I love swimming and I find it an enjoyable way of exercising! I can undoubtedly say that now although this wasn’t always the case when I was learning to swim. It has taken me quite a while to be able to say that I truly enjoy swimming.
Learning to swim by holding onto a pole
I grew up, as many did in the UK, learning how to swim while holding onto a long pole held by a swimming instructor who was not in the water with me, but standing on the side of the pool yelling. I would hold onto this pole for dear life gasping for breath, feeling terrified of letting go. Eventually when I did let go and somehow managed to stay afloat, the pole would follow me, giving me a little prod now and then. This made me feel even more terrified.
Then, as I was learning to swim, it was all about keeping my head above the water at all costs. I felt that if I went underwater, surely I would drown. My time in the pool was full of gasping through my mouth, swallowing and breathing in water, spluttering, not being able to see (no goggles offered at the time), feeling terrified of being splashed or pushed under – and a little bit of swimming!
I’m sure many people can relate to this – swimming for survival is the way many learn to swim. For me there was a severe lack of joy and a great deal of anxiety associated with learning to swim this way.
Later on as an adult I bought myself a pair of goggles and taught myself to swim breast stroke while putting my face partially under the water. This was progress but I was still full of fear of getting a mouthful of water and not being able to breathe.
Learning to swim – breathing through my nose
About two years ago I was introduced to a completely different approach to swimming by Simone Benhayon…
I was invited to breathe in and out through my nose, not my mouth. This initially created more panic in me as I couldn’t imagine ever being able to get enough air. The gasping was an old and ingrained habit! But slowly, slowly I taught myself to do this… initially by not swimming and simply getting used to being under water and breathing out through my nose. I began to find a beauty in this and marvelled at the quality of my breath under the water and the wonderful bubbles that I would create. This felt gorgeous, and for a while it was enough just to do this.
After a while, with the help of my goggles, I felt confident enough to go completely under the water and glide along while breathing out my amazing bubbles. No swimming involved… just gliding and stopping, gliding and stopping. I found a joy in this which felt totally different to any other time in the water. It started to feel like fun!
Over time I have taught myself to swim front-crawl (freestyle) while breathing through my nose. It is still a work in progress, but I am discovering how to remain connected to my breath (and my bubbles!) while swimming. I can still panic a bit, but what I have discovered is that if I take in water while breathing through my nose it does not go into my lungs, therefore I am not going to drown! This discovery has just been amazing, and I have become more and more confident in the water.
Staying with my breath and the bubbles, focussing on the quality of my movement and the sensation of the water (instead of focussing on the fear), has changed my experience of swimming completely. The feel of my body moving through the water can feel absolutely divine.
Growing confidence – in the water and in life
A few days ago I went for my swim, and without thinking I just began to swim. I pushed off into crawl, immersed myself in the water, breathed out my bubbles, enjoyed my body and the way I was moving in the water, and found that I was feeling joy while I was swimming. Even coming up for air was joyful! I cannot express how amazing this feels.
This ongoing experience is giving me growing confidence in my life too. The same principles apply when breathing my way through life. By enjoying the quality of my breath and my movements and staying with myself in every moment I feel more joyful and feel that I can embrace life more fully and without fear.
Breathing through my nose as I was re-learning to swim has enabled me to find joy through swimming; it has truly made a difference to how I feel about being in the water. It has also made a big difference to the quality of my life. What an incredible gift! Thank you Simone Benhayon.
By Rebecca Turner, Beauty Advisor, London, UK
560 Comments
I have loved reading this blog, as well as many of the comments. This impulses me to give another chance to regularly swim and keep observing my movements, being with myself in it and learning how lovingly and fluent I can be in life..
Learning by fear increases the constant anxiousness in the body for any new experience.
Fear based learning makes our whole body contract whereas when we are encouraged to explore our own relationship with an activity we can stay with the joy and playfulness that naturally comes to the surface when we allow it.
