Why Sink or Swim When You Can Float and Flip

So many aquatic themes lately! Maybe these long dog days of summer, with a spritz of perimenopause, make me want to jump in a pool!

Except not like the pool dives you see in a resort ad, with an aerial drone shot panning up as a lady in a white one-piece, who somehow has the whole place to herself, does a perfect swan dive into a train of ripples. Mine would be more like a cartoon. A mid-walk, step off the ledge, only to sink to the bottom and hang out there for as long as I can. No sound, no gravity weighing on me, just stillness. A tea party that no one showed up for and loving it.

Heading into the deep end of June we're getting ready for a special birthday, our little 6yr old is turning 7. Let me tell you, no one loves swimming more than Noémie. So much so she knew how to swim before she knew how to swim. It's true, ask her. In fact she knew how to do everything before she knew how to do anything. The good news is her confidence is unswerving. Bad news is this confidence will swerve and crash into a wall unless she experiences humility. Taking shortcuts and thinking she is ready for something before she is, just to avoid doing the real work, this is where we struggle with her. In the end it holds back progress and causes more tears than if we just took the proper steps to learn.

It reminds me of a Moth story I listened to this past weekend about a guy who had 9 months to learn how to swim. Not just to splash around in the shallow end of a pool, but to go deep-sea diving for his honeymoon. He said he procrastinated for 8 months, so in the last month he did what we all do in a pinch when you have to become a fast pro: he went to YouTube. He watched and studied hours of videos. He watched enough videos to finally build the courage to go down the pool steps of a Marriott. He spent two weeks syncing up his laptop education with practical experience, plus five hovering lifeguards, which he called "the pigeons," gripping the pool edge and watching his every spastic movement. He said eventually he was actually "swimming." He felt SO ready for scuba diving, only to find himself in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef a couple days later, having a panic attack. Clawing his way back to the boat. Then he felt both the scuba instructors and the water carry him (I think he was actually being towed like a broken vehicle). He realized if he just let go of his fear and relaxed in his breathing apparatus, he was okay. The instructor would drag him around to see cool things (again, being towed), and when he would have to attend to the other divers, he would leave him—just floating there. Slowly turning upside down "like an underwater astronaut." The lesson here being, despite all his "creative efforts," he had no clue how to swim. All the non-efforts were probably more work than just committing to actual efforts. He did eventually wind up signing up for adult swim lessons at the local YMCA and can proudly say now, he knows how to swim.

We find that getting our girl to fully commit to a process, fully get our money's worth from a pottery camp/swim classes/music lessons, it needs to be fun. If it's not fun, then hopefully she at least has an instructor who makes it fun. This seems so obvious, but I think as adults we forget this with our own learning process. We forget we're allowed to have fun too. When we're really struggling with something, feeling unmotivated or it's just not clicking, why don't we stop sooner to ask ourselves if there's another way? We’re quick to assume that what we’re learning is too hard, when really maybe it’s just presented in an uninspiring way.

I find as an instructor that when we are having more fun, we are more open and more willing to learn something new. A blog I wrote 2 years ago describes Noemie's first swim lesson, it's a perfect example of this.

Written January 2023

My little ducky has almost completed her series of swim lessons. Whether or not she can swim yet I really can’t tell. All I know is she can float, she can kick, she can put her head underwater, and she can flail her arms. So yeh the pieces are there but they haven’t actually all met yet in one synchronized movement. The other thing I know is she is having an absolute blast.  Which as a former swim instructor all through my teenage and college years, we’re well on our way. That’s more than half the battle. I always felt like once I could get the face to smile in the water, the body will smile, then it will relax, and only then can the body float. Which is the same exact approach I bring into my pilates classes. Make the face smile, so the body will smile, so we can float through moves with a relaxed buoyant attitude. Basically have FUN. Before you know it your doing powerful high coordinated laps. Skimming along the water’s surface with stamina and ease. 

In our practice it’s often the different unassuming moves where untapped strength is pushed and ignored muscles are flexed.  Sometimes those perceived  “off days” is when the real progress is made. We’re going to continue mixing up our routine, with longer holds and counts, submerged in that slow muscle burn, clutching our pool noodles and kicking at the edge of our threshold. Leading with curiosity and weightless playfulness instead of weighed down criticism or doubt. If you’re still scared or hate a move just rebel like my daughter does in the pool. Torpedo up from the bottom of the pool, like a fully breeched whale, while spitting a stream of water directly at your teacher’s face🐳🦆🦢🏊🏻‍♀️💪💦💧.

Excited to make your bodies sweat, smile, and find the fun in floating in deep water, if you're lucky you might flip upside down.

XO,

Celeste

"If you don't try to be boring...you won't be boring"

~Noemie