Benefits of diving in 2022
It is a fact that having a hobby or any activity that you take part in helps to reduce isolation, improve wellbeing and confidence, and gives you a better quality of life.
There are several ways you can do this:
- Continue with your diving.
- Improve your diving (do some more training or take the next level).
- Add to your diving experience by doing some alternative courses, either from within BSAC or from outside, such as the Nautical Archaeological Society (NAS).
- Find some new places to dive, get on trips.
So how does diving help?
Improves emotional and mental wellbeing
By far and away the most important benefit of scuba diving is the improvements it brings to emotional and mental wellbeing. I could write about the idea of being immersed in water is the return to the mother’s womb or how relaxing it is to watch fish but, realistically, not all diving is calm and relaxed. It can be focused and strenuous, it can give an adrenalin rush or can be a little bit scary, however, the simple act of doing something you love, being with likeminded people, seeing your friends and being outside means that you escape from the four walls of lockdown. The socialising and focus of diving can produce a positive mental attitude and this reduces the feelings of depression.
We all know the feeling of getting home, relaxing, and smiling because you saw that massive lobster tucked away under a rock, or laughing at your buddy rushing to get out of their dry suit, desperate for a post dive toilet trip, and nearly not making it. Sounds banal but those memories are what make us smile and feel better.
This also increases confidence, because you are succeeding in a challenging activity, it makes you able to handle everyday challenges that may have become overwhelming. It also makes you feel more fulfilled as life isn’t just about being stuck in a rut surrounded by the same four walls.
Relieves Stress
Diving requires focus and the whole activity from setting up for the dive, watching the marine life and the steady breathing while diving is great for calming and distracting your mind from day to day issues. You don’t forget about what is happening in the world but for the time spent diving and chatting with your buddies afterwards your mind puts those issues away for the duration and allows you to destress.
Renews old and builds new friendships
It’s a simple fact that people need company, diving means you meet new and old likeminded friends, and you catch up with everyone in an environment where all are equal. Think how many new friends have you met just through being on a dive boat?
This communal passion includes us in a community and gives us an opportunity to talk about our hobby. Even if these friends are brief ones (liveaboard buddies) they still become part of your life and add to its quality. I know that for me there are many people I have met through diving who I chat with but haven’t seen for a few years, but they have become friends and it always puts a smile on my face when we catch up.
Fitness
One of the problems of lockdown has been a lack of activity, working from home has meant that people have not even had the short walk from the car to their office. Having a hobby means that you get out and do it, by doing it means you get that fitness (mental and physical).
Diving does give a physical workout; however, it also requires a level of fitness, so it ensures that getting out of the house and doing some physical activity takes place.
Diving is a physical activity and all aspects of the activity act as a workout and thereby it increases your physical fitness and therefore your mental fitness as you feel better.
Concentration
Scuba diving helps us to focus on our day to day tasks. Being stuck in in one place and not seeing different sites is known to reduce the ability to concentrate, many people working from home, day in day out, have said that listlessness has affected their concentration. Getting out and diving changes that, it means we relearn how to concentrate and stop feeling and acting like caged animals.
Excitement and adventure
A new dive site is always an adventure, but old ones also offer that outlet. The opportunity to connect with nature in an environment that differs from one bay to another and one dive to another brings a sense of adventure into life. Planning a trip to somewhere new or even revisiting previous sites means there is an adventure in the future, it is something to look forward to.
When we can travel, most of the time we choose warm destinations for our diving holiday trips. With this come great new experiences and positive experiences for our body and mind.
It is important to have something to look forward to, so even if you are not diving now, it is there in the future. You have to start planning the next move, a training dive, a few check dives, a coffee with mates talking about past dives and getting the adrenalin running with future plans. That excitement brings pleasure and hope.
So why dive in 2022?
Why not?
