Escaping Your Cell Phone...Join GCST Masters!
from USA Swimming
By Mike Gustafson//Correspondent
I have this fantasy of getting rid of my cell phone. I heave my cell phone into a great mass of floating water, smiling as it shorts out, flickers, and descends into the deep ocean. Then I buy a rotary telephone – the old school kind that requires manual “turning” – and an answering machine. I’d record a cheesy, multi-person away-messages-in-a-song, “I’m not home right now, so leave a message after the beep!” And I’d never look over my shoulder at those plugged-in days, incessantly checking emails from discount shopping websites or “The Official Certified Prince of Nigeria.”
But instead of doing this, of course, I just go swimming.
Swimming offers numerous benefits besides the physical. Some say the sport of swimming makes kids smarter, professorially shaping kids, teaching intervals (math), the concept of winning vs. losing (philosophy), and how to move through water (physics). I’ve heard many times that swimming is “the smart sport.” Some claim swimming acts as a therapist, helping you work through and sort out your inner-problems. I’ve even heard someone say that swimming saved his marriage (True story: he started lap swimming, lost weight, gained confidence, was happier, and eventually, saved his marriage).
But for me, swimming has always been about escape. De-plugging. Peacing out.
It’s relatively simple: You just can’t check your email in the water. No texts. No apps. No matter how badly you want. No matter how important an email or text or phone call might be. Anyone who has spilled coffee on a laptop or dropped a cell phone into a toilet will be able to tell you, definitely, that water and electronics do not mix.
Swimming offers more than physical well-being. It forces your brain to connect with (gasp!) itself.
Think about it. When’s the last time in your life that you were 100% completely cut-off from other, outside-media forms, like TV, internet, cell phones, iPods, iPads, Blackberries, Netflix, podcasts, and the radio? Maybe that time you went camping in the mountains? Did you take your cell phone? Or how about when you jogged this morning? Did you listen to your iPod? Or how about when you’re just in your car, driving? Are you listening to the radio? Are you talking on the phone? Texting while driving?
If you’re like me – someone who carries a cell phone to go outside, even to buy groceries – being completely and 100% de-plugged is a rarity.
Swimming offers a chance to spend an hour a day completely removed from the electronic and internet-based world, spending time with your thoughts, reflections, and meditations. Swimming forces you away from distraction. It keeps your mind focusing on one thing for an extensive amount of time.
Swimming is, at least to me, like reading a long, meandering book; your brain is only plugged-in to itself.
Yesterday, while lap swimming, I pondered this. I’ve been swimming a lot lately, losing weight, and consequently, I’ve been happier. But part of me wonders if this has something to do with the fact that, for one hour a day, I’m removed from the blinking and beeping. I’ve even started leaving my cell phone behind, buried in my apartment. And it feels good, after spending 23 hours a day checking emails, to spend just one hour a day in solid, uninterrupted meditation.
I believe swimming is “the smart sport” – but maybe for different reasons. I’ve always thought swimmers to be among the most introspective, thoughtful, and at-peace athletes in the sports world. I’ve always related to swimmers more than football players, basketball players, or baseball players for reasons outside poor hand-eye coordination and chlorinated skin. I’ve always found conversation with swimmers much easier than anyone else. But the reasoning behind this has always escaped me, until recently, until I bought a Blackberry, and began to long for the end of the day, when I’d put my cell phone in my locker, close the door, and immerse myself in underwater, removed from the blinking and buzzing of the outside world.
Perfect time to start swimming with GCST Masters!!!!
