We were chatting at the Neurodiversity and Mental Wellness lunch at TLCC Melbourne last week and the topic of whole-body cryotherapy came up. “What’s that?” Using cold showers or winter swimming to beat depression and anxiety is not a new idea [1][2]. There was even a Seinfeld episode where “Kramer joins the local Polar Bears”. Rather than jumping in the East River it may be a little more practical to use our shower and the meditation practice for a much easier way to beat the blues.
Luckily Filipe Bastos and the folks at MindOwl have laid out the process fairly simply [3]. They say:
One of the quickest ways to bring our mind into focus on the present moment is through the sensory experience of cold water on our skin.
Whilst that is true you may want to work your way up to it. Starting with 30 seconds and making your way up from there is what most people I’ve talked to have found effective. And not all your showers need to be cold - you can warm up with a more suitable temperature once you have that dopamine blast from the cold immersion. And it does get easier.
If that’s really not your style, there are alternative shower meditation rituals like morning showers that they spell out as well.
Ice of you to drop by!
Shelly and Heath
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[1] Adapted cold shower as a potential treatment for depression Nikolai A Shevchuk November 13, 2007
[2] Efficacy of the Whole-Body Cryotherapy as Add-on Therapy to Pharmacological Treatment of Depression—A Randomised Controlled Trial - PMC J Rymaszewska, K. M. Lion, L. Pawlik-Sobecka, T. Pawłowski, D. Szcześniak, E. Trypka, J. E. Rymaszewska, A. Zabłocka, and B. Stanczykiewicz June 9 2020
[3] https://mindowl.org/meditation-in-the-shower/ Filipe Bastos, Mindowl February 18, 2022