“Blue Mind isn’t just about smiling when you’re near the water, it’s about smiling everywhere.”
The immeasurable sense of peace that we feel around water is what Nichols calls our "blue mind"—a chance to escape the hyper-connected, over-stimulated state of modern day life, in favor of a rare moment of solitude.
It’s "a mildly meditative state characterized by calm, peacefulness, unity, and a sense of general happiness and satisfaction with life in the moment," which we experience when we're near water according to Wallace J. Nichols.
Blue Mind is about telling the story of water.
How do we tell the story of water?
Wallace J. Nichols believes in telling a different story, a Blue Mind story, about our relationship to the world. We need to tell a story that helps people explore and understand the profound and ancient emotional and sensual connections that lead to a deeper relationship with water.
The Blue Mind story seeks to reconnect people to nature in ways that make them feel great good, and shows them that water can help them become better versions of themselves.
When we seek to understand more about the natural world around us, when we can begin to see the interconnections between diverse kinds of life, between ocean currents and shorelines, between us and all the creatures and climates that exist on our blue planet, a deeper relationship is born. And from that deeper relationship arises an instinctual desire to protect what we love.
When we protect our waters, we protect ourselves.
Preserving, protecting, and restoring our waters are tasks for many lifetimes, and sometimes the effort can seem overwhelming. But as long as we stay connected with all of the many, many blessings that water provides, and continue to keep that love in the forefront of our minds and hearts, as long as we remind ourselves to hope, then our stories will help connect others to water and encourage them to do what they can to help care for this beautiful Blue Marble world.
Get in the water.
Walk along the water. Move across its surface. Get under it. Sit in it. Leap into it. Listen to it. Touch the water. Close your eyes and drink a big glass.
Fall more deeply in love with water in all its shapes, colors and forms. Let it heal you and make you a better, stronger version of yourself. You need water. And water needs you now.
I wish you water.
Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do
