One week of early morning mindful swims

Today, I am looking back on a week of early morning mindful swims – a little challenge I had originally proposed to our winter swimming group back in April but we then had to postpone due to Corona.

Of course, right now, water temperatures are not quite so wintery anymore but even with water temps above 20 degrees, swimming for about 20 min in the early morning still feels quite refreshing and makes you enjoy a hot cup of tea afterwards. After the first day, I realized though that our famous winter swimming tea (lemon-ginger-manuka honey) didn’t feel quite right anymore, so I decided that mint tea was going to be our new summer blend.

It was a nice surprise to come to the beach every morning and see who would be there, ready for the swim. Some of us made it almost every day, like Anita, Janet and Katrin. Others joined several times, like Ulrica or Barbara and some just came once.
During the swim we didn’t speak and got a chance to fully enjoy the sounds of nature, the sensation of the water on our skin, the movements of our bodies and our breath. Maybe we tried nose breathing or swam with our eyes closed to drink in the first sunrays of the day and the wind on our face.

After the first two days, we realized that at 7.00 am there was already quite a lot going on down at the water front. There were two yoga groups, some other individual swimmers, sporty runners, dog walkers and the town’s cleaning staff. This made us decide to see what it would be like at 6 am and we were well rewarded for getting up even an hour earlier.

When I arrived shortly before 6 am on Wednesday, it was perfect timing to catch the sunrise – a real magical moment. Funnily enough, most swimmers joined that day and some of them said that they wouldn’t have made it down to the beach at 6 am on their own – so they were grateful for the support of our group. Also, I think, being winter swimmers, for some of our members, maybe there has to be at least some kind of a challenge, otherwise they are not so tempted to join. 😉

Wednesday morning gave us a real thrill, so we decided to do 6 am again on Thursday. Having been out on Wednesday evening, I found it a little bit harder to get out of bed on Thursday morning but I realized that I started to get a familiar “retreat feeling” every morning. For those of you, who have never been on a yoga or meditation retreat – early mornings are usually part of the deal there as well. Showing up to yourself, to the group and to whatever practice it is that you have committed yourself to do, especially on those days when you might feel a bit tired or for other reasons not quite in the right frame of mind, is in itself already something very special and precious that can bring a lot of energy and stability into your life.
Once down at the beach, it was again a wonderful sunrise – this time intermingled with a few tiny clouds.
On Thursday we were again a smaller group and in order to catch a little more sleep, we decided to do 7 am again for rest of the days.

On Friday our mood struck me as especially positive but maybe that was just down to my own sensation or maybe it was because it was the last day of the week. We all had a bit more time and enjoyed our mint tea and a few homemade muffins for our post swimming breakfast.

The weekend started with a rainy swim on Saturday and we had Ufschötti completely to ourselves again. There was only Anita and me and the atmosphere was simply magical. After the swim, I decided to give the shower at the LiLi Centre a try and found it funny that I had never used it before. Not even in winter, when we were sometimes literally chilled down to the bone. For those of you who would like to try this shower at some stage as well – I can testify that it is actually really nice and properly hot as well.

On Sunday, I was half expecting to be the only swimmer present – but no – Barbara, Anita and a little bit later Irène joined in as well. Ufschötti was again very quiet and it was pretty rough and windy. I had decided to go for the “North Sea look”, which means wearing shorts + a hoodie and although I felt a bit cold in this outfit, it reminded me of salty air and endless all-weather beach walks up north.

For me, this week of early morning mindful swimming was a welcome change to my usual morning routine. For the past year or so, I had usually started my day with a cold shower and then 15 min of meditation on our terrace. I really enjoyed this quiet start to the day and it gave me a lot. However, over the last couple of weeks I realized it was time to start the day with a bit more movement and fresh air, so I sometimes went for an early morning run, walk or bike ride. The early morning mindful swims were a perfect combination of both movement and stillness for me and I will definitely carry on with them one way or another.

So, if you haven’t made it out of bed before 7 am last week, there will be other chances for you over the next couple of weeks. After all, I was a little bit surprised to find a striking parallel between early morning swimming and winter swimming. Winter swimmers often get to hear from other people that they could never swim in such cold water. This week, I heard from several of our hardy winter swimmers that they could never get out of bed so early in the morning. Seriously? As with winter swimming, it often takes only one or two attempts to get you hooked. And after completing one week of getting up every morning between 5 and 6 am, I can tell you that early morning swimming might be almost as addictive as winter swimming. 😉