The Health Benefits of Blue Spaces
There is substantial evidence that blue spaces, such as oceans, rivers, and lakes, can provide a wide range of health benefits. The benefits span physical and mental health. There is even a nascent medical approach called “blue prescribing” which structures treatment for individual ranging from walks and time spent around water to sensory experiences with it.
To me, instinctively, this all just makes sense. I truly believe that humans have a predisposition towards natural environments even if the modern world has minimized it in some of us. But the evidence regarding the health impacts of green spaces, and now blue spaces, is compelling.
The BlueHealth project ran out of University of Exeter Medical School in England from 2016 to 2020. Among its findings were that England’s coastal population tends to be happier on average than those who live inland. Lowest-income households were significantly less likely to report feelings of anxiety or depression if they lived within 5 km of the coast than those who lived over 50k from the sea.
Other studies from around the world have similar conclusions; the three below were cited in the book Return to Nature by Emma Loewe:
- A study in Ireland found that just looking at the ocean can be enough to calm and improve mood.
- A study in Japan found that those who had seaside views reported higher positive psychological effects than those who didn’t; views of the ocean elicited feelings of awe and peace of mind.
- Taiwanese researchers looked at MRI activity when people looked at different landscape images and found that ocean photos had the most restorative effect by reducing activity in visual and attentional focus areas.
All of this says that spending time on the shores of the Great Lakes should offer similar positive impacts to citations about the ocean. I only found one limited reference in Return to Nature to a theory focused on saltwater as a variable due to its therapeutic uses over the years.
It seems more likely to me that we can benefit enormously from the multi-sensory experience of being near our inland freshwater seas. The benefits could come from:
- Visual pattern of waves: Great Lakes waves are usually less substantial than the ocean, but I would argue they hold our attention but don’t fatigue it.
- Visual comfort of shades of blue: As I’ve shared previously, on any given day, or even any given hour, Great Lakes waters can appear in a wide range of hues.
- Rhythmic sound of the water: There is everything from a gentle lapping on shore to more substantial waves crashing on windy days. There there is also the gorgeous silence that one can encounter in the winter.
- Smells of water, fish, sand, forest, gasoline if on a boat.
- The feeling of wading or swimming in the Great Lakes.
All together, these sensory experiences can either focus us on the present. Or they may also bring us back to the past and memories that help make life richer.
As you think about the year ahead, are there ways you could add more blue space exposure to your life? You don’t need to think big. A walk along a local creek or river once in a while could be sufficient.
Or you could think big. Perhaps the Great Lakes are calling you.
