We were lucky to catch up with Christine Garrido recently and have shared our conversation below.

Christine, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Breathe and Splash was created four years ago with someone who blessed my soul. Marcy allowed me to seek my answers from within my heart by introducing me to certain techniques that allowed me to silence my mind. Within one month of knowing her, many things begin to unfold, including the idea of opening up the swim school. To this day, I still practice with several awareness trainers on a monthly basis and daily I connect to myself spiritually and emotionally.

The mission is to empower every person who steps foot onto the pool deck to have the courage to be their best and true self inside and outside of the water. With the guidance of the coaches, including myself, you will overcome any obstacles presented your way, such as confidently being able to float independently, enthusiastically attain your best times in a swim competition, miraculously create lifelong friendships, and finally be able to manage one’s attention better. At Breathe and Splash we offer a learn to swim program for all ages and all levels, placement into the Olympus Swim Team, and availability to secure a spot in the summer camp. Whether you are a beginner swimmer to an expert swimmer, you will feel increased personal, emotional, and physical growth while developing a winner’s mindset.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was born and raised in Florida to parents who left their countries in their mid-twenties. I had the opportunity to travel around the world individually for sport and music and with family as a child, including to Peru, where my mother was raised. B0th of my parents worked hard to provide my sisters and I with the best life. One of my favorite memories was that I had the chance to surround myself with people from all over the world, from partying to playing sport and to being able to play in an orchestra filled with tons of instruments. As I mentioned previously, ever since meeting Marcy in 2020, my first awareness trainer, several things began to beautifully unfold for me, personally and professionally.

My child was only one years old when I met her and now at four years old, he is an independent, strong, funny kid, full of love and joy. I used to draw in my notebooks as a child and write how I envisioned my life to be and dreamt about the kind of world I wanted to live in. There were two themes from my sketches and writing which have stayed consistent to this day, which was to have unconditional love and choose and happily surround myself with an empowering and winning team. Professionally, everything is growing where I now have more time for myself to continuing doing the things I love such as traveling and writing, since I have been hiring phenomenal coaches to work with me. Two words which would describe me would be love and flow.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I gave birth to my son in the water almost five years ago. I decided to work with a midwife when I was 6 months pregnant. I was 100% certain that was the path I had to take to deliver my precious and resilient son. I had numerous people tell me why I shouldn’t deliver naturally and why changing my course from delivering in a hospital to delivering in my home was too late. Because of my strong belief in myself and decision to listen to what my intuition was telling me, my birth was a remarkable success. From the beginning, I painted a picture of what I thought my son would look like and engaged in deep breathing, focusing on my breath and seeing the image of my healthy child. The active labor was quick and on April 12th, 2019, Joaquim was born into the world, a gift from God is how I see it.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I swam since I was five years old and at seven years old I was qualifying to participate in the Junior Olympics which are meets that you have to have certain qualifying times. At ten years old, I was one of the fastest swimmers in Florida where I had many opportunities to travel to compete and meet incredible athletes, including former Olympian Gary Hall. His words stayed with me as a child. He said that one must do anything possible to attain what they want, no matter the circumstances.

I continued swimming, reaching States in High School to then swimming in college. After a semester of swimming, I had lost sight of my WHY in the sport and did not continue with the team. All I knew was to perform in sport, such as swimming. I lost sight of who I was after. A year later, I decided to join the master’s National Peruvian team since Gary Hall’s words penetrated through my soul and I wanted to do everything I could to attain what I thought I truly wanted. There, I had the most fun where I had family, friends, music and teammates all around me. I realized then that for me sport was a tool which instilled amazing qualities such as resilience, discipline, and hard work. Sport was just one beginning of my Self Discovery journey. What I really wanted more in life was to find joy in everything with people from all over the world, not just in sport. That is when I had to pivot and put my attention on the WHY within myself, so I pursued psychology and finished a Masters in Sports Psychology. That accomplishment showed me that I could have fun and be the light inside of me while performing in life, not just in sport. Now that I have more time for myself, I get to do the things I love with people whom I love.

Contact Info:

• Website: breatheandsplashswim.com
• Instagram: breatheandsplash