Into the blue

Ellen Bird investigates the link between scuba diving and mindfulness, and explores why so many turn to this pastime for a little peace and quiet

- Ellen Bird

Imagine having a 30lb steel tank strapped to your back, a skin-tight wetsuit clinging to your body, and only being able to breathe through a pressurised tube. You plunge yourself into indigo water and start to sink, the weight around your waist pulling you beneath the surface and into the abyss. It's not an obvious place to seek inner peace, and scuba diving certainly isn't for everyone; it's a sport that should only be undertaken after the right training, in safe conditions, and with a qualified instructor. But once you're comfortable, it can yield huge and surprising benefits for the mind as well as the body.

Personally, I've never felt more at one with the world than I do when I'm diving. It's a safe space for me, a happy place, where worries and stresses are left behind. I started diving four years ago and have racked up over 80 dives in that time. It's addictive, but not in the way people think: I do get an adrenaline rush, but it's accompanied by a peacefulness I never expected. Diving makes me feel like myself, able to appreciate the world around me and where I fit within it.

As a confident diver, I often travel specifically to dive - my last trip was to the Azores. I hadn't been diving for eight months, so I was a bit out of practice. Even so, I was bursting with excitement as I strapped on my inflatable jacket used to regulate buoyancy - known as a BCD - and flung myself off the boat backwards, flippers flailing in the air.

But as I let the air out of my BCD and tried to descend, I couldn't sink. My breath began to quicken as I stuck my face in the water, only to see my diving companions falling into the blue beneath. My buddy, a qualified instructor, waited patiently with me at the surface. But I panicked, my lungs filled with air, and my chances of sinking and completing a dive began to diminish.