You Used to Breathe in Water

What if the things you call impossible are simply waiting for you to remember who you once were before the world told you what you couldn’t do? 

In this bold and mind-twisting episode of the UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast, Tim Windsor cracks open a wild truth — before you were born, you breathed in water. That’s right. You lived, thrived, and grew in an environment that would kill you now. You didn’t just survive the impossible; it was your normal. And somewhere along the way, you forgot that impossibility used to be your reality.

Through storytelling, neuroscience, and raw challenge, Tim takes you deep into the tension between safety and growth. He exposes how your brain’s addiction to comfort and predictability disguises itself as logic, whispering that your dreams are unrealistic when they’re just untested. Drawing on the strange brilliance of a diving bell spider that learned to breathe underwater, he reminds you that thriving in unnatural places isn’t madness — it’s evolution. What if the “impossible” things in your life — the book you won’t write, the conversation you won’t start, the change you keep delaying — are just waiting for you to step into a new environment and take your first terrifying, necessary breath?

This isn’t a soft motivational message — it’s a challenge. A challenge to identify the goals you’ve drowned beneath fear, to stretch your comfort zone until it gasps, and to visualize your success until your brain believes it’s possible. It’s a call to embrace discomfort as a sign of growth, to reframe fear as progress, and to build your own “diving bell” — a safe bubble where you explore the impossible until it becomes inevitable. 

Remember, you were literally born out of an impossible act — breathing in water — and maybe, just maybe, it’s time to start doing the impossible again.

Tim Windsor
the UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast – Host & Guide
tim@uncommodified.com
https://uncommodified.com/
  
PRODUCERS: Alyne Gagne & Kris MacQueen 
MUSIC BY: https://themacqueens.ca/

Transcript

PLEASE NOTE: UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast episode transcriptions are raw text files and have not been proofed or edited. They are what they are … Happy Reading.

© UNCOMMODiFiED & TIM WINDSOR

Hey, my friends. Welcome back to the UNcommodified podcast. It is Tim Windsor. It's actually Saturday morning, just grabbed a coffee and I thought, you know what? I've been playing around with an idea for a while 'cause uh, something's been on my mind and I thought, ah, you know what? I'll let you into the craziness that sits inside my head someday But before I do that, gimme a second. I'm just gonna grab a drink of my coffee.

Alright. Here's what I've been thinking about my niece's daughter, just recently had a baby. And of course, you know, you're thinking about the baby and the journey here and you know I'm a bit crazy. So I start thinking about wonder what life was like for the baby before I was born.

And then this got me thinking about a bunch of different things in my life. So I want you to think about this for a second. Think about this. It's a bit wild and strange. It's a bit mind bending, but here's the fact. Every single one of us. Used to breathe water like that little baby. No. Yeah, you heard me, right?

Okay. Listen, when we were in the womb surrounded by amniotic fluid, we weren't gulping air down. We were breathing water like a freaking fish. And if that doesn't twist your mind in the knots a bit, I don't really know what will, [00:01:00] but here's a question. Why do I wanna talk about this? Here's why. Because as I've been thinking about this the last couple of days, maybe over a few scotches, I'm not really sure.

Here's the question. I think it is a perfect reminder. The things that seem impossible to us see those brick walls in our minds, they're not as solid as they seem. At one point, something as ridiculous as breathing water wasn't just impossible. It was your reality. In my reality. Okay, so that's what I wanna explore.

So think about this. What if the impossibilities you see in front of you today are the same as breathing water? What if the reality you're living in is just another fluid-filled womb and the things you're convinced are beyond your reach are just waiting for you to bo B, make them born, create them into the real world and be born in you again, think about it.

There are things you won't even try [00:02:00] because they seem too far out there. You won't write that book, you won't start the business. You won't have that hard conversation because you've labeled it as impossible. But what if in the right conditions that impossible thing wasn't just possible, it was inevitably true or could be?

Now, lemme tell you a story. I, I've been reading about this recently and I kind of find it interesting. I saw a documentary in a documentary film. I saw something on this as well. Recently. There is a spider called a diving bell Spider that lives under water. It weaves a web that traps air, uh, creates a tiny little bubble where it breathes in eats, in lives in.

Now, I don't think this spider thinks it's a fish. I think it knows it's a spider, and yet it's figured out how to survive and thrive underwater, something spiders aren't supposed to do. I don't think, when I heard about the spider hit me, when I thought about this baby's journey, it hit me. What if our lives are full of these underwater [00:03:00] experiences, things that don't make sense until they do things that are impossible, until they aren't.

