Wallace J. Nichols
Appearances
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
So yes, it is a thing. It's deeply, innately part of being a human being on a water planet. We respond to water in all of its forms immediately and instinctively. So we've exploited that in all kinds of ways in terms of modern society. But it really goes back to
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
Slam dunk, right? It's over. It was maybe a tweet, and that's about it. The reality is it is maybe the most important conversation we could be having right now. Water helps us to relax. It helps us to be more creative. It helps to connect us to each other. It connects us to ourselves. And it is the basis of all life. So it is a big, wide-reaching conversation.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
Yeah. Well, lots of people have had that experience of getting unstuck while sitting in a bathtub, that eureka moment, or standing in the shower and you say, oh, that's it. That's the solution. That's the line. That's the lyric. That's the line of code.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
And what happens when we're by the water, it quiets down a lot of the background noise that can be distracting and take us off of the task at hand. sitting by the water or floating on the water, literally standing, soaking in the water, switched switches us into this mode that I call blue mind, that allows our brain to do things that we we don't do as well when we're distracted, when we're
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
taking care of the busyness around us when there are external screens or voices or leaf blowers or blenders or whatever's going on. When we get to the water, the water helps with that. It simplifies things and allows us to focus. So that's where the poetry occurs or the song lyrics or the insights. And we've all experienced it in different ways throughout our lives.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
But it's nice to tag it and say, this actually does work. Are there not people who this does not apply? I have not met anyone yet. So if you can think of someone, feel free to offer. But I like to ask people, what's your water? And then listen to their story. And I haven't met anybody that hasn't had a fascinating personal answer to that simple question. I'm looking. I'm open to it.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
But certainly there are people who are scared of being in the water or underwater or who don't like to swim and don't like boats. But they do enjoy water in the way that they enjoy water, whatever that may be. Drinking it, sitting by it, listening to it, just looking out over it, taking a bath, taking a shower. We're not trying to make everybody a surfer or a scuba diver or an Olympic swimmer.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
It's meeting people where they live in terms of their water relationship.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
It sometimes gets poetic, and people will say, my water is a someone. They think of the person who took them to the water. I think of my father, and he taught us to swim when we were kids. So I can say, my water is my father. He was my guide. He was the bridge. Sometimes people refer to food. Food is mostly water. They'll say, well, my water is my garden.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
So it isn't always a majestic body of water or an immersive experience. It can be something much more subtle.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
Yeah. Well, some people say, I'm more of a mountain person. And I say, that's great. And when you go to the mountains, is there snow? Are there lakes? Maybe rivers or creeks? Do you gravitate to those places? And they say, well, as a matter of fact, I do. And it's just a short step from there to, well, that's water, that's snow, that ice, that lake, that river.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
It's not a competition between the mountains and the ocean.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
We did this big experiment recently called the pandemic. And people went into various kinds of lockdowns. And what we found is that people missed the water dearly. The people who had access to it fared better. The people who could go out their backyard and run to the beach or go to the lake or the river could walk to it.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
Those who had a hot tub, a spa, or a pool that they could access when we were in this lockdown mode. And then people freaked out when they shut down the beaches. And they said, no, you're not even allowed to go to the beach. You can't even swim. You have to stay away. And they started arresting people with their surfboards. That was a really interesting experiment. And people really got it.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
They said, wow, when you take that away from me, that made people really uncomfortable. We are water beings on a water planet. And when you cut us off from it, it feels bad.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
Yeah, when we take it apart, we pull this concept apart into its components, like we like, we like to do that as scientists, and look at it through each of the senses. There's a special thing that water does related to each of our senses. Now, the way we experience it, in fact, is all together. So you pull it apart to study it. But then the the actual experience of blue mind is
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
all of it together at the same time so you you taste it and you smell it and you hear it and you feel it so if you jump into a body of water you're getting the the multi-sensory experience if you're looking merely looking at a nice video of some waves on your laptop it may be purely visual if you turn up the volume you might get the wave sound that's nice but it really goes to the next level when you
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
use all of your senses you know the somatic experience of water of the water really surrounding you and touching all of your your skin cells at the same time um the pressure of it the buoyancy of it the temperature of it so it's all of that at the same time and so as we pull it apart we we can kind of look at what makes it special in each of its components
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
But the experience of Blue Mind is a simultaneous sensory experience. And there's really nothing quite like it. I mean, really, the best comparison in our lives is to music, the way music can bring you up and take you down and move you and boost your creativity.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
