Swimming, El Mar, + Creative Obsessions

Last Sunday I went to the beach for the first time since giving birth and wow did it feel amazing. I connected with all kinds of parts of me that I didn’t know I needed to reawaken within. Something about being in the beach and swimming in the water, remembering the smallness of my day to day drama in light of the vastness of the ocean, the reminder that we live on a planet, a strange rock thats floating around in the midst of a gazillion galaxies it all fills my heart with marvel and yes, wonder.

You add the elements of the sun beaming on your skin while the wind blows and my feet feel the ground and sigh the swimming in the sparkling water, and it makes the beach a calming happy place for the little Prisy living within me.

Add the connection with friends while you’re in that open beach space, and add the activation of your body as you move and swim and this makes the beach the most paradise-like space for inner child me.

I say all of this because I felt wonder like if I was experiencing the beach for the very first time this Sunday. My friend and I drove an hour and a half with the baby in the car just to catch that glimpse of transcendence. After that day I just wanted to be back in the beach, and two days later, there I was again, delighting in the beach with my neighbor who accompanied us and strolled the baby around while I swam in the water.

I wanna zoom into that moment of swimming for a second because it deserves to be relived many times. The moment when I began to swim in the water was epic. Here I was, 4 months postpartum, with little movement in my body since giving birth. Through my pregnancy I had danced Zumba every week and danced my butt off several times a week, so I had really missed the rush of endorphins and adrenaline that came from simply being able to exercise.

A lot of the exercise that is done where I’m consciously thinking about the fact that I’m doing exercise (which for me includes most of the cardio and strength training done at the gyms) did not call on my heart, but instead sounded like a drag. That is why dancing through the jams that I love has always felt like a natural way to move my body.

Yet this time I experienced the rush of being in my flow, forgetting myself and my role as a mother, and simply being in the moment, heck, I was the moment. I swam and I swam and I swam some more, becoming like a dolphin who simply dives into the waves and comes up for air. The sun visible before me, glittering ocean lined in front of me, I became a dolphin, fully conscious, diving in and coming up for air while swimming.

I was ALIVE. And el mar became my hidden obsession. As we drove home I felt the calm energy that comes when you experience delight and movement and adventures and pleasure and bliss. I felt grateful and whole, I felt the calm hormones that come after one exercises and feels relief and natural painkillers and highs like what is attributed to a runner’s high. Those endorphins rushed through my body.

And this morning, again, I awoke excited to return to the beach… after breastfeeding and making my morning hot chocolate and Oscar’s tea, I handed over the baby to my husband to make way for my next swimming adventure.

Since the winter season came, I hadn’t been in the pool. Now in May, I threw on my bathing suit, showered and filled my hair with coconut oil (cause a girls gotta protect her hair and skin), I rushed to get goggles at the garage, and out I went to explore the outdoors.

I looked into the pool—it looked a bit dirty but nothing that would stop me from this swimming high. After some hesitation that comes before the dive, I just did it and jumped in. Again, I left my head space and completely dropped into my body as my arms pushed my body forward under the water as I swam in the cold pool water.

Again I swam, and swam and swam some more. Going up for air as I turned around and continued swimming from one end of the pool to the next.

Today, my creative spark is found through swimming and being in the outdoors; yesterday, it was Zumba and dance; tomorrow, it may be painting or cooking or making necklaces with rainbow-sprinkled donut holes—who knows! Who cares! All I know is that I am committed to making love with my most creative obsessions, even when that means sneaking out and diving into the water as I convince someone to watch my baby for several moments.

This will only let me go back to my life and relationships feeling more refreshed, more alive, more fully myself.