Do you scroll Pinterest so you can take a little mental vacation? This is the time of year you might feel a little envious when you see all those Facebook photos of skiing or tropical trips under sunny skies.

Your time is coming. You will get a chance. Will you be ready?

We want to make sure you are ready. When you have saved enough pennies and take off for your dream vacation, we want you to have FUN with no regrets.

This week’s episode is a sneak peek at the upcoming Snorkeling 101 Online Course. Learn how the snorkeling equipment works and more.

No one wants to go to the beach feeling unsure about the fish, waves, and equipment. Take a little pressure off to ensure you’ll head out with knowledge and confidence.

About half of our hands-on Foundation 1 students come to class having had a snorkeling experience. It might not have been much of an experience, but they learned there was more to it than they realized. And that they definitely wanted to snorkel again.

Sometimes students sit on the beach wishing they could join in on the fun. They might even feel shame. That is the last experience and feeling we want you to have.

Get a tiny bit of the information you need to be a confident participant. Before you start this new adventure, you can do the mental work to help you be ready.

Get a glimpse into a whole new world…while being able to breathe!

Watch Episode 16 Below: 

Healing Fear in Warm Water

If you’re like many adults, you’ve been frustrated or embarrassed that you weren’t free to swim “like everybody else.” Half of adults can’t swim, like you! We meet them all the time. They’ve tried every system, including the traditional programs, with no success.

Since 1999, we’ve helped hundreds of adults overcome their fear and discomfort in water with our proven system built on the 5 Circles Teaching Method. The Miracle Swimming system uses the nuts and bolts of mindfulness to address the root of the problem and will transform the way you feel and think about water for the rest of your life.

The post Episode 16: How to use a Snorkel? appeared first on Orca Swim School.

With that said you must do the mind work 100% to be able to produce the physical skills.

Definition of Swimming

Let me backtrack for a moment and define swimming. Swimming is: moving from here to there with comfort and ease getting air and rest when you want.

The key is comfort and ease.  Comfort and ease come from the mind, not the body.  The body lets us know where our mind is when we notice and feel that there is not comfort and ease in it.

Take walking.  If you were to get up and walk across the room right now for most people you would have comfort and ease to just do it.  Perhaps you would have to stretch out some creaky body parts if you have been slumped at your computer for a long time, but in general, you would not be worried about getting through a doorway, around the table, between the kitchen island and the other countertop. You can more or less walk where you want to be walking to navigate space.

Calm, Comfort, and Ease

This is about your mind starting at calm, comfort, ease.  This is the feeling you have from your body and the skill of walking would be easy…perhaps even mindless.

Now if your mind was suddenly presented with a cliff or large drop off you would have new thoughts of caution, danger, wariness, anxiety…

This thought would show up in your body, not as comfort and ease but tightness, rigidness, tension.

Suddenly this walking thing you have spent so many hours mastering is now difficult.  Have you lost the skill? No, you have lost the thought that created calm.

Listen to today’s episode to find out how to apply this thought work to your swim practice.

Watch Episode 15 Below: 

Healing Fear in Warm Water

If you’re like many adults, you’ve been frustrated or embarrassed that you weren’t free to swim “like everybody else.” Half of adults can’t swim, like you! We meet them all the time. They’ve tried every system, including the traditional programs, with no success.

Since 1999, we’ve helped hundreds of adults overcome their fear and discomfort in water with our proven system built on the 5 Circles Teaching Method. The Miracle Swimming system uses the nuts and bolts of mindfulness to address the root of the problem and will transform the way you feel and think about water for the rest of your life.

The post Episode 15: What is Swimming? appeared first on Orca Swim School.

This is your year to master swimming. 

Here are 10 tips of what it takes to really understand how the water works and to be a swimmer:

1. Presence of mind: If you swim but don’t feel calm, then you won’t call yourself a swimmer
2. Feeling: From arms and legs to the internal rhythm of calm, cool and collected 
3. Fun/curiosity: If it’s not fun don’t do it.  Life is too short. Find a fun way for you.
4. Face: Being able to take care of eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and the emotional experience of being without air
5. Being underwater: How does the water hold you in the 3 main positions and everything in between?
6. Movement: Not just forward but upside down, backward, and turning.  If you just focus on one movement you will not have the full experience of how the waterworks.
7. Changing positions: This means going from front to back, back to front and vertical.  Make them all your friends with only a change in head position.
8. Breathing: How many different ways can you EASILY get air?  Here’s an insider tip: side breathing is the last way.  
9. Being off-center: Do you know how to be worry free falling over or upside down?  This is owning the space to be in any crazy position and then easily find your way back. 
10. Love the deep: Here’s the top one.  If you do not love the deep than you do not understand how the waterworks…yet.  Loving the deep comes before learning front crawl or treading water.  

