As never before, I became aware of my body and sensed its every part. I became uncomfortable, wanting to breathe, but I chose to withstand the temptation.

On the second attempt I held my breath for three minutes and eight seconds, a personal record, nice and easy.

Later, Wonka taught me how to kick with fins, and let me try dynamic apnea, or swimming horizontally underwater, and I surprised myself again by covering 50 meters with one breath.

On the second day we went into the ocean. It was windy and the waves were strong. After we splashed into the water, Wonka dropped a line, and taught me how to duck dive, to dive vertically, and I then applied the skill I learned yesterday to kick myself down along the line to the depths.

The strong waves made me seasick, and I couldn't focus on myself. I was disoriented in the ocean, couldn't keep my body streamlined, and forgot to equalize properly to make the air inside my ear balance with the water pressure.

I was nervous and exhausted and ended up totally frustrated because I failed to dive deeper than 10 meters.

On the third day Wonka took me to a diving pool. In the calm water, the peaceful feeling of being able to focus on my body came back. After adjusting some of my diving posture I was able to dive perfectly.

At one point I was so engrossed in myself that my head hit the bottom hard.

That was the time I realized that freediving is, as a British freediving instructor, Emma Farrell, put it in her book One Breath, an exploration not only of the external oceans of our planet, but also the internal ocean of ourself.

And it feels amazing indeed.