Hearing Blue, Seeing Blue | BBmassageandfloat

“Water impacts all five senses at the same time with a very positive, powerful image and memory...And water isn’t passive: in most instances...we have to interact with it. As [Dr. Jordan] Grafman notes, ‘We’re both in awe and curious about it, and it’s a challenge to master.’ It distracts us in the best sort of way, allowing us to think of little else beyond what’s in front of us,” (166)

The importance of water on human health is hard to deny. Not just because it makes up 70% of our body, but also because it plays a significant role in our mental and emotional health. Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, research associate at the California Academy of Sciences and founder-codirector of Ocean Revolution, SEEtheWILD, and LiVBLUE, noticed that research on water primarily focuses on its chemistry. Nicols was curious about the psychology of being in, on, or under the water and how it impacts the health and well-being of humans, so he started the conversation about the significance of water on our lives in his book, Blue Mind. The stories he’s heard, the brain scans he’s observed, the surveys he’s conducted, and his personal experience led to a significant collection of data that can be directly applied to floating, especially the importance of hearing and seeing “blue”.

Hearing Blue

Often, a recording of waves crashing on the beach or of a babbling brook is found as an option on white noise machines or as a background for guided meditations because of how calming the sound is. Shelley Batts, Harvard Medical School Senior Research Fellow specializing in the effects of sound, theorizes that “We hear the whooshing of our mother’s heart, her breath going in and out, the gurgle of her digestion...These fluid, rhythmic sounds are very much like the ocean. Perhaps that’s why the ocean often brings up feelings of relaxation and tranquility.”

The sound of the ocean does much more than simply induce calm. There is research that suggests that the brain is actually more active than when our mind is calm. Nichols writes:

Think back to the last time you got your Blue Mind on: in the shower or bathtub, or sitting or walking by the water. You probably weren’t thinking about anything in particular; you let your mind wander to wherever it wanted to go in your relaxed state. Perhaps you caught yourself daydreaming as you gazed out over the sparkling waves or ripples on the creek, and you reluctantly pulled yourself back to the present moment. For a long time, scientists thought there was nothing going on in the brain when we allowed ourselves to daydream or ‘space out.’ But now we know that in those moments the brain’s default-mode network is incredibly active. In other words, the brain at rest is not really at rest at all (214).

Essentially, the white noise of moving water shifts your brain from focusing on the tasks at hand, allowing for more abstract, free-flowing thoughts that come with the activation of the default-mode network. While we normally think of daydreaming as a waste of time, letting the mind wander has proven to be an excellent problem-solving technique.

Nichols writes, “How many times have you had an insight, new idea, or solution to a problem pop into your head, seemingly from nowhere? That’s the default-mode network kicking in, allowing your brain to make connections between different elements to create something entirely new. And being around water provides a sensory-rich environment with enough ‘soft fascination’ to let our focused attention rest and the default-mode network to kick in,” (216).

Seeing Blue

Just looking at the color blue can alter our brain functions. Blue’s specific wavelength has been shown to stimulate the brain, causing the release of neurotransmitters that are “associated with feelings of euphoria, joy, reward, and wellness related to the effects of dopamine,” (89).

We may not always notice these changes, but they have a far more reaching impact on our brains than we realize. Nichols writes, “In a 2010 study, seventeen people listened to voices while they were exposed to alternating periods of blue or green light. According to fMRI scans, blue light enhanced the connectivity between the area of the brain the processes voices and the amygdala and hypothalamus (the body’s primary gateways of emotional processing). That is, blue light actually strengthened and further established the crucial neural networks that allow us to hear and understand voices,” (90). Basically, the color blue has the ability to calm our brains down, allowing us to think clearly and rationally about any problems at hand.

Most of the conversations we have about blue light revolve around technology. While it’s true that staring at a computer or phone screen for too long isn’t good for you, there are many positives to blue light that we fail to see. When compared to red and green light, blue light has been shown to increase creativity, strengthen emotional processing, reset our internal clock, and to form neural connections in the brain that allow us to listen and understand what other people are saying (90-92).

There’s a reason we use chose blue for the light in our pools! The blue light mixed with the sounds of the shower and getting into the water signal the brain and body to relax. The “soft fascination” of the pool’s strange environment allows the mind to take a break from focused attention, encouraging creativity.

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Created on May 11th 2019 08:45. Viewed 311 times.

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