Indoor Water Fountains – Psychological Benefits

An indoor water fountain is the source of many benefits, physical, environmental, psychological and aesthetic, to anyone in its immediate environment. I’ve discussed the physical and environmental advantages elsewhere; this article will address the psychological perks.

The amazing water fountain, with its many benefits, represents a wise and solid investment for one’s home, especially in light of today’s difficult economy. These benefits are all intertwined to some degree and in this blog, I’ll focus on the psychological side.

In today’s hectic world, just about anything we can do to ‘decompress’ from a day’s activities will aid in our mini-recovery. There are many ways to relax, regroup, and revitalize. Some people choose vigorous exercise; others meditate; still others have a cocktail with friends, or just hang out and socialize. Studies show that just about anything you believe to be relaxing is likely to have that effect on you to some degree – for a while, at least.

There are hundreds of Self-Help books available, any one of which could point you toward numerous ways to unwind after a full day. And then, of course, there is your indoor water fountain.

Solid research in this area has validated what people have known for thousands of years. The proximity of running, falling, rippling water, all by itself, produces a relaxation response in human beings. That relaxation response manifests as reduced muscle tension, lower breathing rate, and a slower heartbeat.

This response is so built into our nervous systems that if we simply engage in full visualization of the experience of being around a fountain or a natural source of flowing water (such as a mountain stream or bubbling brook), our bodies respond as though we were actually there!
Now, this takes some disciplined practice to perfect and until one becomes experienced, real world distractions will tend to lessen the effects that could otherwise be experienced.

This is much the same as the process of learning to master a meditation technique. The good news is that you don’t have to become a Zen master, because your indoor water fountain is a real-life source of the experiences that facilitate stress reduction.

Your indoor water fountain is there for you whenever you want or need to relax, and via that relaxation, it will generate the stress-reduction processes. Even when relaxation is not your intended goal, having an indoor water fountain in your environment will generate relaxation and stress reduction 24/7-- all you have to do is to get within earshot of the fountain.

The closer you are to your indoor water fountain, the louder the water sounds and the more it will mask other environmental sounds, assisting you to focus on the restorative water sound and make you less vulnerable to potentially distracting 'other' sounds and thoughts.

So, your indoor water fountain is a multi-tasking unit, providing you with a range of benefits which will not only enhance your environment in nmany ways, but will directly benefit your emotional and physical state as well.
I have several water fountains in my environment and have had for many years. The thought of my not having immediate access to the stress reducing benefits is one I would rather not entertain.

This is all the more true for me beacuse I know that the very reasonable monetary cost of an indoor water fountain far outweighs the physical and emotional cost of not having this resource close at hand.

Indoor Water Fountain Benefits – Looking at the Physical/Environmental Benefits, Part 2

This post is a short one. My previous post addressed the air-cleansing aspects of your water fountain and this one is on the air moistening benefits.

Your indoor water fountain will also humidify the air through evaporation. This process places additional moisture into the air and helps prevent your skin and other natural materials in your home from becoming too dry. Humidification is especially important in the winter season, when heating systems cause exaggerated drying effects. All in all, your fountain is a strong improvement over expensive, intrusive looking and sounding humidifiers.

I will address even more standard benefits of indoor water fountain ownership in future posts and until then, I hope you enjoy the moisturizing benefits of your indoor water fountain.

Indoor Water Fountain Benefits – Looking at the Physical/Environmental Benefits, Part 1

Your indoor water fountain is more than a decorative object in your home-- it is the source of several perks providing benefits to anyone who comes into proximity of the fountain. Physical, environmental, psychological, emotional, and purely aesthetic advantages to being around an indoor water fountain are all rolled into one unit which, in today’s difficult economic conditions, represents an amazing value for one’s money invested wisely. These benefits are all intertwined to some degree; this article will focus on the physical and environmental only, as far as it is possible to do so.

There is a great deal of conversation and concern about air pollution these days. Chemical and fossil fuel power plants, automobiles and tobacco smoke, just to name a few, have emitted their waste into our atmosphere to the point that increasing amounts of toxins can be measured in the air we all breathe.

Sophisticated, very sensitive measuring devices have recently shown pollutants in the air that we never knew about previously, mostly inside our homes. The causes of these newly discovered toxins are quite varied-- the paint on our walls, lint that breaks free of our clothing through normal wear and tear, fiber particles that enter our indoor atmosphere through the natural wear & decay of rugs, curtains, etc., and some plastics—all of these particles can, in extreme circumstances, generate a toxic level of unhealthy air.

An entire industry has been created over the past 20 years to provide consumers with ways to remove these pollutants from the air in our homes. Most often these air cleaners have drawbacks; they may be large, space-consuming, sometimes unattractive noisy devices or they may be unseen devices built into heating/cooling systems. Both types have in common a hefty initial price and the ongoing expense of filter replacement, or significant time spent cleaning/ maintaining the capture grids.

Your water fountain, besides being pleasing to the eye and ear, is by its very nature an anti-pollution device. Falling water produces and distributes negative ions into the air. Negative ions attach themselves to dust particles and remove them from the air, thereby producing clean air in your room. Now, the total effect may not clean up an entire home, but the area around your indoor water fountain will be measurably and noticeably cleaner, and that’s a start. The greater the water flow/fall, the greater the cleansing effect.

I will address other standard benefits of indoor water fountain ownership in future articles and until then, I hope you appreciate & enjoy the air cleansing benefits of your indoor water fountain.

Cleaning Your Tap-Watered Indoor Water Fountain

If you use de-ionized water from the first filling, you will look forward to a long, hassle-free relationship with your new indoor water fountain; if you’ve already been filling it with tap water, one good cleaning will restore your indoor water fountain to a like-new condition.

The way to clean spotty/streaky surfaces is to scrub them with a brush using a readily available mineral remover such as CLR®. The cleaning process involves removing your water fountain from its display spot into an area where there is an adequate supply of running water & drainage, so you can thoroughly rinse the chemical from the fountain after cleaning it. I urge the use of rubber gloves during this process to keep the chemical off your skin.

Prepare, also, by having plenty of towels on hand to dry the cleaned & rinsed areas quickly and thoroughly; otherwise minerals in the rinse water will replace some of the stuff you’ve just cleaned away. When you’ve gotten rid of the minerals and cleaning chemicals, you may have to reassemble the unit and then refill the fountain’s reservoir before turning it back on. NOTE: Do not run your fountain's pump ‘dry’- not good for it.

Many people use distilled instead of tap water for their fountains. Distilled water doesn’t eliminate all the junk and, eventually mineral build-up will still occur, but it is a vast improvement over tap water. You should be aware that neither filtered tap water nor bottled designer water will avoid mineral build up any more significantly than plain old tap water. If you have a pet that likes to use your water fountain as a refreshing oasis, it may be appreciate the better taste of filtered or designer water, but these waters in a fountain are not the best use of your resources.

My next blog will begin a review of the many benefits of your indoor water fountain.