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Three days after my mum was diagnosed with a late-stage cancer, I found myself at the seaside. I was in Falmouth, it was my birthday, and I had booked a weekend away at a spa hotel with my partner and our dog.
The whole weekend quickly went down hill, though. The dog was recovering from surgery, my partner got food poisoning and I was consumed by the wrenching fear of losing my mum at 28. There was nothing a spa hotel could do for me now, so I left the boys in the bedroom and walked to the nearest beach.
For mid-June, it was actually incredibly cold. The wind whipped around my ears and the ocean looked angry. It was not the kind of weather for a day at the seaside. Nevertheless, flip-flops on, I walked myself right into the water until I was shin deep in its ice-cold mass. I let the waves wash over my knees, and left my feet to go numb until my calves ached. It wasn’t pleasant, but it felt good.
And so I began to cry. That sort of visceral, full-body bawl that comes with intense heartache. But as quickly as it began the tears stopped and, for a brief moment, there was nothing else. It was just me and the elements, and staring out at the seemingly endless, great grey Atlantic, I found a sense of calm.
This wasn’t the first time I’d turned to the ocean for solace. When my last relationship was on the rocks, we took a weekend away in Brighton to find space for thinking, feeling and talking. And when I was studying in Dorset, yoga on the sandy beach at Boscombe was my saviour. There’s something undeniably healing about the sea air and the rhythm of the waves crashing on the shore. Especially in Britain, where wild waters and windy coastal paths make for unpredictable escapes from the monotony of real life.
Now, more than ever, I need that ocean. And yet I’m landlocked in lockdown, my closest waterway the sludgy brown River Thames. No match for the mighty seas.
So what is it about the coast? Why do we like to be beside the seaside? Brits have long flocked to the seaside for family holidays and romantic getaways. The Victorians made seaside towns like Bournemouth, Blackpool and Margate popular for this sort of thing. They built piers so you could get out on the water, and grand mansions atop cliffs to serve as hotels. Later, holiday parks and resorts popped up along the coastline to facilitate even more seaside fun.
But we don’t just love the coast for its beaches. It’s genuinely good for our health. Scientific studies have shown that better physical and mental health is prevalent along the coastlines in England, and in 2019, a survey by a (somewhat invested) yacht company found that over half of Brits feel calmest when listening to the sounds of the ocean.
Environmental Psychologist Lee Chambers says it’s all about the multi-sensory experience we get by being by or in the sea. “The ocean has a unique way of boosting us as humans, and that’s on both a psychological and neuroscientific level.
“The minerals in sea air reduce stress levels due its negatively charged ions. As you breathe them in, they help to combat free radicals [unpaired electrons] in your body, helping to make you feel more alert and focused.”
In the water itself, he tells me, there’s tryptamine and serotonin, which helps preserve those levels in the brain which make us feel more balanced internally. “It increases your overall sense of wellness,” Chambers says.
The final thing he notes is the sound. To listen to the waves landing on the shoreline is to alter your brain patterns. It can put you into a meditative, relaxed state – and it’s that state that I’m yearning for now. I distinctly remember the best night’s sleep I ever had was in a hotel in the Isles of Scilly. I’d walked the wild and windy coastal path on St Martin’s all afternoon, and later, with the windows of my beachfront bedroom open, I was lulled into slumber by the monotony of the waves slumping onto the sand.
So can I replicate that same feeling at home, over 60 miles away from the nearest sea view? The answer, in short, is no. Chambers specialises in creating ‘regenerative environments’ in the workplace – spaces where people will feel their best and perform at their highest. His best suggestion for me right now is to utilise the devices I have around me – find some ocean soundtracks, he says, or watch some videos on YouTube.
But let’s face it, that’s not quite going to hit the mark. What I need – really need – is a bracing walk atop the cliffs of the Jurassic Coast. I need to fling myself off a rock and into the astoundingly turquoise seas in Pembrokeshire. Or perhaps I need to be marooned again on St Martin’s in the Isles of Scilly, with no choice but to sit and look and listen to the blue body around me.
That’s why the moment we get the word ‘go’, whatever the weather, I’ll make a beeline for the coast – any one will do – to get my fix of the gloriously unpredictable and miraculously healing British seaside. Maybe I’ll even take my mum.
Where will you be going, once the coronavirus lockdown is lifted? Comment below to join the conversation.
