Last weekend, I had the great privilege to begin renewing my scuba certification through Eco Dive Center.  This is a lengthy and involved process, including hours of home study, skills practice in a swimming pool, and finally, several open water dives in the ocean.

As I was giving all of my evenings last week to the home study part of this, neglecting my personal life and my ever-important self-care to watch safety videos, read a book, and take quizzes, I thought to myself, “why on earth am I going to all of this trouble?”

But then, geared up with 60 pounds of equipment, I plunged into the water in Catalina and woosh – I was in another world.  It was like crossing into Narnia or arriving in Hogwarts – a completely different place with an entire third dimension to explore.

As I mingled with a school of fish, floated through kelp forests, and played with Catalina’s ubiquitous Garibaldi, I thought, “this feels amazing!”

Sun-baked and tired from the day of activity, I boarded the ferry back and started reflecting on why it felt so amazing.  And then I realized, reflecting on my day through the lens of my therapist sensibilities, that scuba is really good for your mental health.  Here’s why:

1. Breathing slowly and deeply calms you.

The first rule of scuba is to always keep breathing.  And the best way to make your air last so that you can have a longer dive experience is to breathe slowly and deeply, so this is what you’re taught to do.

Years ago, I was a client to a wonderful therapist who asked me in my first session, “what do you know about breathing?”  It seemed like a weird question.  “It keeps me alive?  I have no idea.”

“Your breathing is linked to everything.  If you can calm your breathing, you can manage your stress level.”

Then I learned about mindfulness meditation, where you find stillness by focusing on your breath.  And then, when I started practicing yoga, this was driven home once again.  In yoga class, you learn that slowing your breathing affects your mood and decreases your anxiety.

So in scuba, as you breathe slowly and deeply at all times, you’re also unintentionally centering yourself.

 

2. Scuba diving grounds you.

When a client is really unfocused or anxious, I talk them through a grounding exercise.  I ask:

What are 5 things you can see?

What are 4 things you can hear?

What are 3 things you can touch?

What are 2 things you can smell?

What is 1 thing you can taste?

It takes people out of a headspace where they’re wondering “what’s going to happen in the future?” or “what if I’d done something different in the past?”  In tuning into the experience of their 5 senses, they become acutely aware of the here and now.

Underwater, there is SO much to tune into in the here and now:

I see a really interesting fish.

I hear my breathing.

I feel the water slipping into my wetsuit, getting trapped in a layer to keep me warm.

I smell the inside of my mask. 

And especially when you’re new to the sport, you can’t help but tune into it.  It’s all such an unusual experience – how could you mentally and emotionally be anywhere else?

 

3. Unitasking is healthy.

Lift a fork to my mouth, insert food.  Begin to chew and start responding to an email.  My phone starts to ring.  I answer it, and say hello while I finish my email, taking another bite in the meantime.  Still on the phone, I go wash my dishes, reading a new email that came in while I was taking the call.

We live in a multitasking world.  Stunt fiction author AJ Jacobs wrote a great article about trying to implement unitasking in his life – and it was hard.  We’re expected to be octopi, doing eight things at once, and many of us revel in it.

But now and then, it’s nice to disconnect and slow down.  It’s nice to focus on just one thing.  You can’t check your Facebook when you’re 40 feet underwater.  You can’t get a text from your friend that suddenly usurps your attention.  You just have to… be.

It’s like the float tank experience I wrote about a few months ago, but leveled up – and with sea critters!

 

4. Endorphins boost your mood.

Watch people scuba dive, and you’ll see them kick slowly, almost lazily through the water.  It doesn’t look like much work, but scuba diving is exercise and it burns a TON of calories.

What we know about exercise – any kind of exercise – is that it promotes a brain chemical called endorphins, and subsequently makes you feel better.  This is why exercise is so important and powerful – because whether you’re running a marathon, doing yoga, or rock climbing, it makes your body strong, your mind confident, and your mood happier.

(By the way, in case you were wondering, the best kind of exercise is whatever kind you’ll actually do.)

 

5. Novelty is good for your brain.

 Most of us get stuck in a rut from time to time, and it’s really easy to feel stagnated and uninspired when this happens.  Having new experiences can bust you out of this.  It doesn’t have to be scuba – it can be cooking, or traveling, or meeting a new friend.

But for people who have never done it before, scuba is such a new experience.  You’re no longer traveling on a two-dimensional plane; you’re also ascending and descending, and there’s a whole new world to see down there.  Talk about novelty!

 

A Final Note

Scuba certification can be expensive and time consuming, but many places offer a guided “new diver experience” that doesn’t require it.  If you’re curious, it’s well worth a try.

Here are some places to consider in the Los Angeles area that don’t require you to be certified:

  • Eco Dive Center based in Culver City, is where I’m doing my certification.  They offer a swimming pool experience for $100 if you want to see how it feels to be in the water without committing to an open ocean dive.
  • Scuba Luv in Catalina offers “Snuba” – a snorkel/ scuba hybrid – for uncertified divers for $80.
  • Diving Catalina offers a closely supervised dive experience in the ocean under the supervision of an instructor for about $140.