Parents, don't forget about the value of taking time to daydream, to play, to rest, and to connect with nature – it is the simple pleasures.
These holidays I have been reminded again of how much children love pottering in the garden, watching insects, learning how to plant vegetables and flowers, watering the plants, getting soaked to the skin in the process and generally enjoying the rich abundance of summer.
Free play in an environment where children can run around, explore, listen, create, roll on the grass, be rowdy without adult supervision, promotes healthy brain development.
Adults too need to take time to do nothing, to look off into the distance, daydream, stretch out in the sun. It is often in these moments when we are on holiday, that we get inspiration, have a bright idea, compose a song.
These moments of rest are highly productive ones.
They are as necessary for us all as rest and sleep, for the proper functioning of our brain.
Today I went for an early morning swim in the sea. I watched people playing. A businessman I know was busy digging a seriously large hole in the wet sand, his children were busy rushing backwards and forwards to the sea, filling their buckets and pouring sea water into their much smaller creation: a moat surrounding a small sand castle which featured a ring of shells, seaweed. Their mother was busy constructing her own sand castle. Each was totally absorbed in their own play.
They were together as a family, but each was busy enjoying their own world of play.
This is so important for the proper balance of our metabolism.