Delusional Progress

Physical temperature experiences can stir associated emotional experiences.

The cold is great for dislodging fear that’s stuck. Heat can be great for exposing anger.

The shivery chills and numbness of being freezing cold, marry up with the same shaking and freeze response of fear. And as fear can drain the colour from us, anger can flush us red. All sorts of versions of anger like irritation, frustration, rage and fury can all be felt as heated responses. Some people become cranky in hot weather because it aggravates their buried rage.

The repression of emotion causes all sorts of trouble, so anything that helps lift it to the surface can be very useful. Typically, our conditioned response is to press it back down, but allowing the flow as it comes up is where change occurs.

Saunas and ice baths can be employed for emotional healing.

The best way to use an ice bath is to invite the associated emotional disturbance to the fore. Honour any trace of fearfulness that emerges: panic, vulnerability, uncertainty, anxiety, shaking, agitated breathing, an impulse to cry out, an instinct to flee or to thrash about. Just allow an honest experience and the associated expression.

The shock of extreme cold can rapidly mobilise fears from long ago. Irrational fears. Childhood fears. It can trigger feelings that are otherwise hard to access in daily life. Actively invite them to surface. Act on them – give the feelings voice and movement. It’s via becoming fully present and engaged that old emotions can make their way out.

For someone who suffers with anxiety, the very best thing to do in an ice bath is to allow the anxiety to be amplified. Invite the panic to expose itself. Don’t be afraid of the fear, choose it. If the pain from the cold provokes a kind of bodily convulsion, then go with it. Let the natural responses happen. Don’t think too much, just surrender into the emotional unfolding of each feeling that arises.

The trouble is that many people approach the ice bath with stoicism. They seek to keep it together and overcome their responses. That’s exactly the recipe for keeping the repressive lid tightly on our problems.

This controlled approach teaches about calming down with measured breathing, using positive self talk, and to engage uplifting distractions to keep the mind occupied.

Control is the enemy of emotional release. And healing.

To get the most out of an ice bath experience, let breathing be as sharp and fast as it occurs. Don’t intervene. Focus closely on the burning pain of the icy water as the sensations shift to different parts of the body. Feel where it hurts the most. Yelp and cry out with the discomfort or alarm. In all these ways, different paths are opened for old trapped feelings to exit via free expression.

The person who pretends they’re fine in a traumatic event will have far more troubles in the aftermath than the person who allows themselves to be unguarded in experiencing a mess of feelings. Those who defend against the suffering will also adopt some kind of compensation strategy afterwards that helps them continue to hold themselves together over time. PTSD comes from terrible trauma going unexpressed. The cure lies in taking the lid off and allowing the trapped feelings out.

Wim Hof suffered a catastrophic trauma when he lost his wife to suicide in 1995. And then his ice explorations began. He says the cold rescued him from the agony. But did he use the cold to feel his devastating grief, or to numb it out of existence? Has his ice bath movement been built out of desperation to escape emotional devastation?

It’s very common for extreme endurance athletes to harbour deep pain. Their sport is the addiction they employ to outrun the suffering. They seek out physical pain to swallow up the deeper ones they cannot face. They can have a love/hate relationship with what they do – the gruelling nature of it can offer excruciating exhilaration. Wim has set several world records braving extreme icy challenges.

Yes, there are many favourable results from ice bath experiences. For those who have accessed and released old repressed emotions, the results will be enduring. But for those who use it to strengthen themselves against feeling, the ice (or other compensatory practices) will be required ongoing in order to secure the gains. The test is whether the improvement holds when the practice is given up.