Freediving, Embodiment and Humanity – Joanna Rutkowska

Summary

In this post I'd like to utilize my experience with freediving as an excuse to talk about a bunch of seemingly contrasting qualities and emotions, which together — I feel — illustrate some deeper aspects of experiencing humanity. For me, at least, freediving has turned out a surprisingly useful tool in this endeavor.Freediving is a curious activity. You take a deep breath and off you go — a few tens of meters under water: 30, 40, 50m, maybe more if you're really good. Or maybe just 20m deep, but for a more relaxed fundive, enjoying flying in 3D space among rocks, coral reef or wrecks. We don't need all those clunky tanks with air or other gases, which scuba divers are so dependent upon. And, unlike scuba diving, we're not limited by ascent rates, meaning we can travel vertically as fast as our fins (or scooter!) let us do that. We dive silently without exhaling bubbles and without those Vader-like breathing noises, so marine animals are not scared of us. We're sleek and free. Unified with the environment and ourselves. Pure freedom.Urge To BreatheBut there's a catch. Breathing is our most primordial reflex. Try holding your breath now — start your stopwatch and see how long it takes for you to feel the first symptoms of what we call Urge To Breathe (UTB)?Now imagine you are forced to remain breathless for another minute or two, or more... How would you describe the feeling?The UTB sensation can typically be reduced to a few more basic symptoms: contractions of the diaphragm, sensation of heat, feeling of pressure on the chest, urge to swallow, or feeling of pressure on our glottis. These elemental symptoms are interpreted by our brain's higher-level subsystem(s) as a pressing need to resume breathing.Interestingly, when we learn to "decompose" this high-level feeling into the more basic bodily reactions, UTB usually gets a bit easier to tolerate. At least for a bit. My understanding of this phenomenon is that our brain is alerted by these bodily reactions, rather th...