A Blue Mind
You know that feeling you get when you’re floating on the water? Warm sun on your face (lathered in SPF 50, of course), a fresh breeze in the air, a peaceful quiet, and the real world is a million miles away. For some of us, there’s no better feeling in the world.
Whether on it, in it, or just being around it, water creates benefits well beyond the obvious recreational enjoyment. It’s a fact, “lake life” also encourages good physical and mental health including reduced blood pressure, lower cholesterol, heart health, and a true sense of overall well-being.
Seemingly water serves us a specific purpose, especially as we face rising levels of anxiety in our everyday lives. Being near the water eases us into what some scientists call a “blue mind,” a mildly meditative state characterized by a calming peacefulness, and a sense of general happiness and satisfaction. It’s a state of mind which filters out distractions and irrelevant stimulation.
Especially when life becomes overwhelming, which is increasingly more common. Blue mind is one way of effectively “logging out.” It affords us the ability to turn off our problem-solving mode of thinking that dominates us in the real world, and lets less goal-oriented regions of our brain take to the helm, if you will. It’s this freedom that lets our minds now wander. Absorb. Imagine. Enjoy.
When on the water, our preoccupation with the outside world evaporates and we gain a better sense of internal awareness. Our heart rate and breathing slow down, stress and anxiety dissolve, and a “this-is-the-life” grin inevitably stretches from ear to ear.
So, if it’s true— and it is, because we already agreed it’s a fact— that living the lake life is good for both body and mind, then Rome, Wisconsin might just be the healthiest place on the planet (with all due respect to Valencia, Spain).
With four lakes to choose from - Arrowhead, Camelot, Petenwell, and Sherwood – there’s no shortage of ways to improve one’s health. Let’s start with simply stepping into the water. That’s it. Simply take a step into the water. Ankle deep. Just stand there. Look around. All your senses are immediately heightened. Suddenly nature comes alive. The waves. The birds. The air. How can this not be good for you?
There is obviously so much more to do when you’re at the lake – swimming, of course, boating, fishing, tubing, kayaking, paddle boarding, and my personal favorite - hanging out on the pontoon boat with good friends and an icy cold beverage in hand (or sometimes all by myself with an icy cold beverage in hand), with the motor silenced, floating wherever the wind and waves take me. And when I reach the far shore, I cruise back to where I started, and do it again. And again.
It's a simple truth; when we see water, when we hear water, when we smell water, it ignites a response in our brain that tells us, yup, we’re in the right place.
Ah, the endless perks of lake life. So healthy. So alluring. So blue.
Written by: Lydell Capritta
