You lay on your mat and it is all about being in the moment and moving from breath to breath…. Geared up, you plunge into the waters and it is just you and the moment, the life surrounding you, experiencing it from breath to breath…The mat teaches me the strength to living in and breathing through each moment – discovering my strength and the discover of life’s beauty… The water teaches me the peace and quietness of life and the strength that comes from both water and myself.

For me being in the studio, practicing hot yoga or taking that giant stride into the waters is the same practice. Except for maybe now instead of me breathing in out of my nose, using my ujjayi technique, in scuba diving I am focusing on the breath of life coming in out of mouth via my regulator. Both practices are my saving and my serenity and I couldn’t imagine life without either.

The water did one thing that yoga could not do for me – give me a renewed life and help me rebuild from heartache. This may not be true for all but the melded practice of yoga and diving helped me through one the great challenges of my life. My daily yoga practice helped me focus my energy and give me strength to breathe through the heartache, but I was still struggling with depression and staying in the moment to moment of life. That was until I married my yoga practice with my other passion, scuba diving. From the moment I was back on the water I felt stronger and when I rolled into the underwater world around me life renewed. I was truly back in the moment, because that is all you can do and want to do underwater. I felt the life and energy coming from that world flow back into me. I was renewed and able to truly be myself again. I came back out of the water with new life, new energy to eat, to live again and be again.

The ocean’s beauty and strength is indescribable. It is the practice that yogi’s strive for and the ability to explore and be in it, well it is breathtaking. The ocean is the greatest gift – one that we cannot ignore; one that we must always fight for as it fights to give us life.