A PERSPECTIVE FROM OUR CO-FOUNDER

35’ down on my first dive. Water in the nose and down the throat. Coughing. Choking. What do I do? Cough. Choke. I was by myself. Not close enough to anyone. Yet how do I hear someone? Cough. It was my instructor’s voice in my head…..“just breathe…”

“If you’re coughing or choking, just breathe. That’s what your reg is for. Cough it out through your reg and take a breath,” I could hear him say from our training weeks prior.

Cough. Cough. Innnnnnhale. Exhale. Just breathe.

What seemed like a minute of panic, was but seconds. It was a microcosm of what I had been going through. Anxiety had been an innate part of my life, especially in the most recent months and years.

A career in the ruthless world of the advertising industry had chewed me up and spit me out. I had dedicated my life to creatively solving other’s business problems. Instead ignoring my own and the impacts of the stress, while saying “it’s worth it for what’s coming later.”

What came later though, was darkness instead. It took SCUBA diving to find my way out. It took those two words, Just Breathe, to set a new course. It became my therapy. The more time floating weightlessly 50’ under, the more it hit me. I had found myself down below, surrounded by sea life and consumed by the calm.

The time that we get in life is so limited and the time you can actually dive is even much more limited. Diving puts a whole new perspective on “Every Second Counts.”

My wife and I thought, how can we share this experience with others? And how could we turn it into something bigger than ourselves? How could we repurpose my background in creating work that inspires and Lauri’s social welfare background of impacting others? 

Sharing the power the ocean has on the soul, with as many others as we can, was the way. That’s where BlueTherapy was born - a brand dedicated to helping you Find Yourself Below™. 

We’re just getting started as a small business. But the plan is building a non-profit to help those, who wouldn’t normally have access, get in, under and around the water. Until then, we will be supporting organizations focused on our coasts and the waters that we love.

We hope you join in on the adventure. Maybe we can get others to take that leap to finding their zen.

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Tom Sloan / Creative Director / Co-Founder / Nitrox Diver