Lessons from the Sea: Musings of an Accidental Sea Swimmer (part three of four)

Lesson three : the paradox of ease and performance

When I eventually got some kind of swimming technique under my belt, I would basically try and go ‘hell for leather’ and swim as fast as I could for as long as I could. This would lead me  to get tired pretty quick and paradoxically I would have less in the tank. I then read a line somewhere about ‘allowing the big blue to hold you’. This got me curious- what would it be like to swim with the sea, in relationship, with ease? Through my husband I came across a course called ‘Total Immersion’ which is a way of swimming in a relaxed way, using the big muscles of your back, not madly splashing your limbs as I was trying to do, finding your rhythm with slow steady breathing, relaxing into the water.

Paradoxically, when you swim like this you can swim faster and for longer. Isn’t it a curious notion in life that our mind tells us to ‘try harder,’ to put in more effort when we are trying to achieve something, yet paradoxically if we can find a flow where we can breath deeper, find a sense of ease we actually think better and have more access to our resources. From this place we can co-create, feel connected, find curiosity and see possibilities. In polyvagal language this is called being in ventral vagal. We are not over-efforting, with high, shallow breath, stress hormones pulsing through our veins and we are not in collapse where we curl in ourselves and can’t even get ourselves into the water.

What is your relationship with ease?

How can you s y ease in your day to day?

How you can you punctuate your day with what brings you joy?

What brings you into resourcefulness and help you think better?