Float or Flop?

I went to the pool with a couple of friends and their children a couple weeks ago. It was a relaxing day of iced coffee, great conversation, tons of laughs, and a full dose of fun in the sun.

The kids were pleasantly surprised when I climbed the stairs to go down the waterslide with them. I went back and forth between hanging out with the ladies and sliding, swimming, and splashing with the kids.

At one point I was in a larger area of the pool by myself and decided to capitalize on the moment and float for a bit. Just floating in the water with the sun warming my face is one of my favorite feelings. I tend to be in the moment completely. That’s probably the closest I’ve come to truly “clearing my mind” in a meditative state.

After some time passed I could hear the water moving differently and some stifled giggles getting closer. I knew the boys were plotting to come dump me in the water and stood up. The guilty looks on their faces were hilarious.

None of them could float. I tried to work with a couple of them, holding their backs and directing them to lay back and relax, letting their bodies go naturally in the water. There was some improvement, but they just couldn’t relax enough to let the water naturally support them.

I remembered how I actually learned to float more than three decades ago. What would really happen to a dead body in the water, I wondered, not believing the movies. I consciously made my body go limp in a variety of different positions to see how the water would move me. In my child’s mind, that made sense.

In reality, my body is still full of life so I’m not sure my hypothesis or results were truly accurate. The benefit that came from that is I learned how to relax my body and float in the water. And I do it every chance I get, whether in the pool or the ocean (though that’s a little trickier).

All of that got me thinking about life in general. When we relax ourselves and allow life to happen around us and through us, things aren’t as rigid. However, when we’re tense and trying to control everything around us, things are typically a bit more difficult.

I think it’s kind of like our mindsets. Things will happen to us and around us. If we learn to flow with it and concentrate on what we can control – in this example, our breath, thoughts, and reactions – things tend to smooth out and we float.

If we overthink it or fight it, we tend to flop. And even worse, if we panic and thrash around, we may find ourselves in a dire situation. In the water that could result in actually drowning. Anywhere else in life may result in the same thing metaphorically speaking.

I’ve been accused of being “nonchalant” when things were an absolute mess in my life from a few different people over the years. Trust me, I wasn’t  just skipping around when I had shut off notices, no money, or other situations when my back was against the wall.

I just knew that acting out the whirlwind that was happening in my brain, heart, and stomach wouldn’t help anything. Staying outwardly calm helped me get through the situation without making it even worse.

I wanted to yell, scream, throw things, or worse. But I knew that would only make it worse and deplete the energy that I’d desperately need to get through the situation at hand.

So the next time you’re faced with a challenging situation, choose whether you want to float or flop. It might take some practice. Truth be told, I’m still actively practicing. Calming your emotions to think through things instead of just reacting might save you from the worst case scenario happening.