Art and Well-being: The Ocean, Blue Mind, and the Calm You Can Bring Home

Art and Well-being: The Ocean, Blue Mind, and the Calm You Can Bring Home

The ocean. The waves lapping at my feet. My camera in my hands. I never get tired of looking at it: the vastness, the open horizon. I feel happy and serene standing at the water’s edge, and even more so underwater, swimming with fish, turtles and manta rays. For me, the ocean is a never-ending source of inspiration. Each wave is different, the color of the water changes with the light, and the retreating waves draw shapes on the sand where the sun plays with its reflection. I feel in harmony with it, and with myself.

Lately I’m drawn to slow shutter and ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) techniques, because they capture the calm, the vastness and the relaxing effect of the ocean.

 

Blue Mind

It turns out those feelings have a name: Blue Mind. In his 2014 book of the same title, the late marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols explored why water makes us feel this way. His research showed that being in, on, near or under water can reduce stress, calm the mind and support overall well-being. He said the ocean “helps us calm ourselves in an anxious world.” That’s exactly what I feel when I’m watching the water or swimming in it.

Slow shutter photograph of the ocean in soft blue and gray tones, with pale sky above and warm sand below.


Awe

Blue Mind has another ingredient: awe. Oceans, waterfalls and lakes are classic sources of it. In a 2012 study, psychologists Melanie Rudd, Kathleen Vohs and Jennifer Aaker found that people who felt awe sensed they had more time available, were more patient and reported greater life satisfaction.

I’m always in awe of the ocean, especially when I watch a mother whale and her calf swim and breach. Snorkeling or diving with turtles and fish, I lose all sense of time. I forget everything and I’m in the moment, enjoying the beauty of nature.

 

Sea turtle swimming in clear turquoise water, seen from above, with coral on the lower right.

 

On the Big Island of Hawaii, I’ve had the chance to snorkel with manta rays at feeding time. They pirouette like ballerinas from the bottom of the ocean to the surface, mouths wide open to catch as much zooplankton as they can, paying no attention to the humans watching in awe. My favorite memory is the first time my sister came with me. I could hear her laughing with pleasure through her snorkel each time a manta came close, at the end of its pirouette.

 

What happens when you look at art

You don’t have to be at the beach to feel some of this. A 2019 systematic review of 37 indoor experiments found that, in most studies using photos, videos and similar displays, viewing natural scenery led to more relaxed body responses than the control images. Real nature is wonderful, and a photograph of the ocean, a landscape or flowers can bring some of the same calm.

It shows up in healthcare settings too. A 2025 review of 25 studies of adult patients found that realistic nature imagery consistently reduced stress, anxiety and pain, and raised satisfaction with care. The effects were most evident during uncomfortable procedures and in waiting rooms. Other types of art showed weaker, less consistent benefits, and the authors note the evidence base is still small.

 

Calm blue bay at midday with a green mountain on the left, small boats near the horizon and white clouds reflected in the still water.

 

The evidence for art and well-being goes further. A landmark 2019 WHO Europe review of research from 2000 to 2019, including reviews that covered over 3,000 studies, found that the arts can improve both mental and physical health. Daisy Fancourt, who co-authored that review and now directs the WHO Collaborating Centre on Arts and Health at UCL, puts it this way: “If the arts were a pill, we would be taking it every single day.”

And looking at art counts too: a 2025 systematic review of 38 studies found that eudaimonic well-being, the sense that life is meaningful, purposeful and fulfilling, was the most consistently improved outcome after viewing art.

Museums are even catching on. This fall, the Honolulu Museum of Art opened “Vital Connections: Art & the Brain,” built with a local brain health institute. The nature section, “Connection to the Planet,” includes a large Richard Misrach photograph of calm ocean water. Kazuma Nakagawa, the neurologist who co-founded the institute, says looking at art is “a workout for the brain,” but only when we make a real connection with what we see. For me, that means pausing and getting lost in it.

 

Why I photograph the ocean this way

Photography relaxes me in two ways. When I’m out with my camera, observing the world around me, I can do what I can’t in a yoga class: empty my mind. I feel at peace and like myself. The second way is looking at a finished photograph. I feel the calm right away, and the pleasure of getting lost in it, especially with my slow shutter and ICM prints of the ocean and sky. They’re soothing, a window onto that immensity. They translate the Blue Mind feeling so well that when I look at them on my wall, I can hear the ocean.

 

Slow shutter photograph of the ocean with a warm orange glow along the horizon above blue-gray water streaked in horizontal lines.

 

The ocean is my greatest inspiration, whether I’m on the beach, on the water or under it, getting lost in that same vast blue.

 

Bringing the calm home

One of the best rooms to hang a nature print, especially a soft one of the ocean, is your bedroom. You can unwind before you fall asleep, and when you wake up, you have a few minutes to pause and breathe before starting your day.

 

Bedroom with a large framed slow shutter ocean photograph in blue tones hanging above a wooden headboard, white bedding and a gray-blue wall.

 

Some doctors are starting to treat art as part of care. The idea of “arts on prescription,” where a doctor prescribes a museum visit alongside medication, exercise and diet, is gaining traction in places including France, Canada, England, Germany and Switzerland. It’s still new in the United States, with only a handful of programs, though Dr. Nakagawa is working on a pilot at a Honolulu hospital.

Art for your home is an act of care. Slow down, get lost in it, and dream.

 

Come in and linger in my Abstract Ocean and Sky gallery, a peaceful, dreamy collection.

If you’d like to keep talking about art and the stories behind my photography, I’d love to have you on my list. Subscribe here.

 

Talk to you soon, à bientôt,

Laurence

 

 

 

 

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