I’m going to blame epigenetics for this one (albeit very loosely) but with parents who both grew up by the beach I’ve somehow inherited a love for sun, sand and sea. And while I enjoy being near the water in any form I can get, there’s something magical and therapeutic about walking alongside the ocean while taking in so many beach benefits.
As a child we moved around – a lot – and I remember by father instilling the need (where possible) to live by the water or with ocean views. I didn’t quite understand it at the time but I’ve followed suit in a lot of my subsequent adult rentals including the beautiful bay that I live by now and which, every morning, I walk or run along.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, water is the most yin of all the elements and its imbalance can result in anxiety and fear, panic attacks and phobias, making water’s stillness and fluidity both calming and relaxing. If there is any emotion I need to keep in check the most it’s anxiety and there’s nothing like an early morning walk by the water to calm the nerves, clear the mind and energise the spirit. Perhaps this is what my father was getting at.
Water is one thing but sunshine, sand and salty-air is on a whole other level!
It will come as no surprise then that we are are ‘beach family’ and by that I mean any holiday opportunity was given over to beach destinations – from the Gold Coast to Penang, Hawaii to Hua Hin, holidays first and foremost were about fun in the sun and salty sea days. A trait I largely continue whenever the chance arises, even if it is just for the day, because the beach truly can be a place of healing.
From the vitamin D your skin is absorbing from the sun to the sand between your toes, the salty air you are breathing to the mineral-rich water you’re bathing in, the beach is one of the cheapest forms of wellness therapies I know of. Personally, I prefer a long stretch of sand to a cove where I can walk and walk, with my feet in the water and the sun on my back, occasionally splashing water on my face and through my hair (a tip I learned from my mother).
And not just high-summer but all year round these benefits are up for grabs. I’m already planning my next visit because I couldn’t live without it.
