
What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness - mitchbob
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/27/opinion/sunday/swimming-happiness.html
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entee
Just finished swimming a race from Alcatraz to shore, it's just the best high.
I do tons of endurance sports, but swimming is the most reliable in yielding
that euphoric feeling.

I think it's due to it being essentially forced mindfulness meditation. Though
you could swim with music, I don't and that means it's just my thoughts for
30-60 min (watch the thoughts, can't do anything about them right now). I'm
forced to focus on breathing on a set schedule (analogous to vipassana
techniques). I'm moving my whole body in a way that requires balance, complex
coordination and attention to what my body is feeling (analogous to body-
scans, yoga). If you're not listening to music it's also a little like sensory
deprivation, there's just neutral water rushing sound.

I know running and biking can get there for some (myself included
occasionally), but on a pool swim there's nothing to worry about other than
the occasional turnaround at the wall. No obstacles, no dodging others on the
sidewalk, no traffic. You're in a controlled, safe environment.

That or maybe it's just the hypoxia ;)

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iamgopal
That just gave me an idea of circular swimming pool.

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hjk05
They exist and they are very annoying compared to regular old 50m lanes. You
end up having to constantly overcompensate to one side (obviously) but also
you suddenly have to either burn in a constant bias to your technique (bad) or
be constantly aware of the boundaries, which ruins the normal flow of pool
swimming. They are fun for families and kids who only ever do one or a half
round, but if you like swimming just stick to traditional pools.

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delibes
How about a pool in a rotating orbital space station? Just keep swimming
forwards and slightly uphill :) Just don't lose the fake G or you could be the
first person to drown in space.

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vl
It’s never uphill though, while rotating “halo” looks like it bends upwards,
force-wise it feels flat.

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danzig13
Can’t read the article, but I did want to share that the title resonates with
me.

I love running and now run again, but I started learning swimming during a
knee injury.

One thing it re-taught me was how rewarding it is to learn or improve a non-
work related skill dramatically. I picked up juggling (poorly) and jump rope
since.

Two, I knew I was getting a stroke down when I knew when to glide versus to
move or exert myself. Maybe a metaphor but practically it makes 40 laps
enjoyable instead of torture.

Three, having one hour of somewhat sensory deprived solitude is great therapy.

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Theodores
Join the club - could not read the article.

Swimming was not my thing but I had to learn so I could do other watersports.

The Down Syndrome girl and others in her special needs group that were in the
pool when I went were incredible inspiration. If she could smile and put in
the lengths then I could too.

~~~
danzig13
FYI, on iOS, you can just read the story with the reader view. You get to it
by clicking on the horizontal lines on the left side of the address bar.

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ericmcer
We are taught and continually retaught that discipline and hard work are the
keys to success in life. Why would we not bring the same level of planning,
anxiety and pursuit of excellence to our attempts to be happy? When you spend
40-60 hours a week trying to optimize your output at work it is difficult to
not have an anxiety ridden vacation where you try to optimize your happiness.

I am sure many people can relate to the first 2-3 days of vacation being
needed just to get into 'vacation-mode' where you can actually start to
forgive yourself for 'wasting' a day.

~~~
lm28469
> We are taught and continually retaught that discipline and hard work are the
> keys to success in life.

Maybe we should work on that presupposition first. If we're talking about
career and material success it's probably true, but these very rarely bring
true lasting happiness. You also have to look at who's telling you to "work
hard" and why it's in their interest for you to do so.

Imho once you go above a very low threshold of income (allowing you to live
comfortably without excesses) you should have better things to do with your
time than spending 7+ hours a day working.

Vacations are the proverbial carrot on a stick. "Be a good worker this week
and you'll get to spend your money and enjoy yourself this weekend", "be a
good worker this quarter and you'll get to spend your money and enjoy yourself
during the next vacations", "Be a good worker all your life and you'll get to
spend your money and enjoy yourself during retirement". Fast forward 45 years
and you spend literally 70% of your life either working or sleeping, the rest
being divided between distraction that barely keeps you going (daily Netflix
or video game, weekly party, quarterly vacations) and chores. You're now
physically and mentally a shadow of your past self but you have all the time
you want, success!

It's extremely easy to get lost in all the little made up games we play days
after days and miss the big picture.

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namanyayg
If one finds Netflix, video games, partying, and vacations enjoyable; and they
spend time pursuing those after becoming financially independent & retiring
early, are they missing the big picture?

I understand and agree with the bit about not slaving for someone else
throughout your life, but I'm curious what you mean by the "big picture"
otherwise?

