First Dive 

October 2014

What's this uncanny feeling all over the body after a good swim? 

Beside most of our bodies, beside clouds, beside the ocean where many live and some others die and many heal and some others are re-born... what is the nature of water and how it is connected to our souls?
I'm not there yet, but while I attempt to understand it with my core and grow more questions between my fingers I want to share a practice that has been helping me lots in my daily quest for balance: swimming as a yogi!

Mariana Robles Martínez

Not a scientific breakthrough here, but it is relevant because in my experience it has been glorious: it stabilizes my emotions, it dissolves crankiness and over-busy-related attitudes, it hydrates my energy and optimism, it helps me put my mindfulness practice back on track, it washes desires and it just feels like health feels.
It's such a joyous activity that I'm very hopeful about it's healing potential for people with different kinds of distress. Sure some research is needed here, but I can't wait to share my very first steps into yoga and water with the Solstice Yoga Center's community, so here we go:
It starts with an intention. As in yoga practice I set a purpose and dedicate the benefits of the practice right after entering the pool.
Then some centering: a few lines of very slow breaststroke (been doing 4 to 10, depending how active is the thought stream at the moment). Open Awareness here feels easy and natural thing to do first, since it's important to notice how your muscles are when warming up, notice if there's some rare sensation that deserves a closer look, and it helps to smoothly connect with the water temperature and pool environment. Open Awareness is defined as the opening of one's mind into a panoramic awareness of whatever is happening without a specific focus. We are just getting into the water flow and noticing the overall experience as we do some lines.
Then the front crawl lines. As in Sun Salutations, I like starting by making my breath deep and rhythmic, while I start caring also for a correct alignment. Gradually more and more stretching comes.

As in many asanas, it helps to focus for a while on integrating the opposite directions of arms and legs. A scissors kick with the legs very stretched to the back of the pool and the arms going the furthest forward feels really nice. Shoulders will be far from ears most of the time naturally, but in some other strokes it may be good to keep them in their place actively.
After this is all synch, I've been activating Mula Bandha and doing my best to get diligent about breath awareness. I do not recommend trying Ujjayi here, it's a disaster. I just keep inhaling by mouth and exhaling by nose but consciously and in sync with the movement.
When everything is flowing as a dolphin, I like to practice different objects of attention.
Resting my attention on bodily sensations and the caress of water is wonderful, but also choosing to focus on sounds is great. Personally when I have haunting planning thoughts or fire going on, it's feels easier to focus on sounds since the bubbles of expiration underwater are quite loud. Water sounds have a renowned calming effect, and once the inner noise is collected, it gets easier to enjoy the distant sounds beyond my own bubbles, letting in the oceanic sounds of the water as it remembers the sea.
The repetition of doing a same stroke for a long while feels good when adjusting our velocity and number of lines organically to our own present need of activating or calming one's energy. Yet if you like other swimming styles it could probably be also very beneficial to try them. I've been sticking to repetition for now, but at some point I'll try a yogi butterfly.
When I feel ready to go towards relaxation I do some slow breaststroke lines with open awareness and then the free lines.
Here you could so dive as a baby or a puppy... but if you are a shameless free spirit it can even better; like trying totally asymmetric free moves and please the un-stretched muscles demands, or try one-hand stands with no worry for the neck, or float as a corpse... experiencing less density of our bodies in water is highly convenient when it comes to inventing moves with no other purpose but to enjoy it.
Then shavasana. If you are lucky enough to have time and a place to do it safely, try shavasana right after a swim. The earth breathes differently then.
So that's it for now. Please be aware that this text comes from my personal experimentation, so if you give it a try do it on your own responsibility and be cautious to observe how it feels in you. As in any other practice, take good care of yourself.
 

All the best for the Solstice Yoga Center's community and Om Shanti!

Mariana Robles Martínez
@onaono
September 2014  

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The Solstice Yoga Center Team.