Irish surfer Dr Easkey Britton’s new book Ebb & Flow shows how to reconnect with the healing power of water …
Those who swim in cold water know of its extraordinary ability to connect us more closely with our bodies and our sense of self. For Donegal-based surfer, marine social scientist and author Dr Easkey Britton, cold water is the ultimate leveller. “It is as if we are stripped of all our pretence, stereotype or swagger. The commitment required to immerse the body in cold water breeds authenticity and trust,” she writes in her 2021 book Saltwater in the Blood.
In her latest offering, Ebb & Flow, Connect with the Patterns and Power of Water, Britton draws on her learnings as a marine scientist and long-time surfer, while calling on insights from indigenous traditions and marginalised people and the latest in cutting-edge research. She outlines how by restoring our relationship with the ebbs and flows of water we can equally begin to restore our own health.
“Water acts as a powerful mirror,” Britton explains. “In it we see ourselves and are reminded of our capacity to be like water; of our remarkable potential to recover and return to wholeness; to move fluidly and find flow and to embrace the unknown”. Hardly surprising as the story of life begins in water and the human body comprises 60-70 per cent water which is replaced 17 times a year. And, as she writes, “as we learn to be more like water, we become more fluid in our responses and less reactive, no longer resisting but able to flow and be more present with what is.”
The term “Blue Mind Theory” was popularised by marine biologist Dr Wallace Nichols to explain the deep connection between humans and water and how this association positively impacts both mind and body. Now, as science uncovers more about the flow state which has been linked with enhanced creativity, improved sleep and feelings of peace and fulfilment, among other benefits, renewing our relationship with water is even more important.
“For me it is less about trying to change things and more about how we choose to be with the way things are in life. Like the flow of the water cycle, renewing our relationship with water is a cyclical tale of rhythm and movement, giving and receiving, inhalation and exhalation, ebb and flow where water is at the beginning and end of every cycle of life,” explains Britton.
Using water as a powerful metaphor for living with more presence and flow, she outlines simple techniques and practices to invite more flow into our lives, with practical exercises we can take to the shoreline – from listening to the ocean, to specific breathwork and journaling to cultivate our own ebb and flow.
“We are cyclical beings, living in a modern society that reveres and values a more linear notion of what success might be and this is leading to burnout and everything that goes with it,” she warns. Ebb & Flow is an invitation to live more in tune with the cyclical nature of water, and by doing so, to restore both the water and our own health and wellbeing. “For me, the ocean, with the ebb and flow of its tides, is a place of connection and constancy that teaches me to be fully present with whatever may be in my life, which comes from years of saltwater leaving its residue on my skin. After all, I am a large part water – aren’t we all?”
