Right, get comfortable. Breathe in your mouth, slowly breath out your nose. See how long you can breath slowly out your nose. Have a clock/watch with a second hand. Get comfortable with the fact that you REALLY have a long time that you can breath out your nose. Once you feel good about that you are ready to get in the water.
Get in the water and position yourself so you can easily stand up and be out of the water. Make sure you can do this with your mask in hand (because you will be busy holding your mask later). Practice visioning what you are going to do. Go underwater and get REALLY calm, breathe in the regulator, breath out the regulator. Breathe in the regulator, imagine breathing out your nose. Relax and let the air escape your body. When you feel calm and relaxed try breathing in the regulator and breath out your nose. Let the bubbles go out of your mask. Have fun with it. If you are still nervous try slowly standing up until you realize you can always stand up. The water cannot hurt you.
Now while you are breathing out your nose, take your mask off. At this point you keep breathing out your nose. Before you get close to running out of air, stand up. This will help you feel okay about the fact you can always stand up. If you need to, do this again until you can do it without effort and with no feeling of panic or anxiety.
Here is the first hard part. Take a breathe from the regulator, start blowing out your nose, take your mask off, put your mask back on, start clearing your mask. Resist the urge to breath in your nose. If you need more air, FOCUS, breathe in the regulator and start to breath out your nose. Don't actually breath out your nose but get to that feeling like you are just about to breath out your nose. If it does not go well, stay calm and stand up. SLOWLY take your mask off.
The most important thing is to stay calm and move slowly. If you can stay calm you will start to realize you actually have plenty of time. You can think through everything. The moment you let the panic or anxiety wash over you is when you stop learning.
The other thing is, can you think about preparation you can do to not panic? Do that as well. Everyone is going to be a little different but the trick is to always stay calm.
For me, when I have time in the pool I take my mask off and swim around. I will do a full circuit of the pool with no mask on just to feel comfortable with it. I didn't do this when I first started learning but after 10+ years I do it all the time now.
Get in the water and position yourself so you can easily stand up and be out of the water. Make sure you can do this with your mask in hand (because you will be busy holding your mask later). Practice visioning what you are going to do. Go underwater and get REALLY calm, breathe in the regulator, breath out the regulator. Breathe in the regulator, imagine breathing out your nose. Relax and let the air escape your body. When you feel calm and relaxed try breathing in the regulator and breath out your nose. Let the bubbles go out of your mask. Have fun with it. If you are still nervous try slowly standing up until you realize you can always stand up. The water cannot hurt you.
Now while you are breathing out your nose, take your mask off. At this point you keep breathing out your nose. Before you get close to running out of air, stand up. This will help you feel okay about the fact you can always stand up. If you need to, do this again until you can do it without effort and with no feeling of panic or anxiety.
Here is the first hard part. Take a breathe from the regulator, start blowing out your nose, take your mask off, put your mask back on, start clearing your mask. Resist the urge to breath in your nose. If you need more air, FOCUS, breathe in the regulator and start to breath out your nose. Don't actually breath out your nose but get to that feeling like you are just about to breath out your nose. If it does not go well, stay calm and stand up. SLOWLY take your mask off.
The most important thing is to stay calm and move slowly. If you can stay calm you will start to realize you actually have plenty of time. You can think through everything. The moment you let the panic or anxiety wash over you is when you stop learning.
The other thing is, can you think about preparation you can do to not panic? Do that as well. Everyone is going to be a little different but the trick is to always stay calm.
For me, when I have time in the pool I take my mask off and swim around. I will do a full circuit of the pool with no mask on just to feel comfortable with it. I didn't do this when I first started learning but after 10+ years I do it all the time now.