Not so long ago, I sat next to the Atlantic Ocean in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Cape Town.

As the sun was slowly setting below the horizon, colouring a few clouds above into a bright orange-red, I observed that several other souls were doing what I was: pausing and being mesmerized by nature. At that moment, all of us were using our right brain way more than our left.

On the way to Cape Town and back, I spent a total of 42 hours on a plane. It allowed me to discover two key books which will forever shape the way I talk to families about this seemingly forever mysterious organ, the brain.

The first book, The Awakened Brain by Lisa Miller, a Columbia University psychologist, explained the scientific link between psychology and spirituality.

Miller is described as a pioneer of her generation of psychologists. She is best known for her work on the psychology of spirituality. For her research and how it changed the approach of her peers, she was awarded the prestigious Templeton Award.

Her many decades of research reveal that having a spiritual practice protects against mental illness and leads to improved life satisfaction. One of her core findings is that adolescents and youth who are spiritual have a significant reduction in depression and anxiety.

When adolescents and young adults are connected to something greater than themselves, they become more resilient, recover better from hardship, and feel more fulfilled and less alone.

Despite this research, very few clinicians, when dealing with depressed and anxious adolescents, will inquire about the patient’s spiritual practice, probably out of fear that the patient may be offended by perceived religious conversations.

Miller masterfully explains in The Awakened Brain that indeed there is a difference between religion and spirituality. She makes a strong case for adding to the repertoire of current treatments of depression and anxiety, as well as discussions on cultivating spirituality.

Using functional MRI scans, she showed how cultivating spiritual habits reduces the risks for depression and increases the odds of finding meaning.

Very few students at Harvard are able to discuss the topic of meaningful living. I specifically mention Harvard, even when adolescents and young adults everywhere else experience the same lack of meaning, because of a new book written by an influential Harvard professor, Arthur C Brooks.

Brooks calls Oprah and the Dalai Lama his friends. Oprah refers to Brooks as “the professor of happiness,” and the Dalai Lama, always curious about the functioning of the brain, inspired Brooks to go deeper into studying the workings of the mind.

Brooks’ latest book, The Meaning of Your Life, explains in detail why youth of our era have brains which work sub-optimally. It is based on a theory of hemispheric lateralization.

At the risk of oversimplifying, we have a left brain and a right brain. The left side is used far more often than the right side due to technology. The average person opens their smartphone on average 205 times per day. Often it is done out of boredom. Using AI excessively does nothing to develop our right-brain function.

Brooks explains the right brain is the ‘why’ part of our brain, and the left brain is the part which deals with the ‘how’ aspects. The right brain considers why meaning matters, why we need to feel we have a purpose, and why self-awareness matters. The left brain serves us with how we can make that happen via proper planning and implementation.

His research has led him to discover that many of his students, high achievers at Harvard, feel their technology-driven existence has become too artificial. His students love his enthusiasm. When he shares his ideas, always in completely packed classes, he often refers to his work as “really cool stuff.”

Brooks showed his students video clips of what children and youth did to prevent boredom in the 1970s and 1980s. Many of his students expressed a yearning for what the video clips showed: less technology and a world of predominant play and frequent high-quality social connection.

Brooks reminds us how this generation of adolescents and young adults is excessively preoccupied with left-brain activities and specifically artificial living induced by technology. This robs future generations of time in nature.

Spending more time in nature is essential in restoring the balanced functioning between the two sides of the brain. (Children, on average, spend only seven minutes per day in nature.)

These two books inspire me to do a better job of introducing families to the mental benefits of spirituality and to urgently nudge them toward far less technology. The important work of these two professors allows me to do that with confidence; the evidence is solid.

Dr. Nieman is the founder of Centre 70 Pediatrics. He has written monthly columns for the Herald since 1999.