Check out today’s Episode, 10 Tips for Basic Swimming Skills to dive into these a bit more.

Only after you have mastered these 10 steps are you looking to add things like

• Crawl stroke 
• Side breathing
• Breathing patterns that are outside of what feels right (breathing every 3 strokes or some other pattern)
• Fitness training

Swimming is about understanding the water and yourself.  Getting your thoughts and feelings in order so your actions produce the results you want.  The result of fun, freedom with you being the master of your safety. 

This is your year!  

Watch Episode 14 Below: 

Healing Fear in Warm Water

If you’re like many adults, you’ve been frustrated or embarrassed that you weren’t free to swim “like everybody else.” Half of adults can’t swim, like you! We meet them all the time. They’ve tried every system, including the traditional programs, with no success.

Since 1999, we’ve helped hundreds of adults overcome their fear and discomfort in water with our proven system built on the 5 Circles Teaching Method. The Miracle Swimming system uses the nuts and bolts of mindfulness to address the root of the problem and will transform the way you feel and think about water for the rest of your life.

The post Episode 14: 10 Tips for Basic Swimming Skills appeared first on Orca Swim School.

If you’re like most of our students, you are probably thinking, “It’s about time”. 

You are right – the beginning class does skip leg and kicking lessons. We believe we’d *muddy the waters if we added that detail.  

Not knowing how floating or buoyancy work is to swimming as not knowing how gravity works is to walking. Being taught stroke skills to someone who doesn’t know buoyancy is like teaching soccer to someone who doesn’t know gravity.

Besides! Those legs are far away from your mind and lungs and those are the important tools in swimming. Only after you are safe in the deep end, do we even worry about the other skills.  

Here’s a tip from the Foundation 1 (Beginning) Class that you might not have noticed.  Beginning leg work starts when you let go of all the tension in the legs and they are loose like the tail of a kite.  

What happens to a kite if you put a rod on the end?  It won’t fly!

What happens to a kite if you add a loose floppy tail?  It flies.

*make a situation unnecessarily complicated and less clear

Kicking… Hello, Legs! 

Slide #37: Legs are much more difficult to figure out. 

1. 1. Why legs are hard (slide with words)
      • Far away from our breathing
      • They are the first thing we lose control of when nervous (think pacing)
        1. 5c language
      • Do not have a 1:1 correlation
      • The sensation is different
        1. Walking you get the information off the bottom of the foot
        2. Swimming it is more often off the top or side of the food

Slide #38: How to Start

1. 1. 1. Start basic (slide with words)
         • Can they move?
         • Can you tell them what to do
         • Where do you feel a connection with the water
           1. Check the foot, legs
         • When you have a connection observe the result
           1. Repeat until you can produce the result on purpose
           2. Mind your thoughts
              • I should go XYZ directions this must be wrong
              • I am going XYZ direction this must be how it works

Slide #39: Types of Kicks

• Flutter (vid)
• Whip (vid)
• Scissor (vid)
• Eggbeater – advanced (vid)
• Swooping many different things (vid)

In the membership, I have added a lesson on how to do the flutter kick.  In the meantime keep in mind who invented the flutter kick…or any other of the named kicks.  It was someone just like you who didn’t know what they were doing but went into the water and experimented.  Perhaps they had watched some fish and said let me copy them or they simply started moving their legs and made connections with the water and with their results.  Most new discoveries are not on purpose. They come as a side product, a failure of something else or out of the blue. This is because you cannot look for something that has never been found before.  For you, in the water, you are person number one. This is because you are the first and only person with your exact body to discover how kicking works. No two humans walk the exact same way. This is why robots walk so awkwardly.  We can give them the formula, but it is still to be discovered how to get them the brain to feel their way into walking. 

Luckily you do have a brain and you are very used to feeling your way through physical space.  Play and discover. Once you are connected to this then you can start to play and discover using a formula someone else has a name… flutter kick.

Watch Episode 11 Below: 

Healing Fear in Warm Water

If you’re like many adults, you’ve been frustrated or embarrassed that you weren’t free to swim “like everybody else.” Half of adults can’t swim, like you! We meet them all the time. They’ve tried every system, including the traditional programs, with no success.

Since 1999, we’ve helped hundreds of adults overcome their fear and discomfort in water with our proven system built on the 5 Circles Teaching Method. The Miracle Swimming system uses the nuts and bolts of mindfulness to address the root of the problem and will transform the way you feel and think about water for the rest of your life.

