Mind, body and the water.

2018 has been a year full of challenges and time in the water has certainly helped me to manage my way through these.

I have this year been living between two towns 90 miles apart because of my husband’s job and as well as providing lots of fantastic and exciting opportunities it has been tough at times too and there have been times where I feel like my self-confidence and belief have been left somewhere on the journey up or down the A1 and replaced with a sack load of anxiety and negative thoughts.

Awareness of our own mental health and well-being as well as our physical health has thankfully become something we are all more conscious of, I know I certainly am. I think this is one of the reasons I love to just be by myself in the water and lose myself in the lengths, the open water or the waves.

This year saw me swim the Great Swim series of 10km events. My physical training hadn’t been the best, I relied heavily on my mind and the fact that I’d swum the length of lake Windermere the year before and that 10km was a breeze in comparison to 17km. Well of course it isn’t but my inner determination got me through those swims and I came out with an improved time and a smile after each of them despite at times my mind and my physical actions being somewhat out of sync.

I enjoyed some new swimming experiences with different and now new swimming friends, trained with an Olympian to become an open water swimming coach, coached some wonderful women into the open water for their first time swims, dipped in waterfalls in Slovenia and South Africa, swam in lakes with lots of like-minded swimmers and splashed about off the coast of the Isle of Wight with my mermaid friends as well as surviving the most exhilarating day of cold water swimming in the Lake District.

You might wonder why I am sharing all of this; well in the pool this morning my mind completely took over what was essentially a body moment.  I was over thinking everything, making mental lists of things to be done and stressing about how I just simply can’t fit everything in, I am sure that I am not the only one feeling this way right now but it all felt so overwhelming.  Before I knew it my 2100m swim was finished and I hadn’t been in the moment at all, I couldn’t reflect on the swim because already I didn’t remember it. I felt like I’d cheated my physical body out of its moment because my mind and all those thoughts had completely taken over.

Before I got out of the water, I made all of those thoughts stop, pushed backed from the side of the pool, I lay on my back, emptied my mind and took a minute to check back in with the physical element of being in the water and just enjoyed floating and breathing. I took a moment to reflect on something Clare, who massages my swimming muscles to within a millimetre of their fibres, reminded me last night which is to simply take time to breath daily and say to myself that “everything is as it should be” and then calmly carry on.

So, I am signing off from this wonderful year of swimming reflecting that it’s been full of challenges, amazing opportunities, good fun and the best friendships and that for 2019 I shall go forward in life with the determination I show in the water.

I’m off to set myself up for the festivities ahead and get myself ready to take on 2019 with positivity, confidence and belief. I am going to approach life in 2019 as I approach swimming which is not about being the best but simply being the best I can be.   

Enjoy your Christmas and New Year celebrations and take the very best care of your mind and body.

Liz x

@lakes_lidos_lanes