Breathe in, breathe out.
While I could write a whole book about the technical things I have learned throughout my scuba diving courses, this post is focused more on the life lessons I’ve learned throughout my 10 years of diving that no one ever teaches you when you get your certification. If you are someone who has never tried scuba diving, you may not think it could be life-changing or teach you things that apply to every day life, but I hope this post changes your mind! So, without further ado, keep reading for my top 10 things I’ve learned from 10 years of diving.
1. When in doubt, just keep breathing
One of the first and most important things you’re taught when learning to scuba dive is to never hold your breath. In a very literal sense, this is important due to the difference in air pressure. Holding your breath when ascending (going to the surface) could cause an over-expansion of your lungs and lead to serious bodily harm. But I will spare you the technical details.
While obviously continuing to breathe is important for your safety, this rule of thumb can be translated into every day life. No matter what is going on, whenever you’re in doubt, just keep breathing. Often when someone is panicked, they will begin to hyperventilate. Just as this isn’t good to do when scuba diving, it’s important to take controlled, deep breaths to help ground yourself. I use these breathing techniques in my every day life when I’m stressed. No matter what is going on, stop, take a minute to breathe. This helps refocus your thoughts and help make the problem at hand more bearable.
Key point: When life gives you craziness and it seems unbearable, go back to the basics, focus on your breath.
2. I’m capable of more than I think
Did I ever think I could remember all the details of learning to dive? No. Did I ever think I would be able to dive in a dark cavern? No. Did I ever think I could be in the ocean at night? Nope! But I’ve done all of these things each experience has been so incredible. These feats inspire me to keep pushing myself and face my fears!
Outside of diving, I am reminded every day that I am capable of so much more than I believe I am. When I am faced with a challenging situation or a situation that might scare me, I remind myself that I have conquered so many challenges and faced so many fears already. What’s one more?
This isn’t exclusive to major life-changing events or heart-pumping activities, as it can apply to the workplace, my personal life, and even the general every-day things. Worried about that job interview? Scared to try something new? Remember, you’re so much more capable than you think you are.
Key point: No matter what life throws at you, you are capable of conquering it. Whatever you have your heart set on, just DO IT!
3. Enjoy the little things
Everyone is always out looking for bigger and better. Sometimes you have to slow down and enjoy the little things too. This applies to not only diving, but life as well.
In diving, everyone is looking for the shark or the manta ray or the sea turtle. And while I LOVE all of these animals, truth is, you won’t see them on every dive. Take time to look at the starfish or the little crab hiding in the coral. There are SO many little critters to be seen if you just take a moment to just LOOK.
In daily life, not every day is going to involve jumping out of a plane or climbing thrilling peaks. Some days, it’s about enjoying the little things – enjoying a cup of coffee at a cute coffee shop, cuddling your dog, or watching the sun rise.
Key point: Enjoy the every day. Never take any day for granted, no matter how “average” it may be.
4. Stay in the moment
Let me be the first to say I am absolutely awful when it comes to mindfulness. It is a skill I am working on every day, but am improving on little by little. I’m sure I’m not the only one struggling with this, as we often are too in our heads to focus on what’s right in front of us. Always dwelling on the past or dreaming of the future, we fail to take in every moment of every day. Eventually those little moments pass you by, and you’ll wish you were in them again.
Scuba diving keeps me present and helps me with mindfulness. If I am not present in the moment when diving, I might miss something incredible! I could be too much in my own head to see a whale shark in the distance, passing by for only a fleeting moment. Or, as in the picture, I may miss the stingray hiding in plain site! In your regular life, you never know when something incredible might happen, even in the normal day to day. You may one day miss those simple moments you weren’t focused on at the time!
Key point: Get out of your head, take some time to focus on what’s right in front of you.
5. The more I relax, the more I get to see
Work smarter not harder. In diving, the more you work, the more exhausted you become and the more air you use. The more air you use, the more limited your dive is. Slow, controlled breaths and effective movements are key to keeping your energy. In addition, the more you’re kicking around, the more you’re going to scare off any potential ocean critters you would otherwise get to enjoy!
In daily life, we are surrounded by pressures to be productive. Often, we feel guilty when we aren’t constantly on the go or constantly working on something. I am most definitely guilty of it, working a full time job in addition to writing a blog. But doing this leads to burn out. When you’re burnt out, you can’t do the things you want to do, and everything becomes a dreadful task. You need to relax, do some self care every once in awhile. Breathe. You’ll ultimately get more done this way.
Key point: Slow and steady wins the race.
6. Fear often comes from ignorance
When I talk about scuba diving, I mainly get two responses. It’s either, “wow that’s so cool, I want to try that!”, or, more often, “I’d be too scared to do that! Aren’t you afraid there’ll be sharks?”.
So many people think diving is dangerous or sharks are dangerous (and many of the other animals in the ocean). A lot of this fear comes from misinformation and not knowing more about the animals or the sport of diving in general. While diving has its risks (like most other things in life), there are so many safeguards in place to prevent a lot of these accidents from happening.
