What are the 5 Aliveness Factors?
First, what is meant by aliveness?
Perhaps it’s best explained by what it’s not.
Have you had one of those days when there is no air ruffling your thoughts into action?
Or perhaps the opposite? Where your mind is so filled with “what ifs” or “I wish” that you become immobilized.
Aliveness is the pause between ‘no air’ and the ‘hurricane’ and that’s why it’s one of my core values.
5 factors that make us feel alive
- Senses and thoughts are focused on the present
- Gratitude
- Awe and wonder
- Challenge
- Cultivating the best of who you are
You may wonder what scuba diving has to do with aliveness.
For the Love of Water
I’ve wanted to dive for as long as I can remember. I’d first signed up for the course when I was in my early 20’s. Then I found out I was pregnant and the Doctor said “no”.
Five years ago, my husband and I signed up for a scuba course in our home town.
I love water and am very comfortable in it. My mom used to tell about my first experience with the ocean when I was just a baby, not yet walking. The family went to Warm Beach and she said every time I was put down, I’d crawl madly towards the water and would keep on going as the water closed around me until someone snatched me up and the cycle started again.
Learning to swim at a young age in the creek that ran through our farm, I have a love affair with water: the delicious coolness against the skin, the weightlessness of gliding though the water, the physicality of a long swim.
Floaty Feet and Other What-ifs
I was unprepared for how panicky I felt with our first pool sessions in our diving course. Going underwater was not the problem . . . breathing underwater was. My chest constricted, my breaths were shallow. I thought my regulator was broken.
Living in Northern BC, we chose to do our certification dives in Seattle. Our instructor was great. When I heard that he was a teacher who took teens to Mexico diving each year for the past 16 years, I figured he was equipped to keep me safe. They were shore dives so going deeper is deceptive as you follow the bottom.
My brain is often my worst enemy. During my first open water dives, all the ‘what ifs’ flooded my brain. My floaty feet were my nemesis and I was sure I was going to shoot up to the surface feet first, missing my safety stop, resulting in getting an embolism.
Yeah, none of that happened. I earned my certification without incident. That was July and we didn’t dive again until Spring vacation the following March.
Ah, the Bahamas
Pink sand beaches that turn golden in the setting sun.
Balmy breezes caressing the skin.
Waves lapping at your feet.
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We flew into Nassau and booked 3 nights at Orange Hill Beach Inn while we waited for the next flight to Eleuthera.
We decided that we would book diving at Stewart’s Cove, which is a big operation.
My husband called to book the dives and at my insistence, explained that since I was a new and nervous diver, we wanted to book a shallow, beginner dive.
Oh no problem. We have such a dive tomorrow. Just the one for you.
I was still obsessing about my floaty feet and if the dive was shallow at least I wouldn’t need to worry if they betrayed me and floated me feet first past my safety stop.
Diving Deep
I slept restlessly all night before the dive. Dreaming that we were taken not on a beginner dive, but a wall dive, I was terrified as we entered the water.
Floaty feet ended up not being my problem in this terrifying dream.
Rather, I kept going down, down, down into the depths of the ocean – nothing I did could interrupt my descent.
I woke up, nervous but relieved that we were doing a beginner dive.
The dive shop was bustling when we arrived. Numerous tours were going out, both snorkeling and scuba.
We arrived at the counter, gave our names and the person said, “Oh you’re going to love this dive. It’s a wall dive and the ocean depth is 6500 ft”.
At Those Words . . . I Lost it
All the terror of my dreams bubbled to the surface. Usually my melt-downs are reserved for the select, aka my husband, but I couldn’t control it and I had a giant melt down right there – in front of everyone.
Suddenly my dream was prophetic and there was only one way to thwart it.
“I’m not going.” I said emphatically.
My husband and the lady tried to talk me down but I couldn’t be reasoned with.
She said it was to late to cancel and I wouldn’t get a refund.
I said I didn’t care.
Between gulps for breath, I repeated our request from the day before and reiterated that the person who took our reservation told us we were booked on a beginner dive.
It wasn’t pretty.
Nightmares are Not Reliable Sources of Information
What are the chances that I’d dream about a wall dive unless for an important reason? I didn’t even know anything about wall dives.
But I was too panicked to ask clarifying questions.
