In today's blog I am not going to write about breathing as a process of taking air into and expelling it from the lungs. No, no.

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We're going to get more into the mindset of breathing and the thin connection that our brain has between breath and death.

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Most often, as an adult who doesn't know how to swim, the fear of water is stronger, by getting fueled of the self-destructive limiting beliefs that we created in years of not touching the water. Thing which is fair, if you don't know how to swim you'll eventually die if you fall in deep water, with no chance of getting to the shore. That's exactly what your defensive system in your brain will bring up as thoughts trying to pull you back from even trying to practice in a safe environment, because the brain cannot make the difference between uncontrolled environment vs controlled environment. It sees water as a danger and that's it!

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As a coach, I often find myself against the defense response of my students. Flight, Freeze, Fight are 3 responses of the survival mechanism that is getting triggered in life-threatening situations, where the body get's ready to overcome a threat. Your heart rate gets faster, which increases oxygen flow to your major muscles. Your pain perception drops and providing the body with a burst of energy so that it can respond to perceived dangers. Even though, on top of all of these, your brain might create bad ideas or worst-case scenarios coming to you as thoughts, just to keep you away from danger and take away your decision of doing.

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Now, let's return to swimming and find some situations where the defense response was triggered.

Think about a moment we had to jump.

-The moment when somebody decides not to jump with an argument like "I can't do it, let's do it next time", without trying that's a sign of Flight.

-The moment when somebody cannot push himself to jump in the water / or when he/she get's in the water will stop moving, that's a sign of Freeze.

-The moment when somebody get's angry at the coach, for not understanding him/her, that's a lovely moment of Fight.

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If you ever been in a situation where your defense response was triggered, you might also have felt an increased breathing rate, numbness in your fingers and your toes, feeling disoriented, dizzy or maybe the feeling of fainting / passing out. This is a normal response of your body, until you'll start teaching your brain that you are in a safe environment and there is no need to bring the "inside special forces" to fight with the beast.

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How do you teach your brain not to get triggered you might ask?

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The same way that you've taught him to be afraid of. With small steps, gaining small victories & achievements in this total new environment and building new beliefs about you, your connection with water and your body. By building sets of skills, that practically you can use when you find yourself in a situation that your brain might consider it dangerous.

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In the end, take a deep breath and start doing instead of thinking about how.

(Applicable only under supervision)

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If you are still confused about the defense response and you can't relate it to a water event, let me give you a better one:

Remember when you wanted to approach that beautiful girl/boy and you've never did it, because you started to have thought like: "I will be ....." ; "I will look like..." ; "My body isn't like..."; "I am not that pretty/handsome"; "I would have gone if I had 10kgs less" ? Well, if you can relate to this that's the same brain keeping you safe from approaching somebody, the same way keeping you safe from jumping in the water or taking that dive.

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