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Jonathan

@holds.water

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Swimmer . Lifeguard . Breath work . Meditation
At the tidal edge of breath-water-presence.
Breathing, moving & being together with more awareness.

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Reflections on swimming, smartwatches and the metrics we use to measure ourselves. On listening to the body, trusting sensation and remembering that we are not separate from nature. WE ARE NATURE.

Article in SUBSTACK @holdswater by @holds.water

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a day ago

I recently set up a small breath work group among friends. Several people said they were interested and joined. Each week, I have been sharing small breathwork drills, building slowly and giving everyone time to acclimatise.

But the group has been almost completely silent, save for the emojis.

There have been blue hearts, red hearts and flames, but very few words.

I found myself wondering what the silence meant. Were people trying the exercises… were they connecting with them… was something not landing?

Finally, one friend contacted me and left a voicemail to explain the silence. She explained how much discomfort she felt with the involuntary muscle spasms of a breath hold, the feelings she experienced as analogous to suffocation, and the associated fear that arose.

What struck me was that this particular friend is an extraordinary death doula. She works with fear - and with other people’s fear - every day. She accompanies people towards death in all kinds of circumstances. Of everyone in the group, she was perhaps the person I least expected to have this response.

And yet, of course, familiarity with fear does not make us immune to it. Breath reaches somewhere language and expertise cannot always reach. The body has its own memories, its own associations and its own alarm systems.

CONTINUED ON SUBSTACK 💙

https://holdswater.substack.com/p/no-fear by @holds.water

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17 days ago

Heart Rate Variability : the differences in timing between each heartbeat 💙 by @holds.water

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a month ago

Reshare from school of @samavesayoga FULL POWER 💙 by @holds.water

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a month ago

SWIM YOGA

In the pool, when I hold my breath, something deep gets activated. It takes me somewhere primal. For a long time, I've been quite analytical about life. Reading, thinking, digesting psychology and philosophy. Now I'm more interested in what it means to live a philosophy. Not just understand it.

There's something here that feels close to yoga. Yoga; the practice of bringing mind, body and breath into greater integration and stillness.

I find myself swimming often, and trying to find ways to share the feeling of it on dry land.

The purpose of it all - to live in the ocean - the ocean of wet watery waves - the ocean of love - the ocean of presence.

The swim practices speak to sports performance and that of everyday wellbeing. Yet they are also a gateway into presence, through something completely ordinary. One of a thousand gateways.

Swim, breathe, move. What intense capacity there is for awareness in that simple act.

#yoga #swimming #ramdass

📷 @janestockdale_ ✨ by @holds.water

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a month ago

OXYGEN & C02 #performance #swimming #breathwork #patrickmckeown by @holds.water

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a month ago

Anyone else into the 50m swims on a single breath? I love the connection it brings with 'the glide'. As the repetitions pass I notice myself looking ahead for the wall earlier ;)

#C02 #oxygen #swimming #breath #hypoxictraining

📷 @robdeboer_ ✨
@london_fields_lido 💙 by @holds.water

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a month ago

Fire Horse Summer. Every morning throughout August I went to the pool early morning; walking purposely across the park to challenge and deepen my connection with the breath. Pool drills in both relaxation and determination for how to meet life. In the days the word 'Mercy' came to my lips as the sun blazed down.

Pic @janestockdale_ by @holds.water

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a month ago

A model of human relationships... through the experience Ram Dass has of swimming with dolphins... a place where words were left far behind, where hearts knew one another.

...

I will tell you one short story. I was invited to swim with dolphins.

I got into the water and it was incredibly cold so I started to tread water. The dolphins then started coming towards me and they were bigger than I thought they were going to be, so I started feeling really insecure.

So, I thought, “What am I supposed to do with this dolphin?” I wanted to touch it, but I assumed it would be offended.

It had a tail, so I thought it was a fish, and in the past when I tried to touch a fish, it would swim away. I reached out anyway and I touched Rosy. She didn’t move and so I touched her again, and stroked her a little bit. Her skin was amazingly soft – softer than silk. I was thrilled and the experience was intensely sensual.

My paranoia dissolved into a deeper feeling of love.

After a few minutes she swam around and came up under my arm. I wanted to swim with her so I took hold of her dorsal, her back fin. She swam down and my hand slipped off, but then she came back and swam back in under my arm. This happened several times, and I didn’t want to hurt her, but I finally stuck my hand around her stomach and held her back fin.

She started to move very fast and I thought I was disturbing her so I let go. She immediately came back to me and I realized that she was training me, so I took hold and we began swimming wildly through the tank. At one point I needed air and so she surfaced and then we went again, swimming for a while until I was again out of breath.

The next time, Rosy dove down, and I thought, “This is the moment of truth,” but within ten seconds she came back to the surface.

She knew my heart.

After about 20 or 30 minutes I was very cold and shaking, so then she pulled away and got Joe, and they forced me out of the tank.

Meeting Rosy was like meeting Maharaj-ji. It was a place that words were left far behind. My mind got in the way, but our hearts knew one another. To me, that’s a model of what human relationships can be.

– Ram Dass

@babaramdass by @holds.water

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2 months ago

August training... I've been doing the top continuous freestyle 1K set daily with the aim of building up to three complete cycles of this breathing drill per session by the end of the month.

To step it up further I've now I extended the set by 500m, finishing with 11 stroke breathing.

The timing of this first for me landed on the 11th August which felt like a beautiful synchronicity.

Anyone curious to understand more and the benefits of doing this, just drop me a line or see you at the pool.

Thanks to my lifeguard colleagues @london_fields_lido

💙 🌀 🔵 by @holds.water

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2 months ago

AS ABOVE / SO BELOW
1st September 2026 // 5.30am @london_fields_lido #lifeguard #swimming #water #virgo by @holds.water

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2 months ago

One of the rainbow backstroke flags that flutter in the wind @london_fields_lido.

It meant a lot to me the last week to know that GLL (a charitable and social enterprise) aka BETTER - for whom I lifeguard - offer a Trans and Gender Diverse swim session.

Praise and gratitude for those who publicly champion inclusivity.

#inclusivity #equality #love #water #swimming by @holds.water

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2 months ago