Wallace J. Nichols once said:
When you protect your water, it protects you back. Change can feel abstract to most people. But by connecting healthy oceans, rivers, streams, and lakes to our mental health, I think we nudge our relationship with and protection of water forward, one splash at a time.
Research has found this to be almost universally true. Across cultures, languages, and communities, humans experience a sense of peace and well-being when near, in, or on water. Being near water can cause our brain function to recalibrate to a state similar to meditation. The mechanisms behind the impact of water on our minds and health may not be fully understood, but the benefits are well documented. Water is increasingly being incorporated into different types of therapies and treatments.
It’s a way to keep sane in an insane world. The effect is physical, emotional, and psychological. Staying by the water always makes me feel happy, calm and free. If simply being near water boosts happiness, being immersed in it may be even more powerful. Water can be powerful even in represented forms. In one study, when cancer patients suffering chronic pain were shown a nature video that included 15 minutes of the sounds of ocean waves, waterfalls, and splashing creeks, they experienced a 20 to 30 percent reduction in the stress hormones epinephrine and cortisol. In another study, teenagers exposed to water fountain sounds at the dentist’s office experienced reductions in anxiety levels.
Our preference for aquatic environments may be explained by their critical role in our evolutionary history: Fresh water has always been essential to human survival, and salt water was and is a primary food source and portal for migration. Being drawn to aquatic environments, researchers say, was optimally adaptive for our ancestors—and the adaptation may still echo in our brains. Water therapy has long been prescribed as a life tonic. By 1750 it was widely recommended that sea swimming could cure diseases, and this further led to the formation of ‘seaside towns.’ What’s new is the ‘blue space’ shift in focus to the blue waters around us.
Flowing or moving water is ‘white noise.’ Listening to the sound – allowing it to wash over you – is a meditative act that puts you in the moment. Meditating in water can provide even greater benefits because of its healing effects. Being near, in our underwater is greatly beneficial in both physical and spiritual terms.
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