Yesterday's busy morning mind on the computer distracted me from the joys of anticipation for a dip... I really notice when I'm in my headspace... Weather was not particularly inviting, cold, wet, humid... so I was comfortable indoors.
Then, wild woman came with her sage advice and reminder: 'You'll enjoy it', which happens every time... and so I did, and I loved it.
It was particul...
It's incredible how a week can change the experience of wildswimming... Now with colder water temperatures for me is about maximising contact and connection with water and surroundings even more.
Each time I go to the river these days I'm swimming half or a fourth of what I used to weeks ago. Changing habits with the season, without stopping swimming, or dipping. Being gentle to self, n...
More pictures from today, hanging out and floating with water plants, algae... so deeply relaxing
2023-10-20 11:37:29 +0000 UTC View Post
My early morning swims have been replaced by yoga in the last few days.
My body needed some gentleness rather than going to the river when it's still pitch black... Listening to one's needs is so important... I went around midday, it was a natural transition between activities, and a very welcome one. I went when it was drizzling, grey, heavy... time stopped in the water, or, time seemed to...
Today I swam looking at cormorant drying its wings... I find them so elegant and peaceful; always liked them and I even have a Qigong image for them!
I've always remember (or I hope at least) a day a few summers ago, on one of my favourite beaches in the South of England, whene cormorant and I were mimicking each other, drying on rocks sticking out of the sea, with our wings wide open. ...
I don't remember the last time I didn't have a swim in the morning. This morning I didn't feel it; there was something in me, in the air, that didn't feel it would be a good idea.
Despite the sadness I didn't go. I just listened to my instinct, my body. I had a shower instead. Strong winds appeared suddenly. I heard a loud crack outside, I looked through the window to the dead trees tha...
This morning I surprised myself again for keep swimming the same distance every morning for a while (a few months?), despite the drop in temperatures. At the beginning I thought that I would not be able to keep up but once in the water and in the flow it felt effortless, like really tuned to that atmosphere. It's the extension of myself, I feel so much at home when I swim there, and do a scan t...
2023-10-15 13:33:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Yesterday was a festive day across the country so the night before we drove to sleep by the sea. In the morning I had a gorgeous time at the beach, while sky was still pink. There were s couple if fishermen on their chairs, and a couple of walkers with their dogs. The temperature of the air was comfy, despite the wind. Sea was delicious and I played with the waves, and did not get in. further ...
2023-10-13 05:46:52 +0000 UTC View Post
Do you also experience awe every time you see moon?
She gets me every time, especially those moments when I instinctively look above and she's exactly there, even more in awe when this happens in the water. This exquisite body of beauty, ever changing to our eyes 🙏🏽
This morning's swim was delightful. Still did my normal rounds, but definitely feeling colder since yesterday,...
Ohhh what a time in the sea and by the sea this weekend. So pristine, warm and calm yesterday, in a new beach... another gem for the collection. Hidden by the cliffs, steep walk down, only a few people, even less on the rocky side. Constant in and out of the water, Qigong practice, relaxation, and some reading on the rocks. Restorative. Highly needed!
It was a joy to stay overnight in th...
Two herons and a kingfisher joined me while swimming today. Special encounters and a very witchy moment.
My partner lost an amulet in the river weeks ago. While diving I thought I had seen it, but it was a pebble... Later on, I did something out of the ordinary, as if I was called by something... and walked upstream to sunbathe for a couple of minutes. I crouched down, looked down and t...
The best thing I could have done at midday when my head felt like an octopus - with too many tasks, plannings, doings, messages... simultaneously - was to leave it all for a bit and go to the veggie garden and the river (being self-employed deeply suits me).
All the speediness, rushing, mental overstimulation dissolved. I took perspective on things, and it's not that I do need to do the...
Maybe my facial expression doesn't do justice but I'm loving this colder swims, really invigorating and relaxing at the same time.
Today I shared the space with heron, robin and aquatic blackbird (literal translation from Spanish, mirlo acuático, I don't know if they are called this in English! They are so cute, black with white chest, and a characteristic jumpy up and down movement wh...
Some kind of entity has been making sculptures piling up pebbles and rocks recently... and it wasn't me!
It started gently, discreetly... but the day I came back from Scotland it was soooo full of them that I got overwhelmed, sad, angry, frustrated... it was too much for me, and I cried with passion,.
Every rock had rocks and pebbles balancing on top. I could not stand the human...
Delicious swim and post swim in the sun... I'm doing a training online this weekend,which involves too much computer... so any opportunity to touch the water feels like paradise! 🙏🏽
It's really warm again these days... strange weather for the season... what are we doing to the climate? Paradox between enjoying the warmth after the cold water and feeling the pain of the state of the pla...
