Cold showers/ plunge baths/ open water swimming
They’ve all become über cool and everyone seems to be advocating them as the panacea to improving your heath and wellness.
Yes, there are indeed benefits. But you can Google those, or I’ll post later.
In fact I have been known to take the odd cold shower or three.
But not in recent years.
And here’s why…
Let me start by saying I was doing regular cold showers in the 90’s. Yes the 90’s. That’s the 1990’s. I know it’s hard to believe I am in fact that old, but here we are.
I’ve taken them on and off since.
Most recently in 2019 for almost the whole year. My wellness was awesome!!
But over the last few years, since a miscarriage in 2020 and then haemorrhaging for 8 months straight, my body was dysfunctional. It had become out of sync, severely and chronically and to be honest I didn’t think I’d see Christmas 2020 (that’s a fact not me being melodramatic or looking for sympathy).
So when in 2021 I tried a cold shower again, I felt like I’d been shot!! Literally shooting pain and I couldn’t catch my breath.
I was like, WTF???
So obviously I stopped, but it made me curious.
My time of ‘pushing in through’, just ‘getting on with it’ and ‘ploughing on’ is over. It’s not a mind over matter thing, it’s a f*cking trauma response.
I am not HER anymore.
I started to investigate.
My body was in a super stressed out state. The LAST thing it needed was shock treatment or any more stress.
I LOVE a warm shower- it’s one of my favourite things… and I gained much more benefit from this in relaxing my sympathetic nervous system than being frozen.
So if someone tells you- oh cold showers they’re the bomb and everyone should be doing them… just take a pause.
They may not be be serving YOU.
Chronic activation of your sympathetic nervous system (your fight/flight/freeze response to something fearful) triggers chronic activation of your HPA (hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal) axis and is a huge contributor to the dysregulation of your autonomic nervous system (the automatic stuff you don’t control) and your immune system.
This leads to you feeling tired and sometimes tired and wired. Your system is always ‘ON’ and looking for danger.
So if you’re like me and you are still working through some dysregulation in your system, the last thing you need is to amp it up.
Wellness is NOT a one size fits all experience.
If your body is in a good state and you love the cold experience, then more power to you.
If you experience anxiety, are highly sensitive or super stressed then it may not be for you… right now.
The last thing you want is to repeat patterns and stay stuck in your inner conditioning.
If you’re interested in discovering how you can enhance your own wellness then drop me a Message
📜 Disclaimer: The content is intended for informational and educational purposes only. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or medical condition, and should not be used as a substitute for any and all professional and/or medical advice. Recipient of this notice so affirms before partaking in any and all information and related links, etc.
