Can we Train to Manage Fight Flight or Freeze Response? YES!

Very uncomfortable sharing this video but whatever... so important to walk in those uncomfortable inner spaces.

Ice water swimming is such good training for life situations. You have something that you know is good for you, but is hard to do and ice swimming can mimic the stages that we pass through.

Your brain will try to convince you not to get in the water, and it takes recognizing those thoughts for what they are... just thoughts that can be acknowledged, appreciated, and respected, but challenged as well.

Survival Brain before the plunge = you don't need to do this. It's cold. You're healthy enough. Why bother? You can do it later.

Once you get into a certain depth of ice water, your body will go into Fight, Flight, or Freeze... trying to make you make a short-term decision. You are not connected to the part of the brain that thinks complex thoughts or about the future health.

You know you are safe, a cold water plunge is healthy for you, and you know you can do it. However, that part of the brain is cut off from 'you' because of the survival state.

This can happen in daily life as well. Your body can put you into a survival state where you are cut off from your 'wise' brain. This can happen when you are in a fight with your partner or at other inconvenient times. You get cut off from your 'wise' brain.

Therapy can help withe the reasons you go into FFF, but that is often too late for these moments.

One of the biggest things you can do in that moment to reconnect to your 'wise' brain and your parasympathetic nervous system is to... BREATHE! Yes... a simple, and cliche, tip! However, it works!

A deep breath through the nose and slowly out the mouth like you are breathing through a straw...

if you can do a couple of these in those moments, you can make much wiser choices that benefit you in the long term.

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