Fitness, vacation adventure, safety skill, being able to participate with family, because it can look so relaxing are all reasons you may want to learn to swim. Learning to swim can feel anything but relaxing for many people.

With the right steps, swimming can be as relaxing and easy as it looks. Today’s video is all about how to feel better because at the end of the day isn’t this what we all really want?

I want to learn to swim so:

• I can use if for exercise and feel better about my body
• I am not embarrassed or left out…feel better about myself
• I can float off into a beautiful beach…to feel better about the stress in my work life

Here is the really good news you do not have to learn all the steps of swimming to start feeling better right now. The way we feel comes from our thinking. When you feel better then you can:

• Move your body with ease
• Participate with joy
• Find relaxation

Could you stand to feel a little better right now? Check out today’s video or go directly to our new free course. Even if you have taken a swim course with us this new mini lookie gives you the power to feel better in your life right now.

Watch Below:

Foundations of Change

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 Foundations of Change. Our Foundations of Change program 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 How To Use Feel Better appeared first on Orca Swim School.

“I didn’t know that lifeguards always take flotation equipment with them into the water.”

Did you know this?  It is true.

She thought an expert swimmer like a lifeguard didn’t need flotation equipment.  For years she felt there was something wrong with her if she used a life jacket. She did not view it as a decision of strength that ensured her safety.

The Foundations of Change 3 x 5 Process is what we use to breakdown our old ways of thinking that limit your experiences in life.

Today’s episode is full of things you may not have known about expert swimmers. It can help you learn about negative thoughts that can hold you back versus facts that are neutral and do not limit you.

Would you like to expand your life experiences?  Keep opening to new understanding and simple steps to action in the online Snorkeling 101 Course.  It is everything you need to know to be ready for participating in life and enjoying your vacation.

Watch the Episode 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 Foundations of Change. Our Foundations of Change program 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 Expert Swimmer Myths appeared first on Orca Swim School.

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.

But before we get to floating on your back, let’s come back down to earth and consider where you are in your swim journey. What circumstances brought you to this point and what thoughts and feelings might impact where those circumstances lead you.

Circumstances start with a basic truth but along the way, your thoughts and beliefs might change how you see that basic truth.

Remember your body is your body and those physics don’t change on the fly. The physics of water will also not change. It’s important to understand the physics of how your body and the water work together before trying the back float.

In this episode, I’ll explain how these two interact and provide you with four important pro tips for the back float.

Slide 1:

Floating the great mystery.  To float provides images of lightness, ease, contentment, no work surrender.

Slide 2:

When I hear someone say, “I wish I could swim” with a far off look and whisp to their voice it evokes this image of floating… ‘being on cloud nine’.

Slide 3:

Other times someone will say “I wish I could swim!” with a lilt of joy and excitement.  This gives me the image of someone jumping into the water and popping up smiling or falling back into the water in the old commercial image of ‘Nestea plunge’.    

Before we talk about how to back float we must first understand the thoughts that go into floating.  Whatever your thoughts are will influence how you feel which in turn will guide your actions and give you your results.  

Slide 4:

I started today with the image of the results….lightness, ease, contentment, no work, surrender.

Now let’s go back to the beginning with the circumstance

The circumstance is the physics between YOUR body and the physics of the water.  I say it like this because every person has a different body and it will have slightly different proportions from one person to another.  This is totally neutral and the only body you need or can know about is your own. It is not about copying any other person because well it is a different body.

Slide 5:

The physics of the water, unlike our bodies, has the same principals no matter what is put into it.  (side note when I say what you put into it I mean things like people, toys, boats, etc. If you dissolve something into the water like salt it will change the physics properties).  

So in the context of learning back floating it is about understanding the interface between your body’s physics and the waters.  And to see this relationship as totally neutral. There is no good float or bad float there are just different floats. This is an important note because when we see an image we often assign the idea that it is good or bad.  The right way that I should also be or the wrong way that I want to prevent myself from being. These items go into our next step which is our thoughts.

Slide 7:

If you have the thought that I should be horizontal to the surface of the water, but can never seem to do this, then how do you feel?

Slide 8:

Do you feel the desired results of lightness, ease contentment?  Or do you feel something else that produces an undesired result?

For most people new to swimming or even people who are not new, but have never stopped to examine the foundation of their swimming they think they should be horizontal to the surface of the water and when they are not they are wrong.  This produces a feeling of frustration, anxiety, fear, confusion, distrust, mystery. Then the actions and results line right up behind these feelings to support them.  

Slide 9:

To start back at the beginning with circumstance.  This is a neutral place. Your body and the water have physical properties that interact.  

A thought you can have is I wonder how these properties interact when I lie back with my face looking up?

The feeling this could bring is curiosity, interest, and discovery!

The actions are to lie on the water without judgment, just observation

The results are information, learning, trust

Slide 9:

Now your brain may have checked out when I made this proposal.  It may have said WHAT YOU WANT ME TO WHAT…ALARMS, ALARMS!!

Slide 10:

To learn you must be able to remain present to the experience.  So only lie back on the water as much or as little that you can feel what is happening.  Or in other words, you don’t have your brain firing all alarms.

