Water, water, EVERYwhere...

Use a shallow pan.  Put a piece of black plastic in the bottom, like from a garbage bag.  Fill it with water, turn out your lights, and use two candles elevated so the flames are level with the top of the water, about six inches from either side.

Seat yourself in front of it, and then use your hands this way: reach out and barely touch the tips of your fingers to the water, really concentrate on knowing when they are just blending with it at the molecular level.  Put your finger tips together/hands together, touch your fingers in this way in the center of your little pond.  Now stare between your fingers like you were trying to look through them into the water.  Then, gradually, ever so slowly, move your fingertips apart concentrating on keeping them in the barest contact with the water's surface.

As they part, you will begin to feel a pull on your vision.  Your eyes may even bounce around a bit - that's okay.  Lock your intent on keeping them fixed.  As they part, you will begin to see a reflection in the water.  Now as your vision grabs hold of the reflection, allow your eyes to go in and out of focus.  Sense yourself moving back and forth toward the water with your vision.  Expand that until you feel as though you are moving from somewhere behind your head toward the water and back.  As this increases and you feel the pull of the water, you will sense an opening.  On one of the movements, you will snap into the energy of the water.

Enjoy; if you make it back, come tell us about it

How much practice does this take to work?

Depends on the person.  It really is a simple way to use water, but the results can be really profound if you practice with it.  There are a lot of ways to use water.  The elements are, of course, very powerful, and we are all made up of them so they give us sort of a natural foothold.