How Freediving Shaped My Approach to Breathwork
I did not come to breathwork through a retreat. I did not find it in a book or at a workshop. I found it at the bottom of the ocean on a single breath.
For over a decade I have trained and taught freediving on Koh Samui. I hold an Apnea Total Level 2 Instructor certification. I have spent thousands of hours underwater learning to work with my breath, not against it. That background shapes everything I do now as a breathwork facilitator.
This is the story of how one practice led to the other, and why the connection between freediving and breathwork matters more than most people realize.
What Freediving Actually Teaches You About Breath
Most people think freediving is about holding your breath for as long as possible. It is not. Freediving is about learning to be completely still inside while your body screams at you to react.
When you dive to 20 or 30 meters on a single breath, your body triggers a cascade of survival responses. Your heart rate drops. Blood shifts from your limbs to your core. Your diaphragm contracts. Every instinct tells you to fight, to kick harder, to rush to the surface.
The entire skill of freediving is learning not to react. To stay calm inside the discomfort. To trust the body instead of overriding it with panic.
That is the exact same skill breathwork teaches on land.
The Moment I Realized Breath Was the Bridge
I moved to Koh Samui 15 years ago. For the first several years, freediving was everything. I trained daily. I taught courses. I loved the ocean and the discipline it required.
But I started noticing something. My students who struggled most were not the ones with weak lungs or poor fitness. They were the ones who could not relax. They carried tension in their bodies that had nothing to do with the water. Stress from work. Anxiety they could not name. Old patterns that locked their diaphragm before they even took their first breath.
I could teach them equalization techniques all day. But until they learned to actually breathe, to let go of the grip they held on themselves, no amount of technique helped.
That realization sent me down a path I did not expect.
Training in Breathwork While Living on the Water
I started studying everything I could find about breath. Not just the freediving physiology I already knew, but the therapeutic side. The nervous system work. The emotional release that happens when you change how you breathe.
I trained with Breathing Cold. I studied with the International Breathwork Foundation. I explored the Oxygen Advantage and Breatheology methods. I completed 450 hours of yoga teacher training. I went deep into trauma informed facilitation, authentic relating, and Internal Family Systems.
Each modality added a layer. But the foundation was always the same thing freediving taught me first: your breath is the bridge between your conscious mind and the parts of your body you cannot usually control.
What Freediving Gives That Studio Breathwork Does Not
Here is what a decade of freediving added to my breathwork practice that you will not find in most facilitators.
Comfort with discomfort
Freediving trains you to sit inside the urge to breathe without panicking. That same capacity is what allows me to hold space when someone is shaking on a mat during a breathwork session. I have been in that place myself, underwater, hundreds of times. Discomfort is not something I need to fix. It is something I know how to be with.
Precise breath mechanics
Freedivers understand the diaphragm, intercostal muscles, lung volume, and gas exchange at a level most breathwork facilitators never touch. When I guide your breathing, I am not repeating a script. I understand what is happening inside your body at each phase and why.
The ice bath connection
Cold exposure and freediving share the same mammalian dive reflex. When you submerge in cold water, your body triggers the same heart rate drop and blood shift that happens during a deep freedive. This is why I integrated ice baths into every experience I offer. It is not a trend. It is the same physiology I have worked with for years, just applied differently.
Respect for the body
In freediving, if you ignore your body, you black out. There is no room for ego. That respect for physical limits carries directly into how I facilitate breathwork. I never push anyone past what their body is ready for. I watch, I listen, and I adjust.
Why This Combination Only Exists in Koh Samui
Koh Samui is one of the few places in the world where you can train freediving in warm, clear water and do serious breathwork on the same island. The Gulf of Thailand offers some of the best freediving conditions in Southeast Asia. And the island has a growing wellness community that supports deep, honest work.
I run breathwork and ice bath experiences through Breathflow Connection. I teach freediving courses through Freediving Koh Samui. They are two sides of the same practice. One happens on land. The other happens in the ocean. Both are about learning to trust your breath and your body.
How Freediving Shows Up in UNTAMED
UNTAMED is the full day breathwork and ice bath experience I run on Koh Samui. If you have done any reading about it, you know it includes guided breathwork, cold exposure, jungle walking, lunch, and honest conversation. What you might not know is how much of it comes directly from freediving.
The breathing technique I use draws from the same principles that allow a freediver to descend on a single breath. The ice bath preparation mirrors the mental techniques freedivers use before a deep dive. The integration after the cold follows the same pattern as a surface recovery after a freedive.
None of this is accidental. It is the result of 10 years of training in the water and 5 years of adapting those principles for people who may never put on a mask and fins.
Two Practices, One Teacher, One Island
I do not think everyone needs to freedive. And I do not think everyone needs breathwork. But if you are drawn to one, there is a good chance the other has something for you.
If you are a freediver looking to improve your breath hold and mental game, the freediving courses are where to start. If you are someone carrying stress, burnout, or tension and you want to feel what your nervous system can do when you stop overriding it, UNTAMED is the experience for that.
Both start the same way. With a breath.
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About Diego Pauel
I have lived in Koh Samui for 15 years. I discovered breathwork through freediving, which I have trained in for over a decade. When COVID hit and the island emptied out, I started offering breathwork and ice baths for free to help the local community feel better in their bodies. I was the first to offer this work on the island. Five years later, I have facilitated countless sessions for people from all over the world. No guru energy. No mystical language. Just the work.
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