Identification of unconscious fear through STATIC (static breath holding in the water at rest).  

I have little experience in freediving, only three months, even less in static.  I did static only two times: the first time with Alexei Molchanov in April 2019, in my first freediving course in the Chaika pool, Moscow, my time was 3’ 15”.  Second time was with Bea, a STATIC teacher in Ibiza.

When I went to a master class with Alexei Molchanov in Ibiza, I did not think that I would go to a static lesson and I got there by a strange coincidence.  At the master class, while diving, I was faced with the fact that I could not overcome the depth of 30 meters.  When I reached 30, darkness enveloped me and I had to return to the surface.  At the master class was Bea, a freediver from Spain who had joined our group not as a teacher, but simply to dive with us for the company.

Bea has extensive experience in the water, yoga, sufi work and various relaxation methods.  I talked with her on the boat and she talked about her teaching method.  Bea is a very gentle person; she feels a good conversational partner and understands you even without words.  After meeting her, I decided to try applying her relaxation method to solving my stop at 30 meters.

I agreed on a lesson and now it has begun.  Class was held in the summer in a warm pool in Bea’s courtyard.  It was late afternoon and it was very warm.  At the beginning, there was an introductory conversation in the fantastic garden yard where Bea lives.  Then we did relaxation and breath holding on land, as preparatory.  After we did the main breath holding in a warm pool, where I was in a wetsuit.  On land, everything went perfectly: very cool relaxation; light, effortless breath holding.  Then we went into the pool.  We made several breath holds in the pool and after each breath hold I was shaking, as if I had chilled, I could not understand why, I should not have frozen, rather I should have been hot in such conditions.  It seemed that I was freezing, but I was not cold, I understood it with my brain, but my body was shaking.  We started discussing why I was shaking and Bea masterfully easily pulled out the reason from me - it was fear. 

 

I myself did not understand that I was scared.  And it seemed to me that I was not afraid, I did not understand that fear was sitting inside me.  I still don’t understand how easily and simply Bea understood that this was fear, and most importantly, what kind of fear it was: the fear that something would happen to me and I would get some kind of injury.  Not the fear of death, but the fear of injury.  And it was not my own fear, but the fear of my mother for me, which I wore all my life and did not understand, I had not been aware of it.  Bea led me to realize this fear.  When the awareness of fear comes to you, fear does not leave immediately, it remains, but you already control it and it’s no longer the fear controlling you.  As soon as I understood what was happening, I stopped shaking and completely calmed down. Then, I easily made a breath hold for 4’ 8”.  A few days later I was able to dive 39 meters!  

 

Thanks, Bea!  It was one of my incredible experiences that changed my life.  We need fear to stay alive.  Sometimes it transforms, hides in us, and then it becomes a blocker of life and a heavy burden that hinders our experience of a full Life.