Taking the ICE Plunge!

An exploration of cold water and how embracing discomfort is growing my faith.

Ok, ok, ok, I know. Everyone is a little sick of the ice plunge fad. But since I’ve been blown away about what it’s teaching me personally and how it’s revealing so much of what might be wrong about our culture and how we could move towards healing, I can’t stop myself from sharing.

Phew. That’s a big claim. But hang in there..

**me trying to relax into the cold 🥶

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Ice Baths are not new. They are ancient. Ancient cultures from around the world, including the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Japanese, Scandinavians and First Nations Tribes, all incorporated cold water therapy into their daily lives. They have been used throughout centuries as ways of healing, dealing with grief, increasing stamina, recovery, and caring for our bodies. Ice baths are ‘newish’ to our western culture because of a fresh surge of appetite for alternative means of healing, a desperation for re-connection with our bodies, a deep distrust and exasperation with the Pharma industry and the utter failure of the medical community to offer wholistic, healing practises that go beyond over-medicating presenting symptoms with no hope of transformation in the horizon.

** this pic is from this site that explores the history of cold plunges if you want more.

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Culturally, we have experienced unprecedented (yes, I’m using that word) trauma, leading to soaring rates of anxiety and depression with no glimpse of a remedy. Yet, we are finding something deeply healing in the re-emerging of ancient embodied practises! The ice bath is simply one of them. I believe there is something in the Ice Bath strategy that is uniquely designed to help combat what ails us in the comfortable west.

Full disclosure: I went to a Wim Hof retreat with a friend a few months ago. She invited me because she’s been struggling with depression and wondered if I’d join her in an attempt to try something different. I agreed. Why wouldn’t we try? In preparation, I read Wim Hof’s autobiography and studied up on his three-pillars technique (breath, cold and mindset). I watched a lot of YouTube videos documenting ‘the ice man’ and did deep breathing exercises with his video guide. I found myself genuinely enjoying my trip down the rabbit hole of healing, embracing discomfort, and processing emotion. Wim Hof’s practical and invitational style, coupled with his deep desire to help others after loosing his first wife through a tragic battle with mental health, is a compelling combination.

I was especially interested in Wim Hof’s origin story. He was born to a very devout Christian mother. As a surprise second baby (unexpected twin) and arriving underdeveloped and unlikely to survive, his mother prayed to God for his life, pledging that if he lived, she’d pray him into missionary service. He lived. Although Wim doesn’t confess to belief in a Christian worldview, he does believe he is a missionary - bringing healing and help to others. The conservative estimates of people who ‘follow Wim Hof’ methods are over a hundred million. The testmonies of healing and transformation are mind-blowing. Truly, something in his methodology is offering some tangible hope to people who have lost it. So, what is it?

That’s what I set out to discover.

** This is Wim Hof and here is his methodology

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What is happening in a cold plunge and how is it connected to my faith? Why haven’t I learned this in my own spiritual tradition? And why, when I speak of it to other christians, is there so much skepticism and fear?

As I eased into the cold tub on the week-end retreat, I had a flashback to one of my own Christian heroes of the faith - Catherine Booth. I recalled her practise of hydrotherapy (including cold water baths) and alternative medicinal strategies she embraced as a means of grace and healing in her life (read more here). Then my mind wandered to another Christian hero of the faith, John Wesley. Wesley is known best as a revivalist for good reason! But what many people don’t know are the other things Wesley did, including his deep desire to help people heal. Wesley opened several medical health clinics across the UK, to give access to treatment to people who couldn’t afford or access it anywhere else. He was taken with alternative forms of healing that were accessible and available to the poor. In his own research, he discovered the new power of electricity as a healing agent and several historians have credited Wesley with being one of the most notable electrotherapists in the eighteenth century and with stimulating nineteenth century developments in psychiatry and general medicine (find more info here). Wesley believed in 5 miracles of healing, one was supernatural and another was the power of the human body to heal itself - the miracle of nature.

When I bring up Wim Hof, or Ice baths or breath work, most christians raise their eyebrows and express concern for ‘where this might lead’. Yet, I’m simply following the chorus of christian heroes, revivalist, preachers, and social reformers who have always understood that God is working and inviting us to explore the boundless nature of His Grace, healing and collective relief for our suffering.

