Today I put my face in a big bowl of water with a small mirror in the bottom and practised breathing to the side per the instructions in the O2 in H2O DVD. There I said it!
The exercises I did were:Exercise 1: I put my face close to the water facing the bottom of the bowl without touching it, breathed in through my mouth and out through my nose and watched the water ripple.
Exercise 2: I put my chin only in the water, breathed in through the mouth and out through my nose and watched the water ripple. I gradually lowered my mouth and nose closer to the water so that part of my nose and part of my top and bottom lip were in the water and then later so that my whole open mouth was in the water.
The point of Exercises 2 is to start feel how little space above the water is needed to actually breathe in. Kind of cool actually.Exercise 3: I breathed in through my mouth, submerged my face, bubbled out through my nose and came up for air. I repeated this, turning (trying not to lift) my face to the side, each time leaving a smaller gap between my mouth and the water so that at one point the side of my mouth was in the water.
In the DVD Terry keeps his mouth open when it is in the water but only breathes out with his nose. While I managed to do that, I know that I used to always close my mouth when it was under water. I don’t think there is a right or wrong but obviously if your mouth is closed you need to factor in a second to open and then close it again when out of the water.
Unfortunately though, something I noticed as I did Exercise 3 was that I was feeling panicked. L My breathing wasn’t smooth or comfortable, bubbling out of my nose felt very unnatural and I felt out of breath. I guess the anxiety around putting my face in the water is still there.
These exercises need to be practised in the pool next but in the meantime I will give the bowl another go tomorrow. And maybe again after I post this too.Aquamillie
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