5 Ways to De-Stress With Water
"I'm not a 'water' person," I tell my younger sister, who fantasizes about escapes to tropical beaches. "Then why are you always in the tub when I call?" she asks. "Why are you in the shower twice a day," I snap, continuing our habit of well-intentioned judgmental observation. "Because I like to be clean," she huffs, and then admits, "and worries roll off my back for a few minutes."
Exactly. I crave a bath when I'm anxious, depressed, or tired--and always emerge feeling better. It's my all-purpose remedy for stress. Why? Scientists have been studying water for centuries and are still trying to figure out its chemical properties. The fact is that water is a mystery. Maybe the most valid study of how water lifts your mood is finding out what works for you.
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Hang Out By Splashing Water
Why are thundering waterfalls and crashing waves known for banishing fatigue and depression? Maybe it's the air. In 1892, German physicist Philipp Lenard described how water splashing on a hard surface charges the air with electricity. Since then scientists have argued about whether balancing positive ions, thought to be more prevalent indoors, with negative ions, found in abundance around rushing water, has any effect on the body. Dr. Michael Terman, Director of the Center for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms at Columbia University Medical Center, has found that adding a high concentration of negative air ions indoors has an antidepressant effect.
Experiment: Go for a walk where waves slap the shoreline and note whether your stress has ebbed afterwards.
Drink the Water in Your Food
For years we've been told to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day to prevent dehydration, which stresses all our systems. We've learned to tote bottled water lest we wilt. A review of clinical research published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology found that there's nothing that indicates average healthy people need to drink 8 glasses a day. "Thirst is the best determinant of hydration," says James J. Kenney, nutrition research specialist for the Pritikin Institute for Longevity--"unless you're eating a lot of salt, which triggers thirst that can lead to overhydration."
Experiment: Eat instead of drink most of your water for a few days, incorporating water-laden foods like citrus fruits and lettuce, and avoiding salt. Log how often you are thirsty and your stress level. Added benefit: more nutrients and less plastic to recycle.
[ Tapping the Truth of Bottled Water ]
Warm Up Your Mood with Cold Water
"Temperature is the key to using water to release stress," says Kneipp-trained spa industry water expert Dr. Jonathan DeVierville of Alamo Plaza Spa in San Antonio. Body contact with cold water, once removed, creates a physiological response that stimulates circulation, prompting the body to release stress as it re-calibrates. Health spas cite Sebastian Kneipp's book, My Water Cure (published in 1886 and still taught in German medical schools), as the basis for hot and cold water treatments that both energize and calm.
Experiment: Try a foot bath when you're having problems sleeping due to stress. Fill one bucket with warm water and the other with ice cold, alternating roughly 5 minutes warm and 10 seconds cold three times within a half hour; dry feet, put on socks, and get in bed. Did you fall asleep faster?
Exercise in Water
When we are so stressed from sleeplessness and tense muscles that everything hurts, water is gentler than working out in the gym or pounding the pavement. As NASA demonstrated with research on weightlessness in the 1960s, and medical studies have confirmed, water therapies are often safer than land therapies for healing the body. Beyond that, "water exercise rivals meditation," says Dr. Bruce Becker, who received a $1 million grant to establish a National Aquatics and Sports Medicine Institute.
Experiment: Try water aerobics instead of a gym workout and Watsu (water shiatsu, a floating treatment in warm water), instead of a Swedish massage. When your body is weightless and free, what happens to your mind? Less chatter?
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Meditate on Water
Fluid and transparent, water provides a universal cue for meditation. That's why spas and other environments designed to calm always include water features like fountains or pools.
Experiment: Drop a pebble into water and think of something that makes you happy for as long as you see ripples. Close your eyes and visualize the image. Return to the image later and note whether it cues positive emotions.
Judy Kirkwood lives by the ocean in Delray Beach, Florida.
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