When you love something, you care for it. The blue spaces on our planet heal our bodies, minds and souls and in turn we want to look after them. Or at least that was what Dr Catherine Kelly experienced when, after her mum died, she turned to the sea for comfort.

The sea healed Dr Catherine Kelly

And in return she joined the beach clean-ups to help pick up all the rubbish and plastics left strewn along the beach and washed ashore from marine dumps.

BNG podcast

This week’s Brave New Girl podcast guest is Dr Catherine Kelly, an academic, a Brighton based wellbeing practitioner, member of the wild swimming group Salty Seabirds, and author of Blue Spaces: How and Why Water Can Makes you Feel Better; something she discovered when her mother died and she was drawn to the rural Irish coastline to heal.

Catherine and I discuss the trauma that brought her to the sea to heal, and later a terrifying near death experience of water, and finally back to to being at one with the sea as an everyday companion. Now as a well-being practitioner she is in the business of helping people find whatever it is that brings them calm, and often that is in or near water.

She shows us that no matter our circumstances or environment, we can all seek out blue spaces to help soothe our minds, bodies and souls. And in return for the health of our bodies we are more likely to care for the health of our planet.

3 Tips for using blue spaces to heal

• Take regular trips to the sea, lakes or rivers to heal, and swim within your limits

• If you can’t swim in those places, simply a walk or a quiet sit by water is calming

• Even hot and cold showers or epsom salt baths are restorative

You can find out more about Catherine’s work on www.corejourneys.com. Buy her book Blue Space at your favourite book store and follow her on Instagram @bluespaces_uk

Catherine says:

"If you want to get beach body ready, bring your body to the beach.".

Lou is an artist, author, award-winning filmmaker and host of Brave New Girl podcast. She founded Silk Studios - The Podcast Guest Agency to champion impact-driven women entrepreneurs with a mission, by guesting them on multiple podcasts across the globe.

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