By way of floods, the pandemic, icy winter water, a number of lockdowns and battling psychological well being points, Sophie made it her mission to swim one year in a row. Right here’s what she discovered.
We acknowledge the Conventional Custodians of the Nation on which this journey takes place who’ve occupied and cared for the lands, waters, and their inhabitants, for 1000’s of years. We pay our respects to them and recognise that sovereignty was by no means ceded.
Set off warning: Dialogue of psychological well being and suicide.
Turbulent Waters
It was June 2021 and the Australian winter had descended upon the Central Coast of NSW. On the time it was mid-COVID lockdown and I used to be experiencing bouts of melancholy, completely burnt out, and had a protracted working relationship with anxiousness. Due to continual fatigue, I used to be additionally clocking up virtually 12 hours of sleep a day.
This was a pivotal level the place suicidal ideation reared its ugly head. I knew I wasn’t functioning and I used to be hiding it fairly properly. It was apparent one thing needed to change.
I knew that the ocean at all times had been a spot of solace for me; generally it induced my anxiousness, however as a rule, it was my remedy. As an lively surfer, swimmer, freediver, and rock climber, surrounding myself with adrenaline in a pure setting is like meditation to me. However, attending a piece assembly, studying my emails and even making a name to my physician had me breaking out in a stress rash and shutting down. I felt like I used to be wired backwards.
There have been just a few days right here and there of being bodily lively, but I by no means felt motivated to stay to a routine or to enhance myself. These sprightly adventures additionally needed to be compensated by equal days spent in mattress to recoup my power. That is after I heard of ‘wild swimming’.
Swimming, My Saviour
I knew I wanted simply to get my ass off the bed and wished to actually throw myself within the deep finish (wink) of one thing. One thing that was going to make me really feel electrical and alive, not simply dwelling. I wanted to lock one thing in. So I requested myself:
‘What if I just got in the water every day for 30 days?’
So it started, daybreak on the primary day of winter and I acquired a number of turning heads from onlookers within the seaside automobile park as I emerged in a one-piece prepared for an icy plunge. As quickly as my head went underwater, I instantly knew I used to be onto one thing. It was a brand new drug for me: wild swimming in chilly water. It needed to be a pure water supply, each day and I caught with it, being very strict with my routine.
Learn extra: Staying Secure Round Swimming Holes
Thirty days crossed off the calendar in a short time, which advanced into sixty days, then grew to become 100. I’d made it by means of the whole thing of winter and by no means missed a single swim, regardless of the situations. Extra like-minded swimmers gravitated in direction of me and I met so many wonderful courageous souls embarking on comparable journeys. Some have been 85-90 years previous. Some have been swimming for larger causes. Like my good pal Anna, who I met swimming – she raised virtually $7,000 for Past Blue in reminiscence of her brother Liam who she misplaced to suicide in 2021.
My friendship circle wasn’t the one factor that modified; I grew a brand new capability to respect those that have been struggling with psychological well being battles and have been utilising the water in the identical approach I used to be.
Feeling The Bodily & Psychological Modifications
My physique was additionally altering, usually earlier than my eyes. The long-term physiological results that chilly water has in your physique and mind are phenomenal. There’s a motive folks get hooked on it and why Wim Hof has 3 million followers.
Firstly, my immune system grew to become undoubtedly stronger. I acquired my urge for food again and my power appeared to turning into restored, so I had far more steam to make it by means of the day.
I discovered that my mind was forging new pathways, not precisely in direction of curing all my diseases, however serving to me handle to navigate them. Together with a balanced weight loss program and searching for scientific skilled assist, this new routine was a springboard from which I leapt into a brand new outlook on my life.
I discovered that anxiousness tends to develop when issues get unpredictable in our schedules. My psychological well being was being examined week after week with uncontrollable occasions in my life, however the one factor that was a constant, the one factor I might depend on was that in some unspecified time in the future, I used to be going to be within the water to rinse the time off.
Even on raining, stormy nights generally properly after darkish, I’d trudge right down to the shoreline with my torch and towel, watching my heat breath within the chilly air forward of me as I walked, completely buzzing to leap in.
365 Days Later
Trying down on the calendar, I realised 200 days had handed and after hitting 3-0-0, 365 was in full view as a purpose I knew I might attain. Throughout journeys inland, I’d use Google maps to navigate to the closest pure water supply and sometimes rolled round in ice chilly rivers and waterfalls simply to tick the time off.
thirty first of Could, 2022 noticed my final day of the journey, and on that beautiful Tuesday afternoon, I acquired to run into the surf with a gaggle of my closest mates who’d been by my aspect since day one. I’ve been so lucky to reside so near the ocean and to have seen all that Mom Nature has to supply.
Learn extra: Keep in mind to depart no hint!
For anybody in search of an alternate methodology for coping with psychological well being points, I’d implore them to attempt wild swimming or chilly water remedy together with a holistic psychological well being care plan. Not solely did that yr of swimming instill an enormous sense of self-discipline in me, nevertheless it additionally taught me that we are able to face essentially the most uncomfortable conditions and harness energy from the ache.
This text was first printed in August 2022.
