Paddleboarding is the medicine we need

Our upcoming film night will explore Cal Major’s transformative journey from Land’s End to John O’Groats, and how paddleboarding can impact us, and the world we live in. Vitamin Sea beautifully shows how our personal connection to the ocean can help us to better experience and bond with our environment and our communities, and how this helps us, and the waters we paddle on to heal.

Most paddleboarders initially get involved in the sport because it’s fun and unpretentious. The reason it has become the world’s fastest growing watersport, though, is that it quickly becomes more than that to us. Paddleboarding is its own type of therapy, helping us to deal with the struggles of our stressful lives, and giving us the chance to better connect with friends, family, ourselves, and the world around us.

Water reduces stress and anxiety

Studies have consistently shown that simply being near water helps to reduce stress, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. This is likely due to a multitude of factors, from the soothing sound of lapping waves, to the social bonds we build spending time with people by the waterside, to simply taking a break from our everyday lives to play out in the sun. In that sense, paddleboarding is a great excuse to get out onto the water, but it’s much more than that. It also combines the soothing sensory experience of being on (and sometimes in) the water with the inherent benefits of cardiovascular full body exercise.

Physical and mental health are linked

Regular exercise is an important way to directly manage stress, and improve our mood. Moreover, general physical fitness is directly linked to higher energy levels, better and more regular sleep, and a stronger immune system. All of these combine to make us stronger, happier, and more active, while also making us more resistant to stress and illness. While exercise rarely acts as a cure for depression and anxiety, it’s an important part of managing symptoms, and fighting the root causes.

Connecting with the world around us

Most of us spend our lives rushing from one responsibility to another. We’re so engaged in our everyday issues that we lose our connection to the places and people around us. Paddleboarding gives us the opportunity to spend time with people we care about, and to learn to appreciate and care for our oceans, rivers, and lakes in the manner that they deserve.

Taking better care of our bodies of water and ourselves

Taking the time to enjoy the water around us, and to recognise the natural beauty we’re surrounded by gives us the incentive we need to preserve it, so that it can continue to provide the same benefits to us and our children in the future. Paddling down a coastline, as Cal Major has done, helps to show us something important: The same water washes up on all of our shores—all of us basically live together. It’s all of our responsibility to protect it together.

The ecosystems in and around the water play an essential part in creating and maintaining the environment we enjoy so much. Dealing with major challenges like climate change, plastic pollution, and chemical pollution is essential to preserving these ecosystems, and helping them to recover where they’ve already been damaged. Moreover, engaging with these issues directly helps to get us out into our natural environment, even more, helping to keep us outside and moving.

Paddleboarding is taking the world by storm, and it’s exactly what we need. By getting us out onto the water, it helps us to become healthier and happier, while giving us the chance to appreciate the value of—and do more for—our environment.

If you would like more information about our Mental Health fundraiser fill in the details below