Sailing is easily one of the best ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle. It gives so much more than pleasure and adventure high as it offers numerous health benefits that no other leisurely activity could easily provide. Constant exposure to the sound of water, the sea, and its breeze will give you a different kind of euphoria that no other activity can provide. This is why all of the world’s top millionaires have their own boats. It’s not the luxe alone that it provides. It’s so much more than that. If you’re after living a long healthy life, it’s high time that you consider sailing. To make you understand just how healthy sailing can be for you and your family, we will share the many health benefits that it offers.
The Top 8 Health Benefits of Sailing
Benefit #1: Improved Heart Health
Sailing will give you a stronger heart. This will be the case even if you’re not the one sailing the boat. Mere constant movement (even sitting) around the boat while sailing at sea will force your body to use many of your muscles that you don’t normally use. This will be the case because your body will naturally move to counteract the flow of the waves. Going sailing will also likely make you participate in more physical activities like diving, snorkeling, swimming, or walking.
Your heart will get all the more stronger if you’d personally do all the sailing work. Hoisting, pulling, or trimming a sail will superbly build and strengthen your muscles. As your heart gets stronger, your agility, coordination, and physical endurance will also greatly improve.
Benefit #2: Improved Physical Fitness
Constant movement will easily make you more fit and healthy. This level of wellness improvement causes such a different kind of high because it will not involve any exercise or diet whatsoever. Simply sailing and moving about will improve your body’s flexibility and muscular strength. You’d be amazed at how you’d find yourself always feeling stronger and lighter right after every sailing trip.
Benefit #3: Lowered Stress Levels
People who need a solid break from the busy demands of everyday life find themselves aching for and wanting to go on a sailing holiday. This is because sailing is a deeply refreshing, relaxing, and rejuvenating activity. Sailing can effectively reduce one’s stress. This is the case because the following induces a meditative state in one’s body:
- the sound of the wind
- the sound of the waves
- splashing water
- the feel of sea breeze on one’s face and body
- the rocking movement of a boat
Your meditative state will all the more be improved if you’d sail into a completely new area that you have yet to explore. Thailand is such an ideal place to visit if you want to explore something new. You’d love how you’d easily get to enjoy world-class accommodations at extremely low prices. When in Thailand, look for yacht hire in Phuket to see just how sailing can remove all of your stress away.
Benefit #4: Improved Mental Health
It is extremely rare to be at sea or at the beach and see people who feel down and out. People who hang out by the beach and those who regularly sail are always in a chirpy, cheery, and positive mood. This is because sailing and doing any activity by the sea and on the sea is extremely good for one’s mental health. So much so that people who feel low always opt for the beach or the sea when they want an immediate pick-me-upper. This is because the sea improves a person’s serotonin levels through the following:
- Soothing sounds of the wind and waves
- Salty air charged with ions that boost one’s absorption of oxygen
Serotonin is a chemical that our bodies produce to stabilize our moods. People with anxiety or depression have unstable levels of serotonin. Sailing or a trip to the beach can stabilize one’s serotonin levels. Hence, people who sail and hang out by the beach are always happier. This is because they have steady levels of serotonin.
Benefit #5: Improved Emotional Intelligence
Emotionally intelligent people are gifted with the ability to easily manage, use, and understand emotions that smoothly enable them to cope with stress, overcome troubles, resolve conflicts, empathize, and communicate. Sailing improves one’s emotional intelligence because it brings people together. Being with people will allow you to become a better team player and communicator. You’d get to interact with different people and be fully aware of verbal and non-verbal communication while having a good time.
Benefit #6: Improved Diet
Sailing will improve your diet because you will have access to fresh seafood and vegetables from different remote places. You’d load up on seafood rich with omega-3 and fatty acids that will boost your brain’s power.
Benefit #7: Improved Personal Control
Sailing will improve your capacity to be fully in control because it will present situations where you need to apply strong organizational skills. It would require you to precisely plan ahead for everything. You will have no choice but to be fully dedicated to meticulously arranging and preparing for your needs and your guests’ needs.
Benefit #8: Improved Capacity to Concentrate
Sailing will improve your capacity for focus. This is because being on deck will require you to be mentally alert at all times. You’d be intensely multitasking while on deck because you’d be doing the following:
- Sailing
- Constant observation of sea conditions
- Constant checking of the weather
- Constant reconfirming of speed and course
- Constant tending to the needs of your staff and your guests
You’d be amazed at how sailing will easily train you to quiet all the mental noise including your problems at “land.” This effect is one of the reasons why people go crazy over sailing. It effectively allows one to fully just be in the moment without thinking of any form of worries or concerns except for sailing matters.