Its all in ur head!!!

How many of us believe the title of this post - its all in our head? Well atleast I do. This was something I rediscovered recently.

I joined swimming classes in the beginning of Dec'11. It was a 21 day course till 27th Dec'11. Intially I was very scared of jumping in water. It took me almost 5 days only to learn floating. The fellow learners, coach n the regular swimmers all of them were motivating and advising me on how to overcome the fear of water and swim. But I could not do it till end of the course. The pool is 50 mtrs long, 21 mtrs wide and slopes from 16ft to 3ft. I would struggle to cover the smaller side, could hardly reach till 14 mtrs. Till 26th Dec, I was just covering 14 mtrs. My coach used to say - 'Just try completing one lap you will be able to cover the entire pool easily.' I was pretty disappointed that even after 21 days I could not swim :(.

Finally on 27th, the bugged coach put the tube around me and asked me to swim. I could cover the 21mtrs side of the pool. After covering 2-3 laps with the tube I tried swimming on my own. This time I covered the entire 21mtrs. Literally everyone in the pool clapped :). I know its not a big deal but definitely was a very big deal for me. Then I swam 2-3 times and covered the 21 mtrs. I was on cloud 9 that evening.

The following days I was just practising making myself comfortable swimming the entire 21m. The following Friday I guess on 30th I again went to the pool in the afternoon. After 2-3 laps of my regular swimming, coach asked me to come out of water. As I got out, he started walking towards the 16ft deeper end of the pool. I told him-' Sir, I cant swim there. I am very scared'. He said - 'Just keep chanting your home God's name, you will be fine'. My heart was literally pounding. He told me to sit at the edge of the pool and jump whenever I was ready. I sat there staring at the blue water. Coach said - 'If you dont jump, I am gonna push you!' . Finally with some courage and chanting God's name I jumped. After 2-3 arm and leg movements I came to the surface. Coach was telling me to swim the entire 50 mtrs. I was shocked. I said- 'sir I swim 21 mtrs with great diffiiculty, I cant do 50mtrs'. He said-' you can do it. Just swim slowly. I shall guide you'. I was struggling, gasping for breath and my coach was motivating me. I somehow finished 35-40mtrs. The last few mtrs seemed impossible. Coach was going on - 'Dont leave, you are just there'. There were 2 more girls in the pool telling me to finish it. The final 2-3 mtrs were out of my limits. The coach was still on-'Dont leave, don't leave'. Finally I reached the wall and got up. Coach and others in the pool were applauding :).

As soon as I finished the first thing coach told me was -'See you did it! Its all in your head.' I could not agree more. I said -' You are right sir. It was all in my head'.

I never thought I could do anything of that sort ever in my life. I was surprised and shocked both. I was so happy I gave my coach a big bar of chocolate. Once I was out of the pool, I messaged my brother and friends about it. They too could not believe it. It was such a boost to my confidence, that even while writing this post I can feel the energy and sense of achievement :).

But rightly as my coach said-'Its all in our head!'