The post Episode 11: Learn Kicking For Swimming appeared first on Orca Swim School.

This weekend the Orca teaching staff plus our much-loved office manager Lynar got together for a whole day of planning and creating for what we are calling Orca 2.0.  Our newest teacher Karen, brought up a great question about the difference between confidence and competence?  

The example she used was that use as teachers we are both confident and competent but you could say that we were both of these things 10 years ago as well.  However, in the case of Margaret, she is exponentially more competent now that 10 years ago because of learning a whole new way to teach that is holistic and specific and systematic.  For myself (Cori) my competency increased greatly longer ago than 10 years.  

Both competence and confidence can grow over time being engaged in an activity, then the question is which is needed first?  What do you think? In today’s episode, I go into more detail about creating confidence. This is because students tell us they want to feel confident in the deep water.  Often this is meet with the idea that you need to be competent at a skill in order to feel confident. But how can you become competent without having confidence in yourself first?

Learning to swim starts way before you even get to the pool.  Learning to snorkel and enjoy warm tropical vacations like Kona Hawaii in April 2020 start at home with the development of your confidence.  

I like to think of the image of soft-serve ice cream that is served in a swirl of two flavors.  Each flavor has its own starting point and as you rise up the time spent in each flavor gets smaller and smaller so that at the top you can no longer tell which is which.  Creating a new skill is similar to both distinct parts needing space at the beginning of developing a skill. By the time you fully embody a skill the confidence and competence are tightly wound together.  

Take a listen.  Apply the information to your self right now without having to get into a swimsuit.  Start creating your confidence so you can join us in Hawaii next year!

What creates confidence?  What is confidence?

Here are three definitions: Slides 2-5

1. A feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; firm trust
2. A state of feeling certain about the truth of something
3. A feeling of self-assurance arising from one’s appreciation of one’s abilities or qualities

Slide 6

Notice that none of the definitions include a particular set of skills executed in a particular way.  However, when I work with people in the water, they often present with the idea of when they get a set of skills that look a certain way then they will have confidence.  

Slides 7, 8, 9

In our first definition, it’s about belief and trust.  These are foundational elements for learning to swim. Belief and trust in yourself. It’s not belief and trust that you know and can do everything there is to do, but rather that you can figure it out bit by bit.  It is easy to have a sense of lacking in confidence and say well that’s because confidence comes from over there in that future place. But if you don’t start with being trustworthy then you will miss confidence today and in the future.   

Slides 10, 11 

The second definition is about having certainty of truth.  These are your building blocks. If you do not have each step rooted in a firm certainty of truth then you cannot have confidence.  This is the marker of when it’s time to move to the next step. The trap we see students get into is wishing they are in a different place than they currently are.  This prevents them from building the certainty of the truth of how the waterworks. Give yourself the gift of time and experience so you have a certainty of the truth. To understand the water like you understand gravity.  

Slide 12

Each morning you sit up in bed and swing your legs to the floor there is no thinking about how to use your muscles to overcome gravity to stand.  Some days may be creaky and slow, but you know you will figure it out.

Slides 13,14

This brings us back to our third definition that is about the appreciation of one’s abilities.  In order to appreciate one’s abilities, you must first be present to them. Not in a state of wishing for a different set of abilities, but to actually be present to the abilities currently possessed.   

The big challenge here is doing more of what you can do because once you can do something you often no longer think of it as a thing.  Going back to the standing up example. If you were to list all the things you can do in a day it is not likely (unless you are very young or recovering from illness or injury) that you would name standing as a thing you can do.  This, however, is the amount of space you want to give yourself when learning the foundational steps of swimming. To pay such close attention to the tiny steps that you can become a part of you like gravity.

Slide 15

Your brain will want to lure you into what you cannot do yet.  To worry, judge, compared to prevent you from changing your narrative or from asking your brain to do the hard work of figuring out what you can do.

However, if you want to build confidence then you need to be able to spend time in what you can do.  From here the next smallest step is revealed.  

When you spend time in what you cannot do, the only steps that are revealed are the steps that are too far away right now.  

Slides 16, 17

All three definitions have one word in common: to feel. Confidence is a feeling, not an action.  Again if you are looking to a skill to give you the confidence you will not find it. We see this time and time again when we have students come to us and they can do a remarkable number of skills.  Many people say they can swim enough to save themselves but are not confident swimmers.

They have skills but lack a feeling of confidence.  This feeling of confidence is important because it is our thoughts and feelings that drive our actions and give us our results.  