Anyway, back to the cold.

** if you are going to ice plunge why not do it in beautiful British Columbia (location: Lynn Valley Glacier Pool in North Vancouver).

What is happening?

Physically: Taking an ice bath lowers your body temperature and triggers more blood flow to your core. After an ice bath, your body temperature rises, and blood flow returns to your tissues. To put it simply, your blood rushes back to warm up your body, kick starting your metabolism and igniting your immune system.

Physiologically: Ice baths have been suggested to have many health benefits. For example, in the popular literature it has been claimed that it can boost the immune system, treat depression, enhance peripheral circulation, increase libido, burn calories and reduce stress.

Mentally: Cold exposure increases the production of a neurotransmitter called norepinephrine (focus, attention, vigilance, mood). As a result, cold therapy can produce a feeling of calm, happiness, and well-being, which can support the mitigation of mental health symptoms such as depression and anxiety.

But, here is where we get to the best part. What do any of these things have to do with my spiritual formation? Well, everything. My spiritual connection with God is deeply embedded in my body, mind, emotions, and heart! We (humans) are complex creations who need a wholistic framework of healing. As I’ve embarked cold water experimentation, I’ve discovered many corresponding benefits to my faith.

Here’s 3.

1. Our Design. The body is designed to resist the cold. No brainer. Also, thank you, body! One of the ways the body kicks into its natural design is through discomfort. The body has natural systems that activate when triggered through extremes (cold, hot, hunger, conflict, threat). In our modern, western comfortable lives we have forgotten this and our bodies have had little to no training in the resilience we were designed with. This means that we have an aversion to discomfort and an inability to meet those conditions with our own bodies. We get sick, and not just physically but sick and tired in complex ways (mentally, socially, physiological). This is just as true in my faith journey. My faith is designed to activate through discomfort. The biblical invitation to ‘wake up’ is always front of mind when I’m neck deep in cold water. I had a recurring dream in my early ministry that warned me about giving in to a sleepy spirit. Comfort is the enemy of our souls.

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   Question: How is discomfort awakening my faith?

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2. Surrender. The Ice Plunge has become an exercise in surrender for me. The body is naturally designed to recoil and restrict when facing cold. You’ll notice this when you are cold and you pay attention, your body clenches. This is resistance and if you get a little curious when you are cold, you’ll notice that resisting is making you colder. Try it out. Next time you are cold, take a few deep breaths and relax. Stop resisting. You will feel the difference. Consider this in the context of surrender. We can’t just ‘surrender more’ like an exercise in resistance. And the resistance we naturally have when we are inviting to give over control and trust God with our lives is real. Our natural inclination is to resist - to clench - to avoid. Think about the struggle in the Garden of Gethsemene for Jesus. The relief and resilience came when he ‘let go’ of his own desire and relaxed into God’s will. Overriding your natural tendency to resist by choosing to relax and let go is one of the most robust surrender exercises I’ve ever done.

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   Question: Am I wasting energy resisting and how can I relax and surrender instead?

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3. It’s Gonna Be Worth it. We can do hard things, in a contained way, because to endure is a breakthrough to healing. This is essentially the mind over body work necessary to get into an ice bath. It is the same work required for a maturing faith. And just like the complexity of our body systems, which interconnect and overlap, our faith journey is not a solo exercise. We are part of the Body of Christ. One thing blowing my mind as I do ice baths, is how resistant we are (as a body) to discomfort. It’s far more prevalent and practised in our christian formation to avoid difficult conversations, react against hardship, or constrict and control than it is to endure, with openness and expectation, times of extreme discomfort. Maybe we don’t believe it will be for our good like James explained in great detail in chapter 1 of his book? But this is how the healing will come. In my experience in the church we have no resilience training in our discipleship or in our systems. So, when extreme conditions come, we are completely unprepared and we get sick. Just think about the potential to embrace those situations as faith building. Think about the healing that could be released through the whole body if we were willing to endure discomfort as an exercise of surrender and faith to the will and ways of God.

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   Question: in what ways could the Body of Christ experience healing by embracing discomfort?

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I’m still exploring the benefits of cold water and acknowledge that the experience I’ve had fits into a wider practise of my faith. But, what I do know, is that anything that awakens me from the slumber of comfort is a Divine invitation I’m gonna keep taking.

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