The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do

BY: WALLACE J NICHOLS

4 THOUGHTS

1. What is Blue Mind and Blue Mindfulness?

“Several years ago I came up with a name for this human–water connection: Blue Mind, a mildly meditative state characterized by calm, peacefulness, unity, and a sense of general happiness and satisfaction with life in the moment. It is inspired by water and elements associated with water, from the color blue to the words we use to describe the sensations associated with immersion.”

Based on that description, I think we’d all like a little more Blue Mind.

And its characteristics—“calm, peacefulness, unity, and a sense of general happiness and satisfaction with life in the moment”—sound a lot like what we get from our slow breathing, meditation, or basically any wellness practice we do.

In fact, Nichols tells us that we can “think of it as Blue Mindfulness.”

And the best part? This isn’t another wellness practice we need to include in our routines. Instead, think of it as an add-on. Back to Nichols for more: “Water’s amazing influence does not mean that it displaces other concerted efforts to reach a mindful state; rather, it adds to, enhances, and expands.”

Nichols also says, “This is the huge advantage of water: you don’t need to meditate to take advantage of its healing effects because it meditates you.”

I absolutely love that.

And in the following two thoughts, we’ll look at how we can take advantage of Blue Mind to enhance our wellness.

2. Utilizing Blue Mind for Our Breathing Practice: More Benefits with No Added Effort

“Petr Janata…is a cognitive neuroscientist and expert on music in the brain. He theorizes that the low frequency of the sound of water, coupled with its rhythmic nature, is similar to the frequency and rhythm of human breath. Sound, Janata contends, ‘affects our brain and influences our emotions. If I ask you to close your eyes and turn on a recording of the ocean, I can change your mood immediately.’”

Here’s the easiest way to get the benefits of Blue Mind: add the sound of water. For example, sit outside near a body of water or just use headphones with some relaxing ocean or river sounds.

As Janata says, the rhythmic nature is similar to breathing—seems like the perfect complement to our practice, huh?

But the soothing sounds of water have even deeper roots:

“As a Harvard Medical School Senior Research Fellow specializing in the effects of sound, Shelley Batts is supremely qualified to speak about sound and water. “We spend our first nine months underwater, hearing sound through water in the womb,” she comments. “We hear the whooshing of our mother’s heart, her breath going in and out, the gurgle of her digestion.… These fluid, rhythmic sounds are very much like the ocean. Perhaps that’s why the ocean often brings up feelings of relaxation and tranquility.””

Pretty amazing. And the easiest way I’ve found to get these benefits is to use a Spotify playlist (here’s one I like) or Insight Timer.

Below are my settings on Insight Timer for my morning 15-minute slow breathing practice. (Note: I modify the sounds [see right panel] so I can still use breathing apps that play over the ocean sound).

Give it a try, and enjoy the soothing sounds of water a little more in your life.

3. Natural Resistance Breathing: Aquatic Exercise Strengthens Breathing Muscles

“The lungs are receiving a greater volume of blood as well, which, combined with the pressure that water exerts on the chest wall, makes them work harder to breathe—approximately 60% harder than on land. This means that aquatic exercise can strengthen the respiratory muscles and improve their efficiency.”

Resistance breathing has countless benefits, including better cardiovascular health, stronger respiratory muscles, and less oxidative stress and inflammation.

But if you have no interest in buying a device for resistance breathing, here’s a free alternative: aquatic exercise. In fact, this might be an even better option.

As Bruce E. Becker, director of the National Aquatics and Sports Medicine Institute at Washington State University, says, “During immersion, the body sends out a signal to alter the balance of catecholamines in a manner that is similar to the balance found during relaxation or meditation.”

What does this mean practically? Back to Nichols: “just being in the water can create a feeling of relaxation and a decrease in stress.”

Thus, you get the calming effects of the water while also strengthening your breathing muscles.

A natural and soothing win-win 🏝

4. For Breathing, We Need Emotion and Science, Head and Heart

“It’s time to drop the old notions of separation between emotion and science—for ourselves and our future. Just as rivers join on their way to the ocean, to understand Blue Mind we need to draw together separate streams: analysis and affection; elations and experimentation; head and heart.”

This is a beautiful passage, and it couldn’t be any truer for breathing, too: we need “analysis and affection; elations and experimentation; head and heart.”

Breathing is where all these rivers join and flow into the ocean of life.

1 LIFE-CHANGING IDEA

The Best Benefit of Water (and breathing) is Emotional

“Throughout this book you’ve seen the many ways that water is good for us—physically, cognitively, sensuously, financially, creatively, productively, spiritually, and healthfully—even when our brains sense it only indirectly through art, sound, certain words, the flow of a pencil, or the texture of an object. But for me, and for millions of people everywhere, the best and biggest benefits of water are all emotional (provided we are sufficiently internally hydrated). We love being in, on, under, around, or near it. …. Try as we might, no amount of scientific data, fMRI scans, EEG readings, or carefully designed research projects can really show us exactly what we feel at those moments.” (my emphasis)

I am obsessed with reading about the science of breathing. But just as Nichols concludes about water, I think the same is true for breathing: the biggest benefits of daily practice are all emotional.

We can do our best to measure it. We can use HRV, blood pressure, sleep scores, brain scans, and so on, but what it really comes down to is how you feel.

No number can quantify that sense of calm, the learned hope, or the overall greater life satisfaction you get from a regular breathing practice.

So, the life-changing idea here is this: remember that not everything can be quantified. Sometimes you just have to feel it.

1 STACK OF MEMORABLE QUOTES

“We are beginning to learn that our brains are hardwired to react positively to water and that being near it can calm and connect us, increase innovation and insight, and even heal what’s broken.” - Céline Cousteau

“This is the huge advantage of water: you don’t need to meditate to take advantage of its healing effects because it meditates you.”

“Like a child depends upon its mother, humans have always depended upon nature for our survival. And just as we intuitively love our mothers, we are linked to nature physically, cognitively, and emotionally.”

“Water is life's matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.” - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

“What science is also revealing is that there’s an additional simple, watery means to mindfulness. Indeed, think of it as Blue Mindfulness.”

“You didn’t come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here.” – Alan Watts

This one was not in the book, but fits nonetheless:

“Water is the driving force of all nature.” – Leonardo da Vinci

“I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.” - John Burroughs

“Today, when we talk of conservation, the assumption is that we’re talking about trying to save sea turtles, old buildings, endangered ecosystems, electricity, and so on. But we don’t think enough about a more internal conservation, conserving our attention for what matters, conserving our engagement for what’s important, conserving our acuity for decisions that make a positive difference.”

“It is life, I think, to watch the water. A man can learn so many things.” - Nicholas Sparks

“The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.” —Wyland