Italian author sees leisure as key to boosting health, productivity

Taipei, Feb. 8 (CNA) "Life should resemble a passeggiata, you don't have to run," said Italian author Eliana Liotta, who spoke Friday at a full-house Taipei International Book Exhibition forum where she encouraged participants to be mindful of their health by trying to unwind more in daily life.

To illustrate "passeggiata," which inspired her book "La vita è una corsa" (Life is Not a Race), published in March 2024, Liotta sprang from a couch mid-forum and started ambling across the stage, glancing around her to take in the surroundings and waving her hand as if greeting friends.

"It's a relaxing walk we (Italians) usually take in the afternoon or on summer evenings," she later told CNA in an interview.

Such leisurely walks are not just a physical exercise but also a 'social ritual' where people meet new friends and talk about their lives as a way of de-stressing, according to Liotta.

"It's about building community," she said.

In reference to her forum's theme "Mediterranean wellness," Liotta said that a Mediterranean lifestyle includes "pauses" and called on people to "take their time to eat, sleep, exercise, meet family and friends, and think."

"You won't know how to live your life if you don't have any time to think about it," she added.

When asked to compare her method with the concept of "downshifting," a lifestyle that roughly means intentionally working and earning less in exchange for more personal time and a better quality of life, Liotta argued that the two are fundamentally different.

"I do not think that (downshifting) is a correct point of view. Do you see top managers at big corporations earning less?" she said.

"What I see are top managers of big corporations working from a beautiful island in the middle of the ocean. I see the heads of big companies investing their time in reading, physical activities, and relaxing," she said.

"I believe that everyone has the right to take breaks, not just the wealthy. We are in a time when people are beginning to realize this. People want to work to live, they do not want to live to work," she said.

Liotta cited research results published by the University of Cambridge in 2023, which found that about 2,900 workers at 61 companies in the United Kingdom posted 65 percent fewer sick days, a 57 percent fall in turnover, and practically no change in revenue after adopting a trial four-day workweek the previous year.

"People worked better and lived better under less stress," she noted.

In her book, based on scientific research conducted in collaboration with specialists from the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Liotta said people should respect the body's biorhythms to stimulate hormones conducive to wellness.

For example, she said, humans have a main "clock" inside their body known as the pineal gland that synchronizes the body to the Earth's revolution around the sun.

When the sun rises, the "clock," located beneath the center of the forehead near where the nerves of the two eyes meet, receives a signal from the retina, letting us know that it is "time to stay awake," she said.

The brain then produces serotonin, "the hormone of happiness," Liotta said, encouraging people to stay under the sun or by the window for 10 to 15 minutes each day to synchronize the body with nature and feel "happy."

After the sun sets, she went on, the "clock" orders the production of melatonin, informing not only the brain but also the digestive system that it is time to rest, and that is why when people eat dinner late at night the body protests, because the human body has evolved to follow the rhythm of nature.

A formal journalist, Liotta said she covered everything from Italian politics to the Mafia in her hometown Sicily. Asked about her foray into writing about health, she said it was motivated by the sudden passing of her father when she was 16.

"Neither my parents nor the doctors understood why ... In just one week, he was gone," leaving her looking for answers, Liotta said.

"This question remained in my mind for many years, hidden deep inside me ... Even now I still want to understand how we can take better care of our health and our lives," she said.

Liotta has written eight books, including the 2016 bestseller "La Dieta Smartfood" (The Smartfood Diet), which has been translated into more than 20 languages.