Alone in the Wild

Andy Gibson of MindApples belives that Ed may find aspects of being alone in the wild good for his mental health.

'Our lives are all quite busy, and so we do tend to fill our time with connection with other people a lot. And a lot of people's '5 a day',(the equivalent for mind of the 5 a day fruit and vegetables for the body), seem to include "spending a bit of time alone to collect my thoughts" or "going for a long walk by myself".

'My friend Gavin runs The Digital Health Service and hes very interested in the way technology takes away our attention so we cant focus on the present because we are constantly interrupted all the time. So what Ed will probably find that if you take him away from all the distractions, people, technology that you have in modern society, he will be a lot more present to what is going on. And the way of approaching the points where he may feel stressed and a sense of isolation is to go further into trying to be present. The temptation is to say: "Oh, I'll go and do something to try and distract myself." But if he can sit with it, and focus very much on the sound of the water next to him, whether there is an animal call in the background that he hasnt heard before, being very tuned into what is going on in his environment, he'll get more out of it.'

Gibson says Ed's sudden transition from city to wilderness will be rocky, but rewarding once he adapts. 'Cities can be very isolating places but they are also very distracting, so we don't necessarily feel the effects of how isolated we are because we are busy dodging traffic and running to the next meeting. What Ed will be finding is that he has a lot of time alone with his thoughts. He needs to go through that sense of needing to be busy, and actually focus on being very, very present. Because if you spend three months being only conscious of the moment right now, you have no idea how long you have been doing it for. Whereas if you project back and forwards counting the days, thinking how many days have I done, how many days have I got left, then it can be very distressing after a while. So bringing yourself back to that sense of being present is very very important.

If Ed gets to the point where the routine of it is getting to him or he starts to feel a little bit crazy or disconnected from everything, then mindfulness is a very good technique because it brings you back to where you are right now. Getting away from the analytic side of things, it's an attention discipline. A lot of it is about focusing on your breathing. Someone who has done a lot of mindfulness, when they are drinking a cup of tea, is just drinking a cup of tea. They are giving it their full attention, enjoying the aromas and the taste of it, and not thinking what they have got to do next after the cup of tea has finished or trying to process that argument they had with someone on the phone just now, or even thinking about whether tea is good for them or even whether they would like another cup of tea - it's very easy to let the mind wander. There is a whole discipline around mindfulness, it distracts the analytic side of the brain and stops it thinking. Being present to what you are doing right now is the most powerful state to be in, in terms of doing things but also being at peace with yourself.

Ed may find that if he can get to that point of being very present, his relationship with nature becomes the replacement for that need to connect with other people. But he needs to get himself onto that different sort of plane and sense of time about it. It is the difference between spotting a squirrel in the park and watching a squirrel for four hours, watching it come and go. It's a completely different experience.'

Andy does not understimate the challenges of isolation, but says there are ways through it. 'Talking to other people figures very regularly in people's five a day for mental health. But it doesn't seem to be anyone in particular, there just seems to be something very strong about having some way of reflecting on the day. Ed is doing that a lot on film, which should be really helpful. My theory on it, is that it helps to get the story of the day right so that you can put it to bed. The act of telling the story of what has happened to you during the day is useful way of putting things in order, closing down any loops that you've got, helping your mind slow down and rest.

'Reading helps a lot. Certainly reading fiction actually. If Ed's got lots of non-fiction it might be a good idea to take a couple of novels along. Reading other people's stories of what has happened to them Is quite a helpful way of framing things, it allows you to reflect on what is going on with you, a lot of it is about processing what has happened and putting it into good order.

'One thing he could consider doing, which a few people have mentioned in their "5 a day", is to wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is take a couple of pages of paper and just write, free form. That again is a way of clearing the mind and giving yourself a little bit of focus in the morning. It is an emptying. There is a Japanese poet who would write haikus on pieces of paper and fold them into origami boats and float them off down the river. It's that sort of principle, it's giving things out, or away, so that you become lighter.

'The really interesting thing with the Mind Apples results is that it is saying both sociability and solitude are necessary for mental health. I think maybe it's about having a relationship with something outside yourself. That doesn't necessarily have to be people and it doesn't need to be at the pace that we have. What Ed may find is that when he is starting off he needs to be writing stuff down, talking to the camera, singing to himself to keep himself upbeat, keeping busy doing physical tasks and as he gets further into it, he may find that his attention gets more focused, his perception of time changes, he becomes much more in relationship to the nature around him and starts to find the animals and the natural world become his support structure. Because actually, you can be in a natural space for ten days and think "It's the same, it's just the same, I'm going mad here, nothing ever changes" and wishing you were back in London. But actually you could also in that space of ten days be aware of all the teeming life around you, the movements of birds, the patterns the animals are making, the colours changing over the course of the day. Very close attention to the minute things around make everything much much more interesting, if you can spot it. If you are tuned into a much more modern pace of life it will all look very still and staid and boring. But the natural world is far from still.

'The thing that I'd be very interested in, is he may find he ends up adjusting very well to life in that pace and that natural world, and paying that close attention to things. But when he returns back to civilization it may be perceived as being isolation sickness, that he has lost his mind a bit. Because he may adapt well to that world, and be very happy while he is there, and then find it very hard to adjust back. So I am in some ways very interested in how he feels when he gets back to civilization.

'If you are very tuned into the minute things that are changing all around, a place like London could be completely overwhelming. There is too much information to take in. But that would be very interesting to follow up. He may start off missing relationships with people, but he may find that he gets a lot out of the time with himself and processing his thoughts. He may well find that he gets more present, becomes more tuned into the natural world and end up loving it and being really happy. And then coming back and finding he has to unlearn all that he has just learned. And that is the point where he would be well advised to go to a mindfulness group or Buddhist centre. Because in a sense he'd be coming at things from the opposite angle to them, but they can help him with simple practices to intregrate back into his normal life. He'll need to bring all the stuff that's good back with him.'

Andy Gibson is the founder of Mind Apples, a research project that gathers people's answers to the question: 'What 5 things do you do to keep mentally well?'

mindapples.org

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