Bek Nutter used to push herself beyond her physical limit to help ease an overactive mind.
Then she discovered freediving and realised she could calm her thoughts with much less effort.
"The reason I ran long distances was always about being able to quiet my busy mind," said Ms Nutter, 44, of Blackalls Park.
"As soon as I started freediving, I put my head under the water and my mind slowed down.
"Instead of having to run for hours, I can just go freediving. In five minutes, I'm getting the same mental results."
She said freediving was "a different beast" and the ocean was good for her soul.
"The more you push, the ocean just won't allow it," she said.
"You really need to soften, accept and surrender. It teaches me a lot. Freediving is an internal thing and a very mental sport. It teaches you a lot about your own body."
There are two types of freediving.
"One involves depth diving in the ocean. You swim on a line, like a rope, to see how far you can dive down," Ms Nutter said.
The other form of freediving occurs in a swimming pool.
"You essentially take one breath and swim as far as you can go," Ms Nutter.
She does both forms, but said it was "tricky to get good conditions in Australia" for ocean diving.
"I do dive in the ocean, but I'm not doing that competitively at the moment because it's hard to train," she said.
Ms Nutter travels the world to compete in freediving events.
At the world championships in Serbia in June, she broke four continental records.
She swam 232 metres underwater on a single breath, which was the furthest an Australian and Oceania woman had swum in competition.
That distance is almost five laps of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
"A lot of it is teaching your body how to relax. If you try to hold your breath and swim as far as you can under the pool, feelings of panic can come up," Ms Nutter said.
"That doesn't really go away, but it's learning how to manage that discomfort and ultimately find pleasure in it.
"Your body needs to adapt over time to be able to do that."
Ms Nutter is an advocate for this month's Million Moves campaign, which is run by AUSactive, Australia's national association for the exercise and active health sector.
The initiative urges people to move more for their health by setting a daily target of 15, 30 or 60 moves.
Every minute spent walking, swimming, dancing, gardening, cycling, strength training or exercising in a group, for example, counts as one move.
Three in five Australians now live with at least one chronic condition, amid a big rise in people who are overweight or obese.
"Australia can't afford to sit still," AUSactive chief executive Ken Griffin said.
Ms Nutter, who is a nutrition, breath and mindset coach, said the campaign was about "more than movement".
"It's supporting people's mental health. If people feel physically strong, they will feel mentally strong and take on more in their life as well," she said.
"Health is a big word. It's like a circle. It's not just one thing. It includes being able to have a healthy mindset, moving your body in a way it enjoys, eating nourishing food and getting the recovery and rest we need."
