Living Your Brain-Healthiest Life
Celebrate Ferragosto with me
Hello, everyone. Summer is wrapping up, which means that my Italian friends are celebrating Ferragosto—the national holiday with roots in ancient Rome in which everyone takes the two weeks after August 15 off. Shops and restaurants close. City dwellers head to the mountains or the beach. It’s perfectly acceptable to flip the switch from striving to dolce far niente—the sweetness of doing nothing. My friend
‘s daughter Sophie even wrote a wonderful book about this way of living: Dolce Far Niente.
The Mediterranean people are famous for their dementia-free longevity. Having daily stress mitigation built into the culture is postulated as one of the reasons why. It’s undoubtedly good for brain health when stress-reducing activities are the norm, like taking a coffee break to chat with friends, sitting down at a table to eat at a leisurely pace, and—in Southern Italy—practicing the art of dolce far niente at the end of August. I am continually impressed by how my hard-working Italian friends and relatives embrace structured down time as a way of life.
Each August, I feel a little pang in my heart as I watch my fellow Americans race around at a non-leisurely pace to fit in all the summer activities. Myself included! A few years ago, I decided to embrace a little Ferragosto in my own life. While it can be challenging to take time off when there is so much to be done, I firmly believe it is good for the brain. So I am declaring it Ferragosto here at BHK, for you and for me. We may be a few days late, but it’s a start. If you have difficulty dealing with down time, here’s a 3-step tutorial by Arthur Brooks on How To Embrace Doing Nothing.
While I promise to minimize my screen time during Ferragosto, I will be doing a little work behind the scenes to implement a few user-friendly changes to BHK. Your long-awaited recipe index is coming. Plus, many of you have been asking for a traditional index for the BHK book that will make it easier to find recipes. In addition, in case you missed it from the last newsletter, I am now offering one-on-one brain health lifestyle consultations on video chat; sign up at Calendly here.
