The science behind our connection to water

Photo by Elena Elisseeva/Shutterstock

It’s something we cottagers understand intuitively, that sense of awe and connection we experience at the lake. Marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols calls it “Blue Mind”. And there’s science behind it.

As a kid, I would fall asleep each night at my family’s cottage on Lake Huron to the sound of water. Sometimes it was the pounding of big waves, other times the gentle ripple of water tapping the shore. It was my lakeside lullaby.

So I wasn’t the least surprised by marine biologist and author Wallace J. Nichols’ idea of Blue Mind, which he shared at a conference I attended. Blue Mind, Nichols posits, is something like a meditative state induced by proximity to water.

“It makes us happier,” he says. “It connects us to each other, it connects us to ourselves, it connects us to place.”

There’s likely not a cottager who disputes this but what we know intuitively is backed by science, says Dr. Nichols. He wrote his book Blue Mind: The Surprising Science that Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make Us Healthier, Happier, More Connected and Better at What You Do in order to better understand […]

Full article: The science behind our connection to water