That is according to BBC and author Claudia Hammond. This story edited by BBC’s Samira Choudhury, was originally featured on BBC Radio 3 as part of the “Free Thinking.” In 2015 the largest study on what activities we find most relaxing took place online. The study was voluntarily taken by 18,000 people in 135 countries. That in itself gives perspective on how important the topic of rest/relaxation is to people overall. The survey included questions like asking people to describe what rest meant to them and, how they best liked to do to rest, whether or not they wanted more rest, what activities did they find the most restful and whether or not they found rest troublesome. 9% of those surveyed said they felt guilty if they rested. Another small pocket found rest to be frustrating.
The survey findings are now a book, The Art Of Relaxation: How To Find Respite In the Modern Age, by author Claudia Hammond. Hammond’s book focuses on the activities that people found the most restful. And she points out there is a distinction between what people find the most restful and what activities they find the most enjoyable. The two are not necessarily the same. For example, in terms of rest, socializing with friends is NOT in the top 10 and eating ranked number 21.
Based on this survey of 18,000 from 135 countries what are the top 10 most restful activities? From Hammond’s book the top 5 are all activities people usually do alone. Reading is number 1 followed by activities like being on your own, listening to music and “doing nothing in particular”. Her take away is that in terms of most restful activities, what people want to do is get a rest from other people. To get a break from anything being demanded or expected of them. In the top 10 — daydreaming. Which Claudia Hammond points out isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It can be negative if you are purposefully trying to concentrate for example at work, or if your daydreaming is about negative things. On the other hand, research supports that there are a lot of positives associated with daydreaming, like enhanced creativity.
And, likewise, there are certainly a lot of positives associated with relaxation including health benefits like lowering your blood pressure and heart rate and increased focus and concentration. And the author points out that there are even significant benefits from even taking a short break. She points to studies that found that even an hour after having a break as short as 2 minutes workers’ productivity was still improved. She says that finding is the opposite of what many people think which is, “I’ll work, work, work. I can’t stop and I will reward myself with a break when I am done.” She observed that if you took the 2-minute break you may be able to work faster and harder in the time remaining.