One Breath
There's this place in Austin called Barton Springs. Its a spring fed swimming hole that is actually part of Barton Creek. Its deep and wide and cold. The water is usually crystal clear. Its the place to go when the weather gets warm. There is a big green hill where all the hotties and hipsters soak up their sun. Its peaceful and shady and lush. I go there at least once a week during the summer.I have this ritual whenever I go to the springs. It was taught to me by my guru and he learned from his master before. When I first dive in the pool I try to swim as far as I can in one breath. The pool is about 45 yards wide, its actually much longer but psychologically its much harder to swim a long way lengthwise in just one breath. And in truth 45 yards or 135 feet is a long way to swim in, like I said, one breath. There are stages to this ritual that have to be executed a certain way.
First you must hyper-oxygenate yourself. This entails a time spent sitting and breathing, and breathing deep. During this time you must imagine the test in front of you. Its mostly daunting to sit on the hill and look out over the pool and imagine that one breath will take you all the way across. This is the stage in which you must believe that you can do it or you are bound to fail. During this stage ya gotta relax and believe.
Once your extremities begin to tingle you know that your body has enough oxygen so that you can deprive it for a minute or two. Now its time for the entry into the water. You need a good entry to propel yourself the initial distance. Its hard to get much of a run at it because about 8 feet from the edge of the pool is a concrete step up to the hill that itself is about 2 and one half feet tall. You kinda have to start there. Also running around the pool edges is frowned upon by the life guards. So you take a couple of steps and try to enter the pool in a smooth sea lion like fashion. During this stage you gotta relax and believe.
Now once you are in the water you have to fight the urge to fight the water. Your puny human intellect might tell you that to get to the other side in one breath you should get there as quick as possible. This is entirely untrue. If you try to get to the other side fast your body will use up its minimal oxygen supply in seconds. The key during this stage of the ritual is to relax and believe and swim slowly. Here it is most important to really relax all the muscles in your body. Not a stroke should be taken as long as your entry dive is still propelling you forward. Once your forward motion has almost come to a stop you should gently push your arms forward and make a long smooth stroking motion, remembering to cup your hands for the optimal water displacement. As you reach about the halfway point in the pool this is where the fear might set in. If you aren't prepared your mind will falter. You might think to yourself,
"I will never make it to the other side in one breath, I need air NOW."
The key here is to relax and believe. About three quarters of the way across there is a shelf in the pool bottom. This reassures you that the wall is close. At this point it is OK to kick a little bit although my guru recommends against it. He can go from one side to the other and back in one breath, which is something I will be working on this summer. Until now I have only been able to get to the other side and come back maybe ten feet before really running out of breath and panicking. At the shelf, your mind is really cleared from all the oxygen the lack of it. Also you have deprived your senses for about a minute now and your mind turns to deeply meditative things. Sometimes you conjure questions that in the hustle and bustle of life you might not even have thought to ask.
The final stage of this ritual is the feeling of accomplishment you get from conquering your fears and doing a little something that others don't even attempt. Now you can go about your day and just enjoy the springs. It is not a spectator sport. Folks hardly even notice what is going on. The lifeguards don't even seem to take much note. And I know its not much compared to the feats of the deep sea divers but to me its a triumph each and every time.
Viva Verano.
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