Does The Water Scare You?
A pool of water always entices me like a child but an ocean of water drags me scared. Do you also share the same sense of water anxiety? Then this piece of reading is for you! Penning my experiences here on how I tackled the fear of water in me.
The thought of drowning inside water and imagining how suffocating it would be if water entered through the nostrils, always strikes my mind when I see a swimming pool or a seashore. This thought was actually preventing me from enjoying the waters like everybody else did. I go until the water reaches my knee and console myself on enjoying the waters. That was bad enough!
One fine day I saw my daughter playing so happily with her father in a swimming pool, wearing a cute set of purple swimming suits. Though I wanted to join them, I couldn’t overcome my fear of water. I was rejecting every call from her to join them. I thought to myself that I was missing an enjoyable moment with my family due to the fear I had never tried to overcome for years.
One of my friends, who is a swimmer and a certified scuba diver insisted on trying Scuba Dive with him. I agreed to his call but with reluctance. The following weekend, we drove to an island early in the morning. My kiddo was still sleeping on my shoulders knowing not what her mother was about to experience. We reached the place on time and met our instructor. He gave guidance on how to use the oxygen cylinder, how to show hand signs underwater, how to check for oxygen supply, how to signal for any danger, how to remove water stuck inside the mask, etc.
The lecture went on for about half an hour which drove me really mad. I felt like I almost forgot the instructions and tried to rewind them repeatedly. We were a team of about 4 including the instructor. We drove kilometers into the deep blue Arabian Sea in a boat. My family also accompanied us without knowing the mental trauma I was going through. But the sight of the blue-green ocean, with mountains bordered a long way, laden with white clouds drew all of us to the beauty of nature. However, the thought of jumping inside the blue waters drove me mad as the instructor wanted us to do a Back Roll Water Entry!
For a person who has hard fears of water, thinking of a Back Roll entry into the deep water was frightening enough. But then an unknown courage arose in me when my little daughter and husband cheered me up with a kiss. I gathered myself strong and went on as the first person to dive in :) Sitting on the edge of the boat with the heavy cylinder at my back, holding a mouthpiece for oxygen and the other hand on the head for support, I dived backward into the Arabian Sea.
Get Nisha Ram’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
I showed a thumbs-up sign as soon as I was able to float on the water bed, like a wooden log. Bidding bye to my cheerers, I deep-dived into the ocean of heaven. I witnessed a new world below the ocean cover which was calm, serene, colorful, and absolutely stunning. A mass of golden fishes swam across us waving their tiny tails at us. A few fishes were painted dark green with a yellow color on the edges. The instructor was careful enough to take us safely deep down until we reached the coral reefs. They resembled the huge rocky mountains we saw on the way to the island but were pretty small inside the waters.
We managed to explore more inside, observing unique kinds of water animals including tortoises, starfishes, baby sharks, and much more. The pressure inside the ocean rose up as we went deep down but the tricks shared by the instructor removed the burden off our shoulders.
It was about an hour we spent swimming across the ocean thrilled to find more animals underway. On our special request, the instructor agreed to take us inside again for about half an hour. This time I collected some free souvenirs like broken shells and stones which decorate my fish pot now.
The amount of refreshment and happiness rejoiced after coming on shore was tremendous. This water adventure took away every bit of water fear I had perceived over the years. Now I enrolled myself in a swimming class and am already halfway through!
Do you share any such experience that has helped you overcome your fear?! Do comment.
