Cold Swimming Case
IP Laboratory “Empathy and Inclusion”
Entering cold water is always a burn on the skin, it is a stress for the body. But “stress is not what happened to you, but how you perceive it” (Hans Selye). In everyday living in any situation the person is faced with a choice: either to take a passive stress strategy, trying to escape from a stressful situation or to take an active stress strategy. For our body, the fundamental importance is not cold water itself, but the mechanism of processing the stress effect on the body. It is no coincidence that swimming in cold water is increasingly used in the fight against depression, anxiety and fears. In case of Cold Swimming due to affective state of C-tactile receptors person can reflect on the stress mechanism and train to control an active stress strategy. In means that person sees and feels actually and begins to control the actual surrounding environment, predict and overcome the possibility of a potential threat of distress.
