Stand Up Paddle boarding (SUP) is great for your wellbeing
Why is Stand Up Paddle Boarding great for your wellbeing?
As humans, the ability to respond and recover from the stresses and challenges of daily life depends on the actions of our nervous system. Our nervous system is regulated for the main by your vagus nerve. Just like toning a muscle you can stimulate your vagus nerve to achieve good vagal tone and paddle sports, cold water swimming, singing, laughing, and humming are all activities that do this.
As we emerge from the collective trauma that was the pandemic it is now even more important to seek out activities that help you to regulate out of stress and into restoration.
Being on and around water does exactly this helping you to switch into your parasympathetic nervous system, reducing your stress response and in turn your heart rate and blood pressure.
5 Reasons Why Paddle Sports are great for your wellbeing:
How exactly does paddling help our wellbeing?
The New Eeconomics Foundation devised a useful structure for approaches to wellness ‘The Five Ways to Wellbeing ‘:
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Connect
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Be active
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Take notice
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Keep learning
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Give
These five elements can be translated into paddle sports in many ways! For instance:
Connect with others in nature
Latest neuroscience has found that we need connections to help us to self regulate and in order to survive. Connections with others on the water, in a club or just a social paddle helps our nervous system to coregulate both on and off the water.
Be Active in Blue Space
It is easy to see how paddle sports tick the ‘active’ box so no further explanation needed here.
Notice Your Surroundings and it’s impact on you
Being ‘mindful’ or simply noticing how you feel when you are on the water, before and after your paddle can help you to tune into your inner landscape Sometimes we get too busy thinking about what is coming next or dwelling on things that have happened in the past that we forget to live in the moment. Paddling brings us back into our bodies and out of our heads, into ‘being’ with whatever is going on in the environment rather than ruminating on ‘to do lists’ or if you should have done done or said something differently. None of that matters in the moment that is just you, your trusty steed and your paddle.
We can enhance this by being intentional, by purposefully noticing your surroundings when out on the water, what sounds can you hear, maybe birds, maybe the water itself, what textures and colours can you see and how does the air feel on your skin.
Learn About Blue Spaces and their Ecosystems
There are always new techniques to learn, new waterways to paddle, and new safety factors to consider. As well as learning more about the blue spaces that you are in, make a point of learning more about the wildlife that lives there and how your presence affects it. Maybe you can impress your friends with your wildlife facts on your next social paddle…
Give back to others and to nature
Give back to the spaces you use by picking up rubbish, reporting dead or entangled wildlife and by lifting others around you with that big grin after a great day on the water. There are plenty of groups that you can volunteer with to give back and support the water. Volunteering has been found to reduce stress, increase happiness, develop confidence and increase your sense of purpose. Dr Catherine Kelly has written a book all about the benefits of Blue Spaces and was inspired to do so after her scientific paper ‘I need the sea and the sea needs me’ was picked up by the Guardian.
Learn how to paddle board with a blue health coach
To benefit from the wellbeing benefits of paddle boarding in Sussex, join us for a social SUP or a lesson.