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lm28469
> If one finds Netflix, video games, partying, and vacations enjoyable; and
> they spend time pursuing those after becoming financially independent &
> retiring early, are they missing the big picture?

Each of us has to define the scope of his life, I personally have a hard time
imagining that a fully developed human being will be deeply satisfied by
consuming media. In French these things are called "divertissement", which
literally means "diversion". There are many other things to explore than mere
consumption. It's kind of the junk food of life, it makes you feel good for a
short while but not that good in the long run. I doubt anyone will remember
binge watching breaking bad as a milestone of there life (Or remember it at
all).

I'm not saying these things are intrinsically bad, we should just be careful
about how much of our life we dedicate to them, especially when work already
takes most of our time already. If your life is work>consumption>sleep and you
feel like you're missing something your probably are.

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kharak
What else do you do every evening? For me, its working out, doing chores or
Netflix, podcasts and video games. There is nothing else I could do. Too tired
to learn new things and I need to recharge.

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blankaccount
"Too tired to learn new things and I need to recharge." This is the part where
optimising for happiness kicks in. I was in a similar situation and it
involved investing less energy in things I was doing to open up energy to
learn music. Music probably won't help my career or physical fitness, but I'm
gambling that it will pay off in happiness down the line.

~~~
kharak
Being able to play music / an instrument is certainly a great skill to have.
Can´t do it myself, due to a shared flat, but a great thing to do!

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eismcc
In March I started swimming much more due to injury. Swam 250k yards in 3mo.
One session was 10k in the pool.

Getting past the boredom is a skill. In my experience it’s mostly a symptom of
not focusing on your form. Don’t use a watch and count yourself to stay
focused. Break it up with challenging blocks to force you to focus. For ex:
50yds on 1min will force you to move and then focus on recovery.

I now really love swimming, which is a shock.

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rnikander
Did you really mean to say you swam 10,000 yards in one session? At the pace
you mention (50yds = 1min) that would take over 3 hours.

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dredmorbius
For competitive swimmers, 10k+ days are fairly common (or used to be), split
generally between morning and evening workouts. Sets might be based closer to
1:20/100m, which drops the total time a bit, though 3h in the pool isn't
unusual.

A single workout of 5-6k is pretty typical.

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proee
I snorkel a few times a week in the ocean and the experience is always
surreal. When I see marine life staring back at me through the water, the
experience etches itself deep into my mind. So much so that I can pull the
experience back out later in the day and play it back with great detail. This
connectedness to nature has given me an incredible amount of peace and
happiness.

~~~
defterGoose
Scuba has been the only activity I've ever had a 'life-changing' experience
while doing. The ocean is truly a meditative place. Can't be an astronaut? Get
under the ocean. It's basically the same thing.

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flocial
>Ever the philosopher of the pool, Igor smiled and said, “You are all
confused! Speed is not the goal; it is the result of perfect beautiful
technique.”

>What really mattered to Igor was excellence — the efficient stroke. Once you
mastered that, he argued, speed would follow naturally. Speed was simply the
welcome side effect of swimming well.

>I’ve been thinking lately that there’s a lesson here that goes beyond the
pool. We all wanted to swim faster and the more hysterically we tried, the
more speed escaped us. The same goes for happiness. Everyone wants to be
happy, yet the more directly we pursue happiness, the more elusive it becomes.

