Meditation Under the Sea..

The majority of today was spend with learning about scuba diving. When we first got to Utila, the original plan was to do a few discovery dives because this island is known as one of the best diving spots in the entire world. We never originally planned to get open water certified. However, the more time we spend with the people who live here, either getting their dive master or who have previously, the more and more this life seems to be a realistic daily activity...or job in many of the cases here. Doing something you love, and getting paid for it. Living on this island with the sunshine and Carribean to wake up to everyday. Being in your element, and living out your passion. Seems pretty amazing to me. Why wouldn't you stay?

This morning we spent in the classroom, if you could call it a classroom. It is more of a balcony, over looking the Carribean. Not much to complain about there, even if I did feel like i was back in school for an hour. It is obviously very important to learn basic knowledge and safety before we got in the water, especially because we have never been scuba diving before. It definitely made us more comfortable going over the information we did before we jumped right in.

By 1:00pm we were in the water. With the first few breaths through the regulator, my face completely submerged in the water, I wasn't sure I was going to like scuba diving. But the longer you stick with it the more natural it becomes to breathe only out of your mouth and not your nose, like we usually do on land. Scuba divers experience a world that the majority of the world never has the opportunity to see. That is one reason is sounds so appealing to me, and the other half is just pure curiousity. We know more about what is on the moon than we do about the ocean floor. This facinates me.

We were probably under the water practicing and getting tested on skills for around 30 minutes. Some of the skills included filling your mask and then clearing it, completely removing your mask and then getting it back on, taking in and out your regulator and then clearing it, giving your buddy your alternative air just incase they were to run out, filling and emptying your BCD to control buoyancy, etc. A lot of these tasks weren't exactly comfortable, but as long as you remember to keep breathing it isn't all that bad. Like I said, the longer you're under the water, sitting at about 6 ft on the ocean floor in our situation, the easier it gets. For me personally, the longer I breathed out of the regulator under water, the more and more calm I feel. Long, deep, cautious breaths are very relaxing. Our instructor Brian compared scuba diving to yoga because of how important it is to focus on your breathing.

It was like my own little meditation session beneath the water. The quiet, with only the bubbling sounds of your exhale. The deep inhale and exhale going in and out of your lungs. The fish who weren't bothered at all with us sitting right next to them. The atmosphere.

I cannot wait to get back in the water. We go on our first official dive tomorrow afternoon. Until next time...

#honduras