Glide with your Symphony - The Key to 'Getting There'

In my mid thirties and I am only just learning to swim. I try to make it to the gym three days a week to practice. I can flutter my feet well, my arm strokes are good too; but I cannot seem to be able to synchronize my breathing with the feet and arms. I can do half the length of the pool with one breath, and am very proud of that! My biggest challenge is to breathe and last Friday, I was trying to accomplish that with no success. Thoughts of failure were going through my head - Shall I ever learn to swim? What about my dream to snorkel in the great reefs of the world and scuba dive someday? I may be just too old to do this! Wish I had learned this when I was a kid.......

I was at this effort almost for an hour when a friendly swimmer came by and offered some advice. He said "Don't fight the water. Let the water hold you, use it. Think of your favorite symphony and try to glide with its rhythm in your head." I thought, that's odd, but why not give his method a try? What do I have to lose, I can't drown in 4 ft of water. For the last month and half I have proved to myself that I am not drowning that easily. Let's see if his advice can help me float. And lo and behold, I was able to do four full lengths of the pool and synchronize my breathing with the strokes. It was not seamless symphony, but I was able to synchronize. It was a start! It was fantastic! Made my day! I could really do it! Now I have to just practice the lesson to make perfect! Wow!

Over the weekend, I thought about the instruction. This applies so much to life, doesn't it? All the time, we try to fight to get to our goal. I know, I did it a lot and still do at times, both in my professional and personal life. We have a goal identified and the drive within us pushes us to throw in all our might to achieve the goal and try harder and harder. Eventually, we often do succeed, but often we get frustrated and 'drop it'. Or after we do succeed, it does not seem that sweet a victory, we just so exhausted by the trials.  It's no different from learning to swim, you know you can do it (so many people can swim, why can't you?), and there is always problems and resistance (the water pushing against you), you have the fear of failure (drowning), and you try too hard and get stressed (fanatically throw your arms and legs about, gulp water).......

The solution is so simple - Don't try to fight the water. Accept it for what it is. Feel it, observe how it touches you, the texture, the softness, the resistance, the buoyancy, how it holds you.... Understand it, and more importantly - Appreciate it, Respect it. Then, think up your favorite symphony. Feel it's rhythm. Align your strokes with the familiar rhythm in your mind. Glide as if your strokes are playing in the orchestra, seamless and in perfect harmony with the water. Work with peace in your heart and mind, no emphatic force required. You will get there - it's the law of nature!