Published: Rallentando in ELLE ITALIA beauty edition no.20

THE ART OF RESTING

New York in slow motion  

"The images on these pages are taken from Rallentando, an ongoing project since 2021 by photographer Nina Kling (ninaklingphotography.com) that, through her lens, rewrites the frenetic rhythm of New York by following a slower, more casual tempo.  

In an oneiric atmosphere and with intentional blurring, the project gathers chance encounters and momentary impressions: images that for the viewer spring from a personal form of meditation and invite us to re‑assemble the apparent chaos of the city into everyday moments of beauty.

The new frontier of well‑being according to neuroscience? Leaving space for emptiness. Because stopping does not mean switching off. And it is precisely in those moments of inactivity and mental wandering that the brain, together with the body, regains balance, creativity, and beauty."

Text by Gloria Ghiara

Photos by Nina Kling

TRANSLATION OF ARTICLE

“A useful exercise?  

Mind wandering, letting the mind roam: even a few minutes (without digital distractions) improve the brain’s abilities and creativity.”

“Spending time in a forest improves creativity and problem‑solving ability by 50 percent, and memory by 20 percent. A study on 20,000 people showed that spending two hours a week in green spaces significantly improves psychological and neurological well‑being. The minimum goal should be 20 minutes a day.”

Even the classic nap, which apparently seems like a “waste of time,” takes on a revolutionary dimension in the words of the neuroscientist. “Those who take a 30‑minute nap a day have a much larger brain. The difference is significant: about 15 cubic centimeters more, like a small plum. A sentence that sounds poetic but comes from precise neuroscientific studies: sleeping during the day, he explains, can slow cerebral aging by up to six years. For Jebelli it is essential to also practice mind wandering, the mental roaming that today we tend to interrupt continuously or even regard in a negative light. “Start simply by taking a few minutes a day to stare into space. It is not mindfulness or meditation: it is not focused attention on the present, it is something much lighter,” he explains. “It is important to be intentional about letting the mind wander, because intentional mind wandering – as opposed to the purely casual kind – offers greater protection from stress and anxiety.” And he adds: “When people do repetitive tasks, those who let their mind wander more often obtain better results, precisely because they activate the default network, which increases creativity. For those immersed in the noise of the city and in days full of commitments, the neuroscientist insists on one simple thing: “Even a few minutes without digital distractions – sitting on the sofa, looking at plants or out of the kitchen window – improve the brain’s abilities.”

Jebelli concludes with a piece of advice and an observation that is almost brutal in its simplicity: “Leave work at work. Turn off your phone at bedtime, when you come home, stop checking email in the evening or on weekends. The brain’s default network needs periods of deactivation. And think not in terms of ‘turning off the brain’ or controlling screen‑time use alone. Even just an hour a day, the problem is not the smartphone itself, but how it is used. In a world where everything is constantly measured, efficient and repeatable, Rallentando and Spegnere il cervello seem to suggest the same thing: that rest in the form of intelligence and beauty has nothing to do with laziness, nor with doing nothing, but with letting the mind be free to wander without fear. Because slowing down does not mean backing away from the world, but entering it better. And perhaps the true contemporary luxury is not having more time, but finally having enough unoccupied time, open enough to allow that almost forgotten quality of idleness to occur.”

(Note: in that paragraph there is a small typo in the layout: where it reads “il problema non è il cervello” in Italian contextually it is “il problema non è il telefono / lo smartphone”; I translated it with that intended meaning for clarity.)

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We live in a state of permanent alert. We reply to messages while walking, check emails as soon as we wake up, fill every pause with a screen. Even rest has become a form of optimization: sleep better to work better, meditate to perform better, slow down only in order to start up again more quickly. In recent years even well‑being and beauty – the quintessential slow moments – have been swallowed up by the logic of performance: routines for the face and body, visible results, practices to measure and share on social media.

Yet, as neuroscientist Joseph Jebelli explains in his new book Spegnere il cervello – Arte e scienza del riposo mentale (“Switch Off the Brain – The Art and Science of Mental Rest”), the problem is not that something is missing from our lives, but the pace at which we move through them. “Well‑being is something you add, but also something you stop accelerating,” seems to be the unspoken subtext of his entire argument. It is not about doing even more, but the opposite: about finally leaving room for those moments when the brain stops being constantly oriented toward productivity. Looking at the photographs on these pages, taken from Nina Kling’s project Rallentando, those out‑of‑focus, reflected, blurred images and suspended scenes of presence and dissolution slow the frenetic rhythm of New York and spontaneously make us think of that mental space Jebelli describes in the book: an out‑of‑focus territory, far from forced concentration and the logic of performance.

