How water helps to cope with negative emotions

Water is not only a source of life, but also a powerful tool for improving psycho-emotional well-being. Studies show that contact with water can have a positive effect on our mood and help us cope with depression and negative feelings. For example, simply washing your hands or taking a shower can help improve your psycho-emotional state and refresh not only your body, but also your thoughts.

Scientist Spike Lee from the University of Michigan conducted a series of studies that examined the effect of water on a person's emotional state. He claims that water has the ability to “wash away” not only physical dirt, but also mental “pollution”. Mechanical cleansing of the body, whether it is washing hands or washing the face, helps to get rid of negative emotions and feelings of shame, and restores self-confidence. Even the thought of coming in contact with water causes similar changes in the emotional background.

However, according to the researcher, the method has one side effect: water affects both negative and positive emotions. This means that pleasant memories can lose their emotional vividness after contact with water. For example, if a person washes their hands after a pleasant life episode, they may feel the vividness of those memories fade. Thus, water not only “washes away” negativity, but also neutralizes positive emotions.

To confirm his hypotheses, Spike Lee conducted an experiment in which participants were asked to recall an episode from their lives, which causes a sense of shame. Among the participants were people who were asked to wash their hands or perform some positive action after completing a task. The results of the study showed that those who were in a clean environment and washed their hands felt significantly less guilt compared to those who were in a dirty and messy room.

In addition, participants who washed their hands felt a strong need to do something positive, such as helping others or changing their lives for the better. This confirms that water can influence not only the emotional state at the moment of contact, but also a person's subsequent actions. In this context, water can become a kind of purification symbol that stimulates personal change and improvement.

Despite all the benefits associated with the effects of water on the psyche, it is important to realize that it cannot completely replace therapeutic methods of treating depression or other psychological illnesses. Nevertheless, simple practices such as washing your face or washing your hands can serve as a useful tool to restore mental balance and combat negative emotions.