The Ideal Place to Relax on Holidays and Weekends

Surprisingly, it's not a green space.

Being in nature is restorative. But I learned recently that there’s a better destination than a park, garden, or forest. The ideal place to relax is near water.

Recent experiments show that after just 2 minutes of viewing water outdoors, blood pressure and heart rate drop. It's more calming to look at a lake, pool, or stream than trees or grass. And wider bodies of water bring more tranquility—which helps to explain why even people who hate the sand often flock to the beach.

I’ve always loved being around water. Yet I wouldn’t have guessed that less than 2 minutes of looking at it is enough to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. The psychologists behind the research speculate that it may have evolutionary roots: since being attuned to visual cues for water helped our ancestors avoid dehydration, the mere sight of water can be a relief.

A growing body of evidence suggests that blue spaces can be more soothing than green spaces. Patients recovering from heart surgery felt less anxious—and requested less pain medicine—after looking at water than a forest. And for dental patients about to undergo surgery, hypnosis didn’t relax them, but viewing an aquarium did. As marine biologist Wallace Nichols wrote in Blue Mind, water tends to induce “a mildly meditative state characterized by calm, peacefulness, unity, and a sense of general happiness and satisfaction with life in the moment.”

Gazing at the mountains and the sky is a source of awe. But if you’re looking for a relaxing way to spend your upcoming holiday, you might visit a wide body of water.

As a Michigan native, my vote is for a lake. Oceans are cold, salty, and sharky.

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