She was too experienced to know that I even had an information gap.
My dream,
in which I
descended
unstopped
into the black depths
was now my reality, my kismit . I was a mess.
In an effort to convince me to go on the dive, they added an extra dive master just for me.
Finally resigned to my fate, I agreed. I figured that this was my lot and and told my husband to tell our family how much I loved them when I didn’t return – sometimes I’m dramatic.
The Missing Information: There’s Usually Missing Information
It was a windy day as the boat turned toward The Tongue of the Ocean – the what?
If they’d told me the name before we left shore, I would never have stepped foot on that boat.
The Tongue of the Ocean was about to slurp me up and swallow me whole.
It was a large boat with about 16 divers aboard. Everything was highly efficient and the mood for everyone but me was one of excitement.
When we finally stopped at our dive destination, the waves were large. The boat rocked back and forth making it difficult to get geared up. The crew was in a hurry to get everyone into the water before people started to get sick. Too late for me.
Shamefully, I lunged to the side of the boat and emptied my stomach.
I was dizzy and nauseated and scared.
The dive master assigned to me, kept on me, hurrying me up, helping me into my gear and now I had a new fear.
“What happens if I throw up under the water?”
“It’ll be fine”, she answered. “Just purge it through the mouthpiece, but you’ll probably feel better once your below surface”.
New Fear – I’d Just Chummed the Ocean
Sharks were on their way. I was miserable.
Trying to keep my stomach settled, a small glimmer of hope came out of the pre-dive talk.
We would descend about 45 feet to the ocean floor and swim around a sunken ship before we made our way to the wall and down it’s side.
And there it was.
The missing information . . .
We weren’t being dropped into the ocean where the floor was 6500 feet below us. We were being dropped where it was 45 feet below us.
My stomach was still churning relentlessly as I jumped into the waves and began my descent.
Once Underwater, I forgot about my Nightmare
I was in awe. The visibility was astounding. I saw creatures that I’d never seen before for the very first time and the harmony between my senses and my thoughts brought a sense of ‘aliveness’.
I was fully in the moment.
Everything about that first dive is imprinted on my brain with a clarity as bright as the blue that could be seen looking up from the ocean floor.
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The Tongue of the Ocean was gentle with me as I dropped over the edge of the wall.
Looking into the black nothingness below me, I put a little burst of air into my BCD . . . just in case.
My stomach settled while we were under the surface, but I was miserable during the decompression time spent on the boat between dives.
I wasn’t the only one that was sick, but that was small consolation as I now longed for the Tongue of the Ocean to pull me out of my misery.
Elation Hit When we Arrived Back to Shore
The world spun. For an hour I lay on the grass trying to stop my stomach from turning. Everytime I sat up, dizziness ensued and I laid back down.
It didn’t stop the words from tumbling out of my mouth though. I couldn’t stop reliving my experience.
Nothing enhances aliveness more, then when you thwart impending doom.
I did it!
I outlived my nightmare.
Outsmarted kismet.
And entered into a whole new world filled with beauty and wonder.
My Take Away
Prescience is a type of foreknowledge. It often is the stuff of books and movies. This together with advice like listen to your gut sometimes results in putting too much stock in our thoughts when they start running rampant.
Asking questions to ensure you have the facts is so important in gaining control over fears.
And thankfully, I don’t need terrifying nightmares to invade my experiences in order to feel alive.
- Mindfulness keeps us in the present and helps quell those thoughts that make it impossible to see the beauty of the moment.
- Aliveness is cultivated when we live our lives with gratitude and wonder.
- Embracing challenge, whether mental or physical, enhances aliveness.
- Focusing on your strengths overcomes inaction.
This Spring we dove in Hautulco, Mexico.
There was quite a lot of surge under the ocean.
We learned is to kick when the surge goes forward, and to float with it rather than fight against it when it pulls back.
The pufferfish in the picture gallery above was my teacher. It swam several feet below me and we surged forward and backwards in unison.
Swim with the surge and trust that you will keep moving forward even when life sometimes pulls you back.
P.S. I’d love to hear what strategies you use in order to experience aliveness.
P.P.S. We didn’t have a good underwater camera on this dive. So the underwater photos in this story are some of my favorites taken on subsequent dives.
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