Broaden your horizons.

After finding out that I no longer had a valid work permit for Canada because my employer had gone on holiday rather than filing my paperwork and therefore had missed the deadline, I slipped into a minor depressive phase. I'd just moved to Somerset and was living in a friend of a friends spare room. The house was unfinished and the shower had a large unfrosted window. Due to the lack of extractor fan, I had to shower with the window open. It was less than ideal but it did mean that I was no longer living in my childhood bedroom.

I didn't stay very long at that house, maybe 3 months or so. But during those three months I spent more time at the beach than I ever had before. At the end of my street was a fairly hidden bay with golden sand. With it being the Bristol Channel the sand quickly turned into mud and the sea was un-swimmable so the beach was mostly deserted. During this time, I heard somewhere, that people who live where they can see a clear horizon are 20% more relaxed than those who don't.

Over the next three years I really took that to heart. Sitting on the side of cliffs after scary pitches, enjoying particularly bad pot noodles in the frozen lake district and even admiring the Chamonix valley one last time before having to retreat back into civilisation. Anecdotally, I can confirm I always felt better sitting on the side of a mountain than I do sitting in my living room.

As I sat on the side of a hill will a scattering of other people watching the eclipse, made me think, how often do you actually just get out to sit on the side of the hill. The google AI feature tells me that Horizon gazing calms you because it:

• Expands Visual field - A wider field of visual naturally relaxes our gaze.

• Evolutionary safety - our ancesto

  rs spent a lot of time looking at horizons waiting for something to come an attack them. A clear one makes us feel better on an evolutionary level.

• Relieves strain - As more and more of us spend a lot of time looking at screens, it add strain to our eyes and the muscles needed for close up work. Looking out into the distance means that we are relieving out eyes of strain.

So maybe next time when you're feeling down or struggling for the motivation to get out an about. Just finding a horizon to look at will make you feel a bit better.