By the Sea
I could never stay long enough on the shore; the tang of untainted, fresh, and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought.
Helen Keller
If you are lucky enough to be spending some time by the sea this summer, you can likely feel the benefits instinctively – we just know there’s just something good about the salty air, and I particularly enjoy the deep sleep I usually have after a day by the sea.
It was a Japanese professor who taught me that the human body has not yet evolved to actually feel very comfortable in urban settings – we are designed to be in nature and not just because it’s pretty but because our body is fuelled and healed by nature. It’s no coincidence that the colours green and blue are stress relieving for us, that we are fascinated by the patterns on sea shells, or that we can’t help flocking to the seaside on bank holidays. Who says it first in your family… “I can see the sea!”
There are many theories why being in nature are restorative for us. The American biologist Edward O Wilson popularised the term ‘biophilia’ in the 1980s, which describes how we are genetically programmed to respond to nature and that we are emotionally connected to all living organisms, which is why when the Earth suffers, our own mental wellbeing suffers. We thrive when the nature around us is thriving.
There is also the theory that is now more widely known – that nature helps to regulate our nervous systems. Many aspects of modern life trigger our stress response, which was designed to only be needed in emergency situations. Too much of this over time can impact our health, particularly our mood and sleep. Nature helps to bring us out of this stressed state and into a balanced state, where we are able to ‘rest and digest’.
I love the ART theory – Attention Restoration Theory – by Rachel and Stephen Kaplan. It proposes that nature is a balm for our struggles with concentration. When our mind is exhausted, apparently there is nothing better than to just be in a natural environment that we enjoy and where we feel away from it all; and the gentle breaking of waves on the shore is an added bonus because it offers a sound, sight and rhythm that requires no effort to be attentive to.
We breathe in the salty air more deeply and slowly.
We release our tension to the elements, carried away on the ocean breeze.
We begin to settle, take it easy, and let thoughts dissolve in the breaking waves.
We watch diamonds of sunlight dance across the surface.
We wonder what beauty is beneath.
We see the world in a grain of sand.
We listen.
You are not a drop in the ocean; you are the entire ocean in a drop.
rumi
Photo by Daniel Cabanas on Unsplash