Category: Happiness
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If you are anything like me being near the ocean probably makes you feel calm and serene. I know that it’s the first place I go to when I feel stressed or melancholy. Being near the water always makes me feel at peace. Both the sight and the sound of it makes me feel happier.
I recently finished “Blue Mind,” a book written by Wallace J. Nichols. He is a marine biologist and conservationist. His book tries to answer questions about the connection between our brain and bodies of water. It looks into the reasons of why so many of us are drawn to the ocean, and how this scientifically connects to our health and happiness.
Nichols explores the scientific reasons for why we have such a deep connection with water. He says that there are cognitive and emotional benefits that we get every time we spend time by water. He began hosting “blue mind” seminars that are attracting neurologists and psychologists from around the world. He uses the term “Blue Mind” to describe a state of water-associated peace. It’s in contrast to what one neuroscientist calls a “Red Mind,” an edgy high, characterized by stress, anxiety, fear, and despair.
Here are some amazing facts, brain imagining shows that being near water floods the brain with feel-good hormones like dopamine and oxytocin. Levels of the stress hormone cortisol actually drop. Scientists also discovered that the brain prefers the color blue above all others and water increases our ability to focus.
Our bodies consist of about 60 percent water and our brains, an incredible 75 percent! Nichols says when we see or hear water it triggers a response in our brains that we are in the right place. He says the ocean literally sucks the stress out of our bodies and out of our minds. I have to say, that is true for me. What about you?
The next time you want to relax why not try taking a soothing bath? Maybe you can go fishing, or swimming. How about a walk on the beach? You can also learn to surf, visit an aquarium or maybe place a water fountain in your backyard and just relax there.
Learning how beneficial it is for us to be around water makes a powerful argument for keeping our world’s waters clean, healthy, and free. Now go enjoy a delicious tall glass of water and relax. And while you are doing that be thankful that we have clean water to drink! Nearly two billion people around the world do not.
Think on that, and while you are thinking, here are some great ways to help.
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Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.
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You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth-Khalil Gibran
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Every year, since my daughter started school I have taken pictures of her first day of school. The start of pre-school was such an emotional day for my husband and I. Sending our baby out into the world for even a few hours without us was daunting. I remember sitting in the parking lot of the pre-school the entire three hours for the first couple of days. Maybe that’s a little crazy, but she cried so hard when I left her I couldn’t go home. I just stayed in there, my heart felt like it would come out of my body. I waited, just in case they needed me to calm her down. Thankfully, it took a few minutes for her to stop crying and then she was ok. That part of my life feels like yesterday, and yet it was six years ago!
My nine year old just ended another school year. Another summer is here for us to spend together. I keep thinking about how when we first had her everyone told us not to blink an eye, because before long she will grow up. Well it’s happening, I wish I could slow it down but I can’t.
All I can do is to stop being preoccupied with things that don’t matter and focus on my child. Stop stressing about unnecessary things and enjoy the moments. The moments I spend with my parents who are in their 70’s. The moments I spend with my all my loved ones, the people that matter to me.
We often use up the present moments of our lives, longing to be someplace else, doing something else. We waste present moments feeling guilty about the past or apprehensive about the future. Slipping away from the present happens because we are living our lives with an attitude of depreciation rather than appreciation. We need to learn to pay attention to what’s going on in the inner world of our thoughts.
Our present moment is the only thing that is real. We can either make use of these precious moments in a state of thankfulness and appreciation by being fully in the now, or wish to be anywhere but here. When all is said and done, now is all there is, and all there ever has been.So when you notice that you are wishing you were somewhere else bring yourself back to a state of appreciation for where you are.
For right now, nothing is more important to me than the people that I love. Spending time with them is my priority. I don’t want to look back and have regrets. I just want to give my all while I have it all.
