She sits on the surface of the water, face down, with one hand on the yellow buoy.
She relaxes her entire body, including her gaze, as she sights down the line which extends to the weight at the bottom of the sink-hole 20m below.
She focuses inwards to her breathing.
She completes a series of deeper breaths, then takes one last breath. She holds it, and slowly rolls over upside down and starts to pull her way down the line…
She equalises her ears as she starts to become negatively bouyant.
She relaxes her gaze on the checkmarks of the rope in front of her.
They pass by – one after another.
She’s now free-falling into the water headfirst, free-diving deeper into the sink hole, all on the same breath that she took on the surface.
The line markers tick by, and soon, she finds herself at the bottom of the line, about 20m below.
This bottom plate is her cue to grab the rope, turn, and start to pull herself back up towards the surface.
Her face emerges out of the water and she takes her recovery breaths.
The thing is, last time she was here, she couldn’t complete this dive. She would make it about half way, then have to turn back up.
She wasn’t any “fitter” or any “stronger.”
The difference is, now she knows how to watch the rope.
When most people dive, they focus on the bottom. They rush down, anticipating the depth that they “want.” When (and if) they get there, they turn around hard, and rush back towards the surface.
The thing is, their end “result” is never as good. They can never go as deep this way, because they are focused too much on the future.
This anticipation elevates the heart rate, and changes the physiology, which impacts the performance.
It turns out, that we can go lots deeper when we simply relax.
When we watch what is happening right in front of our faces. When we look at what is going on right now, we lose fear and anxiety, and instead, we find a process and an action.
