I went swimming for the first time in years! My summer job has an indoor swimming pool and, luckily for me, it's free for summer employees. Yesterday, I got off work ten minutes early so I went to try out the swimming pool for the first time. It was one of those pools that was divided into lanes so people can swim laps instead of a free, open swimming area. I didn't mind too much. All I had to do was to avoid others swimming in the same lane and that wasn't too hard.
Let me tell you, beginning to swim again when you haven't done it in a long time is no piece of cake. Within the first ten minutes, the muscles in my back were already sore and I was afraid that my neck was going to end up in a painful pinch from the fact that I kept trying to hold my head above water.
I tried swimming with my head underwater as well, but then I quickly realized that I didn't have the lung capacity to hold my breath anymore. It had been too long. So I went over to the shallow end of the pool and practiced holding my breath and doing dead man's float. After I got up to thirty seconds, I tried swimming again and gradually learned to trust the water.
After about half an hour of swimming, I looked around me and noticed that others were swimming so much better. There was a little boy swimming next to me that moved so easily through the water. Others were very graceful as they dipped in and out of the waves. There was even a fully-dressed woman wearing a headscarf who kept doing headstands in the water! What are they doing that I'm not doing? I wondered. After watching them several times, I got it: they were swimming slowly. I, meanwhile, was frantically doing breaststrokes and frog swimming in hurried, rushed motions. Maybe I should try it like them, I thought. I took a few deep breaths and plunged back into the water.
Let me tell you, swimming slowly made all the difference. Instead of worrying about running out of breath or doing the motions correctly, I told myself to slow down and just take my time. Immediately, I was gliding through the water and expending less energy.
This made me start to wonder if I hurried too frantically in other parts of my life. There was the car accident a week ago and now this swimming revelation. Where else in my life should I slow down and take my time?
Let me tell you, beginning to swim again when you haven't done it in a long time is no piece of cake. Within the first ten minutes, the muscles in my back were already sore and I was afraid that my neck was going to end up in a painful pinch from the fact that I kept trying to hold my head above water.
I tried swimming with my head underwater as well, but then I quickly realized that I didn't have the lung capacity to hold my breath anymore. It had been too long. So I went over to the shallow end of the pool and practiced holding my breath and doing dead man's float. After I got up to thirty seconds, I tried swimming again and gradually learned to trust the water.
After about half an hour of swimming, I looked around me and noticed that others were swimming so much better. There was a little boy swimming next to me that moved so easily through the water. Others were very graceful as they dipped in and out of the waves. There was even a fully-dressed woman wearing a headscarf who kept doing headstands in the water! What are they doing that I'm not doing? I wondered. After watching them several times, I got it: they were swimming slowly. I, meanwhile, was frantically doing breaststrokes and frog swimming in hurried, rushed motions. Maybe I should try it like them, I thought. I took a few deep breaths and plunged back into the water.
Let me tell you, swimming slowly made all the difference. Instead of worrying about running out of breath or doing the motions correctly, I told myself to slow down and just take my time. Immediately, I was gliding through the water and expending less energy.
This made me start to wonder if I hurried too frantically in other parts of my life. There was the car accident a week ago and now this swimming revelation. Where else in my life should I slow down and take my time?
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