Now let's get into the neuroscience of this for a second. Of course, I, I probably should sip my coffee before I get into that 'cause it's Saturday morning. Gimme a second.

Here's what I think neuroscience tells us both. It's our brains are wild for safety. They're, they're wired for safety, for patterns, for predictability. Uh, they, they crave the no one and they fight against the unknown when something feels impossible. That's often just your brain trying to keep you safe.

But here's the wondrous truth. Your brain can also rewire itself. It can adapt to new realities. There's a concept called neuroplasticity. It it, you probably have heard of this, but it's simply, it's your brain's ability to change and grow even into adulthood when you expose yourself to new ideas. When you push past discomfort, when you step into the unknown, you're essentially breathing water again.

You're doing what was once. [00:04:00] Possible. But now you believe isn't too often we convince ourselves that we're stuck. We say that's just the way it is. But that is a lie. That's a story we tell ourselves to avoid the discomfort of change. Imagine if a fetus, imagine if my niece's daughter's fetus decided I was too afraid to breathe there.

Imagine if it thought, Nope. Ah, I'm not, I, I, I'm good here. Water's all I need. See life has a way of forcing the impossible on us. Just like with that little baby, the first breath of air, it's a violent, terrifying, and necessary transition and it opens up a whole new world to us. Alright, hold on a second.

So I know I, it's getting a little crazy, just I realize that, hold on. Lemme grab a drink. I know this is a bit crazy, but so. Now let's get to the practical, because I've been playing around with this idea and I think there are some practical applications, and so I'm gonna [00:05:00] share some with you and see what you can do with it and what I can do with them, because again, I'm just sort of into this idea a little bit and trying to figure it all out 'cause it's a bit weird.

Number one, identify your underwater goal. We'll call it our underwater goal. Write down one goal or dream that feels impossible to you right now. It could be anything from starting a new business or transforming a habit. The key is to choose something that feels absolutely impossible. As impossible as breathing water, create a possibility map then.

So start with your impossible goal in the center, and map out small, realistic steps that could lead you there, even if they seem insignificant. Every step is progress. Secondly. Challenge your brain's safety mode. Okay? Each day, do one thing that stretches your comfort zone. It doesn't have to be big. Uh, it could be sending an email.

You've been avoiding striking up a conversation with someone who, uh, new or trying a new skill. But at the end of each day, write down how it felt to push [00:06:00] against the safety wall in your mind. Over time, you'll notice that the discomfort begins to shrink in your brain as it rewires itself to see new possibilities.

The other thing I'm thinking we need to do, and this is sort of the third idea here, is that we have to practice this breathing water thing, and I think we practice it through visualization. So I'm gonna challenge myself and I challenge you to spend five minutes every morning visualizing yourself succeeding at what seems impossible.

Close your eyes. Breathe deeply and imagine yourself already living in that new reality. Engage all your senses in this visualization process. What does it look like? What does it sound like? What does it feel like to have achieved this goal That seems impossible. This primes your brain to make the impossible feel familiar and more doable.

Four. The fourth thing I'm thinking is that we've got to also understand that we've gotta embrace discomfort as a sign of growth. Think about it, the [00:07:00] baby experience and the mother. A lot of discomfort to bring that growth and to change one reality to another, to make the impossible possible and the possible impossible.

When you feel discomfort. We gotta embrace discomfort as that sign of growth. When you feel that kind of discomfort or feel fear about taking that next step towards your impossible goal, reframe it as a positive sign. That feeling of discomfort is a proof that you're stretching your limits. This discomfort when it hits pause and say to yourself, this is my brain protecting me, but I choose to move forward.

Anyways, this will start to create a pattern of you choosing growth over comfort. And lastly, let's derive some wisdom from that spider. I think we should create our own diving bell environment. Just like the diving bell spider, create a small bubble of safety where you could explore the impossible. This might mean surrounding yourself with encouraging people, setting up a workshop space [00:08:00] that inspires you, or scheduling regular time to work on your impossible goal.

Designate a specific time each week as your dive time. Where you only focus on exploring that impossible thing, treat it as sacred. No distractions. No excuses. Get in your bubble. Sir, here's my challenge to you. What is the water you need to breathe again? What is that wild and possible thing you need to step into?

Stop letting your past or your president define what your future can be. Stop letting what makes sense. Dictate what makes life worth living. Because here's the truth. The truth is you were born out of and in an impossible experience, and you were born for more impossible experiences to happen. The questions is, the question is, do you have the guts to dive in to breathe in water [00:09:00] when everyone else says you can't tell next time, stay unmodified, do the seemingly impossible and start breathing in water.

Once again, cheers.