Beaches benefit the mind and body

The sights, the scents, the sounds, the sand — a day at the beach is packed with stress relief and overall rejuvenation.

By Elena Conis, Special to the Los Angeles Times
05:24 PM PDT, May 26, 2007

Click to Enlarge

The sights, the scents, the sounds, the sand — a day at the beach is packed with stress relief and overall rejuvenation.

Waves crash, gulls cry, wind whispers and sun warms skin. At the same time, worries seem to fade, the mind clears, the heart slows and the lungs breathe deep of the clean, salty air. There's something, it seems, inherently therapeutic about the beach.

Increasingly, evidence backs up that intuition. Research shows that simply being in nature is good for the mind and body — and the beach may be particularly healthful. Not only have studies found that most people are drawn to water, but simply looking at water appears to help alleviate anxiety and calm agitated nerves.

The appeal may be the sea's color, its sounds, possibly even its evolutionary associations, embedded in the human genome. Whatever the reason, "it's deep in the human psyche to want to be around water," said Dr. Richard Jackson, adjunct professor of environmental health sciences and city and regional planning at UC Berkeley.

The sun also has myriad beneficial effects, as do the beach's other sensory experiences, most all of them universally soothing. And the visual and auditory quiet gives the mind time to settle, forget those everyday cares.

"If you ask somebody to relax, to imagine someplace that they feel is safe, self-soothing and healing," said Cathy Malchiodi, a Louisville, Ky., art therapist and spokeswoman for the American Art Therapy Assn., "they often will [imagine] the beach."

Our affinity with the shore is long-held. The ancients prescribed sunbathing to reverse melancholy, heal wounds, treat syphilis and lower fevers. The Romans thought soaking up sun strengthened muscles (they advocated it for their gladiators) and that sea voyages were good for tuberculosis.

Today, few Americans head to the beach to cure their bodily ills. But beaches consistently top the list in surveys of favorite get-away destinations. And Americans are increasingly (and perhaps unwittingly) bringing the beach's natural remedies home: bulbs and light machines that simulate natural sunlight; salt scrubs, seaweed wraps and bathing mud for the skin; relaxation CDs and machines that play the sounds of gently breaking waves.

But there's nothing quite like the real thing, a day with the vastness of sky above and the feel of sand below, cool air mixed with sunlight. The beach, it seems, is perfectly engineered to soothe the human body and soul.

A love of nature

Landscape designers and environmental psychologists studying the human response to outdoor environments have made a fairly consistent finding in the last few decades: On average, people prefer landscapes with water to those without.

Since the 1960s, studies have shown that pictures of water elicit positive emotions in viewers — as long as the water isn't obviously polluted or roiling with storm. Asked to assess the tranquillity of different landscape pictures, college students in one study consistently rated those containing large, calm bodies of water highest.

Looking at water is not just superficially pleasing; it may also be therapeutic. In 1990, Texas A&M University architecture and landscape architecture professor Roger Ulrich and colleagues studied 166 open-heart surgery patients in a Swedish hospital, randomly assigning them to look at a picture of open water, one of a forest, abstract art or a blank wall. Those who looked at the open water had the least anxiety after their operations.

Some evolutionary psychologists speculate that humans might be drawn to bodies of water — in images and in reality — because for millions of years, water meant two necessities of survival: food and drink. Water, of course, is home to fish and other edibles; it also attracts wild game that can be hunted. Moving water is an indication of water that's safe to drink (stagnant water being a happy home for pathogens).

The human affinity for water extends to other landscape features too — as long as they're natural. Since the 1980s, scientists have shown that just looking at a natural landscape — that is, one populated by vegetation and animal life, not skyscrapers and automobiles — can improve mood, mitigate stress, boost mental function and even reduce pain and illness.

Single page | 1 2 3 4 5 >>