Pure Awe = Transcendental Experience
A possible reason as to why you really love diving is because it creates a conscious state called “Flow“. Flow is defined as a state of consciousness that is created when an experience is genuinely satisfying.
Think about the following, and see how they relate to your last dive,
- You believed you had adequate skills to complete the dive
- There was a reason for the dive
- There were rules you had to follow (ie limited time, non-decompression limits, air.)
- You had immediate feedback as to how you were performing (air consumption, buoyancy etc..)
- You did not think about anything irrelevant, or worry about your life’s usual problems
- You weren’t self conscious
- You were happy to do it just for the dive, despite being potentially hazardous
- The sense of time was distorted
- The was a good blend between ability level and challenge
Do any of these ring true? I bet they do.
Because you are tested
Diving is potentially hazardous, so it’s more likely to be an activity that creates “Flow”. Most dives, even relatively easy ones, require focus and good skills. For a dive experience to be pleasurable there must be a good blend between the challenge the dive presents and your skill level. Too easy and you’re bored, too hard and you want to quit.
When the “just right” scenario plays out and your skills have been tested, you come out the other side with a feeling of accomplishment. You understood the rules and were in control. This all adds to the desire to do it all again.
Natural Beauty
Even people who are ordinarily not that “interested” in nature, report of being in awe when confronted with such natural beauty. This awe, is akin to transcendence, leaving behind the self consciousness that usually haunts our daily existence. We are free to just enjoy the moment without reason. All the cares in the world seems to disappear for this usually brief period.
When divers come to the surface after a particularly remarkable experience they have usually lost themselves. They come up beaming. They gibber about this or that which they have just experienced. They have been in a state of flow. Diving is one of the unique sports that combine inspiring natural beauty and the need for 100% focus due to safety. Together these equate to a fairly hardcore flow experience.
You are an adrenaline junkie!
One of the myths that are perpetuated for dangerous sports is that the participants are “sensation seekers or adrenaline junkies”. Well according to Mihaly Csikszentmihaly the author of Flow, this is incorrect. Most people report that they derive a sense of pleasure not from being in danger, but from the sense of achievement they get from minimising risk.
It comes down to objective and subjective dangers. Objective dangers are unpredictable physical events that may confront a diver underwater, such as shark attack, strong current or temperature drop. Subjective dangers are those that arise due to the divers lack of skill, such as grossly overestimating their skills compared to the type of dive.
So then the purpose while diving is avoid objective dangers as much as possible, while limiting subjective danger by rigorous discipline and thorough preparation. It is through this preparation, and the challenge of an individuals skills, that they gain so much satisfaction.
Theory playing out practically
Usually before you get in the water with any new skill there is a mass of theory to get through. When you finally see this theory play out practically there is a sense of connection, you get it. This can be any skill from fish ID to following a dive plan, whatever, when theory plays out it’s rewarding.
Loss of self
Everyday you add to the story of self. Each achievement or defeat contributes to the story about who you are. During moments of flow, you drop the narrative. You escape who you are, your worries and time. To are as free as is mentally possible. You can enjoy the purpose of the dive, the natural beauty, concentrate on skills and focus on what you need to do. There is no mortgage, no family troubles, no speeding fine, it all disappears. These other worries are now irrelevant as you are using all your mental power to concentrate on what you are doing.
The wrap up
Flow is a wonderful concept, it more than adequately explains why we can have fleeting moments of pure satisfaction. With diving it is relatively easier to achieve than in other sports, this is why we are lucky. So next weekend when you feel life is giving you a beating, you know what to do…
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Diving, Diving experience, Diving Sunshine Coast, Love diving, why dive