Freediving is meditation

Trying freediving. Turns out it’s not swimming — it’s training your ability to stay calm. Couldn’t relax, started panicking — you run out of air and start sinking. Once I got that, held my breath for three minutes.

An excellent way to measure composure. My level of not-giving-a-damn is 12 meters. Beyond that, it gets scary. You descend headfirst, meter by meter, the water squeezing harder and harder. The moment you slip, you suddenly realize you’re under a layer of water and the surface is far away. Immediately you need to go up. When you stay calm underwater, controlling the instinct, you can stay down much longer. You just become calmer overall. A lot of things stop mattering so much.

A practical approach to meditation. Meditate or drown. Relax the body and the mind. Don’t burn oxygen. You remain yourself, nothing else exists. And what kind of people are those who dive deeper than a hundred meters on a single breath? What is it like — to be that relaxed at such depth?