In October 2021, I decided to learn to swim, which was one of the best decisions I had ever made. It was hard at first; it took me six months to go to the pool’s deep end, but I was committed to becoming a good swimmer. I practiced for at least 2 hours daily, 1 hour early morning and another hour in the evening. I was a regular feature in my local YMCA, and the live guards gave me many tips and strategies for achieving my goal. I initially started swimming because I wanted to participate in my first triathlon in 2024. Swimming is a form of meditation as I use my time in the pool to contemplate issues I am trying to solve. I usually swim with an underwater MP3 player to listen to French audio materials and music. My swimming time allows me to think and improve my French listening skills. There are many days I don’t want to go swimming, but once I remember that I have a habit of stacking my swimming time, I get ready to go swimming.

In her memoir, American actress and the star of the hit TV series Scandals, Kerry Washington captures how I feel when I am swimming. She writes about her love for water and swimming. Washington asserted:

Being in water, moving through water, has always felt more natural to me than walking on land. When I am in the water, I am at peace, and when I am submerged, between breaths, I feel most at home with myself, in my body. As a child, even when I hated my body, I loved being in the water. I remember going to my mother one day in my bathing suit and pointing out the protruding shape of my belly as a flaw I wanted to fix. She said, “Just hold in your tummy. That’s what everyone does.

So, on land, in my bathing suit, I learned to restrict my body, to hold my breath, and to pretend. But in the water, I could be free.

I have always loved the ways in which water manipulates sound. The way noise races across the surface, amplifying sound for miles, and then the muffled distance created by being underwater. This so often feels like an escape to me because the world gets quieter, my heartbeat grows louder, and my thoughts and feelings become precise, clear. When I’m stressed, swimming allows me a safe route out of myself, helping me to escape my thoughts and then return to a calmer, more centered version of me.

“On land, my instructions had been to remain small. But in water I was discovering a different part of myself. And I was learning to bring all of me into this particular effort.”

I felt lucky for the talent that I have, the drive that I have, the want, the excitement about the sport, felt lucky for every quality I have, and have worked so hard to have. In some sports, you can excel if you have natural talent. Not in swimming. You can have all the talent in the world, be built just the right way, but you can’t be good or get good without hard work. In swimming, there’s a direct connection between what you put into it and what you get out of it.

You can have all the talent in the world, be built just the right way, but you can’t be good or get good without hard work. In swimming, there’s a direct connection between what you put into it and what you get out of it.

Because nothing is impossible, you have to dream big dreams; the bigger, the better. So many people along the way, whatever it is you aspire to do, will tell you it can’t be done. But all it takes is imagination. You dream. You plan. You reach. There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, with belief, with confidence and trust in yourself and those around you, there are no limits. Perseverance, determination, commitment, and courage—those things are real. The desire for redemption drives you. And the will to succeed—it’s everything. ²

After all, we as humans are 60% water, so it’s a bit like coming home. But there’s something more to this experience than becoming one with the water, a medium that covers most of the world’s surface area. There’s something about the feeling of weightlessness that is special, and it is this feeling that is one of the many joys the sport of swimming offers humanity.

Think of your body as a vessel. When you start to swim, every part of your body works together to move your vessel forward. Some body parts and energy systems work harder than others. Your heart beats faster to pump blood to your muscles, while your stomach slows down because digestion is no longer a priority.

After about two minutes, your body realizes that you’re not stopping anytime soon and goes into aerobic respiration. Your body starts to supply even more oxygen to your muscles. Your heart beats faster and stronger to circulate this oxygenated blood through your body!

Our brains love swimming too! The extra blood and oxygen circulating help you become more alert, awake, and focused. When we swim, our brain releases endorphins, natural, “feel good” hormones. When you swim, your mind can be just as engaged as your body, and as a result, your future self will thank you.

There is no question that swimming is the best all-around form of physical fitness for all. It’s the only form of physical activity that you can do from cradle to grave. The water has no racial, national, or religious boundaries. Young, old, rich, poor, from anywhere around the world, we are all working towards the same goals. ³

“It’s that feeling of weightlessness, competitive spirit, and pushing ourselves further and faster! It’s the positive endorphins we feel after reaching the wall, crossing the finish line, or looking in the mirror knowing you’re a badass for diving in and taking on the world!”

Meditation

Daily Calm with Tamara Levitt – Healing

Just as our body heals itself after a wound, our consciousness also wants to heal itself but it has a tendency to be overactive like dirt in a wound, the active mind prevents us from healing and coming into our wholeness.
When we meditate, we quiet our minds and see things objectively. We begin the process of untangling our thoughts and cleaning our mental space, so our psyche can begin its healing process.

“Perhaps the most important thing we bring to another person is the silence in us, not the sort of silence that is filled with unspoken criticism or hard withdrawal. The sort of silence that is a place of refuge, of rest, of acceptance of someone as they are. We are all hungry for this other silence. It is hard to find. In its presence we can remember something beyond the moment, a strength on which to build a life. Silence is a place of great power and healing.” ― rachel naomi remen

Daily Jay with Jay Shetty – No Mud, No Lotus

Change can be uncomfortable even when we want it to happen. No Mud, No Lotus means when we are trying to grow or blossom, there will be mud; it won’t always be easy or pretty but often we think it should be. We want instant gratification, we want to avoid the pain of transformation, we want the before and after photos and nothing in between.
No Mud, No Lotus reminds us that discomfort is part of growth, that it is essential to it. When we accept this, life tends to relax a bit. When we understand that good things can come through hardship, we can process our struggle with more acceptance because seating with growing pain can put the pain in perspective, and make it more manageable. When we accept the muddy process of change; it smooths things out. We may even begin to enjoy getting our hands dirty.

Podcast