First,learning in general helps you stay afloat in life.Fear of drowning is one reason why many hesitate to learn swimming.Similarly,for fear of failure,we hesitate to dream big or pursue ambitions.We worry about getting drowned in the sea of challenges,problems and roadblocks.We think the world is out there to take us down.
To return to the pool,i now realize that water is not the threat;in fact water helps us to survive.Breathing is second nature to us;hence it is a big challenge for water to drown us.I am surprised at how well our body is equipped with natural survival instincts to help us to float and not drown.All we have to do is to use that potential to stay afloat.
In life,each one of us is blessed with unique survival skills that we call talents.We need to appreciate these virtues which shall help us swim in the sea of life.Instead of fearing getting drowned,one should drowned fear itself.Swimming then will come to be easy as breathing.
My second lesson came when i learned how to coordinate my hand and leg movements.My hands had to push the water back so i could swim ahead.This was akin to overcoming hindrances in life’s path,in order to make progress.The more water we push behind,the farther we swim.Even more important is the principle that when my hand movements get streamlined with movements in water,progress is faster and smoother.
Therefore,when we handle problems in alignment with our strength and weaknesses,we handle those problems better.On the other hand,when we are just splashing water and not making best use of our talents or find ourselves in the “wrong job”, we encounter frustration or failure.All the more reason for us to understand our strengths and accordingly align our goals and ambitions.
Lessons from the leg movements also did not go unnoticed.Contrary to the backward hand push,the legs have to be moved downwards.Basically,the more you push the water down,the more you remain up.This goes contrary to popular understanding that to float one has to push or hold the body up.
An instance of seeing this fallacy in action is when a person who does not know how to swim is scrambling to stay afloat.I learnt that if one just keeps pushing the water down,it is hard for the person to drown.Just as if we continue to keep pushing negative thoughts down,we will continue to keep our chin up and so stay afloat.When we panic,we lose sight of this simple principle.
The symphony of swimming occurs when hand and leg movements are in tandem.If the movements are not in sync,either we tend to drown or we don’t move ahead much.Similarly,when we align our strengths to push obstacles behind,stay enthusiastic and push down negative thoughts,swimming in the sea of life seems so effortless. This in a way is akin to our own ego becoming one with that of the water.