pull your emotions around, and music that we like to get us going in the morning, and music that helps us relax, and music that makes us sad, other songs that make us happy. You can feel the music kind of hitting you when you're at a concert. That's really the best comparison would be to music. Water and music together, well, that's really extra special.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
That's right. You can play music that bothers you. Sometimes my kids play music. It's not my style. I ask them to turn it down or turn it off. You can blow your eardrums out if it's too loud. It can be distracting and annoying. And like water, it's dangerous. There is a downside. And I think that tension adds to the experience. With the ocean, the ocean deserves our respect.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
A big river, a frozen lake requires our knowledge and our respect in order to approach it correctly and safely. So that tension actually adds a component to this experience.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
And hopefully you're starting to understand why. We started at how is this conversation any more than just a tweet? And now here we go. Now we're going down the path and understanding why sitting by that lake means
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
it holds you in that place and pulls you back and psychologists call it soft fascination so it holds you in that place it doesn't overwhelm you the lake isn't chattering and telling you things and and distracting you it's holding your attention though it's giving you just enough visual and auditory stimulation that you go this is this is interesting but it's not requiring you to process words and images and language
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
and and solve puzzles so it allows you to kick back and create and or have a conversation with someone you care about while being held in this place of soft fascination that's mildly mesmerizing and soothing and you know to kind of extend that
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
It also pulls us at romantic moments, at memorialization moments where we want to go deeper emotionally with someone or with a group of people, sacred vows or commitments to each other. So it's almost a cliche that ceremonies are held by the water and honeymoons go to the water and memorializations happen by the water.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
And we don't really think about that, but we just kind of go there to do those things because the water brings this multisensory experience that doesn't overwhelm us. It's not like loud music or a big show. It's just the perfect backdrop to these important moments in our lives from birth all the way through death.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
That's right. They will pay sometimes 1,000% premium for that water view in some locations. On average, across the US, it's a 40% premium. And it's lakes, rivers, oceans, bays, any kind of water. The proximity to water imparts a very significant financial or economic premium on real estate. And if you ask people, why are you willing to pay, let's say, double for this, they aren't exactly sure.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
but they are willing to pay it if of course they have the money. And sometimes when they don't, they'll go further into debt, pay a bigger mortgage in order to have this feeling. And so it's an emotional response that drives real world hard money decisions.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
And again, to me, that's worth understanding a bit better because it's such a big part of who we are and the decisions we make and how we live.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
It's the biggest premium in real estate terms. Of course, access to good public transportation and good schools and great restaurants and so-called green space parks. Yes, of course, we'd like those too. Walkability is an index that you see. Is the community walkable? Well, that's really great too. There's a premium there. But you throw an ocean view outside your window,
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
And in places like Del Mar, California, it's literally 1,000% premium compared to that second row, the house right behind that one. It might be a million-dollar house, but the one in the front row is a $10 million house. You go, what the heck is going on there that makes that premium pop so much?
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
And, you know, to my mind, I just I want to understand that better because it is such a strong driver of how we live.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
Right. And if you took that family that just piled it in the car together and pulled them aside each one at a time and said, what are you getting out of this? You'd get a variety of answers. Right. Maybe mom and dad are going to say, this is de-stress. It's a hard work week. It's been a rough month. And I get a little bit of relief from my stressful life.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
The kids are going to go for the play part. It's joyful, it's playful. They get to run around, a sense of freedom. Maybe life in the city is just a little more boxed up, but life at the beach, you can run in every direction and you can jump in the water and you can dig and you can play and you can throw the ball, throw the Frisbee, whatever it is.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
um maybe you get to see dolphins maybe you get to see crabs scurrying around there's a there's an element of play to it and then in the evening the sunset maybe there's some some calm romantic moment there that pulls people together and and then the other piece of this conversation uh sleep comes comes on better.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
People say they sleep better when they've spent the day in the water or near the water, or they can hear the sound of the water. That plays out in all these popular sleep apps. The number one downloads are ocean sounds, rain sounds, creek sounds, nature sounds. We know that when we vacation by the water, we sleep better. All of that. That's why we pile into the car.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
and take the journey and go to the edge of the water.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
Well, I guess my mission in life right now is to make this common knowledge. I'd like every human being, all eight billion of us, to understand their own blue mind and then apply it accordingly where they live and how they live.
Something You Should Know
When to Quit and Walk Away & Why We Are Drawn to the Water - SYSK Choice
Water helps us to relax. It helps us to be more creative. It helps to connect us to each other. It connects us to ourselves. And it is the basis of all life. We've all experienced it, but it's nice to tag it.