Water - Balancing our inner matrix

The Blue Mind Effect

Water is life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water. 

— Albert Szent- Gygyi, M. D., Discoverer of vitamin C 

Nature reminds us and helps us re-cultivate our attention, creativity and connection through grounding and watching the fluidity of life.

Having been the proud owner of a floating lodge for the last four years alongside being a semi-resident in the Netherlands. My love and healthy appreciation for water has grown tenfold. Moving out of London a few months before COVID hit and relocating to the water saved me! Influencing my mental health, behaviours, and life all for the better. One might say l’ve become a Water advocate.

For many, during the first part of the pandemic, we allowed ourselves a lifestyle review, and edit. As a global collective we began to un-earth and recognise just how disconnected we had become from ourselves, others, and Mother Nature.

As a result of the lockdowns, many of us spent more time outside walking, cycling, rowing, and paddling evolving a renewed appreciation for nature. Along the way noticing how being in and around nature can influence our psychological and physical health in a positive way adults and children alike.

Nature began to come alive again, you could hear birdsong and see animals maybe you hadn’t seen for a while, and when you looked up the skies were quiet. Pollution levelled.

Another aspect of mother nature is WATER, memorising, soothing, and terrifying. Its sheer presence represents the duality and polarity of life itself. Remember, those carefree fun days as kids when we liked nothing better than to go to the beach, splash around, build sandcastles, and bury ourselves in the sand (before the age of computer games and smartphones)? 

Somehow, our resonance with water, whether it be by the sea, lake, or river, seems to re-nourish and reset us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, no matter what age we are. Maybe, it reminds us of being connected to the source of all life. 

I’ve been fortunate to have spent many years living by and on the water. Allowing myself to get lost in the current, the ebb and flow is one of my greatest pastimes. Whether it's ripples on a river, lake or ocean. l find it hugely beneficial and continually memorising to the extent that it becomes a natural meditation often provoking personal revelations and creativity in the process.

Obviously with our technology usage increasing during this time and since. Perhaps we should all be spending balanced intervals near water aid in our efforts to achieve optimum mental and physical health in a more simplified, organic, and accessible way? A simple digital detox to technological and digital stress? 

The answers may lay in some of recent research findings such as a Discover Boating survey conducted by Wakefield Research, with four in five Americans saying being around water relaxes them. While 72 percent feel healthier after spending time on the water. 

Equally Wallace J Nichols's book ‘Blue Mind’ delves deeper into the impact of human fascination and happiness that comes from being in or near water on the brain. From oceans to lakes to rivers to ponds, floatation tanks, swimming pools, and even our bathtubs. 

If you can look at the combination of light and colours in water-themed photos or listen to the sounds of the ocean it can have a profound effect on the mind and brain. Boosting some areas of the brain that are responsible for emotional regulation and memory. Some would also say you can experience this through VR (virtual reality). However, forced stimulation with unnatural light cannot have the same effect in my opinion, and raises other potential concerns. Such as not becoming dependent on not having a real-time experience for the senses. Especially considering the mental and brain benefits of spending more time in natural rather than artificial light emitted from the many screens we use on our devices. Some of these include; memory, cognition, sleep, fatigue, depression, performance, anxiety, and stress. 

After all The way of ‘Tao’ (Chinese philosophy) highlights how the benefits of man's cooperation and respect for the natural course/flow/order/law of the natural world can lead to living a more simplified and nonjudgemental life.

Here are my 5 benefits of living or being by and on the water 

1. Improved Air Quality. 

2. Sunshine - Vitamin D helps boost the immune system. 

3. Soothing sounds of nature decrease stress.

4. Improved connections through community. 

5. “The Blue Mind Effect” when the body and soul feel relaxed near water.