A Moving Meditation: Finding Peace in the Pool
by Maria Luedeke
Visualize someone meditating. What comes to mind? Probably someone sitting or lying somewhere in total silence and stillness. I do meditate that way. Often. But several times a week I indulge in moving meditation through swimming.
A lot of people say swimming laps in a pool is boring, tedious, hard, and too monotonous. I find it to be a beautiful union of breath, body, mind and soul. I started swimming competitively when I was 8 years old at the suggestion of my doctor as a way to help control my asthma. It has turned into a lifelong love.
When I swim I feel through all of my emotions, my stressors, my gratitudes, my aches and pains. Moving through the water I move through my heartache, through my anger, through my sadness and feel appreciation for my breath, my strength, my grace, my love. I move through the meditation cycles of remembering what release feels like.
When I first get in the water, sometimes its a warm embrace (living in Florida the summer months sometimes feels like swimming in bathware), sometimes its a cold rush of energy either way it’s a reminder for my mind and body that this is time for all of me. The first few laps can sometimes feel like a slog. My body is heavy, aching, slow, my breath labored and asynchronous. I can battle with the desire to just stop and skip the swim. But I know if I push through there's release somewhere in the swim. In my muscles, in my breath, in my mind, in my heart. Other times those first few laps feels like coming home. Like flying. Gliding through the water effortlessly. At some point in all my swims something feels challenging and something feels a bit more relaxed, a bit less heavy.
Those of you who swim know your breathing impacts so much of how you feel when you’re swimming. Breathing every three strokes or 9 strokes, keeping the exhalations smooth or short makes the swimming easier or harder. And the harder and faster you swim the more breath you need and the harder it is to catch. It's why swimming is so good for building lung capacity and why it is so useful for me with managing my asthma.
When I’m swimming regularly I rarely if ever need to use my medication unless there are environmental irritants or I get a respiratory illness. It’s why after a good swim I feel more calm, relaxed, and regulated. Breathing impacts and stimulates our parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system and helps train our vagus nerve (which controls both!). The breathing techniques used in swimming mimic the breathing techniques used in still meditation and yoga asana flows. Since swimming requires focus on breathing, muscle resistance and coordination it frees your thoughts to flow unhindered. And the forward movement propulsion encourages solution focused thinking and problem solving to occur.
See, our mind and bodies are intrinsically linked together and our brains main goal is efficient functioning to reserve energy for our survival. So when we are physically propelling ourselves forward like walking, running or swimming movements it’s intuitive for our cognition to also move forward efficiently. At least that’s my analogy for why I seem to problem solve better while I'm swimming, why I have ideas I’d otherwise not realize or process situations that sitting on dry land seem to elude me.
For me there is a cycle to my meditation regardless of if I’m sitting in my bed, outside in my yard under the trees, or swimming in the pool, lake or ocean. First I become aware of my body and breath, then I notice the roughness and tension and slowly I feel things get a bit more challenging as those tensions and problems rush into focus. Then, slowly my muscles release. Sometimes it’s painful and sometimes they seem to melt and I feel totally weighless. Like I’m flying through the water. When it’s painful, each stroke and kick feels hard and heavy.Then gradually it eases.
On occasion it only eases when the swim ends but there is still that sweet release and relief of having worked through something hard physically, emotionally, mentally. Sometimes I can’t wait to dive into the water and other times I sit on the edge of the pool, goggles and cap in hand debating all the reasons why I can just go home and not get in the water. But after every single swim there’s something good I take away. An idea. A feeling of fatigue that’s the sign of hard work complete. A joyful happiness from allowing my body to move and play in the same way it has since I was 8 (and I’m 50 now!). Most often it’s release, relief, gratitude for my body’s strength and grace and thanks for feeling better than before I started my swim. It sounds funny but I’ve even done “still” meditations on swimming. On the feelings of freedom and release I get moving my body through the water.
During the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic we lived in Singapore, enduring some of the world's strictest lockdown measures. We lived in an apartment and had a view of our beautiful olympic length swimming pool but I couldn't go down and swim in it. So I worked with a breathwork and meditation coach weekly to simulate the breathwork and mental release I experience swimming. It wasn’t the exact same and I longed for the day when I could get back in the pool but it afforded me the closest experience possible to actually being in the water. And I was so incredibly grateful for my “still” meditation swimming experiences.
Now, I use both. Even in my dry land meditations I sometimes incorporate movement in whatever way feels useful or good to my body. But the moving meditation that my body loves and responds to with joy is swimming. Pushing off the wall, looking up from beneath the water and seeing the sunlight filtered through is one of the most freeing, beautiful moments I can regularly gift to myself.
If you’d like to try one of my go-to Breathwork exercises give this a try!
Stretch your muscles - open your intercostal muscles with some side and overhead stretching so your muscles & diaphragm are opened and ready to receive breath easier.
Become conscious of your breath and simply notice what it feels like.
Feel into your belly breath. Take a few deep breaths with your hand on your belly. Watch it expand and contract. Feel the breath filling your belly versus your chest.
Fully empty out your lungs with a slow exhale and hold until you feel the urge to inhale
SLOWLY fill your lungs to their fullest capacity. Imagine filling every nook and cranny with air. Even the spaces in your collar bones. Then try to take another gulp of air if possible!
Hold until you feel the urge to exhale.
Repeat for 10 cycles or for whatever feels right to you. If you feel lightheaded or dizzy, stop and resume regular breathing.
When you’ve completed your deep inhales/holds/exhales resume your regular breathing and just notice if there’s a softer, fuller quality to your breaths.
Repeat at least 10-20 soft, full conscious breaths.
If you’d like to continue, do 10-20 breaths of “Feather Breathing”-- softest, longest, slowest breaths you can manage. Feel the air like a feather barely grazing your insides from your toes though your body up through the tip top of your head and back down again.
Resume 10-20 regular breaths and notice your breath quality.
*Please consult your Doctor before doing any exercises. Always listen to your body and if anything feels very uncomfortable or you experience any dizziness, lightheadedness stop and resume your regular breathing.
Photo by Jeremy Bishop