“What I find so fascinating in the blurred images of Rallentando,” Jebelli tells Elle, “is that they capture creativity and imagination precisely in those ‘task‑off’ moments, or ‘out of focus,’ which is what happens in the brain when we rest. It is not about loss of concentration, but about rediscovering the brain’s default network, the ‘task off network,’ which we can access at any time, but only if we allow ourselves to. The default network is a set of brain areas that activate when we are not focused on a specific task. It is the ‘task‑off’ mode, the one in which the mind stops chasing performance and focused attention. And in Nina Kling’s images this invisible activation seems to take shape.”

It is an almost counterintuitive idea. For years we have thought of rest as a passive moment, a simple absence of activity. What is “granted,” often only with a dose of guilt linked to doing nothing, once the day’s chores are done, the body relaxed and we feel better. But not “productive.” Neuroscience, which has only just begun to understand this phenomenon, now tells a very different story: “The brain does not switch off when we rest,” explains Jebelli. “When we move away from work and focused tasks, the brain’s default network, connected to reflection, imagination and recovery, comes into play. And when we activate a rest rhythm, we improve intelligence, creativity, memory and problem‑solving ability, as well as reducing the risk of developing neurological diseases such as depression and dementia. The problem, however, is that we rarely allow this to happen.”

Inset box, lower right:

A scientific bible for learning to “switch off”  

In the age of hyper‑efficiency we always feel connected, always productive, always “on.” In Spegnere il cervello – Arte e scienza del riposo mentale (Ponte alle Grazie, 304 pages, about 18,90 euros), neuroscientist Joseph Jebelli finally dismantles everything we think we know about rest: slowing down, taking breaks are not a weakness, but a biological necessity. Through scientific studies, personal experiences and practical advice, the book shows how letting the mind wander improves memory, creativity, health, mood, beauty and even work performance. A practical and liberating guide – to finally learn the great art of “doing nothing.” Without feeling guilty.

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We live in a culture that glorifies being always busy,” observes Jebelli. “And mental overload, although insidious, does not appear suddenly; it builds up slowly.” “One of the most important things to understand about burnout is that it develops in stages, and we often ignore the first ones. It starts with a feeling of dissatisfaction. You feel that something is not right, but it is a manageable feeling, so you ignore it. This quickly leads to cynicism: it’s not that you don’t care about your job, it’s just something you have to do. If you ignore this, the last stage is dehumanization, a complete emotional detachment from colleagues and activities. You become irritable, anxious and depressed. These states can become so deep that, as I describe in the book, “they start to feel like wearing someone else’s skin.” And incredibly, the brain can take up to three years to recover, he says, and not only emotionally. In the book Jebelli explains how chronic stress physically changes the brain. “Neurologically, chronic overload thins the frontal cortex in the same way as aging does: it literally makes the brain older than it is. Like a forest that slowly thins out, neurons lose the ramified dendritic structures that once made them so hard to replace.”

Burnout also damages the hippocampus, which is essential for memory and learning, and increases activity in the amygdala, linked to fear and stress, making us more anxious and reactive to perceived threats. The risk also rises for cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. The body follows the same pattern: depression, palpitations, insomnia, chronic pain, weakened immune system, persistent fatigue, premature aging. “Overload affects every organ,” the scientist continues. “It can cause heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes, respiratory problems, gastrointestinal disorders and chronic pain. To the point of extremes: in Japan there is even a word for death from overwork: karoshi. For this reason,” he insists, “it is essential to recognize the early signs of overload before they become chronic.”

The most surprising part of the book, however, is perhaps discovering how much recovery can arise from very minor daily actions, which we can put into practice every day. There is no need for spiritual retreats or drastic changes. “It can be something as simple as going out for ten minutes without your phone, letting your mind wander, sitting on a bench without obsessively scrolling through your screen, or taking a 30‑minute nap,” Jebelli explains. “Even looking out of a window while we are in the office – at the street, the sky, the movement of the leaves – can activate the default network and create that feeling of suspension and rest that today seems to have disappeared from our days. It improves creativity. In the end, it is precisely what contemporary speed suffocates: the ability to linger long enough to notice something. Serendipity, tiny flashes, seemingly useless details, elements that capture attention in a relaxed and effortless way, as in Nina Kling’s photographs, where the world is no longer controlled but allowed to happen.”

It is no coincidence that Jebelli calls this state “mental rest in nature,” full of what psychologists call soft fascinations, elements that capture attention in a relaxed and effortless way.

Large quote on that page:

“When we step away from work and focused tasks, our brain’s default network, connected to imagination and recovery, becomes active.”