Here are a few pro tips:

1. Wear a nose clip so it will be ok if your face goes underwater
2. Start in very shallow water that you can say yes it would be just fine for me to lie on my back on the floor of the pool (see tip #1)
3. Very very few people’s feet float.  This means if you are in shallow water your feet will be on the floor.  This is fine. Notice that your chest is not on the floor.
4. Hold your breath and come up with you want to breathe again, just like you do for front floating.  It will make it simpler to learn

Watch Episode 12 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 12: How To Float On Your Back appeared first on Orca Swim School.

What would make the best ever winter getaway trip?

Long days on a warm sunny beach.  Strip off your raincoat, your hats, and scarfs and finally stand up straight to embrace the sun!  

When I think of something as dreamy and enticing as a winter getaway there is a song that springs up in my head…

“It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to.  Cry if I want to.”

What does this have to do with a winter getaway?  Sometimes the expectations that build-up prior to an event could be dashed when you are actually living it.  

In this episode, I share 10 tips for snorkeling to ensure you actually enjoy the party on your tropical vacation.  This is a preview into the full snorkeling course we will release later this year.

We want to help you reach your wildest dreams.  No one wants to learn something new so it becomes a plodding, boring thing on a checklist.  We learn so we can expand to new opportunities and discoveries.  

So where do you dream of escaping the winter blues?  Come be inspired!

Watch Episode 8 Below: 

The post Episode 8: Tips for a Tropical Vacation appeared first on Orca Swim School.

However, I was smarter than the average duck (or so I thought).   When they would put all of us little kids on a platform I firmly stood in the middle.  I knew they kept the sharks under the platform and I was not going to risk getting bit.  So there was a bit of over-exaggerated fantasy.

Do not put up with untrustworthy people

A teacher would tell me to swim.  I would comply only after requesting that they not step back.  As I would swim I could see them stepping back. I had no tolerance for this kind of trickery.  Even if it came with, “See I knew you could do it”! Tune in here to listen to the podcast interview to hear Cori’s full swim story.

Trust is essential to learning and especially learning to swim.

There are many layers of trust that must be achieved to feel completely safe.

1.       Trust your physical location – are there sharks in the pool or not?
2.       Trust those around you – will others listen to me?
3.       Trust in yourself

These layers of trust go from wide to narrow.  The further out they are, like location, the less control you have.  Closer in, like YOU, the more control you have. For example, when you are standing in a forest you have very little control of the environment.  You do, however, control whether or not to walk into the forest and what you will do there.

This gives you the starting point for getting scary situations under control.  Learn to trust yourself!

Start with the area over which you have the most control.

For little me, this seemed like still being curious about the water.  I found a place in the pool on my own, near the wall, close to a lifeguard.  Here it felt fun for me to play, explore and discover how the water works.

Start Your Private Swim Journey

The confidence to explore, ask questions and discover comes from being able to trust yourself.

Want to learn more about how to learn to swim with a completely trustworthy system?  Peek into Orca Swim School’s online learning platform to test the waters before jumping into the big pool!  Our online classes offer a private swim journey to take the time you need to understand what has been missing so you can learn with confidence.

The post Adult Learning to Swim Requires Trust appeared first on Orca Swim School.

Learning to swim as an adult can be embarrassing, difficult, confusing or fear-filled.  It is often something we think you learn as a kid.  But there are lessons for adults it is never too late.

Previous Experience

Have you taken adult lessons before?  Did it feel like you were behind on the first day of class?  Or did you feel like everyone else was getting it and you were missing something?

Perhaps there was an expert swimmer friend who said, “I can teach you to swim!  It is easy just do this, this and this.  Go ahead you try.”  Only to be told when you try new just relax.

Inside you were screaming HOW CAN I RELAX WHEN I CAN’T SWIM!

This doesn’t inspire one to want to put themselves in a vulnerable place again to try to learn.  To learn you have to feel safe, comfortable and in control.  Learning happens at the pace of the individual, not the group.  If the group is not structured to meet every individual at their place someone will get left behind.

You Must Be In Charge of Learning

When learning to swim as an adult you must be in charge of your safety.  How can this be possible if you cannot swim?  Because of the biggest danger in the water in panic.  The good and bad news is you are the only one in charge of panic.  If no one taught you this it was the first skipped step.

You are the only one who knows if you are totally calm and grounded or flying off the handle.  To learn at your pace you need to feel safe.  It’s not what someone else says to do.  Have you ever been told, “Oh just give it a try you will be fine”?  This is a projection of the ‘teacher’.  You know if you are fine or not.

How Does Online Learning Work

Online learning puts you in charge and at your pace.  You can view the material several times.  Step away and let your questions come up.  Ask your questions so you are then ready for more learning.  Learning really is all about the right questions.

For learning swimming the questions may have been:
How can I learn to swim?  Then how can I relax, do I need to know how to tread, how do I float and so on.  When working with students the deepest question is how can I keep myself from losing it (panicking) in the water?

How do I keep myself from losing it in the water?

This is a question that can be answered in the privacy of your own home.  Where you are dry and warm.  There will be steps to take to the water, but when you are ready.  When you have information that allows you to feel in control.  When the steps are planned out in small enough bits that you can pick up just the right ones for you.

Online learning to swim means learning on your terms anywhere any time!  To learn more, please visit online.orcaswimschool.com.

The post Learn to Swim Online appeared first on Orca Swim School.