The benefits of spearfishing for mental well-being

The benefits of spearfishing for mental well-being

Practicing a sporting activity improves mood: there are now dozens of studies demonstrating the link between recreational sports and mental well-being, and the spearfishing, apparently, is able to offer greater benefits than other sporting activities. This is what a French study published in 2017 discovered, according to which the practice of diving is capable of reduce anxiety and stress levels much more effectively than other forms of movement.

Scuba diving, which has already been officially recognized as therapeutic tool for the rehabilitation of US and British veterans, is attracting the attention of scientists also for its potential on the mental health front: diving activity in fact stimulates meditation and relaxation, helping to mitigate the symptoms of disorders such as PTSD, anxiety and chronic stress.

Diving and mental health: what does the science say?

When you dive, you abandon the chaotic world of the surface and enter one completely alien dimension: the sounds become more and more distant, and before our eyes a scenario opens up that seems suspended in time and space, while the heartbeat becomes slower and more controlled.

According to some psychologists, being immersed in water with the whole body reproduces the sensations experienced in the mother's womb, stimulating a sense of peace and relaxation. What is certain is that i benefits of diving on mental well-being they are a recognized reality. Scuba diving has already proven capable of supporting the rehabilitation of people who had suffered physical or psychological injuries traumatic.

In 2016, scientists from the University of Sheffield Medical School subjected 15 veterans (all with significant injuries and in some cases suffering from PTSD) to a diving program designed by PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors).

At the end of the experimentation, the 90% of patients he stated that he perceived improvements in terms of general and psychological well-being, attributing them at least in part to the frequency of diving activities. 60% of the veterans involved in the program, we read in the research, declared that they had experienced an improvement in particular regarding i anxiety levels, insomnia and depression.

Underwater wellness, an “unconscious” meditation

THEdiving, in fact, is more effective than other forms of physical activity in lowering the levels of stress markers: as revealed by one 2017 study, "the health benefits of recreational scuba diving appear to be greater than the practice of other sports in reducing stress and improving well-being".
It all depends on the fact that the experience of diving is very similar to that of meditation.

As the study states, “analysis of scuba diving suggests that it promotes the experience of a state of full consciousness and openness associated with a slow and wide breathing”. Furthermore, the body is stimulated in a homogeneous manner, improving health sense perception and movement.

These psychological characteristics are very similar to those that develop duringmeditation exercise, suggesting that “the practice of diving can be considered as a meditation exercise capable of inducing a state of mindfulness”, and that the repetition of these exercises can help develop full awareness, the basis of a peaceful mind.

So scientists decided to test the potential of diving by analyzing two groups of middle-aged people who practiced sports at a recreational level for a week: well, the group who practiced diving (with tanks) showed a significant drop in stress levels after the diving course, while in the group that dedicated itself to other sports no significant changes were observed. And there's more: the benefits resulting from a week of attending a diving course, we read in the study, "appear as beneficial effects able to persist for at least a month".

Spearfishing and mental health

Immersing yourself in water, we have seen, has important benefits for the mind. There spearfishing, in this sense, amplifies and if possible deepens the benefit that can be derived from water activity. Freedive, in fact, immediately confronts us with the need to control the breath and knowing how to recognize the body's danger signals, putting the fisherman in a "suspension" situation in which thelistening to yourself It takes up an unthinkable amount of space on the surface.

To the advantages of diving, therefore, are added those of freediving and the breathing and relaxation techniques that accompany all dives with a speargun. To complete the picture we must finally add the beneficial effects of the sea (there is even Ocean Therapy, which is based precisely on proximity to the sea) and exposure to sunlight, which stimulates the production of endorphins.