diving, yoga, and meditation

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By: Jenifer Kayhan
Jenifer Kayhan is living in Amstelveen. Originally she is Armenian and she is born and lived in Istanbul till she's got married to her beloved husband and moved to Holland. She is a chemist, ...
Edited date: December 8, 2022Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

celebrate each and every single breath

In our everyday life, everything goes fast, and everything makes some noise. Especially if you’re living in a big city, it is almost impossible to find silence. I remember when I was in NYC and was looking at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, and all I was hearing was the sirens of the ambulances and the police.

How often do you hear the silence? Or maybe it is a better question: how often do you hear only your breath? One of the places that I can find silence is underwater. That’s where I also learn to be better in meditation and yoga.

Let me explain.

Since my first experience diving in Santorini, I fell in love. Of course, I can say all those common reasons why I love diving, like feeling weightless, feeling free, or feeling like you’re flying, but I want to talk about how diving improved my meditation life and how diving and yoga are related.

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Since my childhood, I have had a secure connection with the sea. When I am in the sea, it feels like I’ve returned to where I belong. Diving lets me take a step further with my connection to the sea and made me feel more part of this incredible world.

When I’m diving, I am this small girl, stepping into a world where everything is more powerful and gracious than me. Suddenly I am in a world where humans are not stronger, and they are not the rulers, but these other beautiful creatures are. Remember, without your tank, your mask, your fins, and all the equipment; you can not survive there. That feels amazing.

I quickly realized that diving is the only place where I can hear my breath. Maybe it sounds unrealistic, but that’s the only place that you can listen to your breath without any distraction. While all the fish are swimming around, all the safety steps that you need to take during ascending and descending and the excitement and the curiosity about what you will see during the dive, you can still really focus on your breath. That’s the only thing that matters.

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In our everyday life, we are breathing unconsciously. We don’t realize how crucial our breath is. However, one single breath that you can not take in any more will be the end. While diving, you appreciate every single breath because you see how much preparation you need to do to be able to breathe underwater.

Diving also how to meditate and made me realize how I use my breath during yoga. Like many of us, I had (and still have) troubles with meditating. We’re used to noise so much that if there’s any silence, our mind starts to fill that it.

However, when you’re diving, there is no more of the nonsense talk of your mind. It would help if you focused on breathing. That’s also what you do when you’re doing complicated yoga poses. Haven’t you realized that your mind is more active when you’re doing a downward-facing dog, but you’re entirely focused when you’re doing ‘virabhadrasana III?’ Because with experience, you’ve learned that if you don’t keep your awareness on breathing, you will not be able to maintain your balance.

The movements during yoga are similar to moving though water, controlled, and slow. During yoga and diving, everything is slower; you even need to move very gently so that you spare air. Everything is in silence, and every breath you take is precious. t reminds me of a Turkish song: “Either life was never a feast, or every breath we take was a feast.’

I choose to believe in the second one, and that’s why diving and yoga help me celebrate the feast.

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