Scuba diving is a thoroughly enjoyable and adrenaline-boosting sport. Most people dive for the pure enjoyment of experiencing the underwater world. But most do not know about the incredible benefits that come with scuba diving. If you are thinking about getting certified, here is a list of benefits to boost your encouragement! Diving is a amazing experience that can improve your physical and emotional health, while also giving you an opportunity to learn new things and expand your environmental awareness.
Increases emotional well being
Most think that the ocean is calming. That’s why we enjoy the beach, looking at the water, or eating at restaurants with an ocean view. With that in mind, imagine putting yourself in a place where you are observing the ocean from a different perspective, from within the ocean. It stimulates a feeling of security, relaxation, and happiness.
Healing effects of water
Saltwater from the ocean is beneficial for the skin and hair and packed with several skin-healing minerals. Ocean water has a significant amount of minerals, such as sodium, chloride, sulfate, magnesium, and calcium. Because the ocean is so rich in such minerals, it can have many wound healing benefits.
Being in the ocean for long periods of time will open up your pores allowing your skin to absorb the different minerals, as well as moving toxins from your body.
There are also healing effects from the sun which will boost your vitamin D levels, which is essential for the absorption of calcium in the bones. Sunlight also increases endorphins within your brain generating a feeling of joy and happiness.
Connection with nature and interacting with marine life
Scuba diving brings you closer to nature. Divers tend to appreciate nature a lot more because they are physically within it. Diving makes you feel like you are part of the ocean, and you start to appreciate the beauty of nature when you are experiencing it for yourself.
It’s an amazing feeling to spent time with the ocean’s most beautiful animals. The ocean life is just as curious about us as we are to them. Interacting with such unique animals contributes to establishing a strong connection with nature.
Society’s disconnect from nature has led to many problems, but the reconnection with nature has many benefits. Seeing fish and beautiful reefs in all different colors and sizes will leave you feeling joyful. Seeing many different vibrant colors can help change and improve your mood, promoting feelings of happiness. What you see underwater is something that is completely different from what you see on an average day.
Environmental awareness
Diving makes you appreciate the ocean even more. You are seeing that world with your own eyes, and when you’re diving you are being more aware of how critical the ocean is. When experiencing the underwater world for yourself, you are becoming more involved with the environment.
Many don’t understand the damage to oceans until you are seeing the damage yourself. Every time I go on a dive, I often find myself swimming through different plastic objects or other trash. I also see the damage to the color reefs, including dead coral, and dying coral which begins to lose their beautiful vibrant color. Diving makes you appreciate the ocean so much more!
Stress reliever and meditation
Scuba diving is often used as a form of meditation and creates a natural feeling of calm. One of the most important things with diving is to keep your breathing under control. Breathing techniques used are breathing slowly and deeply, similar to the breathing we use while meditating. This slow and deep breathing induces a state of calm and a relaxing state of mind. This contributes to having a positive attitude and can prevent depression.
Diving elicits feelings of freedom and stillness while ignoring everyday distractions. Stressful everyday issues are left at the surface and forgotten during a dive. By paying attention to your breathing, you can enter a meditative state that can last throughout an entire dive. This allows your body to rest and allows your body and nervous system to go back to a natural balance.
Physical fitness, strength, and flexibility
Scuba diving is a workout, burning between 500-600 calories in an hour of diving. Doing multiple dives in a day means burning even more calories. You spend a lot of time in the water carrying heavy equipment while swimming with the natural resistance of the water. It may sound tiring, but it feels effortless when you are too busy enjoying the dive.
The water adds resistance to all body parts, which means you are working out most of the major muscles in your body. As you move throughout the course of a dive, your muscles work harder than they would if you were outside of the water, due to the natural resistance of the water. The more you dive and swim, the more you will build strength, flexibility, and endurance, and probably without you even noticing. And since you are surrounded by water, it acts as a cushion, therefore you are lowering the risks of injury.
While you are adventuring out and exploring nature, you are exercising your core and muscles! I feel that scuba diving is one of the best forms of exercising because you are enjoying the ocean and admiring marine life, while also strengthening your muscles at the same time!
Socializing benefits
One of the great things about diving is meeting other divers. By joining dive classes, programs, clubs, or trips you’ll meet others with the same hobbies and interests. Diving tends to bring people closer together and you’ll be sharing some incredible memories. It’s easy to make friends with people when you share common interests. Most of my close friends and I met while scuba diving and we always talk about our amazing adventures diving.
Gives a reason to travel
From many divers, diving is an addictive sport, and you constantly want to experience more of it. Most divers travel to the warmer parts of the world to dive into the tropical waters filled with colorful reefs and different marine life. Each dive brings so many new benefits each time and traveling to warmer areas also brings in that much-needed vitamin D from the sun. Traveling to scuba dive is a great way to experience diving in other parts of the world to see new things and experience new adventures.
Health benefits
There are so many health benefits that come with scuba diving. The warming up of your body, along with the slow and deep breathing used while diving, will help lower your blood pressure. Diving also improves your blood circulation. When underwater, your body is experiencing a pressure gradient in which your muscles are working. This requires oxygen so your blood vessels are opening up to bring that oxygen into the muscles.
Scuba diving also improves your concentration capacity, maintains and increases fitness levels, and really gets your blood pumping without putting pressure on your heart. It is also a good exercise for the respiratory system.