Don’t Stop—Redirect “It’s so hard to stop lifting my elbow” is something I hear from swimmers all the time. So I ask, “What do you tell yourself when you notice you’re doing it?” The answer is almost always the same: “I tell myself to stop.” And there it is. When my kids were little, I saw this play out daily. They’d be tapping, humming, banging—doing something that made me crazy—and I’d say, kindly, “Sweetie, please stop banging the table.” They’d pause… and then a minute later, the…

One Thing at a Time Yesterday I got out of the pool and lingered in my bubble. If I resist the urge to pick up my phone and see what I missed, I can hold on to the bliss for just a few minutes longer. Then the wave comes… the meeting I’m supposed to be in, the emails I missed, the messages unanswered. The shift from clarity to chaos is swift and merciless. In the water, I know what to focus on. While it can be overwhelming, it’s a practice I’ve honed for 3 years now: choose one thing—just…

What’s it like for you? Do you have an easy time showing up for your training sessions? Or is it a struggle to make it happen? (🙋♀️ Yep, I’ve been there.) Showing up is half the battle, but making each stroke count—that’s the real challenge. In community, we support each other in putting our best effort forward. Yes, there are times when showing up is all we can do and it’s enough. But let’s be real—water time is precious. We need to make it matter. This isn’t about hollow conversations,…

The art of trusting your limits. After I sent yesterday’s email about my own hesitation to turn the shower to cold, a few people responded. One person shared they look forward to cold showers, and another said they’ve done them for so long that a shower feels incomplete without a cold burst at the end. Thank you for sharing—these responses made me feel part of something! And then someone else wrote about a different kind of moment. They had a swim practice scheduled—something they usually…

When the Goal Gets in the Way Last week, I wrote about trust—how the water meets us when we show up, just as we are. How learning to trust might be the most powerful thing we can do. This week, something happened in a lesson that reminded me how easily trust slips—not from fear, but from something more subtle. I was working with a 6-year-old who had just discovered he could push off from one wall, arms in streamline, eyes on the bottom, and glide all the way across the short side of the…

Ready or Not, Ready Enough I didn’t feel ready. Not for the spring water temps. Not for the distance. Not for everything this swim would ask of me. But I went anyway. Because sometimes, waiting to feel “ready” is just another way of hiding. And I could feel myself trying to hide! The weather looked rough. It was Mother’s Day weekend. Despite months of planning, coordinating schedules, and arranging travel to get my crew here, when push came to shove, all I wanted to do was stay home and enjoy…