I recently got back in the pool. It started as a way to kill time while the kids were at vacation swimming. But I’ve actually (re)discovered how good it feels to do laps. I know. Weird right?
But all through my primary years and for a few during high school, I swam laps most days. Hundreds of them. And what I was stoked to find was how quickly my body found it’s swimming groove. That point where my body and my breath work together, in perfect unison and my mind quietens.
And I realised that this is what ‘flow’ feels like.
But I also discovered what interrupts that flow. Every time I thought of how many laps I had to go (I couldn’t resist, I had to set a goal) I’d lose that groove, overwhelmed by how many more I had to go. My breathing would go out of whack with my stroke.
And then from the deep recesses of my mind, I remembered. Just follow the black line.
And so I would. And I do. I pour all of my attention back into that bloody line and eventually, sometimes quicker than other times, I find my flow again.
It’s been such a revelation that I’ve been swimming every other day.
And herein lies my lesson (well, a review of my lesson because I frequently forget what I’ve learned).
If you read my blogs on The Conscious Mother, you’d know that I’m burnt out and dealing with what seems like a tsunami of crap (I’ll share another time). So I haven’t been in the happiest of spaces lately. And while I have a LONG way to go, and know I’ll feel sad, angry, confused and overwhelmed again (and probably again and again), I plan to just follow what is in front of me.
So my new mantra will be … follow the black line. It might take a while to find my flow, but I’ll get there.
