which case, thank you.
Anyhow,
I have been thinking about these little empty-time moments because they have grown much more noticeable lately.
Before ditching my phone and deleting my social media accounts, I’m not sure I had really noticed all these lovely little bits of time, in fact, I’m not sure that these little bits of time even existed for me.
Rather than noticing, and wondering how to use them, I would squash them, by instinctively pulling out my ever-comforting phone and then gently tapping and sliding my thumbs all over its delicate glass screen - to seemingly no end…
It was so easy; my phone was an instant solution to these empty time moments, which I perceived negatively, as instances of ‘boredom.’
It’s funny… thanks to my phone’s ‘screen time’ feature, I could measure exactly how many of these moments I would encounter. In my case, it was enough to fill around 6 hours each day.
That’s a whole lot of little empty time moments.
I remember when I was younger, I would always complain to my parents about feeling bored - especially on holidays while sitting around doing nothing. My mom would say things like, “only boring people get bored,” to which I would respond with something like a grunt, before angrily trudging off.
But now things have changed. Maybe it’s age, maybe it’s the crippling weight of near-constant responsibility, or maybe it’s my lack of phone and a slow increase in my attention span.
Whatever it is, I have really started to savour these quiet moments of nothing.
That being said, 6 hours a day is a lot, and staring blankly at inanimate objects can only take me so far… so I have been wondering how to make good use of my newfound abundance of extra time.
Then, last week, Tortoise co-hosted KITE Festival; a festival of ideas and music in the Oxford countryside. At the festival, I went to a talk by Ali Foxon called “how to draw.” And long story short, it was way more than a lesson in drawing… it was a journey through the incredible and multifaceted benefits of observing and drawing nature.
After the festival, I reached out to Ali, and we spoke on Saturday morning.
Before writing ‘The Green Sketching Handbook,’ Ali was a climate change advisor; writing papers and reports, giving presentations, and talking to all kinds of experts…
But she told me that at some point, things changed: “I was indoors all the time, working on these reports, that were really important, but I didn’t actually think that they were landing with people… you know, look a the state of the world, these reports are so important, but nobody's paying any attention to them.”
She continued, “And so I took a bit of time out, for a career change and to focus on raising my son. And, while I was doing that, I got really tired of staring at my phone all the time… I had to do something else, and so on some kind of creative whim, I decided to do some sketching and went out and bought a sketchbook and just sat in the park drawing little bits of nature.”
(read on to understand how sketching nature may be a really effective climate change solution…)
“It was just something to do really, something to get me off my phone and stop me feeling lonely. I was amazed at how quickly it kind of quieted my new-mom anxiety”
“I didn’t do it as an artistic thing, it was just something to occupy me.”
And the mental health benefits of stopping to doodle every now and again are significant:
Ali explained, “Sketching involves mindful observation, slowing down, and letting the thoughts in your head settle. Doing that calms your whole nervous system and connects you with your surroundings. When you observe and draw features of your local area, it really grounds you, and to top it off, the act of observational sketching actually improves your memory… and it only takes a few minutes!”
I asked Ali where I should start. She explained that “a lot of the time people get discouraged when they try sketching something because basically, they just try to draw something way too complicated.” She continued, “you should draw a petal before a flower, and a leaf before a tree, that kind of thing.”
She gave some practical tips, for say, drawing a flower petal:
“Start by trying to draw it without looking at it; draw what you think the petal looks like.
“Then draw the petal without looking at the paper, just stare at the petal and let your hand do its thing.
“Then stare at the petal for 2 minutes and put it down and try to draw it off memory for a few minutes.
“Draw it at different speeds, spend 10 seconds sketching it, then 20 seconds, then one minute.
“And then see how you feel.”
And importantly:
“Always carry a sketchbook with you - and not just at the bottom of your bag… hold it in your hand, like you would your phone.”
Ali’s book ‘The Green Sketching Handbook’ goes further than just discussing the mental health benefits of drawing bits of nature, it also focuses on the climate benefits. Ali explained, “noticing nature is one of the best ways to connect with it. When you feel connected to nature, you are much more likely to take care of it. That's what research shows.”
“So people who have a stronger relationship with nature are much more likely to adopt better environmental behaviors in the rest of their life. And one of the best ways to connect with nature is to observe and sketch it.”
***
Once you understand the magnificent complexity of a simple flower petal, you will start to respect nature. Then, you will take the steps necessary to contribute to protecting the critical ecosystems supporting human life.
It’s, quite literally, a grassroots approach to widespread nature-based solutions. And it’s good for you.
If you want to hear more about Ali’s book and work, check out her TED talk here.
Thank you for reading. Go out and do some doodling the next time you feel the urge to use your phone… for the planet!
Drawings by Skye Hervas-Jones (my sister)
I am Sebastian Hervas-Jones, a 23-year-old journalist. I live in London and work at Tortoise Media.