The Cold Is Your Friend
Today I want to introduce you to a practice that can influence your mental well-being:
Cold exposure.
I know it might sound like something for superstar athletes or woo woo meditation gurus. But good research is emerging on its benefits.
I used to avoid the cold like the plague. So when I started to hear about how it can regulate our nervous system with positive effects, I wasn’t too keen to try it out. But here’s some of what convinced me to give it a try …
Cold exposure helps to increase energy and clarity of mind. When your body connects with the cold it activates your sympathetic nervous system (stress up), putting you into fight or flight, but it also activates your parasympathetic nervous system (stress down), releasing dopamine and other neurochemicals to help you. But there is no crash with cold exposure like you would with caffeine or any other drug.
Clarity and wellbeing grow over time as you consistently practice cold exposure. This “micro-stressing” is also what we do with exercise. We put manageable stresses on the body and we get stronger with practice.
Researcher Dr. Susanna Soberg notes that just 11 mins a week of cold exposure below 59 degrees can produce benefits. So this is very manageable with your schedule.
In a podcast that I’m linking below, Dr. Soberg discusses various ways to start practicing cold exposure such as simply washing hands with cold water, applying cold water to your face, taking cold showers, sleeping at a colder room temperature, taking cold baths, or cold swimming.
If you want to help your nervous system regulate itself better, cold exposure might be a helpful tool for you.
There is more great information that would be too much to recap in an email, so check out the podcast with Dr. Soberg: https://dhrupurohit.com/dp-ep379/#ql-video
Here’s to making friends with the cold!
Happy to be in your corner,
Tom
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