Hi Beth! Wow - did you do a ice bath tub or lake/ sea? It's quite amazing how much it can clear the mind and how warm you do start feeling afterwards! My favorite way to cold plunge is after a hot sauna, and returning to a hot sauna, and repeating. But in terms of mental resilience, just cold plunging, I think, is way harder, so you should feel super proud of yourself!!!
wow! I'm inspired - how did you work your way up? I think I'll try 2 minutes in the lake next time! How do you feel afterwards? What makes you feel like doing it again?
Yes I had to work my way up. I started at just 30 seconds. I feel warm, clear & relaxed afterwards, similar to what it feels like after a good workout. I am trying to incorporate this into several things I do as a practice to manage ongoing anxiety and depression. :)
Love the cold water stuff, but I would be mindful that in the Wim Hof Method he makes an exclusive point not to practice his breathing techniques when you are in the water as there is a real risk for loss of consciousness. Happy plunging and enjoy the benefits :)
Hi Nicholas, that's a great point - I should have pointed out that I would definitely never do the holding your breath part and I never do it longer than 30-60 seconds to get over my "flight" reflex (I still get the I gotta get out of here reflex in cold water!), and after that I just start doing a balanced, slow breathing that just keeps your body & mind calm. I'll add that in. I would love to hear about your experiences with Win Hoff as I'm thinking of starting his breathwork on a regular basis, to see how it adds balance and calm to everyday life and parenthood.
Yep, steady breathing is the key! To me this is a bit less like Wim Hof breathing and more like natural breathing, but I suppose that wherever you learn how to do it will give it the name.
As to experiences with Wim Hof, I spent about a year doing it every day, after purchasing the fundamentals package, and saw great improvement in lung development. I have had a pretty regular and steady meditation practice and saw that it was like turbocharging for the meditation. I had a lot of fun with it and definitely found it very beneficial but there are always people with whom such things as extreme cold and intensive breathing sessions can be re-traumatising or too shocking for the body to handle, so I would exercise caution.
It's worth getting a package and building up to the full practice as he guides it and, of course, his voice is lovely to follow along to!
So interesting to hear about your Win Hoff experience! I can see how it can definitely be too much for some, especially if it’s not just a regular part of one’s culture / habits: we used to run from the sauna to roll in piles of snow as kids & we somehow just considered that as great fun:-) I’ll definitely start doing the breath work - very meditative for me too!
Thanks Ari- or kiitos! I’ve been thinking about sisu a lot lately & I feel like it’s a big part of Finns everyday resilience & relaxed attitude and happiness - like even the idea that weather doesn’t get you down or change anything-you just adapt to it and create these small wins for yourself dealing with it. Like biking my 3 kids to school & daycare - and keeping us all dry - in pouring rain in Helsinki did make me feel pretty heroic & so no matter what happened after didn’t seem that hard. I cultivated my sisu way more over in Finland
Do you have a solution to suggest? I don't think cold plunges are antithetical to community building. We can have both. What IS antithetical to community building is leaving nasty comments that make assumptions about people's parenting and beliefs. Not to mention, it seems like the author made a strong connection to another parent through the shared interest in cold plunging—and I hope that blossoms into a friendship for her! But man, February sucks, and however you get through it is commendable.
Thanks Rebecca! I recently wrote about having a harder time finding these authentic friendships in the US, friendships where we could share good things and hard things about our lives. I think cold plunging- similar to really doing any wellness adventure together-really blossomed this new friendship onto a whole another next level. It is amazing to find people who have that commitment to want to thrive through life vs just getting though the days. And I think resilience helps one thrive more. And ps. I think cold plunges could help anyone for that Feb funk! :-)
It's certainly not easy! I'm living in Italy this year, and our apartment doesn't have a bathtub, so I think I'm out of luck right now—but if I get the chance to try, you bet I'll take advantage.
Bologna! Life is so much more relaxing here, in general, but since we're away from home we don't have our friends/family/usual support system as parents. The lifestyle is exceptional, though, for sure.
I can see that! Finland felt so relaxing to me because of both society + family/friend’s support & the more balanced lifestyle. Ideally one as a parent would have them all! I have to ask - so curious! - with parenting, what’s the biggest difference you see as what you are used to doing vs what the Italian parenting is (Im actually wondering what IS Italian parenting like)
Hi Zack - so I write about the Scandinavian mindset and Scandinavian ways of finding balance & joy in our lives so we could have some of that no matter where we live. I would love for you to take a look at my posts on Scandinavian-especially Finnish-education, daycare, support structures and benefits, and friendships and more. Because Scandinavia is very much a utopia for moms and children, I think there's a lot we could borrow from the Nordic ways. Also, everyone has good and bad moments and days, I think cold plunges are one way to simply help us have more good ones, even if we might not have all the Scandinavian benefits at our disposal.
It’s true! Lot of innovation coming from Nordic countries these days were profit isn’t the only driver-I do think it has something to do with the play-based way to almost everything from education to sports > you gotta learn to get creative !
Just did 1 minute 10 seconds, my longest plunge yet! Amazing how clear & warm I feel afterward!
Hi Beth! Wow - did you do a ice bath tub or lake/ sea? It's quite amazing how much it can clear the mind and how warm you do start feeling afterwards! My favorite way to cold plunge is after a hot sauna, and returning to a hot sauna, and repeating. But in terms of mental resilience, just cold plunging, I think, is way harder, so you should feel super proud of yourself!!!