Slide 18

This then brings the question of how to change from a feeling of non-confidence to confidence.

It starts by allowing yourself to be exactly where you are, to begin with.  Just to be with the lack of confidence without pushing it away. There is no need to judge yourself for it, wish it away or ignore it.  Being present with the feeling will help get to the questions that need to be answered.

Slide 19

Take out a sheet of paper and write down the thoughts that come to mind that produce the feeling less confident.  

• I don’t know how to get air.
• I don’t know what to do in the water.
• If I go into the deep end I may sink and must move very quickly to make sure I get to a side.
• When I put my face in the water it always goes up my nose.
• I do not know how to tread water and I must be able to do this to be safe in the deep.
• Snorkeling looks like such fun, but the tides may take me away.

These thoughts are usually the place we stop or ask someone else to be responsible.  Asking someone else to be responsible is a bridge to confidence, but what we really want to have is confidence in ourselves.  

Slide 20

Dig into your thoughts.  Rollback the layers and see when the thought goes from a feeling of no confidence to confidence. 

I will use “I don’t know how to get air” as an example.  

Slides 21, 22

What else goes into this thought?  I don’t know how to get air using side breathing as in the front crawl.  This is on one side of the spectrum. How about the side of the spectrum where you do have confidence with air…like right now as you are listening to this?  Could we say you actually do know how to get air with confidence and ease? Now look for the place that you go from this feeling of confidence that you have right now around breathing to the first moment this feeling starts to change.  

Slide 23

It may even be happening right now with the anticipation of being in the water and breathing.  This is how powerful our thoughts are. We can produce a feeling of concern about our breathing in water when we are not even in the water.  The good news is we are learning how to be in control of our minds/thoughts and you don’t have to be stuck with the current thought. A different thought will produce a different feeling. 

Slide 24

Look for the place that you can produce a feeling of confidence in breathing in relation to the water.  Sitting next to the pool? Sitting with your feet in the water? Walking in shallow water. Kneeling in the water so your chest is in the water but not your face.

Notice what is going on in your thoughts now.  A part of your brain may be saying yes I can confidently breath sitting next to the pool, but that’s not good enough, what if… what if… what if.  

Slide 25

When we present our brain with a new way of being you may be met with confusion, resistance, dissociation (mentally leaving).  This is part of the process. Notice it then feel your body sensations. Feeling your body sensations right now brings you into the present moment.  Come back to feeling your breath right now. It is working. You are getting air. You do know how to breathe.

It may seem simple to say I am learning confidence with breathing by sitting on the side of the pool and breathing.  I should be in the water working on fancy side breathing techniques. However, in order to get to the fancy technique, you must go in with confidence.  80% of learning is about the mindset before you ever get to a physical skill. Physical skills only come out of an aligned mindset.

Once you have confidence that you know how to bring your thoughts together then you are ready to move to the next step.  

Watch Episode 10 Below: 

Healing Fear in Warm Water

If you’re like many adults, you’ve been frustrated or embarrassed that you weren’t free to swim “like everybody else.” Half of adults can’t swim, like you! We meet them all the time. They’ve tried every system, including the traditional programs, with no success.

Since 1999, we’ve helped hundreds of adults overcome their fear and discomfort in water with our proven system built on the 5 Circles Teaching Method. The Miracle Swimming system uses the nuts and bolts of mindfulness to address the root of the problem and will transform the way you feel and think about water for the rest of your life.

The post Episode 10: How to be a Confident Swimmer appeared first on Orca Swim School.

In this episode, Cori Myka dives into and provides good hair care tips for swimmers with a recent Orca Swim School student. Yes, we all want to look good, however for those of you just learning to swim and trying to stay calm in the water your hair is the least of your concerns. Watch this episode to get practical guidance on hair care while learning to swim.

Hair Care Challenges for African Americans… read the article from Miracle Swimming, CLICK HERE.

Watch Episode 7 Below: 

The post Episode 7: Hair Care Tips for Swimmers appeared first on Orca Swim School.

Today I will talk about how to take care of yourself by understanding what you actually need versus what you think you need. We will test this out in our water laboratory by going over some steps on how to breathe when swimming.

