Monday, February 6, 2012

Fear Confrontation: Drowning

So I'm about to confront my first fear. I will be going to the Skidmore pool and treading water for an extended period of time. But I feel like I'm cheating; I'm not that afraid of drowning. I don't really think about it when I go swimming because I can swim confidently. I just suppose that drowning would suck. I'm more scared of somehow being stuck in a body of water without an exit. Hopefully, tonight, I'll be able to reassure myself of my treading ability. I don't know how long I'll be able to do it, but I'm hoping for at least 45 minutes. I'm not a fit person; I rarely take part in anything involving physical activity. This should be pretty difficult... I hope I'm not grossly overestimating (or underestimating) myself. Basically, I'm trying to push myself to the point when I absolutely cannot tread any longer, so I'll keep going as long as possible. I'll update this post when I get back!
_______________________________________________________________________________

That was not what I expected. My friend Matt and I walked down to the sports building, where we looked clearly out of place. I changed into my "swimsuit" (a sports bra and shorts) and jumped in. Matt swam some laps beside me as I started treading. After 5 minutes I was bored and not at all fatigued. I started to frolic. I twisted onto my back, turned in circles, floated down to the other side of the pool and back, held my hands out, and just held my breath while remaining motionless. I looked really cool. After about 40 minutes, Matt and I were both bored and decided to leave.

I truly underestimated my ability to tread. 40 minutes flew by without issue. The fear of not being able to stay above water never came into play. This was more of a mental obstacle. Looking back at what I posted before going to the pool, I realize that what I was most afraid of was not being able to meet the goal I set for myself (45 minutes). Being able to tread for 40 minutes with ease assured me that if I should ever be stranded in the water, I would be able to stay afloat for a pretty long time. I would say that what I did tonight conquered my fear. Even though I didn't reach the benchmark I set earlier, I am confident that I could survive in that kind of situation (at least for several hours).

Like I said before, drowning is not really a prominent fear in my mind. I rarely think about it, let alone actively worry about it. But, I suppose I'm glad I did this. It raised my confidence in my own body. I wonder if many of the upcoming fear confrontations will work out like this one. I hope they do.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, I had just had a swim test where we had to tread for 10 minutes and I about died because I was so tired! But also, drowning is quite frightening.

    ReplyDelete