Water

Most people think of this one, but how often do you stop and appreciate the abundance of water in your life? In many countries around the world, we can simply turn on the sink and water flows abundantly, providing what appears to be limitless amounts of potential hydration, without any effort at all. In other countries, water is scarce, and a rain storm equates to the chance to bathe, wash your face, clean your hands, or clean clothes. Organizations — like CharityWater.org — work to eliminate the desperation for fresh drinking water around the world, and I’d encourage you to get in touch with how lucky we are to have potable water all around us. Fresh drinking water reminds us to be grateful for the simple, but most important things in life.

Similar to staring at a fire, gazing off into the ocean, a lake, pond, or stream will provide a sense of unmatched beauty. Watching sea life jump out of the water — like a fish, dolphin, or whale — is exciting and gorgeous at the same time. This is a type of beauty we can all agree upon, rather than a particular style of dress, make-up, or other societal trend that passes with each generation. The beauty of water is timeless, and it is universally appreciated. Water is a great reminder we are all beautiful, and beauty resides in simplicity, perspective, and our natural state of being.

Listening to waves crash, seeing the reflection of a hillside off a calm lake, or listening to the constant flow of a river or stream all produce the same sensation of calm. Water has the ability to center us by simply being in its surroundings. Similarly. floating, treading water, and swimming help us achieve a meditative state while moving. The serenity of water is a great reminder that a stress free life is all around us, and all we have to do is look up, be reminded of our connection to water, and feel instant peace.

Heat, cold, and electricity travel through water at an incredible speed. Water can be used to provide a deeper effect of icing — by reducing inflammation through an ice bath — or it can increase the depth and speed of heating an achy joint. Similarly, any electrical — or electromagnetic — current passes through water with great speed and strength. While this can be scary with the thought of lightning, a severed power cord, or an accident with a hairdryer at home, it can be therapeutic with electromagnetic waves conducted through one human body to the next. Water can be the perfect environment for transmission of energetics for healing, and yet it’s so simple, and so available. Water’s ability to conduct is a great reminder of the unseen, as well as our connection to one another; if heat or electricity conduct through water — and we are all made of energy — this means we are in constant communication with everyone around us by simply dipping our feet in the water or going for a swim.

There is something mysterious about that which lies beneath the water. People — myself included — love to snorkel and scuba dive just to see the world that exists below the surface. In fact, approximately 70% of our planet is under water, so we are living on the minority of the planet. Checking out what exists underneath the surface is like getting in touch with a new, more comprehensive scope of reality. Whether it’s the thought of the movie Jaws and a great white shark, the sonic boom of an Orca, the joy of dolphins playing near a boat, or the creepiness of an octopus that comes out at night and looks like an alien from a sci-fi movie, water is so mysterious; and so awesome. The mystery within water reminds us to be creative, curious, and to persist in a state of discovery.

Perhaps it’s the effect of gravity feeling different while in the water, but water seems to produce a sense of play for anyone who feels comfortable, albeit during bath time, inside a pool, playing a sport, or swimming in a large body of water. Water feels like play whether we are jumping in the waves, fishing, floating, swimming, squirting, splashing, treading water, or throwing a ball and chasing it. It’s easy to play in water, and water is a great reminder that life doesn’t need to be taken so seriously. We can all play, all the time, and we don’t require a fancy car, bike, or house in order to do so.

On a spiritual level, water serves to remind us to be in a state of flow, or to go with the flow throughout our days and lives. Water flows downstream, and so do we. When we swim upstream, we are met with great resistance, and life requires incredible effort. When we allow ourselves to flow — or to follow the path of least resistance — life becomes more enjoyable, effortless, and easy. Reflecting upon the ‘flow’ of water reminds us to be easy-going and to consider what happens when we stop trying so hard and instead let it — or life — be.