As for sharks? I hope to see them on every dive! Sharks have such a bad reputation, but truthfully most of them are more afraid of you than you are of them. Reef sharks like the one in my picture, for example, only prey on weaker, smaller, injured animals. Humans are not on the menu!
As with anything in nature, don’t disturb it. I don’t go trying to pet a shark or any other ocean critters. This can negatively impact the animals just going about their every day lives, and can cause a potential response due to feeling threatened. If someone walked into my home and touched me, I wouldn’t be too happy either!
Unfortunately, misinformation does not only apply to scuba diving. Back on land there is still a lot of ignorance in the world. Too many wars being fought, hate crimes being committed, and lots of rumors or false information being spread. A lot of fear related to certain people, cultures, locations, etc., is often due to misinformation. While you should always use your best judgement, take the time to listen and learn before you judge someone/something.
Key point: Before you make a judgement or assumption, take the time to become educated and learn all the facts.
7. Teamwork is important
Everyone says it. It’s in nearly every job description. But how important is teamwork, really?
In my experience, super important!
In scuba diving, one of the main rules is to never dive alone. Having a dive buddy ensures you have someone to perform your pre-dive safety check with you, acts as a backup source of air in an emergency (which should be prevented at all costs, but you never know), and gives you someone to talk about your amazing dive with! A lot of accidents that have happened in diving are due to divers (experienced or not) diving alone.
In life, we often forget to ask for help. As someone who is stubborn and prefers to do things myself (with the typical “I’m fine” response to any innocent offers), I am still learning from this lesson. While alone time and independence is great, sometimes we need other people. And that’s okay.
Key point: It’s okay to ask for help sometimes.
8. Don’t touch what isn’t yours
Now this seems like common sense when written out, but people often don’t realize the harm they’re causing by doing “innocent” things such as touching coral or petting the cute sea turtle. You don’t have to leave your imprint on everything. You wouldn’t walk into a museum and touch the art because it could damage the painting. The same applies to coral reefs and the creatures that live within them. Every time you touch a reef, it causes damage. This isn’t solely focused on divers either. I’ve seen plenty of swimmers and snorkelers causing damage to reefs.
It doesn’t always have to be as blatant as breaking off a chunk of live coral and taking it home. It can be as innocent as not paying attention to where you’re kicking your fins (which is right into that reef, by the way). Always be aware of the wildlife within the ocean (and elsewhere). Try to leave as little of an imprint as possible.
In the typical day to day, this may not be as pertinent, but nature is still always around you. Respect it, respect others, and respect yourself.
Key point: Let nature be as it is. Sometimes it’s best to just watch from a distance.
9. What we do impacts worlds distant from our own
Those plastic straws you keep using? In the ocean. That piece of trash you threw out the car window? In the ocean.
Ultimately, everything leads to our oceans. As a native Midwesterner, it’s easy for me to forget how much of an impact my actions have on the ocean (which, obviously, is quite far from where I live). Often, people assume if they don’t live near the ocean, their actions won’t affect it (and conversely, any damage to the ocean won’t affect them). But throughout my dives, I have unfortunately seen lots of trash in the oceans. Even your sunblock can potentially cause damage to the coral (if it’s not reef-safe!).
One of the sharks I encountered in the Bahamas was actually trapped in fishing line. Since it couldn’t go anywhere, it would eventually starve to death. We set it free. Had we not seen this, that shark would have died due to human negligence.
Even if you don’t see places like this, what you do has an impact and what happens to these places can have an impact on you. You may not know this, but oceans generate most of the oxygen we breathe. Damage that? Well, that could obviously prove disastrous. I am definitely not perfect when it comes to being environmentally friendly, so this post isn’t meant to scare or shame you. But I take steps every day to try to become better, and I encourage you to do the same!
Key point: What you do in your daily life has an impact. Take little steps to improve your effects on the environment.
10. Every day is a new opportunity
You could dive the same dive site every day and experience something different each time. During my time diving in the Bahamas, there was a dive site called “Lobster or No Lobster”. This was coined by Jacques Cousteau, one of the most famous scuba divers in history who created the first self-contained underwater breathing system (essentially, what we use to scuba dive!). The site was called this because one day, there would be a ton of lobsters, and the next day there would be none in sight.
We can’t assume just because we go somewhere once, meet someone once, try something once, that that’s how it always is/they always are. Yes, first impressions are important, but they aren’t always an accurate depiction. Fail at something? Keep trying. Go somewhere and didn’t care for it? Try it another, day, month, year, maybe you’ll have a better experience next time! Each day is a new opportunity to try something new, see something different, have another chance. Don’t take any day for granted!
Key point: First impressions aren’t everything. Treat each day as a new opportunity!
Conclusion
While it may not seem relevant to every day life, scuba diving has taught me so many important life lessons and skills throughout the past decade. If you’ve never given it a try, or you’ve been too nervous to try it, I highly recommend facing your fears and getting in the water! It will open up your eyes to a whole new world and change your perspective. I do warn you, however, once you try it once you’re bound to be hooked for life!