Deep Water

Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable.

Beach vacations are the most popular vacations taken worldwide, and understandably so. The white sand, the sunshine, and the beautiful water make any destination hard to pass up.

But if you’re anything like me when your eyes glance out into the miles and miles of ocean blue, the mind can’t help but think, “What’s it really like out there?”

Almost every beach in the world possesses something called a sandbar. Sandbars are submerged or partly exposed ridges of sand and sediment that are built offshore from a beach. They include the sand you feel underneath your feet when you go out into the water, and there are usually two.

On average, around 150–300 yards from the shore, the first sandbar comes to an end. While every beach is different, it is commonly seen that depth goes from around 12 feet to 40 feet when you hit the second sandbar. Then, once traveled out a total of anywhere from 500–750 yards from shore, this second bar comes to an end. There is a massive drop in depth, water temperature decreases, and light becomes scarce. Pressure increases, and there is no air to breathe.

This is the abyss.

This is deep water.

We can look at the way we live our life a lot like beaches and sandbars. Staying on the beach relaxing and catching sun rays is obviously the ideal situation, and what we’d all like life to be like. But the reality is, without warning, life often tends to drag us into the ocean and take us out of our comfort zone. Depth changes quickly, pressure rapidly increases, and things get dark. It’s terrifying. No matter how deep life takes us, we really only have two choices: sink or swim.

For individuals that can’t swim, the first thing most every tutorial out there says to do if fallen in water is to stay calm, and don’t panic. One commonly used phrase by swim instructors is, “Don’t bother with the mechanics of swim until you’ve dealt with the panic.” Getting overwhelmed with panic and fear while underwater will only make your situation drastically worse. Embrace the situation, look around, and make a call.

The more we go out into deep water, the more comfortable we become down there. When we choose to go out ourselves in everyday activities, the more prepared we become when life tries to drag us in. It’s somewhere we’ve been, and been often. We know how to swim, and we know how to handle the pressure. We become comfortable being uncomfortable.

GO OUT TO DEEP WATER.