How to get over nerves?

[fjpatrum]

As a newbie myself I'll say you're going to burn air fast no matter what. Comfort in the water will be key to not burning it faster than is natural for you, though. Do a lot of swimming underwater between now and your trip. If you can do it with a tank on, even better.

When/if you notice that you're starting to get nervous, stop, take a few full slow breaths and tell yourself, "I can still breath, everything is okay. Nothing to be nervous about." It's amazing how well this actually works. I've gotten that nervous "first stage of panic coming on" feeling on one of my dives so far, in a low viz cold water situation and I just took a few good breaths and sorted it out just like I described. Finished the dive without any further issues.

 

[2 Big 2 Fail]

Is it just about feeling like it's screwing up to use up air quickly? Heck. At this stage, if I was worrying about burning though air, I wouldn't get in the bath tub, because I do indeed use a bunch of air. It's my air. I paid for it. If I burn it, and it bothers someone, they can bite me. (But then, I don't mind that I get more out of a golf course green fee than anyone else on the course. We all pay the same, but I get to hit the ball a LOT more.)

I will, though, be doing some dives strictly devoted to get control of air usage. My approach is based on what I know about the relationship between the mind and body from Zen practice. That is that it is, for instance, impossible to genuinely smile and be angry. You can't be tense without raising your shoulders and tensing your chest. Progressive physical relaxation reduces consumption. When you're not relaxed, you won't breath right. (And most people don't breath right. Cardiac wards are full of chest breathers.) Above water or underwater. I figure it also allows buoyancy to normalize and come strictly under long control.

I think it's hard to learn one thing while attending to something else. You have to at first concentrate on the physical relaxation and breathing. That is more than enough to be doing. As practice progresses, you will find relaxation is more and more your normal state, and you will begin to quickly notice when you tense or begin breathing faster. After a time, you will no longer notice when you tense - you'll correct it non-consciously. You are, you see, allowing your non-conscious mind to learn, to acquire the habit. That's the only part of the mind that learns. Therefore, the dives devoted to breathing. And in order for something to become automatic, you have to practice it under the same conditions you want it to be a habit in. I guess they will be extraordinarily boring dives for someone to watch. But I can't think of any thing more useful to learn than to make that state of body and mind so practiced that it operates automatically.