The Aquatic Mind and Body
Photo Credit: Michael G W Wong, GreenLeafAquariums
BY SOPHIA BROOKS
The pounding of a waterfall, bubbling of a creek, crashing of waves; all sounds of water used to lull us into calmness. Through the last few months as we’ve been in quarantine, the draw to nature and the outside world has grown. Casual research has led many to investigate coping mechanisms for this sudden divide between us and the outside world; one such popular method being the introduction of nature to one's home. The beneficial impacts of nature on our physical and mental health have become more commonly known through this age of outdoor withdrawal, leading more people to invest in the natural enrichment of their homes through plants and animals.
Many plant enthusiasts from the pre-covid era were the unrecognized doomsday preppers, now guiding many novice plant parents into their green world; but the diligently prepping nature aquarist’s are overlooked in all this. Nature aquariums pose some of the same benefits as keeping plants; they clean and filter indoor air by producing oxygen and intaking airborne particles, reduce stress, blood pressure and heart rate, and boost productivity and mood. Aquariums have some unique benefits of their own, proving to be therapeutic to hyperactivity and Alzheimer’s patients through their ability to absorb sound and create natural background noise along with concentration and calmness from observing fish swim. The positive effects of aquariums increase relative to biodiversity; a wider variety of plants and fish results in an increase in mental health benefits, and a decrease in detrimental health effects.
How will bringing an aquarium into your space change it? Adding an aquarium to your space creates a focal point of concentration. Societies build around bodies of water like lakes and ponds, or small scale fountains in courtyards; water brings us to a place of concentration. Plants struggle to directly guide us to this place of concentration in their Fibonacci fractals, but water in it’s rippling fluidity allows for physical and mental centering. Diving deeper, an aquarium also acts as an ongoing artist collaboration between you and nature, allowing your creativity to flow through a natural medium.
The idea of bringing a small aquatic biome into your own home may sound daunting or even impractical, but the variety in size and content makes them practical and accessible to a plethora of spaces. A nature aquarium is not your typical goldfish in a fish bowl, nor do they even always have fish. The goal of a nature aquarium is to bring what appears to be a piece of the aquatic world into your space. This is most easily done with tropical freshwater ecosystems as plant life helps significantly in regulating water qualities and can be done on smaller scales, friendly to urban spaces.
The construction of a nature tank should not feel like building something out of an Ikea catalogue, but rather contribute to the therapeutic feeling by manipulating natural components into your own creation. By creating what feels natural to you, you bring the nature of your mind into your space.
Note on Aquariums:
If you have not kept aquariums before, it is highly recommended that you do research on what you can humanely keep depending on your budget (ie. goldfish in a bowl is not safe or humane for the fish) or consult a fish or aquarium specialist.