Being by the seaside can relax mind, body and soul

Rab questions if it is the saltiness of sea air, the lack of visual stimulation or the openness and wide spaces of beaches and seascapes which help us unwind and enhance our happiness

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside. I expect you do too. Perhaps it’s one of the few things upon which the entire human race can unite. Being at the seaside is one of those experiences where something happens to you rather than you happening to something (as in outdoor sports activities and the likes). You feel yourself relaxing – being relaxed by your environment – and you probably sleep better.

It’s a bit of a conundrum. Why should this happen? Sea air is most usually mentioned. It will certainly be cleaner than urban traffic, and perhaps there are beneficial minerals in the saltiness.

Two university studies – one at Sussex and one at Stirling, as reported in The Sunday Post – have drawn attention to the mental health benefits of living by water; not just the sea, but rivers, lochs and even large ponds.

This follows the growing popularity of forest bathing, which has in common the effects of being in nature but also, like the sea – I was intrigued to learn – is good for us because of the comparative lack of visual stimulation.

At first, this didn’t make sense to me. Of course, there is plenty to look at in nature: trees, waves, distant hills. But I think the point is that these tend to be all of a piece. They cohere. They’re not bitty or separate, like traffic signs, lampposts, posters, billboards, other people, cars, bicyclists, dogs, buildings, buses, all of which in confined spaces conspire to overwhelm us.

The sea in particular offers the prospect of wide spaces in which you can see for miles, and the seaside sky is large. Wide open spaces always do it for me. It’s a positive trait I recognised even in otherwise dubious and barren islands.

Even a big car park, where the lack of surrounding buildings exposes an expanse of sky, can set my soul free. But to be by the sea – and I’m thinking of quiet shores rather than crowded beaches – is something else again.

It is not, of course, the be-all and end-all. I have lived by the sea but, of course, your happiness depends more on what else is happening in your life. I will be quite candid with you here and say that, in terms of the holistic effect on my spirit, winning the Lottery would probably enhance my happiness more than any amount of waves.

Or perhaps not. Of course, winning the Lottery would let me buy a house by the sea; perhaps even an entire island. Certainly, I don’t like to be away from the sea.

The Czech Republic, in the middle of mainland Europe, is one of the few foreign countries that I have visited and, while I found all of them discomfiting and peculiar, it was the worst of them. To live in so landlocked a place must be debilitating to the soul. Still, at least they don’t have surfers.

You can’t have everything in this world – one of its major design flaws – but, if you get the chance, grab as much sea, river or loch as you can. It’ll put you more in touch with yourself, instead of being bombarded by stimuli in the city, where it’s easy to feel like a fish out of water.

The seaside offers the prospect of wide open spaces from which you can see for miles.