Snorkeling pranayama
Posted By Sika on March 13, 2009
I think snorkeling may be the best way to learn pranayama. Gliding through the water, the only sound the shoosh of the waves and the your own
Inhale . . .
Exhale . . .
Darth Vader rendered benign and sublime. Automatically, the breath adjusts to the body: Stroke/inhale. Stroke/exhale. Shoosh. Shoosh.
I’ve never been swimming in Nkhata Bay before. Wiz’s New Year 2008 was in the general vicinity, but not in Nkhata Bay proper. At Butterfly, next to Mayoka (two of the most popular backpackers in Nkhata Bay), rocks jut up from the lake bottom. Slipping into the water, the eyes pass over a thin layer of leafy debris and are then immediately drawn the shimmery, flashing electric blue, neon baby blue, silver, turquoise or yellow, silver, black, glittering schools of fish.
I thought I saw some small convict fish, but they weren’t acting very well trained, so I’m not sure. There were other, more boringly colored brown, black fish that will some day grow up to be eaten.
In the hostels here, you can get borrow a snorkel and mask for free, but there are no flippers—not even for hire. It was odd to me to be snorkeling without flippers, but eventually I relaxed into that loose-limbed movement flippers inspire—whipping the legs back and forth until it feels as if the femurs, tibias, and fibulas have become rubbery, flexible.
There is no coral here, so there was no concern (I hope) about disturbing the careful, slow, growth of habitat by resting on the rocks. What an unusual feeling it is, to stand nearly upright, all but head and shoulders submerged while balancing on a rock in the middle of a lake. Jackknifing legs underneath yourself and reaching out, toes pointed to more easily catch purchase on the rocks below.
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