Learning to blow bubbles in the water through our noses is one of those things that has changed so many lives as we all should learn to eventually learn to swim without the fear associated with being thrown in the deep end and then struggling to get a gasp of air. As children or even babies we should learn to blow bubbles and play in water and this would save so many drowning’s as fences don’t seem to keep children out.
“By enjoying the quality of my breath and my movements and staying with myself in every moment I feel more joyful and feel that I can embrace life more fully and without fear.” A beautiful way to swim through the waters of life.
I love how your experience in water is also flowing over to give you more confidence in life, ‘By enjoying the quality of my breath and my movements and staying with myself in every moment I feel more joyful and feel that I can embrace life more fully and without fear.’
This is inspiring Rebecca, thank you for sharing your experience.
Surrendering to the love we are within and appreciating the exquisiteness of our divine quality that is innate in us all, is a joy that cannot be contained and through our movements we reflect this glory as we imprint the world with the love we are all here to live. Our power is our connection to our love, our Soul that when embraced we are then governed by a divine quality where fear does not exist.
It is inspiring to read that it is possible to heal the anxiety of being taught to swim. I’m also in the process of teaching myself to swim and to have a different relationship with the water, as I have anxiety left over from nearly drowning in a riptide many years ago. It just goes to show these experiences do not leave us just because we get older.
We don’t think much about being afraid of the water yet as you described the pole I remember the feeling physically in my body of gasping for air and hoping they wouldn’t take the pole away. How much is that transferred into the way we approach life?
It is utterly amazing how supportive it is throughout all aspects of life, to learn how to swim with Simone Benhayon.
Thank you for sharing Rebecca, like you I had a fear of putting my head under water, holding my breath. It would be something new to try to breath out of my nose and get over the fear of the water going down into my lungs. It sounds so joyful for you to have learnt to swim this way and how it has effected other areas of your life.
I used to love swimming and even did a bit of competition when I was young but I had never truly connected to what it meant to be in the water and how much the water could reflect to me about my quality of movements. Having swim session with Simone Benhayon has changed that completely and has brought major changes to not only my awareness but also to the way I swim.
I’ve recently started swimming and find it really enjoyable. Each time, step by step learning something in each swim. Reading about you enjoying bubbles underwater got me reflecting on my own – breathe out as hard as possible to keep the water out! I do feel tired after being underwater like that. Definitely something to play with on my next swim! Thank you Rebecca.
Doing anything with fear immediately contracts us and puts us on the back foot, what is so awesome about the inspiring and supportive way that Simone Benhayon teaches swimming is that the tools we are given are equally applicable in other areas of life and thus we can move confidently in the world whatever we are faced with.
I love how Simone Benhayon is teaching people to breath through their nose while they swim. It is a super supportive way to swim.
I was just reflecting on why so many people feel anxious or have trouble breathing when they swim – it is like it is a reflection of how we do life and in our current day, many are not breathing the rhythm of their own breath but are breathing stress and anxiety and so this is felt in the water as it highlights our movements so clearly.
I love swimming this way too Rebecca. I can remember learning by swimming in my pyjamas – sink or swim it felt like. What you describe is so different – connecting to your body, breathing and moving with the flow of life. It’s something we can apply to all of living not just our time in the pool.
Every time when I swim, which is about twice a week, I get the reflexion how I am doing. My swimming shows me how much I was living in a still quality or if I was stressed and not present during my day. All get reflected in the water in how we swim when we open up to see. This I learnt from Simone Benhayon.
So many lessons in what you have shared Rebecca, as so much of life we are thrown in the murky deep end and prodded until we feel like there is no other way. When the reality is, we all can choose to float to the top breath our own breath and live the love we all are. Appreciating the love we are is an awakening that as you have shared Rebecca is found, even when we swim, so, so much of life will always equally provide opportunities to live the loving light we all are.
What a real and important sharing of the true beauty and joy of learning to swim from a new unique way whilst breathing through your nose and the quality of your every movement whilst having fun . A real testamont to Simone Benhayon.
