Winter Cold Water Immersion 5.7°C 🧊 Natural Hydrotherapy at Sunrise on a Frosty Morning

I'm here at this beautiful lake on a cold January morning. It's sunrise currently around minus one degree c out and the water's 5.7 which is pretty cold. But cold water is an excellent way to make your mind and body come alive and energize every part of yourself even in the darkest moments. I'm not actually going to be swimming for this one but rather submerging myself just for a short period of time. In this short time my metabolism and circulation will be boosted. My ability to manage stress will be improved. I'll feel rejuvenated, calm and will likely sleep better. Submerging myself in cold water also kickstarts my immune system into action. I'll be flooded with endorphins which is always a nice way to start the day. The key in cold water is to control your breathing. Your body's instinct will be to assume it's in a dangerous situation and force you to take a sharp intake of breath and to breathe fast. The fight-or-flight response. But this is a controlled situation and we don't need that response. With a little mind over matter you can override it. Take slow controlled breaths. You're using your mind to control your body's reaction. The second thing is to not stay in for too long. It doesn't take long to reap the benefits of cold water and you don't want to undo those benefits by becoming too cold. It's important to listen to your body. Get out of the water while you still feel that you are tolerating it well and remaining in control. If you start to shiver you've already been in for too long and done properly shivering won't even occur at all at any part of this process. That's my little dip done. Let's take a look at some preparation, safety and aftercare. Starting from the beginning. I actually spent the night here sleeping right next to the lake in my bivy bag. That's by no means essential of course but for me personally it helps me to feel in tune with my surroundings and getting into cold water feels so much more enjoyable when I feel like I'm already part of the environment. The night before my dip I tested the floor of the lake to see how solid it was. Reason being I've gotten into a river before stepping onto what looked like a solid riverbed and disappeared down into deep still. Now that probably looks quite funny but it's important that this doesn't happen because an unexpected quick submersion into cold water will make you gasp involuntarily like that and if that happens when your head's still under the water you're in serious trouble. I went to bed wearing my swim clothes under my bed clothes so that changing in the cold air in the morning would be quick. This allows me to retain as much of my body heat as possible before I get into the water. So in the morning I woke up early at dawn stayed wrapped up in lots of layers took the temperatures and did some jogging on the spot to raise my body temperature. Now this is something that is really important to me in tolerating the cold water well. I get my temperature raised up and enter the water when I'm warm. By going in warm even though it can of course feel that lovely extreme cold against my skin and benefit from that my core temperature never drops to an uncomfortable level. I always stay within my depth in really cold water that's because in cold water your body's going to send the blood from your extremities to your core that's to protect your internal organs and this means that moving your arms and legs can become difficult and in a worst case scenario swimming could become impossible. I wasn't in water for long only four minutes passed from entering and exiting the water and I was only fully submerged with my shoulders under the water for just over a minute. The amount of time that you want to spend in water is unique to you. This is not an ego testing exercise it's not about pushing yourself past your limits or causing yourself distress it's about listening to and respecting your body. After coming out of the water I have a nice dry towel waiting for me lots of warm clothes hand warmer already lit and warm and a nice hot drink. So that's about it really thank you so much for sharing this with me and I'll see you guys soon. Bye!