Posted: May 12, 2021
Appreciating Water: #2 Water as a place of calm
Appreciating Water is a blog series from Youth Water Leader Julie Breslin, about her relationship with water and how it has been formed over the course of her life and experience being a youth water leader.
I have always struggled with mental illness. I was an anxious child, an anxious teenager, and I am now an anxious adult. As a kid, I spent a lot of time outside, being active, which helped control my anxiety. But as a teenager, I started having intense panic attacks that I could not get a handle on. I would retreat into myself, and I went outside considerably less because I was terrified. In my last blog, I mentioned how my friends had beach parties at Mooney’s Bay that helped me relax and find calm while the rest of my life was not.
I genuinely find myself gravitating toward the water whenever I have a hard day. After the beach parties ended, I would find myself walking along the parkway, walking to Andrew Hayden park, going to the lighthouse to look at the river and breathe. There is nothing like being by the water. My favourite places in the city are all around the water; my favourite walk is along the canal. I have spent many days walking around hog’s back, walking along the Water around Carleton.
Water has been essential to me during the past year. During the past year’s lockdowns, I have spent a lot of time by the water walking. The water reminds me that we are all connected even though we have to remain distant from each other. It reminds me that the world is more than just me and my brain. It reminds me that it carries and nourishes life. The water is my peace; I feel it flowing through my body; I picture it when I can’t be near it to calm down. And now that I’ve been a youth water leader, I am more determined than ever to protect this beautiful watershed and help others protect it.
Thank you for sharing such a personal connection to water. I agree that our mental wellbeing is intimately connected to environmental health. There are more and more studies demonstrating the importance of “blue health” as well as the important health benefits that come from green spaces. On the flip side, when water or land is damaged we can also feel this in our bodies. People call this solastagia.