Wallace J. Nichols, who recently died age 56, was the first to clarify the link between neuroscience and the healing power of the ocean.
The opening lines of an ancient song, The Song of Amergin, translate to “I am wind on ocean, I am swelling wave, I am roar of sea”. Believed to be the first poem in the Irish language, it reminds us of our interdependence with all life. How we have been shaped and formed by the ocean. That we are nature.
Born in 1967 in New York, J had what he described as a pretty “water-filled” childhood. He studied marine biology in the early 1990s, before completing his PhD at the University of Arizona, Tucson, where he specialised in turtle genetics, migration and conservation. He and his colleagues famously satellite tagged and tracked Adelita, a loggerhead turtle as it swam from California to Japan – this was the first animal to be recorded crossing an entire ocean basin.
The millennia-old understanding of water’s power to heal exists in every ancient wisdom tradition in the world yet, until recently, had largely been overlooked or dismissed by western science. Blue Mind sparked a new understanding and appreciation for blue spaces in modern society. It influenced an emerging meta-discipline within scientific research called, “blue health”, as well as impacting mental health promotion, ocean lifestyle sports and social prescribing including surf therapy.
Swimming, sailing, even just building a sandcastle - the ocean benefits our physical and mental wellbeing. Curious about how a strong coastal connection helps drive marine conservation, scientists are diving in to investigate the power of blue health. From red to blue J’s words were like an affirmation confirming my belief in the power of the ocean to connect. This reinforced my commitment to becoming a marine social scientist, specialising in blue health and ocean therapy. I also embraced J’s blue mind philosophy in my approach to big wave surfing.
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