Mahalo Brittany for coming out with us and sharing your experience! We have so much respect for you choosing to face your fears and giving the sharks a chance. #FearToFascination photos by @blakethompsonphoto, check out Brittany’s post for videos from her dive as well 🤙🏽 #Repost @brittanyhellyes ・・・ The ocean is a metaphor for the subconscious. A representation of the unknown. In movies and tv, it’s used as a stage to exaggerate nature’s “monsters”, mercilessness, and mystery. For me in the past, those exaggerated stories dominated my perception and the idea of free diving miles off shore, with sharks in particular, was a nightmare. Truly the seventh circle of my personal hell. I have much respect for the perfectly adapted apex predator — who is being slaughtered at a dangerous and disgusting rate, further risking the health of our delicate and declining ocean ecosystems — but just because of their existence, swimming where my feet could not touch ground has always felt impossible. Yet my spiritual practice requires seeking the deep darkness, being out of my element, and surrendering control, honoring that our bodies/minds/spirits are momentary manifestations of a force beyond comprehension, only accessible by communion. We are capable of more than we think. Had someone told me I could dive into these wild depths, look my fear in the eye, and emerge with joy, gratitude, and peace, my conditioned self would have laughed and tensed and refused. But I let go of her on this day, in favor of the me before me, the one who knows that the unknown is ultimately where we all must go. We are one with whatever scares us. We’re transient and infinite and should only seek to be. More deja vu than revelation. Profound respect and love to the ocean and all it holds for being teachers. The way out of the darkness is to dive deeper in. (at Haleiwa, Hawaii) https://www.instagram.com/p/B406uTDnc4E/?igshid=dppkcyykd2r2
