Book Title: Blue Mind

The scientific water-happiness connection, Wallace J. Nichols

The sea, once it cast its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever. — J.Cousteau

Wallace J. Nichols wrote Blue Mind, How Water Makes You Happier, More Connected, and Better At What You Do. I couldn’t have been happier to find it!

Growing up on an island in Lake Huron I always knew water held a special power. I didn’t know everyone felt it. I didn’t know scientists had proven so many positive impacts that water has on the human brain. I didn’t know this book would confirm and validate the feelings I’ve had for as far back as I can remember. It did that, and more.

When I learned of this book, I immediately loaded it onto my audible library as a continued attempt to cut down on book hoarding. After about twenty minutes of listening, I ordered a paperback version as well. Surely, I would be revisiting this book. The audiobook wouldn’t be enough for me.

It turned out to be the perfect balance of science and story. Some of the best stories followed the therapeutic outcomes of fly fishing, surfing, paddling, and other recreational water activities as treatment in healing trauma, addiction, depression, and more. Getting a sneak peak into the neuroconservation discoveries was fascinating. Finding whatever it is that inspires us to protect our planet is essential. This book explores these ideas in depth.

It is essential for ocean life, and our own, that we transform ourselves from being a species that uses up its resources to one that cherishes and nurtures them. — Callum Roberts

The author, an ocean advocate and educator, also has a really awemazing blue marble project. The project deepens the blue mind connection, spreading gratitude for each other and for our beautiful world. I can’t wait to join!

Blue Mind is calm, peacefulness, unity, and happiness related to water. Blue Mind is the antidote to Red Mind which is the stress and anxiety of modern life. Before I even knew what Blue Mind was, I experienced it regularly.

One of the many possible ways to describe a life would be as a series of encounters with various bodies of water. Time spent in, on, under, or near water intersperesed with the periods spent thinking about where, when, and how to reach it next. —Wallace J. Nichols

While you are here, let’s talk more about water. My earliest memories of feeling awe were on the water. The quiet pause of the pandemic shed light on the depths of this connection. Below is an excerpt from my story, The Sun is Setting on my Contentment with Land.

What I miss the most is the feeling of awe from experiencing a new place, and especially the waterways of wherever my travels take me — boating, jet skiing, or swimming, walking, dining, and relaxing along the water’s edge. I miss the satisfying free energy I get from the water. I have realized that I was not meant to be bound to only the land or so closely bound to the people of the land. I need free space like that created between the water and the sky.

I knew this to a certain degree before, but I would have never fully realized it without a quiet pause.

Almost every day of the pandemic I visited the waterfront at my local park.

It was a long time of staying put. As soon as I could travel locally, I went straight to visit a waterfall and then to the Atlantic Ocean.

When air travel was opened, I was off to enjoy the waters of Michigan, Jamaica, and San Diego, California. I got back to spending as much time as possible on, near, and in the water.

Water brings us to a place where awe takes away our ego:

Ego is washed away awe arrives in waves oh-so greater than me

The world is so large the universe grand I am small where I stand

Water can be awe-inducing in many forms, fog, dew, ice, and snow.

The following passage is lifted from a story I wrote, Feeling Content — The Ultimate Goal. It explains the contentment felt from gliding across the water on a boat.

My perfect content moment captured above. Too far from the shore for anything else to need to be done. Wanting for nothing. Wind whipping everything unwanted away. Water and sky merging — endless blue. Enveloped by the grandness of the universe. Awe. Happy. Free. Calm. Content. Sun then setting. Again, contentment captured below.

So, enough about me and my obsession with water. One of the quotes Nichols included in the book sums this up nicely:

Thousands have lived without love, none without water. — W.H. Auden

Maybe you won’t download the audiobook, order the paperback, and follow the work of the author like I have. I do hope that you will at least be reminded of how essential water is in our lives. We literally can’t live without it. And, beyond meeting one of our most basic needs for survival, we can also live better in so many other ways by further exploring our love for it. Earth’s water needs our love.

People protect what they love. —J. Cousteau

Thanks for reading! I hope everyone gets a chance to experience the awe of water — blue mind! As Wallace J. Nichols says: I wish you water!

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