Apnea: a flight in the sea

Anyone who experiences the excitement of an apnea dive will be able to
retrace ancient sensations that go back to our origins.

Water, restrained breath, the ascent to the surface all relate us back to the
metaphor of birth. The sea in which we dive reflects feelings experienced in
the amniotic liquid inside a mother’s womb; the “hunger for air” with which the
free diver emerges from the depths is similar to the first breath at birth.
These are important remnants of our origins that have been stratified in our
collection of experiences, unconsciously re-emerging when we immerse
ourselves
Life was born at sea and every return to this element is naturally full of
memories.
Genetic memories also.
It is fascinating to think about how our body, immersing itself, returns to being
that of millions of years ago, imitating some physiological mechanisms of
marine mammals.
To preserve our chest from compression resulting from deep-sea pressure,
during the dive in apnea a small miracle happens: blood from the extremities
of our body flows towards the heart and lungs, spraying them and
compensating the increased pressure linked to the mass of water that
submerges us.
It is the so-called “Immersion Reflex” that marine mammals use to descend to
great depths, and which, at sea, we remember too…
Another aspect that makes the apnea fascinating is that, diving into the sea,
another myth is broken.
Our body, deprived of the constraints of gravity, descends and rises in the
sea as in flight, which on Earth we cannot manage.
Like seagulls whirling, our descent to the bottom makes us experience the
thrill of flying.
Apnea allows us an inner search.
In reality, to get into the deep blue sea, we must first immerse ourselves into
ourselves, reading our emotions, fears, learning to know and manage them.

Only in this way will we knowingly manage our “hunger for air”.
Uncontrolled emotions burn oxygen and limit our flight in water.
It is suggestive to reflect on how apnea constitutes an intellectual cross
between sport and psychology, contributing to the improvement of oneself in
harmony with nature.