How I Spent a Week Immersed in Water

...and What I Learned Diving In

Let me start by saying I adore spring. The fresh air, the earth trembling with buds and hosting new life, the occasional rain (or more likely snow here) that nourishes the ground.

It is also consistently my hardest time of year. It is the time that I feel stuck, the time I feel like I’m not living my life’s purpose, the time that I am cranky and sour, and would just prefer to be left alone to walk in a cold rain every day. Which, when you’ve got a job working with people (especially children), being left alone isn’t an option.

This year has seemed particularly difficult. I have been in a funk from finishing a big project for a website and not sure of what to do next with the site. I’ve been adjusting to teaching two new college courses in addition to my regular teaching load. While these things were, for the most part, good things, it’s made this spring an uncomfortable time.

I also happened to pick up the book Blue Mind by Wallace J. Nichols. It’s been one of those books that has sat on my shelf for several years now that I picked up at a second-hand sale because it looked interesting to read someday. It had slowly worked its way onto the “read soon” pile by my bed, and one night it felt right to start.

This is not intended to be a book review (though maybe another post for that sometime), but the book changed the way I looked at my life. Nichols discusses the neurobiological relationship we as humans have with water. Its subtitle: 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 could not better describe the book.

I haven’t been feeling happy, healthy, or connected lately, and fairly stuck at what I’m trying to do. I felt like I needed more flow in my life. What better way to encourage flow than to focus on something which naturally flows? So I decided to try a water-based experiment.

I was going to immerse myself in water for a week.

Now, I live in a place over 800 miles from the nearest sea, which would be Gulf of California, and over 1,000 miles from the Pacific Ocean (thanks Google Maps). We get only 16 inches of rain a year, and only 41 days of precipitation. Not exactly your water-friendly location. My husband consistently remarks that one of the thing he misses most living here is getting to water, particularly the ocean.

I’ve been along the coast enough to know I can spend hours walking the beach, listening to the sound of the waves, and picking up bits of rocks and shells and sea glass. I’ve experienced feeling better being on and near the water, all which Nichols discusses in his book. How, in my landlocked state, could I incorporate enough water to possibly make a difference?

So began my ultimate water experiment.

Step 1: Brainstorm

At the start of this experiment, I made a list of ways I might include or add water into my life. Many of these ideas were taken from the researched strategies presented in Nichols’s book. It looked something like this:

• Set water images as a computer backgrounds

• Paint with water colors

• Drink more water (especially lemon water!)

• Swim everyday

• Water meditation (use sounds of water while meditating)

• Wear more blue

• Read about water

• Set up a water fountain in the main place I work

• Run videos of water, fish, ocean scenes and sounds while I work

For not being anywhere near a large body of water, this list made me feel like I could definitely manage to immerse myself in water!

Step 2: One-time tasks

The next day I set up some items that would make me notice and remember water. I changed my desktop backgrounds to include water and dug out an old water fountain I’d bought on clearance years ago. I pulled out some of my water-themed books and put them by my bedside: Blue Mind, of course, as well as Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson and Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I looked up a few videos of swimming fish and got an electric kettle to put in our bedroom to be able to drink hot lemon water upon waking. I even remembered I had a couple of mugs which featured water images and pulled those off the top, hard-to-reach shelf to use for my lemon water.

My daily alarm has been a water sound – ocean waves and seagulls – since I downloaded the alarm app I use. Fit smoothly into my water-immersion week.

I also bought a month pass to our local swimming pool. I figured if I was going to get there every day, it would be the most cost-effective way to utilize it.

Step 3: Add to my daily routine I have noticed over the years, I best change a habit when I link it to something I already do. For one week, I made the commitment to add the following routines:

• Drink hot water with honey and lemon first thing in the morning When my alarm went off I could reach over and turn on the kettle. I would snooze for 5 minutes before the kettle clicked and had my water with lemon and honey waiting in a water-themed mug. I even added a reminder note to my alarm to turn on the kettle after I forgotten everything I’d set up one morning!

• Watercolor paint each morning I set up watercolor paints, paper, and a jar of water and set my alarm 30 minutes earlier than normal. Each morning I would take a few minutes to paint. As the week progressed, I found myself painting around water – lots of blues, starfish, sand dollars, and sea horses have been my favorite!

• Wear blue I put together clothing options for the week to include lots of blues (which I already had in my closet). I also wore a necklace with a sand dollar each day.

• Swim every day I made a goal to get to our local swimming pool every day immediately after lunch that week. I tried to go right after I finished work at noon, but I was always too hungry. After a light lunch became a much more manageable time.

• Meditate I have a daily meditation practice already. For this week’s experiment, I would add water sounds to my daily meditation.

Step 4: Immerse myself in water

Monday morning, I dove into my water immersion week (pun totally intended). Each day I committed to at least four of the water immersion techniques I’d brainstormed. These were planned in advance, at least to a point, by placing them in my daily schedule I review each morning. Physically scheduling time for tasks such as swimming helped me ensure I would honor my commitment.

Step 5: Reflection

This week of immersion brought both some expected and unexpected results. Water is a natural teacher and guide, if one is willing to listen.

• I woke easier. I’m not a morning person, this time of year especially; waking up is not my favorite activity. Having hot lemon water ready and looking forward to a few minutes of painting gave mornings a lift and made it considerably easier to get out of bed.

• I was more focused. One of my biggest struggles since about February was sitting down and getting stuff done. I would sit and get easily distracted by the internet, unnecessary housework, or just faffing about. While a swim each day took about an hour out of my work time, when I came home, I was able to get straight to work and be much productive. Putting on images of water on my computer background, setting up ocean videos on a second computer monitor, and listening to the water fountain also seemed to aid my focus.

• I slept better. My mind was better able to turn off at night and I found myself falling asleep easier and sleeping more deeply.

• I spent way less time on my phone. My phone was one of my biggest distractions from productivity. Immersing myself in water, I embraced more work time and was on my phone considerably less.

• I felt stronger and more energetic. Likely linked to daily swims, sleeping better, and spending time more wisely, my body is feeling stronger and healthier, and my energy is more stable.

I am re-finding my flow.

My first week was successful enough that I’ve decided to continue my water immersion. I’ve just finished week two, and I learned especially about water’s effectiveness when I hit a bad day.

On Tuesday this week, we had ridiculously high winds. I found myself cranky, headachy, and without energy. That afternoon after teaching all morning, I focused on water: I put water sounds on and slept for a bit (helped the headache) and when I woke, I made an extra cup of lemon water with honey. While it was not a super productive day, the shift in my focus from “I feel like crap” to “how can I immerse myself in water today?” changed me and changed my attitude toward the day. I was able to sit down, to focus, and to do some work.

All through the power of water.