Swimming

Started my morning off with a swim. The pool most days is empty when I get there, today there were two other women.

Swimming first thing in the morning is a good beginning to the day. I begin easily, swimming back and forth across the pool, focused on nothing other than moving cleanly through the water with as little disturbance as possible. It’s peaceful and relaxing while at the same time aerobically strenuous.

The rhythm of swimming and breathing regularly, bilaterally on every third stroke, makes it a kind of moving meditation.

Swimming doesn’t require me to pay attention completely the way cycling does. With swimming my five senses are involved but I’m allowed to lose myself completely in the motion. With cycling I can lose my self-awareness (e.g., the sense of being one with the bike – not separate), but I can never lose my awareness of my environment – it would be too dangerous.

Not so with swimming and that’s another thing I love about it.