Blog Post "The Mouthfill Story"

Over the weekend, I wrote "The Mouthfill Story". It is the story behind an equalization technique that advanced freedivers use to go deep into the water. And it involves filling the mouth, cheeks, and throat (and sinuses) with air at a shallow depth and thereafter sealing the glottis shut and managing that air all the way down the water column. Previously, before the method was invented and known, the other method, The Frenzel, which involve the constant opening and closing of the glottis to pull air up into the mouth to equalize, was the main method available and it has its limitations.

I like the article. I wrote it simply. And it is well-received on Facebook. At the end of the article, I included a form for people to subscribe to my mailing list, because I am creating a myofunctional therapy course for equalization. So I was using the article as a means to attract people to my other business. 

The story behind this story is that I had the idea to write it two years ago when I first bought Holistic Freediving from Eric Fattah. (You can purchase this directly from Eric by getting in touch with him using this email: [email protected]). Back then, I was still living on Utila Island, and wanting to train for a freediving competition and I wanted training advice. That manual is full of advanced knowledge to be in the best freediving condition. And I remembered that Eric Fattah was the inventor of the Mouthfill and so I also asked him about the backstory, and he replied with a detailed email.

But I did not have the drive to write the article. I think for me monetization is a strong motivational force. In the past, I wrote just to educate the public, but over the past few years, as I became more educated and realised my knowledge was worth paying for, I increasingly did not want to simply give knowledge out for free but hoped that I could also work on my dream of being self-employed. So when the idea of developing the Equalization Gym Course came about earlier this year... It was like suddenly there is a focus for the article.

I weaved in aspects of my beliefs about equalization and its training into that article and at the end, I directed people who are keen to sign up for my newsletter so I could tell them when my course is launched. 

One of my dreams is to create an online course and another is to be a writer, and slowly, I see my dream being realised in this personal project. I am thankful. I feel I am slowly finding my voice. It is such a different sound from others' voices. And... I feel that no one else could have written what I did, because it was because of who I am that I could have written that. It was as if there was a space in the universe that was "Shuyi-shaped" and that only I could fill it. It's a very special feeling.