Rebecca, you bring a whole other level to swimming, and life /— a joy most would not experience in a movement of exercise. “By enjoying the quality of my breath and my movements and staying with myself in every moment I feel more joyful and feel that I can embrace life more fully and without fear.” A Joy to read!
Swimming can teach us so much about how we move in life, and every time I swim I notice different things to do with my stroke, breathing and rhythm that make so much sense to how I am outside the pool!
I can relate to the fear and panic felt in the water, as a young child I didn’t have this but later as an older child I developed this after I had broken my nose and struggled to breathe in the water, from there on, all of my movements were tense in the water and there was no flow. I have now come back to enjoying being in the water more, also through the inspiration that Simone offers.
I was back in the pool this morning. I’ve come such a long way with my swimming. I can now do lengths of freestyle without panicking. Ever time I get in the pool I learn something new, and my experience tells me a great deal about how I am living.
Yes the reflections we are offered by how we move in the pool are so supportive for exposing how we are moving in our lives and the patterns that are keeping us stuck unless we are open to exploring a different way.
Thankfully I did not learn to swim holding on to a pole however the whole idea around swimming was for survival and the teaching I received was hard and very impersonal. What a joy to relearn to swim with Simone Benhayon….she is awesome with children and adults alike. My swimming is changing all the time and now I am swimming the crawl, or free stroke, like I am gliding through the water rather than fighting my way through and I am really enjoying myself in the process.
I am sure the swimming instructor’s pole haunts many a beginner swimmer and most likely has turned many a person off the joy of swimming – and when you stop and consider how much you now love swimming Rebecca that is really quite sad.
I was always afraid of the water it was like I had a memory of a bad experience with water. A friend taught me to swim and I felt save in the water , in that I could swim and would not drown , but I still had this fear about the water. I trained in water life saving . But swimming for me was always about controlling my fear of the water.
This all changed when I received swimming lessons from Simone Benhayon . The change from breathing through the mouth to breathing from the nose was huge . Breathing this way allowed my body to understand there is no danger , to be present with what my body is doing and therefore no tension or rigidity.
It is inspiring to feel Rebecca, how addressing our fears, who we are not, allows us to embrace more of who we really are giving way to a greater sense of confidence, which is our natural way of being. Through our connection to who we are, our essence, we realise more and more the potential of the greatness we are born to live, with whatever it is we do.
Connecting to our breath whether on land or in the water really does connect us to the breath of the divine and can unlock the rhythmic way we then breathe and move with. Thank you Rebecca .
I have just had a swim session with Simone Benhayon and once again I am utterly blown away by the insight and support she offers. Today I learnt powerful tools to help me stay connected throughout my day.
So so much more then just a regular swimming session.
Simone Benhayon is offering the world a true way to breathe through the ocean of life.
It is through our breath that we connect to God and through our movements that we become vehicles of the divine.
I remember one swimming session with Simone Benhayon where for the first time in my life I felt like I am able to swim on my own, and swim well. It was incredible, at the beginning of the session I couldn’t even swim in any style known to mankind, I had invented my own style of swimming which kept me afloat and that is all that mattered to me. However by the end of the session I was able to front crawl and that to me was just out of this world.
There is no doubt Rebecca that the quality of our breath and movement effects everything that we do. I love what you have expressed here, thank you;
“By enjoying the quality of my breath and my movements and staying with myself in every moment I feel more joyful and feel that I can embrace life more fully and without fear”.
I am not the biggest fan of swimming probably because of the association of those poles and I can also recall going under the water many a times and dreading the swimming classes at school.
But what you have shared here is that there is another way and as I read the ‘gliding and bubbles’ I could feel the fun in that – it feels nurturing, loving and a true way to swimming.
I love the way that water magnifies our movements. The simple act of breathing is amplified by the bubbles. When we swim it reflects how we move through life – how can it not?! The water shows us how we are living. We can literally see it as the water moves, and we can feel the effects of it in the movement of the water. What a gift to learn to swim with this awareness. Swimming is a great deal more than just a sport or form of exercise, it’s a whole lesson in life.
Lovely to feel how your growing confidence with swimming is reflected in your life.