Finding Peace in the Water: the Yoga of Swimming

Gliding through the water, the sun above me, all I hear is the sound of rushing water and bubbles made by my exhale. The rhythm of my strokes is matched by the rhythm of my breathing. Inhale, exhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, exhale. This pattern repeats over and over as my body slips through the water. I press the water backward as I propel myself forward, working with the water as I flow through my aquatic surroundings.

When you picture someone meditating, you might visualize a person sitting perfectly still on a cushion with a peaceful expression on their face, an overall ease about them. But stillness isn’t the only way to meditate. Movement can also be meditation.

Swimming is meditation for me. The rhythmic movement and consistent breathing, especially when swimming in open water, creates a calmness in my nervous system that is exactly what I get when sitting still on the mat.

When swimming you’re immersed in the water. The normal sounds of your environment become muffled underneath. Like with yoga, you focus on the sound of your breath, the bubbles passing my ears as they leave my nose. Often I occupy my mind by counting my strokes, the turnover of numbers one through nine becoming like a mantra. Sometimes my mind wanders away from me, often to unimportant things. Then, like meditation, I return to my counting, or simply listening to the water pass me by.

Any exercise where you are fully present and don’t need to think too hard about what you are doing can be meditation. Swimming, walking, running, biking, hiking, skating and more can create the same effects as meditation.

What is meditation?

Meditation is a practice where you become fully present in your mind and body. According to the Oxford Languages Dictionary, to meditate is to:

think deeply or focus one’s mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation.

With this definition, anything that you do physically, where you focus your mind, can become a meditative practice. You can focus your mind and move your body at the same time. People often tell me that they can’t find time to meditate, but they might already be meditating and just not know it.

Meditation typically leaves you feeling calm and relaxed. You feel deeply connected to your body and the moment you are in. Many cardio type exercises also make you feel this way. I feel euphoric after swimming, something I never felt from any other type of exercise, until I discovered yoga. My mind is clear and calm after both, as well as energized. I have occasionally reached this euphoric state from sitting in meditation, though it’s not as consistent for me. What is consistent is the calm and clarity.

Cardio as Meditation

I have acupuncture patients and yoga students who are runners, bikers, hikers, and triathletes. I would guess that they all do these activities because of how it makes them feel. It’s difficult to go for a bike ride on the roads, especially here in New England, without being fully present and aware of your surroundings. There is a reason Massachusetts drivers are sometimes called “Massholes.”

Cardiovascular exercise, in addition to all of the physical benefits, improves your mood, reduces stress, and can help with both anxiety and depression. It can also improve memory and attention, according to some studies.

This is what meditation does for you as well. It strengthens your focus, helping you notice this moment for longer and longer periods of time. Meditation helps you feel your feelings and be with what is. It reduces stress, anxiety and depression.

Movement can be meditation. Vinyasa yoga, the flow style of yoga that I practice and teach, is one of my favorite movement meditation practices. When I connect the breath with the movement, like when swimming, I am fully present in my body and mind. I have no thoughts other than on what I am doing with my body and breath. Everything else falls away.

Yoga to enhance swimming

Yoga is a wonderful way to improve your experience of swimming. I’ve been a swimmer since high school, competing in butterfly and the individual medley (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle in that order). However, once I started practicing yoga in my early 20s, my stroke felt different.

I had been to maybe three yoga classes when I got back in the pool. I remember that I was acutely aware of my body gliding through the water in a way that it hadn’t previously. My body felt longer, each stroke covering more distance with more ease but more power. I felt more streamlined and had more power from my core. “There might be something to this yoga stuff” I recall thinking.

Yoga gave me more mobility and length in my body, allowing me to glide through the water more efficiently. Over the years, my core and body strength have increased, as has my ability to balance strength with ease (sthira and sukha). It’s this balance that helps my swimming most.

Unlike with land sports, you need to be gentle with the water. If you push too hard, you hand slips through, getting you nowhere. You need to grasp the water to push it behind you. This propels you forward. I’ve been told that my swimming looks effortless, with barely a splash, yet I move pretty quickly. It’s the balance of strength and ease that allows me to do that. Moving the water behind me, rather than slapping at the water. The Yoga of Swimming, moving meditation.

Cool down

Many swimmers have a warm up that they do in the water, so I’ll focus on the cool down. You can do a cool down in the pool, but then it’s always beneficial to stretch afterward. I rerecorded this video as an updated version of my post-swim yoga video.

Join me on the mat!

I teach online yoga classes for active adults over 50 who want to build strength, improve balance, and increase their mobility for the long term. Classes are live over Zoom Monday-Friday and you can take all of the classes that I offer on demand whenever you like. In addition to yoga classes, I teach Mindful Core classes to build functional core strength, meditation classes to find stillness and calm, and stretch classes to focus on mobility. Click the button below for a 10 Day Free Trial to Purple Room Yoga!