It´s almost mid-July; how´s your summer going? Is it too hot where you are? (If you´re in the Northern hemisphere, of course... I don´t know whether I have many readers from the Southern hemisphere, but I like to mention it, just in case.)

This weekend I´ve been taking it very easy, no rush at all, enjoying the feeling of being almost on holidays, though it´s still going to be a while until my real holiday begins. And, as one of the things my mind associates with summer holidays is reading, I took the opportunity to read a book, which is something I love to do and I´m striving to take up again, on the one hand, because I find it both entertaining and relaxing, it truly recharges my batteries, and on the other hand, because it´s a very beneficial exercise for the brain, enhancing our imagination, ability to focus, memory and many other cognitive functions, as well as helping to improve our language abilities.

Usually, I would also point out that an added benefit of reading is that it gives us a break from the ever-present screens, but paradoxically, as it turns out, this particular book I ended up reading on my phone, because my Kindle is ancient and can no longer connect to the wifi to download new books. Sigh.

Thinking about this whole topic of screens and how much we depend on them nowadays, a memory came up from when I used to watch TV as a child. If you were also a child in Spain during the eighties, maybe you will remember this as well.

It was a segment in TVE´s legendary programme the crystal ball (la bola de cristal), and it went like this:

"You have fifteen seconds to imagine..."

(For fifteen seconds, a blurry image was shown on screen, along with a sound similar to a clock ticking)

"If nothing came to your mind... Maybe you should watch less TV"

Astounding. Even back then, the adults were concerned that us children spent many hours watching the "dumb box", as some people called it. And their concern was probably justified.

(Picture of "Bibothy", proof that in my house, at least for the moment, we don´t need to worry about a lack of imagination...)

But nowadays, far from improving, the situation has worsened. There´s no longer just one "dumb box" per household; you can find all kinds of devices, often several per person, constantly fighting for our attention. And not only at home: in the street, in the car, in shops, bars, restaurants... It´s a constant bombardment of information, a never-ending source of stimulation, and our brain is not prepared for such volumes.

The mind needs a break every now and then. A break from screens, and also from other sources of stimulation, like, for example, a pair of earbuds playing music or podcasts hour after hour. Our brain needs periods of silence in order to be able to function properly. To be able to process the information it receives, and also to be able to move from a more passive and consumerist mode to a more active mode, the one that allows us to create, imagine, solve problems, etc.

But, of course, those silent periods don´t just happen magically; we have to create them ourselves, and that´s not easy, not even remotely. Because the screens provide bursts of short-term satisfaction that our brain loves, making it crave more. And almost any other thing we set out to do, in comparison, will seem plain and boring, at least at the beginning; that´s why it´s so easy to get carried away by the screens, and so much willpower is needed to break the habit and set out to do other things.

This is the same that happens, by the way, with diet and exercise: our brain is optimised to help us to survive in the short term, and following this logic, it prefers foods that are rich in fats and sugars, and prioritises saving energy by reducing effort to the bare minimum. This way, our own brain sabotages us; it plays against us because it understands very little about long-term decisions.. But we do understand it; we understand that, in order to have good health in the long term, we need to make a different kind of decisions and acquire a different kind of habits, even if it´s tough at first.

So, today, I encourage you, if you´re not doing it already, to start creating an oasis of silence at some point in your day, or, even better, at several moments. Your future self will be grateful for it.