Swimming for Joy!
It is joyful for me too. Not only do I simply love swimming but I have many happy memories associated with it.
Last time I talked about JOY and how important it was that we treat ourselves to some.
When my sister and I were growing up we took swimming lessons every summer. We lived in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, and in those days actually took public transit, without our mother, to swimming lessons five days a week for four weeks. Our little neighbours came too so it was quite a fun outing.
We all worked our way up, getting right to the top of the scale by the time we were 12. After that, we had to wait until we got a little older before we could progress any farther so our parents put us all into competitive swimming. What great training that was. Our skills, strength, and stamina improved. And hey, it was just fun to spend more time in the water.
I got pretty good too. I was fast and even won a few races. When I was a young woman I used to enjoy challenging unsuspecting boys to a race in the pool. I always won much to their surprise!
The smell of a public indoor pool, that chlorine smell, is nostalgia for me. And then when I was ten my parents put a pool in our backyard. So many happy hours were spent there.
When I went off to university there was a public swim night at the athletic center and I started going right away. Swimming was then and is now a joyful thing for me.
But I have spent much of my adult life living 'out in the country' a long drive from a public pool and so years have gone by without swimming.
In the summer I spend a lot of time at the lake and so take advantage of that on every hot day. Every summer I say to myself 'why don't I swim during the winter?'
And so this fall I finally got back to it! And it is wonderful. It is joyful.
I am swimming for joy!
I was going to name this blog post, 'Sink or Swim', or 'Swimming for Sanity' and then I realized that the ultimate benefit for me with swimming was joy.
Joy is never part of depression. Sometimes you can forget you ever felt joy, can barely remember what it did feel like.
Think of joy as an EpiPen for depression. You may have to inject yourself with some joy now and then to remember that despite depression, you are still wholly human. You haven't completely lost it!
Swimming does that for me, at least while I am in the water.
WHAT ABOUT YOU? How are you feeling today? What brings you joy? Have you made a list yet? Is there something on that list that you could do right now?
Don't give up! There is hope for depression.
I couldn't resist an excuse to share this picture of my grandchildren in 2012. Look how happy they are with their 'swimming smiles'.