I have just done tubs! I'm up to 2 minutes 15 seconds. :)
wow! I'm inspired - how did you work your way up? I think I'll try 2 minutes in the lake next time! How do you feel afterwards? What makes you feel like doing it again?
Yes I had to work my way up. I started at just 30 seconds. I feel warm, clear & relaxed afterwards, similar to what it feels like after a good workout. I am trying to incorporate this into several things I do as a practice to manage ongoing anxiety and depression. :)
Love the cold water stuff, but I would be mindful that in the Wim Hof Method he makes an exclusive point not to practice his breathing techniques when you are in the water as there is a real risk for loss of consciousness. Happy plunging and enjoy the benefits :)
Hi Nicholas, that's a great point - I should have pointed out that I would definitely never do the holding your breath part and I never do it longer than 30-60 seconds to get over my "flight" reflex (I still get the I gotta get out of here reflex in cold water!), and after that I just start doing a balanced, slow breathing that just keeps your body & mind calm. I'll add that in. I would love to hear about your experiences with Win Hoff as I'm thinking of starting his breathwork on a regular basis, to see how it adds balance and calm to everyday life and parenthood.
Yep, steady breathing is the key! To me this is a bit less like Wim Hof breathing and more like natural breathing, but I suppose that wherever you learn how to do it will give it the name.
As to experiences with Wim Hof, I spent about a year doing it every day, after purchasing the fundamentals package, and saw great improvement in lung development. I have had a pretty regular and steady meditation practice and saw that it was like turbocharging for the meditation. I had a lot of fun with it and definitely found it very beneficial but there are always people with whom such things as extreme cold and intensive breathing sessions can be re-traumatising or too shocking for the body to handle, so I would exercise caution.
It's worth getting a package and building up to the full practice as he guides it and, of course, his voice is lovely to follow along to!
Good luck :)
So interesting to hear about your Win Hoff experience! I can see how it can definitely be too much for some, especially if it’s not just a regular part of one’s culture / habits: we used to run from the sauna to roll in piles of snow as kids & we somehow just considered that as great fun:-) I’ll definitely start doing the breath work - very meditative for me too!
That's a brilliant example of sisu right there.
I love a good cold plunge but have been mainly limited to cold showers. (even though I live in Finland).
Thanks Ari- or kiitos! I’ve been thinking about sisu a lot lately & I feel like it’s a big part of Finns everyday resilience & relaxed attitude and happiness - like even the idea that weather doesn’t get you down or change anything-you just adapt to it and create these small wins for yourself dealing with it. Like biking my 3 kids to school & daycare - and keeping us all dry - in pouring rain in Helsinki did make me feel pretty heroic & so no matter what happened after didn’t seem that hard. I cultivated my sisu way more over in Finland
PS. And the kids actually loved it!
I like an ice bath after high impact exercise to ward off inflammation. Make sure to really cool down first.
Do you have a solution to suggest? I don't think cold plunges are antithetical to community building. We can have both. What IS antithetical to community building is leaving nasty comments that make assumptions about people's parenting and beliefs. Not to mention, it seems like the author made a strong connection to another parent through the shared interest in cold plunging—and I hope that blossoms into a friendship for her! But man, February sucks, and however you get through it is commendable.
Thanks Rebecca! I recently wrote about having a harder time finding these authentic friendships in the US, friendships where we could share good things and hard things about our lives. I think cold plunging- similar to really doing any wellness adventure together-really blossomed this new friendship onto a whole another next level. It is amazing to find people who have that commitment to want to thrive through life vs just getting though the days. And I think resilience helps one thrive more. And ps. I think cold plunges could help anyone for that Feb funk! :-)
It's certainly not easy! I'm living in Italy this year, and our apartment doesn't have a bathtub, so I think I'm out of luck right now—but if I get the chance to try, you bet I'll take advantage.
Yes! Maybe a dreamy weekend trip to Amalfi coast & a cool dip there? Where in Italy do you live right now? Do you find life more relaxing?
Bologna! Life is so much more relaxing here, in general, but since we're away from home we don't have our friends/family/usual support system as parents. The lifestyle is exceptional, though, for sure.
I can see that! Finland felt so relaxing to me because of both society + family/friend’s support & the more balanced lifestyle. Ideally one as a parent would have them all! I have to ask - so curious! - with parenting, what’s the biggest difference you see as what you are used to doing vs what the Italian parenting is (Im actually wondering what IS Italian parenting like)
Hi Zack - so I write about the Scandinavian mindset and Scandinavian ways of finding balance & joy in our lives so we could have some of that no matter where we live. I would love for you to take a look at my posts on Scandinavian-especially Finnish-education, daycare, support structures and benefits, and friendships and more. Because Scandinavia is very much a utopia for moms and children, I think there's a lot we could borrow from the Nordic ways. Also, everyone has good and bad moments and days, I think cold plunges are one way to simply help us have more good ones, even if we might not have all the Scandinavian benefits at our disposal.
It’s true! Lot of innovation coming from Nordic countries these days were profit isn’t the only driver-I do think it has something to do with the play-based way to almost everything from education to sports > you gotta learn to get creative !