It is well known that our brain is constantly changing, even when we are sleeping or when we think our mind is blank.

This is what is known as brain plasticity: everything we experience makes our brain (and our nervous system) change in real time. That means that there is no moment when our mind remains as it was a while ago .

However, there are certain experiences that modify our mental life more consistently than others. That is, the kind of changes they introduce in our brain are more recognizable and uniform . This is the case of what happens during meditation or, for example, when we feel that we are facing the sea or the ocean .

Our mind changes when the sea surrounds us

There are many poets for whom the sea has been an element of clear inspiration; Pablo Neruda, for example, always referred to this gigantic body of water in his poems. And that is not by chance: the sea causes a great impact when it is seen, and staying on its shores or waters for a while makes the activity of our brain change a lot.

Let’s see how it influences us.

1. Get us to relax and get us out of the state of alert

The sea transmits a sensation of tranquility that extends to all parts of the body. The continuous and soft sound of the waves and the omnipresence of the colour blue (which not only appears in the water, but also in a sky that in the sea is not covered by mountains or buildings) make us relax deeply.

Moreover, near the sea it is difficult to find blind spots where possible dangers are hidden, because almost everything is flat and in sight. The consequence of this is that we can allow ourselves to be removed from the state of alert into which our sympathetic nervous system introduces us when we detect sources of stress.

2. Facilitates meditation

The visual and sound stimuli related to the sea and the sound of the waves are very characteristic, and alter the activity of our brain. Specifically, promotes the appearance of alpha waves , related to a state of relaxation and little effort in which, however, the ability to manage the focus of attention does not disappear , something that does not occur during sleep.

When the neurons start firing following the pattern of the alpha waves, the facility to carry out activities such as meditation and mindfulness is enhanced; that is why lonely beaches are a place where normal or tichian meditation is often practiced .

3. Allows to break with rumination

Rumination is that vicious circle that follows our thinking when a concern obsesses us . Natural environments such as forests have proved to be good locations to walk around so that rumination disappears, and the same happens with the sea.

This is so because both the sea and the forests are places where there are hardly any elements that can be interpreted as references to our daily life, so that our thinking can be detached from these obsessions, since nothing we see, touch or hear reminds us of our problems .

4. Generates low-cost wellness

Experiencing the immensity of the sea produces a curious form of well-being that is born from something as simple as attending to the stimuli related to this type of natural landscape. It is a kind of hypnotic effect in which we can remain for a long time and in which, surely, our cultural heritage plays an important role.

5. Enhances creativity

It has been proven that contexts that induce a quick and obsessive orientation of attention towards the outside world for a long time produce stress and negatively affect the solution of new problems . This is because our brain adapts to detect very quickly specific external stimuli, instead of devoting resources to connecting ideas to each other.

The sea, by facilitating relaxation and providing a simple environment made up of few elements, facilitates our creativity to be released , making ideas that had never been related to each other connect.