Cold plunges are one of my top 3 trauma-healing tools!

I started doing cold plunges in the summer of 2020 after watching an episode of Goop Lab on Netflix. Without doing any other research — which often leads to over-thinking for me — I started doing cold plunges right away!

I was BLOWN AWAY at how I could use cold water to “hack” into my nervous system to create more resiliency and flexibility.

The first few times were extremely uncomfortable. The cold was so painful on my feet and hands. Even my labia ached with numbness on the coldest days!

After a few days, however, I learned to breathe and relax into the discomfort. I even adopted a mantra for myself: I am comfortable being uncomfortable.

In a short time, my body began craving that cold water, even though it was uncomfortable every time. The more I felt the discomfort of the cold, the more I leaned in.

I noticed less inflammation in my body, my sunburns and bug bites healed more quickly, and my metabolism revved up. Not to mention, I had less anxiety too!

I learned to be One with the water. I learned to relax my body, to flow instead of being rigid, to expand instead of contract. In just a couple of weeks, I was snorkeling in 57-degree water for up to 30 or 40 minutes at a time!

Then, I noticed that my ability to handle stressful situations OUT of the water got better, too!

So… why in the world would anyone voluntarily submerge themselves in frigid water?? So glad you asked!

Potential Benefits of Cold Plunges

The health benefits of cold plunges have been reported since ancient times, and cold-water swim clubs have existed around the world for decades—but can we really just get in that?

Yep, says my friend: “You just go in.” We shed our layers of winter clothes and stride forward in bathing suits. The shock of the water hits like a lightning bolt. I hear gasping and shrieking; it’s me.

But then the near-pain turns into tingling exhilaration, and I want to stay in forever. Our swim lasts for three minutes, but the feeling of calm and well-being lingers for days. It’s like I hit an internal reset button. (Source.)

There are mental, physical, emotional, and dare I say spiritual benefits to cold plunges.

Mental & Emotional Benefits

  • refreshing boost of energy
  • mental clarity/reduced brain fog
  • an opportunity to practice self-discipline
  • reduced anxiety & depression
  • increased mental resilience
  • release of feel-good hormones and endorphins to boost your mood
  • eases stress

Physical Benefits

  • reduced body inflammation
  • increased immune system function by triggering the release of cytokines & an increase in disease-fighting white blood cells
  • relief from chronic pain
  • better sleep
  • revved up metabolism
  • awesome for your skin
  • reduced muscle soreness
  • increased glutathione levels (the body’s master antioxidant)
  • stabilizes blood pressure & improves circulation
  • strengthens & tones the Vagus nerve
  • strengthens the autonomic nervous system
  • activates “The Diving Response” — increased parasympathetic activity & decreased sympathetic activity, the body slows the heart rate & conserves oxygen, & resets emotionally from an aroused state (angry, sad, stressed) — only if you submerge your head

Spiritual Benefits

  • an easy opportunity to practice extreme presence & awareness
  • establish a stronger connection to your body & intuition
  • self-sovereignty practice — you choose when you get in, how long you stay, & when you get out
  • it’s meditation for people who hate meditating
  • great way to practice over-riding your nervous system’s activation to stress

How to Do a Cold Plunge

The basic idea of a cold plunge goes like this:

  • Find a body of cold water (a lake, your bathtub, an unheated swimming pool will all work — ideal water temp is between 45* and 60*F)
  • Plunge your whole body into that water, including your head
  • Stay in for 3 to 5 minutes, if possible

Safety Tips

  • Wear water shoes, especially if you’re plunging in a wild body of water.
  • Go with a buddy, at least until you’re comfortable enough to go alone.
  • Listen to your body. Get out BEFORE you start shivering.
  • To warm up quickly, do jumping jacks, squats, or run in place.
  • Don’t drink alcohol at all before you cold plunge.
  • Follow any local, city, or state ordinances when plunging in wild water.

How to Hack Your Nervous System With Cold Plunges

There are a few tricks that can make cold plunges more effective if your goal is building resiliency and flexibility in your nervous system. (Resiliency = the ability to bounce back after stress.)

#1 — Practice breathwork.

Your nervous system’s instinctive response to cold temperatures is to GASP. Unless you realize that gasping is actually a stress response that keeps your body in a sympathetic nervous system state, you might just think that you’re supposed to gasp your way through a cold plunge.

Wrong! You can intentionally slow and deepen your breathing to override that gasp response.

Knowing that your body is going to try to gasp BEFORE doing a cold plunge makes it possible to do your very first cold plunge without gasping.

If you plan on diving underwater, hold your breath before going under. Then, when you come up, you have to exhale, not inhale.

If you’re not going underwater, remain present with your slow, deep breathing. Notice your body’s instinct to gasp and keep your breath slow and deep. You’re overriding your own nervous system’s stress response by doing this!

Imagine being outside of the cold water, in a stressful situation where you might normally hold your breath or gasp in fear and being able to override that and remain grounded in your body and breath!

#2 — Practice muscle relaxation.

When we’re faced with something our nervous system perceives as threatening, we instinctively contract our muscles. This is because we are either frozen and can’t move or because we need to be able to fight back against the threat.

Your muscles will constrict in cold water — unless you override that nervous system response by noticing where there’s muscle constriction and intentionally releasing it.

Since you’re already breathing slowly and deeply to override your body’s gasp response, you can tune in to where you’re tensing up muscles and use the breath to relax them — yes, even in 50* water!

