fairweather
When I was in Egypt this past spring I discovered the sport of freediving or apnea. Basically you hold your breath for as long as possible either statically or whilst diving underwater.
I've always been a swimmer, participated in competitions and galas as a kid and have kept on crawling kilometers thoughout adulthood. After training or on holiday at the seaside I would spend hours playing around underwater.
What a joy to rediscover something I loved to do as a child! I returned to Egypt in October, managed to dive to -22m after three days and received lavish compliments from my wonderful French instructor.
Returning home, I joined a club. Regular training sessions in the pool over the past two months have persuaded me to pull a card or two to try to find out how to improve my apnea performance.
Well, I keep pulling the Thoth Hanged Man... First of all, I was strumped, but then I had a flash: Thoth's image - with the exception perhaps of the crossed leg and nails in the extremities - looks exactly like the posture of a freediver.
In order to accomplish a good dive and to improve breath-hold capacity, a certain amount of suffering and sacrifice is necessary. Lack of air provokes contractions in the diaphragm which can be quite unpleasant. Also, the time I spend travelling to my training sessions could be interpreted as sacrifice...
I'm trying to embrace the suffering of the Hanged Man, and it seems to be working. Last week I managed to swim 50m underwater on half-empty lungs, did the same on Tuesday, and it's getting easier each time.
Goes to show how much positive there can be in a seemingly negative card
FW
I've always been a swimmer, participated in competitions and galas as a kid and have kept on crawling kilometers thoughout adulthood. After training or on holiday at the seaside I would spend hours playing around underwater.
What a joy to rediscover something I loved to do as a child! I returned to Egypt in October, managed to dive to -22m after three days and received lavish compliments from my wonderful French instructor.
Returning home, I joined a club. Regular training sessions in the pool over the past two months have persuaded me to pull a card or two to try to find out how to improve my apnea performance.
Well, I keep pulling the Thoth Hanged Man... First of all, I was strumped, but then I had a flash: Thoth's image - with the exception perhaps of the crossed leg and nails in the extremities - looks exactly like the posture of a freediver.
In order to accomplish a good dive and to improve breath-hold capacity, a certain amount of suffering and sacrifice is necessary. Lack of air provokes contractions in the diaphragm which can be quite unpleasant. Also, the time I spend travelling to my training sessions could be interpreted as sacrifice...
I'm trying to embrace the suffering of the Hanged Man, and it seems to be working. Last week I managed to swim 50m underwater on half-empty lungs, did the same on Tuesday, and it's getting easier each time.
Goes to show how much positive there can be in a seemingly negative card
FW