Water is essential to life. However, over these past few weeks, we’ve all gotten a glimpse of how destructive it can be. Personally, seeing the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and stepping into houses that were once filled with 8 feet of water was absolutely devastating. I thought to myself, “How could water be so damaging?”

Yes, the water from the hurricane destroyed almost everything in its path, but why is it that we’ve now obtained this negative perception of what water is capable of? Why as people do we always remember the worst and overlook the potential for good?

To raise funds for those affected by the floods, the Student Association challenged all of us to drink only water for a day. However, obtaining that goal should not have been challenging to any one of us. Throughout our lives we’ve been told to drink a specific amount of water daily, and yet we overlook these directions. We are told that water is essential and beneficial to our health, but how many of us actually listen and take action?

Water is something we can’t live without, and yet we continue day by day to under consume it. Many of us face varied degrees of dehydration and don’t even know it. We shouldn’t only be drinking water when we plan to be active, but we should be actively drinking water from the moment we wake up to the moment we lie down to rest at night.

Water improves our mood. Since our brains are made up of about 75 percent water, drinking it helps us to be more alert, think clearly and concentrate better.

Drinking water creates a faster metabolism and is an important key in weight loss. Filling our stomachs with water before a meal reduces the amount of food we need to consume to be full because water acts as a natural appetite suppressant.

Water is also significant in boosting our immune systems. Drinking plenty of water can actually help fight against the flu, cancers and potential heart attacks. Proper hydration is important and so easy to maintain once it is a part of your daily routine.

Water also helps maintain healthier skin and hair, keeping it clean, soft, glowing and youthful. Water is said to rid our skin of wrinkles, performing as one of the best anti-aging treatments we have access to.

Warm showers can relieve tension in our muscles while also releasing toxins from our skin because the hot steam acts as a natural decongestant. When we are feeling stressed, showering with warm water can ease anxiety, which is almost essential for surviving exam week.

Cold showers, as unbearable as they are to me, are actually beneficial as well. Simply putting forth the effort to turn our showers cold for the last five minutes can help wake up our bodies. I find that the instant change in temperature immediately increases my mental alertness and can really help me get ready for the day.

Showering with cold water is also better for our skin and hair. Yes, warm showers can be beneficial, but they can also dry us out. Cold showers hydrate and help with those pesky split ends and dry skin. If you find the magic balance between both hot and cold showers, you’ll be sure to have the best of both worlds.

This is only the beginning to a much longer list of benefits of what water can do for us. Therefore, it’s clear the goodness of water far outweighs its opportunities for destructiveness. So how will you change the way water impacts your daily life? I know I’m striving to appreciate it more, and you should too.