Thriving in Scary and Seemingly Impossible Situations

Here’s the story:

Clayton and I recently traveled to northern Europe for a winter vacation. I know, we’re strange like that. One thing we were really interested in was their tradition of winter swimming. In case you’re not familiar, this is where people actually cut holes in the ice and go into the water wearing nothing but a bathing suit and sometimes a wool cap on their head.

Keep in mind we live in South Carolina where it rarely gets below 50°F (10° C) in the winter and we almost never see snow or ice here. And we are accustomed to swimming in water that is usually in the mid-80s F (high-20s C) during the summer.

Background:

About a year and a half ago I (Jordan) came across a photo of someone swimming in an iced-over lake, in nothing but a bathing suit. My first thought was this person must be super-human, but when I researched it I discovered there are whole communities of people who do this. I was fascinated enough to be curious about what that would be like. But being a logical person I needed a system. There was no way I could just get into icy water without any prep!

So I looked at my goal: submerge in icy water. I looked at my starting point: I really hate being cold and I’m used to swimming in an 80+ F (27+ C) degree ocean. And, I looked at the vast distance between where I was starting and where I wanted to be. There’s always a way to bridge that distance, so here’s what I did.

Process:

First, I asked Clayton to join me. Because I knew this process would be much easier with a supportive partner! Then, as summer ended and the water cooled slowly, Clayton and I just continued to go to the beach and get in the water, every weekend through August, September, October, November, the cold snap of December, and then into the new year as well. The water temperature slowly dropped into the 70s F (20s C), nice and refreshing, then the 60s F (high-teens C), that took some getting used to, then the 50s (low double digits C) which was really cold to us. We did not stay in long! As the temperature dropped our bodies and our minds adapted and we began to gain confidence in our ability to withstand cold water. We enjoyed the challenge and we learned how to add preparation into our daily routine by finishing showers with cold water, and how to recover afterwards by quickly changing into warm, dry clothes and having a hot drink nearby.

We continued with this routine for about a year. (Of course during summer we had to take a break because the ocean where we live is too warm, so a cold blast in the shower became our summer routine.) But as soon as fall came around we continued going to the beach and getting in the cooling water.

• Watching other people go in and come out with no bad effects. The locals even swam around a bit! So we felt we could survive a quick dip. While it was a thrilling concept to us, it was just normal to them.
• Knowing that we’d been in cold water before. So even though the ladder was icy and the walk outside in the freezing cold to get there was tough, we knew that the cold water itself was something familiar and that we would be okay.
• Knowing how to breathe. Through practice we’d learned that if you exhale as you get into the water, your body will relax to the sensations. It gave us something tangible to focus on.
• Having a plan to progress slowly and check in. The plan was to take a quick dip and see how our bodies reacted. If all was good then the next time in we’d feel safe to stay a little longer. This process really worked! The first time was in and right back out, but by the last cycle we were in up to our necks for at least 5 breaths before getting out.
• Making it fun by combining it with a sauna. The hot/cold cycle was amazing and having all that warmth from the sauna made getting into the icy water much easier for sure. So much so that we did three cycles each day, back and forth.

Going in was thrilling and when we came out we were no longer cold. If you’ve done cold plunges then you know what we mean. That inner warmth that your body creates is amazing and sustains you for long after.

Wrap Up:

And why are we writing about this on our aerial website? Because this whole process is so familiar… it is exactly the way that we approach scary things in our aerial training and how we train our students to approach them too.

• We train with others. There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel, and a supportive community makes any scary situation easier to face.
• We start with small steps first. We start with less scary things and as we adapt we can gradually get in deeper. We never take unnecessary risks.
• We remember to breathe. Because breathing deeply has an immediate effect on the nervous system, and it keeps us in tune with our body.
• We have a plan to check in. When training new scary things we take it a little bit at a time and always reassess before we continue.
• We make it fun! Anything that is fun is much easier to keep coming back to. Luckily there are so many ways to make aerial training fun that this one comes pretty naturally.

So the next time you’re faced with something scary and difficult, remember it’s all a process. Start slowly and work through the progressions, allow your nervous system and your body time to adapt, and one day you might find yourself doing something you once thought was impossible! If you’ve worked up to it and have the support system in place, then chances are good you can face it and thrive. And come out revitalized on the other side!