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Welcome to this special episode, where we dive deep into the mind and world of a true ocean pioneer, exploring how mental endurance and radical self-awareness unlock peak performance. Our guest today is Lidija Lijić, a world-record-holding free diver who has transformed the demanding discipline of breath-hold diving into a lifelong exploration of human potential and the ocean’s inner peace. Lidija’s story is one of unwavering commitment, seamlessly blending the physical rigor of competitive sport with the profound mental stillness required to touch true depths. She reminds us that the greatest limits we face are often the ones we set for ourselves, and that the ocean is the ultimate classroom for shattering those boundaries.
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From Adriatic Shores to World Records: Lidija Lijić’s Journey to the Deep
Lidija’s journey into the blue began not in a competitive arena, but along the warm, clear waters of the Adriatic Sea in Croatia, where she grew up in the small coastal town of Split. She started her aquatic life as a scuba diver at the age of 15, immediately falling in love with the underwater world but sensing that something essential was still missing from the experience. That missing piece clicked into place when she watched the iconic film *The Big Blue*, which introduced her to the raw, visceral challenge and beauty of freediving. This moment sparked a transformation, leading her to finish her first freediving course and begin training immediately, eventually finding a local club in Venice while studying architecture.
Her initial foray into competitive freediving came quickly; she entered her first major competition, the European Championship in Turkey, at the age of 22 or 23, and stunned everyone, including herself, by setting a world record in the jump loop discipline and taking home the gold medal. This early success was fueled by pure curiosity and a desire for fun, but it quickly escalated as she recognized her natural aptitude for the sport. Lidija recalls that her early training was “experimental,” but the progression was undeniable, motivating her to continue pushing forward. Her professional career truly began when the Croatian national team introduced a dedicated trainer, allowing her to transition from simply enjoying the sport to mastering the intense physical and mental demands of competitive breath-holding.
Lidija emphasizes that freediving is a sport split equally between physical and mental aspects, though for her, the mental component is the most crucial differentiator. She describes her early career as pure fun, driven by the exploration of her own limits and the thrill of achieving something unprecedented. This internal motivation allowed her to commit to an incredibly rigorous schedule, sometimes involving 13 training sessions per week, even while balancing her university studies and a full-time job. Her dedication resulted in five official world records and multiple World Championship medals, yet she remains humble, stating that she doesn’t focus on the medals but rather on the “feeling” of a successful, well-executed dive.
The Weightless Drug: Achieving Total Flow in the Deep Blue
While Lidija excels in pool disciplines like Dynamic Apnea (horizontal distance diving), she holds a special reverence for Constant Weight diving, where the goal is maximum vertical depth. She explains that pool dives, especially after the 60-meter mark, often become a “huge struggle” of managing contractions and pushing through discomfort, requiring immense physical endurance. The deep dives, however, offer a completely different experience—a profound entry into a true flow state that she describes as intensely addictive.
The key to this profound mental shift occurs around 20 meters, where the diver becomes negatively buoyant and begins to free fall. At this point, the physical exertion ceases, and the diver is pulled downward by gravity, weightless and silent. Lidija calls this free fall the “most, the best feeling you can have in free diving,” a sensation that is the “drug” to which all deep divers are addicted. During this phase, she experiences a completely different set of sensations, a deep sense of peace where the mind is fully occupied yet utterly calm. The descent is all about enjoyment and surrender, allowing the ocean to embrace and carry her deeper into the blue abyss.
The ascent, conversely, represents the return to work, a minute or minute and a half of pure, focused effort to propel herself back toward the surface and the air. This contrast—the effortless, meditative fall followed by the strenuous, focused climb—defines the ultimate challenge and reward of deep freediving. It is in the deep blue silence, suspended between the surface and the abyss, that Lidija finds her deepest state of oceanic immersion, a place where the world shrinks to the singular rhythm of her own body and the immense pressure of the surrounding water.
Ice, Altitude, and Endurance: Mastering the Mind in Extreme Environments
Lidija’s pursuit of flow isn’t confined to the warm waters of the Adriatic; she actively seeks out extreme environments to test the limits of her mental and physical fortitude. Her projects, such as the high-altitude dive in the Himalayas and the “Arctic Breath” under the ice, exemplify her drive to satisfy her curiosity and combine her love for height (as an alpinist) and depth. The Himalayan project involved trekking to a sacred lake at 5,000 meters, where she performed a static breath-hold, demonstrating that her training allowed her body to function as if she were at sea level, defying the thin, oxygen-poor air.
However, the Arctic Breath project, diving horizontally under 30 centimeters of ice, presented a unique psychological challenge. While the dive distance (146 meters) was technically below her limits, the environment introduced elements of claustrophobia and extreme cold that demanded absolute mental control. Lidija noted that the safety system was inherently complex and sometimes felt precarious, forcing her to rely entirely on her internal focus to overcome fear. To prevent her mind from dwelling on potential dangers—such as being trapped under the ice—she developed a technique to maintain her flow state: distraction through mental games.
As she swam the long distance under the frozen surface, she would set herself quizzes, trying to estimate exactly how long it would take her to reach the next safety hole, focusing intently on timing rather than the biting cold or the ceiling of ice above her. This deliberate mental engagement served as a powerful flow technique, keeping her mind busy and preventing the intrusion of panic or doubt. Lidija calculated that she could endure the frigid water for about seven minutes before her body would start to freeze and shake uncontrollably, turning the dive into a race against the elements. This ability to compartmentalize fear and transform a life-threatening scenario into a focused, goal-oriented “game” highlights the extraordinary mental endurance that defines her success in extreme conditions.
The Unifying Current: Community, Conservation, and the Pursuit of Progress
Beyond the competitive drive and the pursuit of extreme records, Lidija finds immense fulfillment in sharing the principles of freediving with others, particularly through her training courses conducted during the summer season. She encounters two main types of students: those who are completely new to the sea and struggle with initial fears and panic, and experienced spear fishermen looking to maximize their breath-hold capabilities. For the newcomers, Lidija emphasizes that relaxation is the absolute key to success, teaching them to lie on the surface, familiarize themselves with the environment, and use the rhythm of the waves as a point of relaxation.
She stresses that every progression is meaningful, regardless of its scale, stating that a one-meter improvement for one person can be just as huge a success as a 20-meter gain for another. This focus on individual progress and tailored instruction reflects the deep sense of community fostered by the sport, where the rule is always “never free dive alone.” Lidija cherishes the supportive, almost “hippie-like” brotherhood and sisterhood of freedivers who push each other, share experiences, and celebrate collective achievements.
Looking to the future, Lidija is channeling her passion and platform toward a greater cause: ocean conservation. She recognizes that even those who live by the sea often fail to understand the importance of protecting the underwater environment. Her upcoming project, “Project Adriatic in One Breath,” aims to create films and guides showcasing the Adriatic coast’s beauty, accessible on a single breath, thereby increasing awareness and appreciation for