A freediver friend wrote to me during the summer to tell me how I inspired her, when she heard about that I had decided to dedicate 100% of my time to freediving for six months. She told me she was interested to hear about the thoughts behind it and asked me to write a post about the process that led me to the decision of booking this one-way ticket to Greece. A life style There are so many things that played a part in all of this. First of all, the freediving that started as a hobby has become a lifestyle to me. It is not only something I do for some hours in the evening. It is the way I think and the way I act. Simply, freediving is the way I live and want to live. Freediving releases tension, clears the mind and makes me relax. The first time I felt this I fell in love with freediving. Inner experience When I do freediving there is nothing else in my mind, neither the past nor the future, I am here and now. When I’m not freediving, I tend to plan too much, and I tend to have too many things in my head already set. This hinders me from living the very moment. When freediving I am where I am, in time and space as well as in my thoughts. Freediving to me is a form of meditation. It releases tension, clears the mind and makes me relax. The sensation of freediving must be experienced, to be understood. These are reasons why I want to do my training and want to come back again and again, the immediate rewards of awareness. The first time I felt this, was the first time I fell in love with freediving. External achievements Since going to the pool doing freediving made me relax I started prioritizing freediving as much as I could. I started freediving the autumn of 2016 as another form of training. I had spent many years working out at the gym and running in the forest and wanted to try something different. I tried competitive freediving, I really liked it and I was quite good at it, even as a beginner. During the winter and spring of 2017 my training became more serious. I spent a lot of time in the pool together with my amazing buddy Valle, who always believed in my capacity. In the summer of 2017 I joined my first Swedish Championship and after that, several more national and international competitions with great results. My progress was good, and the results improved. In the AIDA Word championship of pool freediving I broke the Swedish national record in DYN with 210 meters. The competitive freediving that I saw as something temporary was not temporary anymore. I tried to convince myself that the next competition would be the last. Evidently, this was not the way things went. My passion only grew. Not temporary During spring 2019 I realized that this thought of freediving being temporary was a lie both to myself and to my loved ones. The mix of the inner sensations and the external achievements really caught me. For a long time, I tried to convince myself that the next competition would be the last. Evidently, this was not the way things went. My passion only grew. Sponsors showed their interest in cooperating with me. During this spring (2019) I realized that I wanted to do deep freediving more seriously and I had a one-of-a-kind opportunity to train and compete together with Michel, an outstanding freediver with a lot of experience and knowledge. I could not close my eyes to this opportunity, this call, and things happened very fast. The decision was not simple, but I never doubted it was right one. I had to try this. To live freediving 100%. The inner experience and the external achievements work like wood on a fire and still, there is a lot of wood to keep the fire burning. There is more In this simplified, and very short, explanation there are so many details not being told. I have not mentioned the importance of the understanding and the acceptance given from the people around me. The actions of people that I know and don’t know. The belief from people who see my capacity. The uplifting words and the invitations to see new worlds. I choose to mention the two biggest factors, which are the inner experience and the external achievements. They both work like wood on a fire and still, there is a lot of wood to keep the fire burning. The fire is my passion. My insatiable passion for freediving. Be kind to your self, be kind to others. Nicole Edensbo, 2019-08-16West Messinia, Greece