In this picture I am clearly praying.
This is absolutely and completely untrue.
I was there, and I can tell you I was NOT praying in that moment.
I do pray, and I pray regularly, but at that moment I was FREEZING in a 34 degree freezer of ice water. I was in severe physical pain and thinking about my toes falling off and my heart stopping and suffocating and enduring and pain... mostly pain was occupying my thoughts though.
You can Google the benefits of the popular ice bath. You can probably find the dangers and risks of it too. You can find the benefits in the short term and long term. You might be able to find the negative short term and long term effects too. You might try it once or you might already have a consistent practice of it for yourself. You may be quite certain that you will never ever do it unless you find yourself on a sinking cruise liner in Alaska.
I'm not here to talk about ice bathing and its benefits.
If you do it, then you will do it for your own reasons.
If you don't do it, then you will not do it for your own reasons.
I wake in the morning and get out of bed.
You wake in the morning and get out of bed.
Or we don't today.
Either way it is for our benefit or detriment, our own reason or reasons, our own view and perspective and perceptions.
No matter where our ideas or perceptions or goals or struggles or fears or desires came from, once they cross that bearier in the brain that enters into our mind and are transformed into our thoughts and our actions they are ours.
Mine are mine.
Yours are yours.
What if we were to toy with this concept for a moment in regards to our health.
Where do I want to be with my health?
Not where have I been or what others have told me or worse and what this picture above really represents: what are others doing?
You see we look at a picture like the above and see someone finding God in the middle of an ice storm. You see some one striving for peace and enlightenment and contentment and tranquility and we want it, but we don't want it. We see it and don't want to believe it. We see a crazy person doing something that is crazy and just upside down. Or maybe they are courageous and strong and disciplined and we want that for ourselves. Or maybe they are stupid and missing something and going about it in all the wrong ways...
But most likely its just a person doing what that person wants to do at that moment for whatever reason they have conjured up in their own head based on their own perceptions and views and goals and desires for their time here on earth that might grow or change or do nothing at all in the grand scheme of life.
So I ask the question again: Where do I want to be with my health?
Some follow ups:
What does it look like for me?
What does my day look like when I am living my healthiest life?
What does my exercise look like?
What does my food look like?
How do these things effect my body and my mind and how do I like these ideas and perceptions and thoughts and actions?
I don't have any answers today.
No solutions.
But I do think these are some good questions to answer for myself.
PS - The link HERE is to another website. It is not about psychology or ice baths, but it is super interesting and super short. The main points are bolded even, so please enjoy.
Blessings,
Dr Asa
mainstchirorowlett.com
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