WHY I LOVE COLD WATER DIPS

My mind goes quiet once I’m in the water.

Before that though, it’s loud. Soooo loud.

“It’s too cold.”

“Your feet are going to fall off.”

“You can’t do this.”

“I’m actually going to die.”

The shift from that chaos to the stillness once you’re submerged feels almost deafening. And that contrast is exactly why I love cold water therapy.

My partner was the first one to get into it. We’d go on hikes, usually ending up near a tarn or some body of water, and he would just… decide to get in. I remember walking around Wastwater Lake one November evening, fog rolling in, that biting kind of cold that seeps through your coat. He and his brother waded straight in.

I stood there wrapped tightly in my coat, guarding the pile of clothes, calling them weirdos from dry land. It felt insane to me. How crazy do you have to be to choose to be that cold??

But that voice in your head – the one that tells you not to do it - is ancient. It’s your primate brain trying to protect you. It’s the same voice that stops you putting your hand on something hot.

The problem is… it doesn’t know the difference between danger and discomfort.

Anything outside your comfort zone can get registered as threat. Cold water. Speaking up. Trying something new. Setting a boundary. Starting something new. Your brain just says: stay safe, stay small. Stay where it’s predictable.

And that’s where it will keep you – in a cosy little bubble of sameness where nothing stretches, nothing shifts, nothing grows.

Overriding that voice – is where something so powerful happens.

When you get into the water anyway, even when your body is screaming to get out. When you take a slow breath and choose to stay.

That’s where confidence is built, where self-trust forms and where resilience strengthens.

Because you prove to yourself that you can do uncomfortable things. That you can feel the intensity… and stay. YOU decide. Not that old monkey brain voice. And every time you do, it gets a little easier.

Cold water isn’t just about the cold. It’s about learning that you are not the voice telling you to quit.

And this is why I love doing it, and why I love encouraging women to come along with me. Cause overriding discomfort doesn’t have to be lonely too 🙌🏼