Ever Wondered Why You Feel Restored After Time on the Water? I Took a Deep Dive






When you see photos from lake vacations, they are always of people skiing, children splashing around and people relishing the sunshine. Lake time is nearly synonymous with family time and adventure. It provides much needed reprieve from the stresses of daily life and allows for people to actually, fully see each other. The break from routine allows for reminders to pop up – glimpses of personality that might not surface during weekly patterns. We are able to enjoy the people we love.

When children are tucked into bed and their laughter fades to soft snoring, I walk out to the lake. There is a quieting of the water that causes a quickening within my soul. Have you ever lay on a dock and watched meteors blaze across the sky? Those moments remind me there is something bigger than daily life. There is something infinite and often intangible that is made tangible in those moments of beauty. Early mornings with a soft, silent mist are joyously disrupted by the noisy arrival of waterfowl. I sip my coffee and marvel at the magnificence of Mother Nature and feel immensely at peace and tremendously blessed.



Did you know the human brain and heart are composed of 73% water? The very things that make human life feasible, that make human consciousness possible are dependent upon that most magnificent compound. Rightfully so, humans have long viewed water as life and have seen it as restorative. Yet have you ever wondered exactly what happens: Why your breathing becomes deeper and why the cares of the world melt away when near a lake or river?

It turns out, so have scientists, so they have conducted research.



Marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols
wrote an entire book about the science that demonstrates how recreating in or near water can make people happier, more connected and healthier. In fact, he argues that it promotes happiness and mental health. Nichols himself noticed how peaceful he became after scuba diving and began to realize that water equaled more than fun for the human psyche – it made rest and healing more possible.

“Research has shown that being near, in, on or under water can provide a long list of benefits for our mind and body, including lowering stress and anxiety, increasing an overall sense of well-being and happiness, a lower heart and breathing rate, and safe, better workouts,” according to USA Today.

When life gets busy and stresses mount, I try to remind myself that spending some time by the water is more than just a fun way to pass the time with my family. It is vital to our health. It makes us less stressed, more productive, and maybe, hopefully, a little kinder to ourselves and to each other.

I look at the faded photos from when I was a child, the sun reflecting off the water behind my family and say a quiet thank you to my parents, for understanding what we needed before the research was there to back it up.