By The SATimes News Service
Why are we drawn to lakes, rivers, oceans and pools each summer? Why does being near water set our minds and bodies at ease? In Blue Mind, a landmark book, marine biologist Dr. Wallace J. Nichols how we think about these questions, revealing the benefits of being in, on, under, or simply near water.
Combining cutting-edge neuroscience with personal stories from top athletes, leading scientists, military veterans, and gifted artists, he shows how proximity to water can improve performance, increase calm, diminish anxiety, and increase professional success.
‘Blue mind’ is the antidote to what we refer to as ‘red mind,’ which is the anxious, over-connected and over-stimulated state that defines the new normal of modern life.”
One experiences chronic stress which leads to having a ‘Monkey mind’ and attention fatigue. Our lifestyle of rushing from one thing to another can eventually result in memory problems, poor judgment, anxiety, depression, and over reliance on alcohol and drugs for relaxation. Chronic stress damages the cardiovascular, immune, digestive, nervous, and musculoskeletal systems. It lowers levels of serotonin and dopamine, making us feel exhausted and extremely down.
Blue Mind therapy is a modern name extending these age-old concepts, that can be understood by a layman. Seeing water around you is always healing. Firstly, the calmness of blue color in water bodies is healing, and then even water heals us. We are made of 5 elements and water constitutes 70 percent of our bodies. So obviously water is healing, beautiful and calming.
Have you been skeptical about the invincible power of the blue mind? Imagine yourself sitting in a monastery and something within your flickering mind captivates you, no, it isn’t scenic or the sound of cymbals, but a very soft and soothing sound of water, which is flowing effortlessly in a stream. And to your amazement this will be the only relaxing sound you’ll ever hear in your life. The Blue Mind is an accurate way to experience reality in the purest form because water is viewed as vivifying, the tranquil fluid that moistens the body and dissolves all that’s toxic in you physically and spiritually.
Along with its spiritual nature, water also acquires medicinal and therapeutic qualities. If we turn around and look at bygone times, we’ll find that Egyptians and Greeks were actually using water to manifest and heal ailments. And in the era of modernism, water is used as a healing element with the practice called hydrotherapy. Hydrotherapy popped up in the 19th century in Europe for treating anxiety, back pain, and pneumonia. So, if you are entirely psychologically or physically parched, then take a delineated pathway to a blue mind for its brilliant distillation of the entire body, mind and soul.
