immersing yourself in cold water or even having a cold shower can have amazing effects on your body and mind.
When you first experience the cold water you will feel a shock, initially it spikes your sympathetic nervous system which results in a flood of hormones and neurotransmitters responsible for your fight or flight response.
STAY WITH IT!!
breathe deeply, control your breathing and stay with it. This very act itself is similar to meditation and has its own benefits.
When you leave the shock of the water your body then starts releasing good therapeutic hormones and neurotransmitters, these chemicals are associated with healing and feeling good (who doesn’t want more of those?)
Every second of every day we are being assaulted by information, some can be perceived as a challenge by our unconscious mind and so our sympathetic nervous system is activated. By activating it ourself we are staying in control of this and pushing our body and mind past the fight or flight response and straight into healing and positivity.
When we become stressed our lymphatic system can develop blockages, lymphatic fluid which is responsible for cleansing our body, moving fat around, reducing inflammation and promoting our immune system “stores” in the lymph nodes. Cold water shock tightens up our muscles around the nodes and squeezes the blockages out.
This is basically a natural lymphatic drain massage. The more often we do it, the more our body and mind benefits from it.
CHALLENGE YOURSELF TODAY
whether you jump in the sea, swim in a beautiful waterfall pool or river, or simply switch your shower to cold halfway through. Give it a go and see for yourself, remember though, regular treatment is best and the longer we’re immersed, the better but even 20 seconds under the shower each day is better than nothing……. What have you got to lose?