BLUE MIND

Price Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, NC

Referring to his book Blue Mind, Marine biologist Wallace Nichols tells USA Today that “The term ‘blue mind’ describes the mildly meditative state we fall into when near, in, on or under water.  It’s the antidote to what we refer to as ‘red mind,’ which is the anxious, over-connected and over-stimulated state that defines the new normal of modern life.”  He notes that research has shown that being near blue water can enhance our mental health and help us achieve “an elevated and sustained happiness.”

And what’s the genesis of our red mind which conjures up images of bulging neck veins and blood vessels about to burst?  Neil Pasricha posits in the opening of his international bestseller, The Happiness Equation, “because life was mostly short, brutal, and highly competitive over the two hundred thousand years our species has existed on this planet.  And our brains are trained for this short, brutal, and highly competitive world.”

So, what’s his antidote?  Pasricha includes one of my all-time favorite observations in life from Viktor Frankl after surviving the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp; “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”  I’ve often written that there are many experiences in life that are beyond our control—with one exception—how we respond!  Pasricha states that if he knew everything about you “I could only predict about 10% of your happiness.  The remaining amount is not determined by your external world but by the way your brain processes it.”

I’ve learned over the years that one of the best responses to our chaotic culture is drawing on the ancient practice of mindful meditation.  Frankly, it’s a wonderful practice of calming your mind to achieve a peaceful and cleansing goal of reducing the daily stress of life.  Experiencing peace doesn’t mean that our lives are always joyful.  It implies that we have found the path to calming the mind in the midst of a normal hectic life.  Mindful meditation can be practiced almost anywhere if we focus on our favorite “go-to” quiet place in our mind.  Peace and relaxation can be found on vacation and day trips out into the serene beauty of nature.  All of my mindful quiet places occurred in the early morning light near the calm waters of expansive mirrored bodies of water.  

It’s truly amazing how this practice can transition the glowing Red Mind accumulated from the daily external world around us and slowly use its kaleidoscope power to morph into the calming Blue Mind that enables us to calm troubled waters and try again tomorrow.