Healing The Mind Through Surfing Therapy

Surfing is a challenging sport that works like therapy to help fight the demons that try to manipulate the mind. While surfing cannot completely cure your emotional and mental issues, the sport can bring a smile to your face. A physical activity in a beautiful location surrounded by water brings a lot of positive benefits to the immune system, articulations, and breathing. 

Surfing and its power to heal the mind

Surfing is prescribed by doctors to people who are recovering from mental illnesses because the sport has the power to heal. Catching the waves work like medicine that deals with depressive symptoms, negative thoughts, irritability, insomnia, anxiety, bipolar disorders, and self-destructive behaviours. Surfing clears and soothes the mind and balances the emotions. 

People who actively surf knows how the sport reduces stress boosts the mood, and helps in overcoming loss and grief. Surfing blends physical exercises with meditative experiences to improve physical fitness while clearing the mind. It allows you to understand what is really important and what matters most to your life. 

After actively surfing and maintaining regular wave riding activity, persons suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have reported improvements in their sleep and significant reductions in their stress and anxiety. Surfing is fun and enjoyable and can easily take your mind away from your problems. Surfing allows the mind to focus on something that is totally unrelated to your problems. Water is well known for its soothing and healing effects on the body. People suffering from PTSD are guaranteed stress-free healing without any drug intervention. 

Surfing is a challenging and tiring sport that requires commitment, dedication, and lots of physical endurance which allows a person to fall asleep quicker. Given that people who are suffering from PTSD have difficulty sleeping, surfing can help them enjoy a good’s night sleep. According to a research that was conducted by the American Navy, surfing helps treat insomnia, poor sleep, and symptoms of depression. 

Several medical pieces of evidence reveal that movement and physical effort can encourage metabolic processes to occur in the brain. This means that physical exercises have the power to heal the brain. Exercising in the natural environment like the water can calm the mind and rejuvenate the body in ways that medications can’t. Surfing therapy is so beneficial that it is being considered by many organizations for PTSD treatment.

For those suffering from PTSD, the important thing is to find ways that will help them heal and recover. Surfing therapy is an effective non-pharmacological therapeutic option but it is important to understand the underlying reason for the disorder. In addressing both the symptoms and underlying conditions, other physiological treatments like Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) may be considered. 

Surfing Treatments are essential parts of any recovery program for trauma and depression. The therapeutic effects of surfing are becoming increasingly evident in many psychological researches. When a person is completely focused on riding the wave, everything else disappears including the problems and mental health issues. 

Wayne Whitehurst