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What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

nytimes.com

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Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#51

Post by defterGoose »

proee wrote: post #39

I snorkel a few times a week in the ocean and the experience is always surreal. When I see marine life staring back at me through the water, the experience etches itself deep into my mind. So much so that I can pull the experience back out later in the day and play it back with great detail. This connectedness to nature has given me an incredible amount of peace and happiness.

Scuba has been the only activity I've ever had a 'life-changing' experience while doing. The ocean is truly a meditative place. Can't be an astronaut? Get under the ocean. It's basically the same thing.

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#52

Post by ISL »

iamgopal wrote: post #20
entee wrote: post #18

Just finished swimming a race from Alcatraz to shore, it's just the best high. I do tons of endurance sports, but swimming is the most reliable in yielding that euphoric feeling. I think it's due to it being essentially forced mindfulness meditation. Though you could swim with music, I don't and that means it's just my thoughts for 30-60 min (watch the thoughts, can't do anything about them right now). I'm forced to…

That just gave me an idea of circular swimming pool.

Don't forget open-water swimming. Swimming is transformed without walls.

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#53

Post by jjtheblunt »

Engineering-MD wrote: post #48
AtlasBarfed wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Triathlons: Swimming is the sea Cycling is the air Running is the earth You learn to appreciate and respect them all. Swimming is birth: thrown into an unfamiliar environment, you struggle to find your way Cycling is youth/midlife: You have your footing, now you speed through life with ease Running is old age: slower than you were in your prime, you learn persistence as your body weakens.

I feel your analogy needs a fourth sport to complete the 4 elements. But what sport would be represented by fire? Perhaps competitive shooting (gunpowder=fire)

Maybe the participant is the fire, interacting with the three other elements?

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#54

Post by namanyayg »

lm28469 wrote: post #15
ericmcer wrote: post #7

We are taught and continually retaught that discipline and hard work are the keys to success in life. Why would we not bring the same level of planning, anxiety and pursuit of excellence to our attempts to be happy? When you spend 40-60 hours a week trying to optimize your output at work it is difficult to not have an anxiety ridden vacation where you try to optimize your happiness. I am sure many people can relate t…

> We are taught and continually retaught that discipline and hard work are the keys to success in life. Maybe we should work on that presupposition first. If we're talking about career and material success it's probably true, but these very rarely bring true lasting happiness. You also have to look at who's telling you to "work hard" and why it's in their interest for you to do so. Imho once you go above a very low t…

If one finds Netflix, video games, partying, and vacations enjoyable; and they spend time pursuing those after becoming financially independent & retiring early, are they missing the big picture?

I understand and agree with the bit about not slaving for someone else throughout your life, but I'm curious what you mean by the "big picture" otherwise?

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#55

Post by WalterBright »

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #27
loeber wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, clearly the solution should be a figure-eight swimming pool? Where 1/3 of the time you're going straight, 1/3 overcorrecting left, 1/3 right

No, the solution is to move the water and have the swimming equivalent of a treadmill. NB: this already actually exists, only remember seeing it in a video at some point though.

That's true. The motivation for the swimmer is to not get sucked into the intake. I can hear the coach laughing maniacally as he turns the speed up to 11.

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#56

Post by sunstone »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #49
entee wrote: post #18

Just finished swimming a race from Alcatraz to shore, it's just the best high. I do tons of endurance sports, but swimming is the most reliable in yielding that euphoric feeling. I think it's due to it being essentially forced mindfulness meditation. Though you could swim with music, I don't and that means it's just my thoughts for 30-60 min (watch the thoughts, can't do anything about them right now). I'm forced to…

Swimming is the lowest impact on your body too. Anything involving running includes frequent jolts to ankles/knees/hips/lower back. Cycling on standard bicycles concentrates pressure on your genitals and the nerve-dense region areas around them, and puts some pressure on the lower back. Swimming can cause unique injuries to shoulders if your form isn't right, but otherwise is very smooth and low-impact.

Even very talented swimmers can have shoulder problems from over training. That's what cortisone shots are for.

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#57

Post by rurban »

Existenceblinks wrote: post #31
entee wrote: post #18

Just finished swimming a race from Alcatraz to shore, it's just the best high. I do tons of endurance sports, but swimming is the most reliable in yielding that euphoric feeling. I think it's due to it being essentially forced mindfulness meditation. Though you could swim with music, I don't and that means it's just my thoughts for 30-60 min (watch the thoughts, can't do anything about them right now). I'm forced to…

Many sports, each has such nice exercise stratagem. Even though swimming is my most favorite since I've been swimming for decade, cycling: the most enjoyment of scenery, 26km (how I do per day) gives you a lot of different views; mountain, river, road, smell of air along the ways. These are also good for brain. basketball: it just nicely exercises agility, muscle memory (imagine you nail it 10/10 shooting continually…

I tried most, but eventually settled with surfing and table tennis.

Running broke my hips, cycling is too expensive and dangerous, and I got tired of swimming. Too boring. I only do a long distance race once a year on our river, which is fun.

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#58

Post by colechristensen »

I have been interested in swimming for a few years but never found the place to develop the skill to the point of not drowning.

I could try to swim in my apartment's tiny shallow pool which is really better for children.

I could spend $200/mo at a nearby health club.

I could drive to the ocean and jump in.

The first just isn't big enough or deep enough to get anything done.

The second is ... well I want to go swimming but not that bad.

If I just jumped in the ocean, especially the Pacific around the bay area, I would just expect to drown. I can swim a bit but not enough to have confidence with the ocean.

What else can I do?

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#59

Post by rurban »

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #27
loeber wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, clearly the solution should be a figure-eight swimming pool? Where 1/3 of the time you're going straight, 1/3 overcorrecting left, 1/3 right

No, the solution is to move the water and have the swimming equivalent of a treadmill. NB: this already actually exists, only remember seeing it in a video at some point though.

It's called a river. I do a lot if river swimming, but you need to live in a country with clean rivers.

But swimming in lakes is more fun and better for your technique.

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#60

Post by tsbinz »

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #27
loeber wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, clearly the solution should be a figure-eight swimming pool? Where 1/3 of the time you're going straight, 1/3 overcorrecting left, 1/3 right

No, the solution is to move the water and have the swimming equivalent of a treadmill. NB: this already actually exists, only remember seeing it in a video at some point though.

You probably saw it in person as well, it's called a river :) In Zurich there's multiple places where you can swim in the Limmat, and it takes quite some effort to stay in place - one example is https://images.app.goo.gl/qTASdR51yDTiCk299 (of course you could go without the installation but this allows people to use it that would be afraid of getting carried away ...)
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