San Diego is beautiful and yet a little reluctant to just let the heat in, the sun can tan you, but you shiver. Not the total focus, but it kept coming up all day, tomorrow I use the wetsuit, I have a bit of a base tan, so I am happy.
What you learn when you close your mouth and open your mind. I have to say the winds nearly die down when I close my mouth, so it does make it easier to open your mind to new ideas and thinking. What you think you are going to get, your perception and what you actually get are always so different, you never know what you are meant to learn until you figure out what the lesson really was.
I met my Total Immersion Coaches in Training, my second Triathlon teaching coach amazed me when she said she had so much to learn from all of us, I thought to myself, how strange we are here to learn from you. Okay I loved her for that because she opened me up to realizing we learn from our experience and those around us, not always from our teachers.
I am going to say I met Beverley a day early getting off the plane and was immediately relieved to see someone who wanted to share her story as much as I needed someone to talk to as well. I think I could have closed my mouth more often to listen. I had an amazing day, shopping and planning our big adventure, she became the comfort zone in this new experience. Beverly is the touchstone to her triathlon swimmers and those who come in contact with her in the pool, she works her magic by carding her would be students. She recognizes someone who is struggling and understand they do not need to if only they would accept her help, a true angel whose wings spear through the water moving her forward, I think she is going to be moving forward in her life in ways she never imagined, I see her success I think before she does.
Terry was exactly how I assumed he would be a quiet teacher who mentored calm in the way he tries to teach calm. The edges were smoothing out in the room just as he started to tell us his journey to Total Immersion and his reasons for the pursuit of self awareness and improvement. I would spend more time talking about him, but to say it the best way I can, if it weren't for his method and his focus on something as simple as swimming and using that as the means to have people calm their brains and get into their body for even a second, to be in the now for the nanosecond, to know if they have actually made their body still, balanced, poised and at the ready, to control the chaos for all but that moment to feel true bliss in your spirit and your accomplishment. He has brought an ability for those whose inner child may have missed the opportunity to learn to swim, he has brought a method that allows them to learn at any age how to be in control of self awareness and improvement by just deciding to focus on the goal, however small, if you can make that achievement you can build on it, you can constantly improve. This is something we need written for parents, the micromanagement of daily life with children, to focus on the smallest needs in search of creating the best environment for our children to learn and to grow. Apply the technique to anything in your life, if you make it your focus, it you give it your attention, you can improve on anything.
Shane followed suit, he was more involved in his lifes experience and how ultimately he did many interesting and important things and now this was the culmination of some of the pursuits coming together. He is also a Triathlon Coach, so I see the passion we share there. He lives in a place where life is about the simpler messages having larger meaning, and that the focus on that is more important, he is very right that way. He is more learning through body and harmony with your body, this is the pursuit we all need to make more time for.
Then Scott spoke and I realized these people in this room were all amazing, their backgrounds, their knowledge, the way each one of us overlapped the other in ways we never would have imagines, but no surprise it all brought us to the clinic in the pursuit of bettering ourselves to prepare us to teach this to others. Scott had a background in teaching and also went on many paths of self discovery which were to say the least very amazing and made you envious of the experiences he has had already, what else will his life bring him. His teaching path I think is just opening up to his real calling, his ability to self direct his teaching and move to his true beliefs not those society imposes on us every day. He is no doubt a gifted teacher, from his swimming, he is also a gifted athlete. I see him being a real beacon in the sport of swimming, he will attract many people to his teaching.
Matt, an occupational therapist with an interest in rehabilitating stroke victims, sees the benefits of Total Immersion, anything that would improve the brains ability to communicate subtle things to the body would prove immensely valuable to someone who has lost that connection, how empowering to see the application of mindful learning of the body applying to rewiring a person to their body. Matt lives locally, he is quiet and yet again I see a calm in him that must allow his patients to completely be at ease in their difficulty with someone who has an understanding and open heart. He is a true healer. I see him applying his commonsense approach to bringing the joy to people who feel lost with their struggles and moving them through a calmer life with real achievement.
Paul has an energy of peace around him, he is also another calming person in the room, he has a background similar to Scott and yet still very diverse, he was a teacher, who also became a buddhist monk. He has come full circle and is looking to teach a mind body approach to swimming which brings with him his lifes experience, I could only imagine the ways in which he can get people in touch with themselves sooner in their pursuits to listening to their bodies.
Maria has a passion for teens, she is inspired by them and she inspires them. She has their trust and their best life in mind when she trains them. She funds through scholarship her disadvantaged athletes with travel scholarships for events. She is so involved with them you see they are her children, she wants to share their succes with you, she is passionate and is no doubt the brightest light in those teens eyes, the mentor they will remember for a life time. The ideal of a coach.
Me, haha, so I was there, surrounded by these amazing people and I had to ask myself, what would I say about myself, how would I define my path to this place. I start with the obvious, I am a type A personality always looking to improve and find my peace with that. I am the mother who learned through her daughters health problems that there is no time on this earth to look forward to there is only now. What you do in this moment may be your last, or the last you share with someone who you love. How do you make right your wrongs, you just try to live your best life now. I am looking to create positive experiences, to reward my family's life with good, with calm with joy. I love to see when people change what they believe to be true about themselves, I like to see them realize if they could be wrong about the truth they had written about themselves, what else could they change. Once people figure out that thing they said they could never do, is something they now can do very well, what other things in their life, did they just accept as fact incorrectly. What are we doing when we lower our expectations of our experiences on earth? We are limiting all the possibilities, we are limiting all the positive achievement, all the experiences we could have, we isolate ourselves and say we can't. I say we can, if you think you can't do something, you make it so. If you believe you can achieve, that moment when a person gets it, they let off a bright amazing glow, to be near them when they do this, is the gift I get for pursuing this teaching path. Those moments are precious and you understand that person has felt a moment of pure joy. Now ask yourself, isn't that what you have been looking for.
You don't need to bungie jump, you don't need to do an Ironman, or a marathon, you just need to ask yourself what is it that would fuel your passion for life. Most of us have that secret we keep to ourselves and say I would, but I wouldn't be any good at it. When you take one small step at a time and make sure you build a strong foundation of knowledge and you plan your goals, you look at the path to success, you never vear far from it, you will get to that goal.
The day was not like any other day, I spent a day learning more about life and that what we are hear to do is to learn to communicate in ways that people will understand. To make us better teachers, we must observe and be open minded. I had an amazing day. I also got drilled on technique and swallowed some water, so for those in my lessons I am feeling a little like yourselves.
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