Caroline Cavanagh is on day five of a cold-water challenge and finds it far less terrifying than she imagined. She shares a client's travel anxiety that vanished once they actually went, and quotes her Wim Hof series: when you step outside comfort, you get power.
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So it's Friday afternoon and I'm now 5 days into my cold water challenge inspired by Wim Hof, and those of you that saw my post on Monday when I started this will have probably realised how nervous I was about doing it. I hate cold water, but I couldn't really find any excuses not to do it anymore, and one of the things that has come out of it on day 5 is that It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. And that's one of the common things about anxiety. We worry about something and create this scenario in our heads that really is not even close to the reality. So already I've gone from 30 seconds of cold water up to 2 minutes. And this morning I was just laying— or not laying, standing under the shower thinking, okay, well, how long do I actually have to stand under it now? How much do I have to prove that I can do the cold water? So it may even mean that I need to go and do the kind of lake stuff now, but that's for another day. But my message really for today is a lot of anxiety is based on a perception of what something is going to be like, and that reality is often very, very different. And the last client I saw today was really a great advocate of that. He had been really worrying about going on a trip abroad, eating food. And had built up a massive scenario in his head about how difficult it was going to be, and today he came back and went, I actually enjoyed it. So if there is something that you are facing, there are a number of things that you can do to help you go in and take that step of bravery to face that fear, and there's lots of information on the website that can help you with those steps. But more than anything, know that that when you do face it, the chances are it won't be nearly as bad or as scary as you think it was going to be. And the other side of that fear, your comfort zone grows. And I've now watched the first of the Freeze Your Fear with Wim Hof series, and there was a lovely quote that I got from it, and it was, when you step outside of comfort, you get power. Mmm. And that is real comfort. I love that quote. I wouldn't quite say I was comfortable with cold water yet, but it's certainly not uncomfortable anymore. Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for watching. Bye-bye.