It takes focus, intention, and practice to release the tension in your jaw, arms, back, and legs. It takes even more tension and intention to relax the muscles in your pelvic floor!

Because I do cold plunges in wild water, I challenge myself to pee in the cold water. If I can relax my pelvic floor enough to pee in 50* water, I can do just about ANYTHING! ha!

Guess what other nervous system responses I’ve been able to override: shaking, shivering, and goosebumps! All with focused intention, breathwork, relaxation, and my mantra!

#3 — Repeat a mantra.

I’m not usually a big fan of affirmations and mantras. Mantras are repeated with good intentions, but you can’t talk your nervous system into feeling safe and calm.

However, you’re using cold plunges to hack your nervous system, right? So, if you’re employing the breathing and muscle relaxation above, then you’re purposefully putting your nervous system into a calm state — the PERFECT state for mantras because your nervous system can actually believe what you’re saying!

My mantra for cold plunges is “I am comfortable being uncomfortable.”

The cold water is hella uncomfortable. So is stress.

By learning to be comfortable in the discomfort of frigid water, I’m training my mind and body to handle discomfort and not run away (flee), talk myself out of it (freeze), or throw a fit (fight). Can you see how this translates to outside the cold water, too?

Feel free to use my mantra or make up your own!

#4 — Meditation… for people who hate meditating

I find cold plunges to be extremely meditative (and I’m not very good at meditation!).

Meditation doesn’t just have to look like sitting on a pillow with incense burning around you while you chant Om.

If this sort of meditation is scary, frustrating, annoying, or downright impossible for you, no worries! Meditation is simply presence. You’re in the here and now, not thinking about your to-do list, not stewing over last night’s argument with your spouse, not worried about tomorrow’s project deadline. You’re just here.

When you’re in frigid water, there is no past or future. You’re right there in that moment, completely present.

Nothing else matters except for your breathing and what you feel in your body — which is all that really exists anyway, isn’t it?

Believe it or not, this translates outside the water, too. You’ll find yourself being more present in your daily life, less focused on past and future!

#5 — Practice self-sovereignty.

When you experienced something that was too much, too fast, too soon for you as a kid, it probably involved grown-ups or bigger kids doing something that dishonored your sovereignty.

If the adults in our lives don’t honor our sovereignty when we are children, we quickly forget that we were ever sovereign beings to begin with — and we end up living adult lives in victim consciousness, always blaming others, rarely taking responsibility for ourselves, rarely living in our integrity and authenticity.

Whatever happened in your childhood was likely something that you weren’t allowed to say no about, you couldn’t fight back, and you couldn’t leave the situation or person.

Your power of choice was taken away from you. Use cold plunges to reclaim it!

YOU decide when or if to get in the water (stressful situation). YOU decide how long to stay in, if you want to get your head wet or not, if you want to go underwater or not.

Most importantly, YOU decide when you’re done. YOU are able to exit the stressful situation (cold water) whenever you’re ready.

If you choose to challenge yourself to stay a little longer, it’s YOUR choice.

Do you see how cold plunges can help you reclaim your power and sovereignty??

I love cold plunges for many reasons, but most of all, I love them because they are an easy, accessible, and free way to hack into your nervous system to widen your window of tolerance.

With trauma, our bodies were stressed out and we didn’t get to decide what happened to us and how long it lasted, nor did we have a choice to leave, especially if we were children. Cold plunges, on the other hand, are the exact opposite.

You are intentionally putting your body in a stressful situation (cold), but you have complete control over when you do it, how long you stay, and when you get out. You’re in charge during cold plunges, unlike in binary belief systems and other trauma.

Inside the water, you practice breathing, presence, and leaning into discomfort to gradually and gently widen your window of tolerance to the cold.

This translates outside of cold water, too! You learn that you can breathe through confrontations, traffic jams, meetings at work, and more. You learn to stay in the present moment instead of focusing on the past or catastrophizing about the future.

You build resiliency in your nervous system which means you’ll bounce back after stress better than ever!

You learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable and you realize you really can get through anything!

Ready for more??

Cold plunges are a FANTASTIC tool for your trauma-healing toolbox, but you know what else is even more necessary?

COMMUNITY.

We need other humans to…

  • co-regulate with
  • activate our mirror neurons to feel safe
  • bounce ideas off of
  • share their healing stories so we know it’s possible for us too!

And boy, is it ever hard these days to have a genuine connection with real-life humans who don’t think we’re weird when we want to bypass all the surface-level BS and get straight into deep, restorative, healing relationship!

I have a fix for that…

Take the next step on your Holistic Trauma Healing journey and join me and other trauma-healers inside my private, online community: The Trauma Healers Circle.

For just $29 per month, you will receive…

  • 2 bonus podcast episodes every month
  • a monthly group coaching call
  • access to the entire archive of past coaching calls & bonus episodes
  • access to my course Belief Beyond the Binary ($797 value!) + any courses or workshops I create in the future
  • members-only community forum

Most importantly, you’ll find your people: people who are willing to be vulnerable and are excited to talk all things Inner Child, woo-woo spiritual stuff, consciousness, ancestral healing, boundaries, and MORE!

Click here to join the Trauma Healers Circle NOW!

There may be certain health conditions for which cold plunges are not recommended. Please check with your doctor to make sure cold plunges are right for you! As always, you are in charge of your health choices.