People nowadays love to get away from the stress and hustle of the city, and head towards rural cities, gardens, or the sea just to unwind. The green lush gardens and woodlands aren’t the only spaces that are beneficial to one’s mind, “blue spaces”, the sea, coastline, and other bodies of water are proven to be good for the body and mind. Proximity or being near a body of water is associated with many benefits, from getting vitamin D to better social relations, as The Guardian detailed:
“Many of the processes are exactly the same as with green space – with some added benefits,” says Dr Mathew White, a senior lecturer at the University of Exeter and an environmental psychologist with BlueHealth, a programme researching the health and wellbeing benefits of blue space across 18 (mostly European) countries.
White says there are three established pathways by which the presence of water is positively related to health, wellbeing and happiness. First, there are the beneficial environmental factors typical of aquatic environments, such as less polluted air and more sunlight. Second, people who live by water tend to be more physically active – not just with water sports, but walking and cycling.
Third – and this is where blue space seems to have an edge over other natural environments – water has a psychologically restorative effect. White says spending time in and around aquatic environments has consistently been shown to lead to significantly higher benefits, in inducing positive mood and reducing negative mood and stress, than green space does.
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