This morning I woke up very stirred and with heavy soul.
Parts of me were activated last night, and I had a nightmare and woke up mumbling what I was screaming in the dream.
This dream reminded me of another one that I had 1 year ago. Slight different content but woven with a similar thread.
Parts of me that need tending, and that I want to tend, to hold with compassion, like t...
Two pictures taken just before my swim and another two just after. Today was the darkest swim of the season and I'm still able to swim my morning routine; it feels amazing. I wonder if I'll end up bringing a torch...
So so quiet... just a few birds chatting away...
May you have a great weekend and are able to see full moon✨
These days swimming at dawn is a real gift for the senses... pictures don't do justice of the intensity of the reds, pinks, purples and oranges in the sky... Walking under those tones before immersing in the water is a real threshold to cross, into a mystical world that slowly changes and makes itself more visible on each stroke.
Giggles of joy and sighs of awe; feeling full of life the...
The temperature and the feel is so changeable every time, every day... To get in the water is a bit of a 'uuuhhhhh', then it feels gorgeous, then sometimes is like 'can I do one more round?, or 'wow, that feels like brain freeze right now'... definitely more self-reflexivity now!
I'm really enjoying these swims, especially when sun is out and warms up a bit, even if it's only for the warmin...
Definitely getting chiller in the morning. I went for my dip around 8am and yes, it was fresh! Dragon's breath while swimming, very mystical surface of the water. I managed to swim a third of what I've been swimming lately in the morning. I want to keep on with my acclimatisation, so I can keep swimming in the months ahead, rather than just very short swims and dips. I still think the water in ...
2023-09-25 14:38:48 +0000 UTC View Post
This morning I celebrated the threshold of the Autumn equinox swimming in a new beach. Beautiful, wild one. Sea was strong, currents powerful, so I played with the waves, and let myself afloat not far from the shore to be drifted away with the currents. Water temperature was absolutely delicious. And the autumn light too, warm, welcoming and cosy.
Equinox blessing!
Many of the swims in Scotland were in the rain and this is a collection of those moments... It was easy to stay in the water, but to get changed in the rain and cold is a not very glamorous art, and it needs to be quick!
Very pleasurable they were, every time was different. Some of the pictures were at dawn, just after getting up... Wakin up after a night in the dorm, with little oxigen...
Yesterday's reunion with my river, after a day and a half to travel back from Scotland, brought me to tears, a very unexpected outpour, a combination of unrecognisable structures and grief, exhaustion, premenstrualness, processing and releasing what the ecotherapy immersion moved within.
This morning I woke up with my blood, another bodily outpour manifested, that joined river and soil....
During our ecotherapy course in Scotland we had a bit of everything weather wise. We were lucky because sun kissed us on a few occasions. These are the pictures of the only swim in the sun! It was glorious. Apart from this time I was swimming with a few of my wildswiming peers, but on this occasion I happened to be by myself, just after finishing the course's sessions of the day.
Silly ...
5 days of unplanned disconnection with the virtual world in a gorgeous place on earth, the Trossachs in Scotland.
My Ecopsychology-ecotherapy training took place there.
Getting there and leaving was an adventure in itself - a test of resilience - that involved taking too many flights, getting 1 hour sleep at Dublin's airport floor, feeling like a zombie the following day wandering aroun...
Great time hanging out with alder and current!
And new adventure ahead... Right now waiting at the airport... I'll keep you posted. Im excited!
Faery islands underwater this morning, poor little things 😱 Heavier currents meant that I swam without moving upstream more than a few meters! Fun times hanging (out) with alder!!!
2023-09-12 16:50:56 +0000 UTC View Post
Not from today (today I had a few river dips, and a big shower during a massive storm that nearly flooded the house! Luckily I was brushing away the nearly incoming water overflow like there was no tomorrow and nothing came in!) but it's nice to share the visit to the sea a couple of day ago...
Good night!
Storm woke us up, it was incredible, sky was lit, rain really heavy and loud, water flowing on the street... A delight to sense and capture.
When lightning stopped I went to the river, and swam my usual morning routine. This time I felt like a blind person as I could not see the rocks under the water because of all the sediment that the current was carrying, but I know them so well that I k...
This morning's dip was really yummy, even with robin birdsong, and before sun came out.
Last evening I went for a refreshing dip when it was dark and I managed to see a river snake crossing from one shore to the other. It's amazing to discover neighbours and tune in into their rhythms... Every swim is different, there's so much life.