We all may have heard of someone directly or this mythical legend who gets up at what can only be described as airport mornings to go sea swimming… sea swimming at 5:00am in Ireland !???
Many have had experienced the Irish Sea at some point in our lives in some shape or form and going off the number of sea swimmers (especially in the younger generations) would suggest it may have been a negative experience. So now you have a perception of sea swimming.
Thats if your mind is made up, that was not pleasant, I just got cold, How do people enjoy this!?
I’ve been swimming/immersing in the water my whole life, this gives people the perception that I don’t feel the cold or that it affects me differently to how it would affect them.
There is nothing more that I enjoy seeing than someone changing their thought process about the sea. It’s merely a mindset switch.
We’ve all heard of mindset before, but a ted talk I listened to from Dr.Alia Crum defining and speaking about mindset and how it is merely a slide show of how you perceive an up and coming event or task in your life.
Before we have ever done anything in our life no matter what is presented to us we expect an outcome and predict how we think we are going to feel and react. Now if we all thought this way when getting into the Irish Sea than nobody would swim. The difference between someone who enjoys the cold immersion and someone who doesn’t is for many possible reasons but the main one being their thought process and thinking about the feeling after the experience. That cold immersion feeling can be both enjoyed and decimated if you are in the right positive mindset.
I am not saying that it will go away all of a sudden , I am not saying you will not feel the cold but what I am saying is that if you can think about the experience differently you will overcome your perceptions and reap the benefits.
Now once your mind is in that positive headspace, what if I was able to guarantee you that you would be instantly warm straight after your swim ?
“How? you can’t promise me that”.
What if I had a sauna right at your swimming location to warm your body up once you finished your swim and reap double the benefits of hot and cold immersions.
Where is your mind at now ?