A lush introduction to 'blue health', The Healing Power of Water shows how spending time near, in and on water can calm stress, boost clarity, and restore body and mind.
From coastlines and rivers to lakes and rain, Blue Mind spokesperson and ocean activist
Lizzi Larbalestier combines scientific research and lived experience to explain why water heals and how to access its benefits.
This richly illustrated guide includes:
- Guided practices: breathwork, short meditations, and sensory exercises you can do wherever you are.
- Practical activities: rituals and thought experiments, as well as physical activities such as snorkelling and surfing, to cultivate simple everyday habits and bring blue health into your routine.
- Evidence and explanation: accessible summaries of the latest research on how water improves health and the scientific research that underpins it.
- Eco-centred perspective: reflections on stewardship and how deepening your relationship with water supports planetary as well as personal wellbeing.
- Beautiful imagery: evocative photography and illustrations that make the book a tactile, coffee-table companion as well as a practical manual.
Whether you live by the sea or seek calm in a busy city, The Healing Power of Water gives clear, science-informed tools to reduce anxiety, sharpen attention, and cultivate a more fluid way of living. This is the perfect book for wellness readers, mindfulness practitioners, and anyone wanting a deeper connection with water.
Let
The Healing Power of Water be your invitation to
slow down and rediscover what flows beneath the surface of modern life. By engaging with blue health, you'll not only
restore your own equilibrium but help
protect the planet's most vital resource.
For more ways to connect with nature, discover other books in the series,
The Healing Power of Trees and
The Healing Power of Sound.
Lizzi Larbalestier is a PCC Professional Executive Coach, the founder of Going Coastal Blue, and the creator of the Blue Health Coach(TM) training program - the first professional outdoor coach training program to be accredited and recognized globally by ICF (International Coaching Federation) - with water at its heart. In addition to this she is the designer and co-developer of the IOS Blue Health mobile app.
Lizzi has been coastal coaching since 2009, and as an ICF coach Supervisor and Mentor, she is considered a thought leader in the field of nature-connected coaching, promoting and advocating partnering with blue spaces through events, workshops, and as a keynote speaker.
Her 2013 Master of Arts thesis studied ambiguity tolerance, asking how and why some of us are more certainty-reliant than others, exploring the very nature of risk and control and discovering how we can orientate, and navigate during transitional times. Her research was (of course) carried out along the shoreline to invite some lessons from the coast, and her questioning aimed to provoke curiosity regarding the subtle interplay of time, space and energy.
Her work balances internal alignment (regulating the nervous system) and external connection (accessing wisdom from nature) to enable clients to find greater comfort with the analogue world and a more coherent approach to decision making.
Lizzi has received a number of awards for both her professional and voluntary activities, including the Global Blue Mind Award in 2018, a Points of Light Award from the UK Prime Minister in 2021 and a Global Animal Action Award from IFAW in 2023.
Her experience with behavioural modelling is applied in every aspect of her life and work. She is a systems thinker, passionate about the interconnection of all things and considers her coaching work, animal welfare activities, ocean advocacy, climate activism and circular economy projects to be ALL facets of Blue Health.
Lizzi is an advocate of Blue Mind and spends the majority of her free time walking and swimming in a variety of coastal locations around Cornwall with her husband 'JKL' and dog Goose. This book is an invitation to connect and fall in love with water in the many ways it shows up in your life, to experience the healing power of water AND (importantly) to remember to protect these amazing places and spaces.
Nikki, aka the BareFoot Photographer, is self-taught and shares the world as she sees it through the lens of her camera, poetry and prose.
In our fast-paced, technology-driven lives, where noticing feels like a dying art, Nikki uses photography and the written word to connect both herself and others to the natural environment, encouraging everyone to take a moment to marvel, wonder, and notice.
She is heavily influenced by natural light, the green and the blue, endeavoring to capture the magic of moments and focusing the senses beyond what is readily visible.
Living in Scilly, life is dominated and influenced by nature and the elements, both of which impact and mold what Nikki sees and shares through the lens of her camera.
