The paper considers the well-known phenomenon of water activation through the influence of external factors of a physical nature on it, leading to the consequences of the same orientation: increasing pH, lowering ORP, increasing electrical conductivity, lowering viscosity and surface tension, and, as a result, increasing bioavailability. Existing explanations of the phenomenon are reduced, as a rule, to the assumption of the restructuring of the water structure at the molecular level. However, the data of the last thirty years show that the water is heterogeneous at the micro level, which can be observed under a conventional optical microscope. The aim of the work was to clarify the role of the state of aggregation of the microdispersed phase of water in changing a number of its physicochemical parameters during the transition of water to an activated state. As modifying effects, mechanical disturbance, low-intensity light irradiation, heating and freezing - thawing were used. In all cases, reversible unidirectional changes in indicators characteristic of activated water were observed. Observations under an optical microscope showed that all types of exposure to water were accompanied by the dissociation of aggregates of the microdispersed phase of water and their reassociation after hours (days). The nature of the phenomenon is discussed from the standpoint of increasing the free energy of the system (the surface area of the interface) under the influence of the introduced energy and relaxation of the effect due to the Gibbs law. It was suggested that an increase in pH and a decrease in redox potential can be associated with an increase in the area of the negatively charged surface and an increase in the sorption of protons (hydroxonium ions). A number of known water anomalies are presented that do not contradict these observations.