Let’s play a little game that you may have done as an ice breaker. Have you ever…

• Eaten something after you are full
• Watched TV while falling asleep
• Inhaled underwater (got water up your nose)
• Turn on the lights at night to get a glass of water

I am going to guess that you answered yes to all of these…except maybe the inhaling underwater. These are examples of things we do because we think we have one of these needs:

• Fuel for your body
• Relaxation
• Air
• Avoid bumping into things

Most of us plan to take care of what we need, but sometimes we skip that need. Instead, we could plan to:

• Realize you’ve had enough to eat
• Go to bed when tired
• Get air at the right time
• Be safe even if we cannot see

Watch Episode 3 below and I will dive into how to find the difference between what you think you need and what you actually need. Learning to breathe when swimming is a perfect place to test this out.

The post Episode 3: How To Breathe When Swimming appeared first on Orca Swim School.

Do you love getting a package in the mail?  

What does it feel like to finger scroll through online stores?  Exciting, distracting, overwhelming?

In this week’s YouTube Episode 2, we look at a beginner’s guide to swim equipment and what stops you from taking action in your life.

There are times when getting answers and buying all the equipment might delay the actual activity you planned. Have you ever spent more time researching or buying stuff, but then never took the action to use it?  

Watch Episode 2 below to see a guide to the equipment you’ll need to learn to swim and how to stop looking for success in the wrong place. This will help you get out of your own way. 

What works in life works in the pool, what works in the pool is what works in life.  Come test the waters. 

Download Our Free Guide

Receive your free guide of the ‘Top 10 Items Every Swim Bag Should Have’ by filling out the form below:

The post Episode 2: Beginners Guide To Swim Equipment appeared first on Orca Swim School.

Hot off the presses new free content every week!

Learn how to create your wildest dreams in and out of the water with Orca Swim School’s new weekly YouTube episodes.  I’ll use the water as a laboratory to share lessons to help create the life you want.  

Here are little known things I love:

• Mondays
• Transition times-such as the start of the calendar or school year 
• Big goals, dreams and then figuring out how to make them happen
• Teaching adults the freedom to create their wildest dreams

Am I weird to love these things?  It is a fresh start where anything is possible.  An opportunity to feel accomplished.  

When I was a new mom with a tiny baby, I would wake up to a fresh day full of possibility.  I’d make a list of what I hoped to accomplish that day. The list typically read like this:

• Shower
• Eat
• Keep baby alive
• Step outside

Guess what? That baby is now 17 years old and filling out college applications.  Accomplishment! 

Weekly YouTube Episodes

My fresh start this academic year is to begin a weekly YouTube show. The show will help you accomplish your simple bucket list then lead you to imagine and achieve your wildest dreams.  

The comment we always get from students in our hands-on course is, “I can use this in many areas of my life”.  

Our teaching is powerful because it helps move you forward in the pool AND in your life. This helps you minimize how life’s doubts and fears impact your life.  The weekly episodes have both a lesson about the water and a life lesson.  

The YouTube show is for graduates and people new to the Orca Swim School.   

Watch the video below and learn a bit about how we began and the foundational model we use. This model can lead to powerful changes both in and out of the water.  For new people, I apply the mindset lesson to answer questions like:

• How does floating work?
• Do I need to float to swim?
• Why can’t I float?
• How can I learn to float?

Misconceptions about floating can keep people from being confident in deep water. We help you understand how floating works and then how your body floats.

The post Episode 1: How Does Floating Work? appeared first on Orca Swim School.

During our initial consultation, Diane expressed her interest in registering with Orca Swim School and wanting to start swim lessons.  Her goal was to learn how to be comfortable in the water, float, and move in the water without touching the ground.  These may seem like simple goals, however for those with a fear of the water these goals are significant!  As we spoke that day, Diane informed me that she has previously taken a swim class, but still felt uncomfortable in the water.  She noted, “I took a college swim class as a P.E. elective and was able to float at the time. However, now I basically don’t feel comfortable in the water and fear not touching the ground.”

Registering for Class

After our initial consultation, Diane registered for our Beginner Class (this past Fall) even after the fact that she found out she was pregnant.  Throughout the course of a few weeks, she graduated and moved on to take our Next Step and Practice Swims.  During this time she gained her confidence while in the water and before the baby was born, decided to take a trip to Hawaii.  For one of the first times in her life, she enjoyed the water unlike she ever could have before.

Baby Lessons

Realizing her goal of being comfortable in the water and after the baby was born, Diane took another trip with her family where at 3 months old she introduced her son to the water.  In a Facebook post to the Orca Swim School Group, she stated “while it was crazy challenging traveling with a baby, I had such a great time splashing in the water (something I never did before Orca Swim School). This little guy was a bit more skeptical of the sand, the sun, and the water but we have time to work on that”!

From Fear or Discomfort to Freedom and Joy

The post Being Comfortable in the Water – Diane’s Swim Journey appeared first on Orca Swim School.