November 16, 2021

BOSLady meeting recap and Love Note, the Tuesday edition!

Happy Tuesday everyone I was on vacation this weekend and didn’t quite get around to sending this while recovering from wine country. The trip was my sister’s annual Mom-cation and it was awesome to have a group of twelve women from three different generations enjoying the same experiences together.

There is a wealth of information to share from last Tuesday’s meeting with Wallace J Nichols about his book Blue Mind. The first 30 minutes was all BOSLady and the following hour was Q&A. If you have any questions for the author, please send them over to me, as he has offered to record a response video for us.

Would anyone like to host the December meeting? As the host, you select the book of the month and the date and time we meet. I’m looking forward to seeing what gets picked next!

The Meeting Recap / Weekly Three +

Discussion Notes

-going into cold water and staying there requires "setting a dialogue with [one's] body" and because you're experiencing really intense body sensations, you have a very strong feeling of presence and unity in your body

-there's a very big difference between ocean cold and pool or lake cold. I’ve recently been learning a lot about wetsuits and how theywork in the ocean

-the smell of Coppertone sunscreen linked to water and childhood. Thank you Paula for the follow up email on why smells trigger memories

-water is part of the simplest acts of self care: showers, drinking a glass of water

-the ways we enjoy rain: water droplets on windows and the sound of it falling, the cleansing result

-examples of how being by the beach can be used in therapy: meditations can be done with the rhythm of the ocean, there's a lot of metaphor with the crashing of the waves, surfing requires a lot of presence, how the ocean can make you feel connected but also highlights your insignificance, going into the cold water is a hard reset

Q&A Session

-question: how are the benefits of water different than the benefits of nature and why did the author choose to focus on water specifically?

At the time of the book's writing, there was much more literature and research published on nature in general than water specifically. References made to Florence Williams’ The Nature Fix and Your Brain on Nature by Eva Selhub. One of the special things about water is that it goes beyond the natural, it's also urban. Benefits can be derived from digital water (watching videos with water) and imaginary water (recalling memories that involve water.

-question: is there a move to incorporate water into the WELL standards?

Are designers seeing an increase in water features? J doesn't think that water has made its way into the relatively work wellness movement yet. He has done research with Plantronics that showed that other peoples' voices were the biggest stressor in the workplace. Water sounds did the best job of relieving that, however, the sounds had to be accompanied by imagery.

Recognition of the value of water isn't anything new - references to ancient Rome and how every home had an atrium with a fountain, baths were a central place in every city, baptism in religion as the start of a new life

A reminder for our approach to water be ecumenical - diversify your Blue Mind activities. "Water balloons count!"

We've reduced water to hygiene and hydration, not the aesthetic. How do we fix the value equation?

The session ended with J picking up a blue marble from the center console of his car and holding it up to his phone camera. If we were all in person, he said, we would each receive one as a part of the Blue Marble Initiative:

I hope that you all enjoyed the notes and have an exceptional week. Thank you for your time, Amber