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dpeck
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

~~~
kpU8efre7r
One of my favorite phrases from my time in the service.

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nickfromseattle
I swim a lot, but find it quite boring.

I bought a waterproof Ipod shuffle + waterproof headphones from Amazon and it
improved the experience 100x.

Note - use vaseline to seal the headphones into your ear, and wrap the extra
wire under your goggle straps or you won't have a good time.

Highly recommend.

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grogenaut
Or give up on the seal and pick songs with huge bass and that are mixed loud
and then audio boost them to the max. For instance Lindsay Stirling and fall
out boy seem mixed loud and are actually pretty audible through water.

I really only need beat to exercise anyway.

Experience: several hundred hours of swimming with headphones through the
aughts and 10s

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te_chris
I’ve been doing masters swimming for the last few years, through waxing and
waning levels of commitment and dedication. We do around 3.5 -4.5 k per
session. When I’m consistently going 3+ times a week there’s no other fitness
high like it.

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colechristensen
I have been interested in swimming for a few years but never found the place
to develop the skill to the point of not drowning.

I could try to swim in my apartment's tiny shallow pool which is really better
for children.

I could spend $200/mo at a nearby health club.

I could drive to the ocean and jump in.

The first just isn't big enough or deep enough to get anything done.

The second is ... well I want to go swimming but not that bad.

If I just jumped in the ocean, especially the Pacific around the bay area, I
would just expect to drown. I can swim a bit but not enough to have confidence
with the ocean.

What else can I do?

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sunstone
Here's a learning process you can do on your own at your local pool, lake or
ocean. The problem with learning to swim is that there are perhaps a half a
dozen independent motor skills needed and it's hard to learn them all at once.
This breaks it down to one skill at a time. Do all of this is shallow water,
say, four feet in depth.

1) buy a mask, fins and snorkel set.

2) throw way the snorkel (not really, store it away for _much_ later)

3) start with a kick board and fins. Do an hour of just kicking with the fins
on. Now you've learned the kicking motor skill.

4) Next put on your mask (defog it with your spit, youtube will show you how,
yuckky I know but necessary) and now, with fins on, start kicking, as usual,
but also start stroking with your arms. Don't bother trying to breath yet,
just stand up when you need to breath. Do this for an hour.

5) Repeat 4 above but now try to breath on your dominate side (right side if
you're right handed, other side if you're not). It's tricky to learn how to
breathe without coughing, definitely practice this for an hour.

6) Take off your fins and repeat step 5. It will feel really weird without the
extra power of the fins but your arm strokes should pull you thru.

7) Perhaps the ugliest part. Take of your mask and repeat step 6. Learning to
manage the discomfort of having your face in the water does take some effort,
but at least you've saved the hardest for the last. Keeping water out of your
nose requires a continuous but very low pressure exhaling thru your nose when
it's underwater. Your eyes will sting when you open them underwater so only do
that for short glances to get your bearings.

8) Repeat step 7 for 32 lengths and bingo! You're a swimmer.

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rimliu
Not sure about learning to swim with fins. Haven't used them for ages, but
from what I remember, you just cannot move your hands fast enough to match the
speed you can get with fins. What I used to as a teen just be on my back and
go full-speed.

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sevencolors
This part struck me:

> “Study after study shows that good social relationships are the strongest,
> most consistent predictor there is of a happy life.”

I was having a similar conversation with some friends recently. In our
parents' generations (boomers), folks tended to cluster in their communities,
which were usually religious. As our generation has grown up we've shunned the
oppressive religious thinking but ended up losing the community aspect. I
believe that's where all this social anxiety and feelings of loneliness come
from. I'm mostly introverted but feel happier and refreshed after spending
time with friends. I've joined a group of other rock climbers and we do
outings monthly. I love climbing but really love the mini-community we've
created. I see the author here found the same thing. Being around other folks
in a shared bond of movement (swimming, running, etc) fosters joy :)

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Zenst
I used to do competitive swimming but it was training that allowed you to
switch off and can't beat it. Alas public swimming pool's are a chaos of noise
and actions and whilst some have swim lanes, your kinda relieving gridlock and
just causes more stress than I can expel.

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Scarblac
Our local public pool opens at 7:00 and the small group of people who are
there every day at that time all come purely to do their laps for an hour.

Personally I can't stand chlorified water though...

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pimmen
The only thing that sucks with loving swimming is that the free market has a
hard time reacting to the fluctuations in demand. If I want to open a gym I’ll
buy a big garage or something, buy a lot of equipment and hire some PTs. If I
want to open up a facility for swimming there’s a hell of a lot more up front
costs in building a pool and recruiting life guards and swimming instructors.

In this heat wave over Europe I’ve been forced to lakes and oceans to get my
laps, but it is a bit more challenging to get that to work.

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taozhijiang
happiness is the welcome side effect of the things you do, so do the things
you like, and happiness will come in nature.

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bjourne
I can't read the article either. I used to go swimming often and it made me
feel really good. But for me, something makes it really hard to do it
regularly so it always petered out. Which is annoying, because it obviously
improved my life. Non-exercise things are so much easier for me to work on and
to keep on doing. Playing chess one hour per day? No problem! Swimming four
times a week? Eh...

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cryptozeus
I do swim, run and bike all the time. Best thing about swimming is that you
are totally by yourself without any distractions. When running or biking you
end up getting distracted with music in your ears or other people on road.
Swimming is very meditative specifically for this reason. Most of all very
little impact on the joints.

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happy-go-lucky
I enjoyed reading the article.

> In the end, happiness is a side effect of living well

I find that I get that side effect from any physical activity including but
not limited to walking, cycling, running, or swimming.

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Spooky23
<sarcasm>“That I’m miserable and hate everyone”</sarcasm>

At my Y, the swimmers are not exactly people filled with joy.

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andreygrehov
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