Embodied Self-Awareness in Freediving
As a freediver, instructor, somatic awareness educator and bodyworker, listening to the body is something I am continuously attuning to, as well as teaching to my clients and students. My graduate work in Depth Psychology and Somatic Studies inspired me to dive deeper into the connection of the body and mind, specifically through my chosen fieldwork studies exploring ocean related therapies. Though discovering that there are a vast number of variables that come into play in how ocean activities can benefit us, the concept of embodied self-awareness is paramount. Let me explain what this is, why it is important as a freediver and how it relates to the sport of freediving, specifically when it comes to relaxation.
Embodied self-awareness is “the ability to pay attention to ourselves, to feel our sensations, emotions, and movements on-line, in the present moment, without the mediating influence of judgmental thoughts” (Fogel, 2009). It is how we receive information about ourselves and the world around us. It what tells us if something is hot and it informs us when we are hungry. It allows us to respond to threats and it tells us when we are safe to relax. Failure to attune to our embodied self-awareness can result in physical pain, mental distress, injury and illness. This attunement is essential in freediving and, conversely, freediving can also be used as a modality to deepen this self-awareness.
New freedivers quickly discover how important relaxation is in the ability to participate in and to enjoy the sport of freediving. It is imperative for ease of equalization, lowering the risk of barotrauma, as well as for the pleasure of it. In my profession, I work with my clients to achieve a state of relaxation. One thing that I have learned in nine years of this work is that it takes practice, and it is not often easy for people to do because it requires tuning into and letting go of conscious and unconscious tension. To understand how we achieve a state of relaxation and how it applies to freediving, we must first understand what relaxation is.
Our nervous system is divided into two main systems: The central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). One division of the PNS is the autonomic nervous system (ANS) which is responsible for regulating body functions. Within this system there are two branches: the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. We refer to these as “fight or flight” and “rest and digest” respectively, and both are important in our vital functions. When we are in a state of relaxation, it is our parasympathetic nervous system that is operating. We experience a decrease in blood pressure, a slowing of our heart rate, and our respiration rate drops.
Some are able to enter into this state better than others and there are a number of factors that determine this. How well we have learned about our own responses to stress and are able to adapt to stress stems from our socialization and upbringing, how we were taught to process emotion, to be expressive within our bodies, and how often we felt we were in a safe place to do so throughout childhood and into our adult life.
The body holds every memory and lived experience we have had since birth. It is not necessary to keep everything in our conscious mind, but when necessary, once unconscious thoughts, memories or patterns come into our conscious awareness. These things come through by way of the body (PNS) and are processed by the mind (CNS). The awareness of our sensory, living bodies is referred to somatic (relating to the living body) awareness, or embodied self-awareness. The more we are aware of our bodies, the more we learn about our inner selves. This can be done deliberately through various modalities of bodywork such as massage therapy, yoga, breathwork, movement and dance. I believe that our embodied self-awareness can also be improved through freediving.
Training for freediving does not only occur in the water. On land, we work on our relaxation skills with practices such as meditation, yoga, stretching, breathwork, visualization and body scanning. We must become familiar with parts of our bodies that most other activities do not ask of us. We learn about how our soft palate and glottis work and where they are within our bodies. We must adapt our thoracic cavity to pressure and become friendly with sensations of discomfort. It also involves being conscious of our diet, tuning into how different foods make us feel as we dive. In short, freediving requires awareness of our bodies on many levels.
As we dive to depth, there is an acute awareness of how our bodies are feeling, and we attempt to come back to relaxation again and again. We have practice with tapping into the parasympathetic nervous system, allowing our bodies to feel safe under pressure. The sensations accompanied with rising CO2 levels in our bodies gives us information that can be stressful at first, but it is a learned experience to receive these phases of discomfort as conscious information. The conscious mind becomes of great importance in these moments of the urge to breathe, as this is when the unconscious mind has a perfect opportunity to surface, and it often does. It comes in the form of self-doubt, old fears and patterns, and along with it a conscious opportunity to work with these shadows and to integrate them. When this arises as we dive, we have no choice at depth but to listen, acknowledge and complete the dive with new knowledge of ourselves and choosing to adapt to what we found in a new way.
Freediving is so often spoken of as a mental sport, which it very much is, but the mind is not separate from the body. The body has access to more information about ourselves than the mind can tap into on demand. Through the practice of relaxation, attuning to our bodies as we dive, doing so without force, as well as bringing this mindset onto land, we have the opportunity to deepen our self-awareness and become better freedivers and better people. We freedive for many reasons, though we can intentionally choose to do so to meet ourselves more deeply through an enhanced embodied awareness of self.
