Rethinking Relaxation

my freediving approach

In freediving courses relaxation is a recurrent important topic. However, it’s not always so clear what is meant by it and it can be hard to apply. Therefore, I’d like to give my perspective on the topic and maybe bring it a little closer:

In order to be relaxed (actually, I prefer the word ‘comfortable’ here) first you need to feel safe and actually not in danger. This seems obvious but considering you will step (dive) into an often unknown territory - and that while holding the breath - it is quite a huge topic that should be addressed. I also wrote about it here: https://brunogiustozzi.com/waterfear/

Another important aspect of my approach of teaching freediving is that I avoid setting goals in numbers. This is quite different compared to most other freediving courses, where everything is geared towards performance and success is measured by meters of a dive and breath-holds in seconds. I do the diving without the numbers because I think that removing pressure towards an outcome is a deciding factor to stay in the actual experience. And an important key for any liberation practice (btw it’s called ‘freediving’). Otherwise the danger of attaching to the numbers and projecting something into the future limits opening the door to overcome our limitations and truly experiencing something deeper.

Thirdly, in order to make relaxation a useful practice I believe it makes sense to slightly change perspective: relaxation shouldn’t be thought and practiced as something static but rather as part of a living, breathing dynamism.
Breathing is a good example here. We have an active part, the inhale and a passive part, the exhale. Together they give (ideally) a smooth and efficient alternating movement. And for this dynamic to be sustainable we need within the exhale the seed for the next inhale and vice versa.
So, in order for ‘relaxation’ to be something useful it needs to be understood in the context of activity and tension (to make this more clear I like to use the term ‘dynamic relaxation’). It seems like a small step but this contextualization can change our awareness and through that the practice quite drastically.
In our world nothing that has life is truly passive. Most importantly, our mind thrives with change and action. Just as Aldous Huxley writes in The Art of Seeing: “Consciousness is only possible through change. Change is only possible through movement."
If we just think about relaxation as being only passive and limp as an end goal it will be hard to actually apply it as our mind will easily wander off or we might fall asleep. And although taking a nap can be useful it’s not what we are after here.
Of course, relaxation is rather passive, about letting go and releasing it’s all that but in order for it to work it needs within it the seed, the awareness for the opposite: activity and tension. Therefore, I suggest playing with exercises that are in line with this fact and take into consideration the dynamic.

Freediving Events

If you are interested to know more about my approach there are still two last spots for the freediving week in Montenegro in September (15. - 22.09.) And there is currently also a 10% summer offer. I put all details on my homepage and you can read all about it here: https://brunogiustozzi.com/freediving-week/

Furthermore, for the freediving discovery courses in the lake near Berlin I opened more dates and still have availability on the 24th and 31st of August.

If you’d like to join or know someone who might be interested, reach out.

Hope you are doing well
Bruno