I have upped my pool sessions this week, and found my mind pondering an insight mid-swim I thought might be equally applicable on dry land (and anywhere else, for that matter). Ploughing up and down my lane, it dawned on me that there is perhaps truth that discipline pays dividends, and that sometimes short term pleasure is best placed on hold, in favour of long term gain.
I swim, on average, 3k on most trips to the pool which is, by most people's standards, a moderate distance. My only enemies are fatigue and lane invaders. Breathing is my solution to both problems.
Getting into a steady rhythm is absolutely essential if I am to enjoy any time spent in the water. What I discovered one afternoon this week was the joy of semi solitary swimming, with undisturbed water and only ripples emanating from the lanes of my fellow pool dwellers. It was in these conditions that the scene was set for a lesson whose importance I later came to fully understand: establishing a good routine when things are peaceful is the key to managing more difficult circumstances. A truth perhaps well known to those of us in recovery, where enduring serenity is commonly attributed at least in part to daily discipline and routine.
As I focused intently on my breath, I was able to enter a different dimension from which it was possible to feel almost at one with the water. As I swam, I was aware of my movements but I was also attuned to a sense of moving fluidly and without effort through the water. No two lengths are ever the same, and whilst I would struggle to remember individual portions of my 120 length swim, I would energetically rebuke any suggestion that distance swimming might ever become boring. Swimming in this way demands a lot more than appearance might attest and dull moments are rare. I leave the pool feeling refreshed and revived, my energies having been channelled and directed, they return to me.
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