News Drop offers principles and practices for living in alignment with nature. For living osteopathically, in flow.

When we align with the forces of the natural world, there is no limit to the sanity, ease, and grace we can experience regardless of what is happening.

I can’t think of a more relevant conversation. Ready to dive in?

How can we heal in this toxic world? We let nature guide us.

Out of nowhere, it was sunny and 70° all the way to the coast last Friday. My mind and body started a conversation . . . could this be the day for the first swim of the season? So exciting!

I hopped in the car not quite sure what I’d find as the shore can be foggy. What I found was a perfectly still, sunny, and empty beach on the shore of Tomales Bay. The gods were on my side.

After sunning for a bit, my body said, “it’s time to go in’. I think it’s very relevant to share that there have also been times when the air and water were warmer than they were that day, and I was not drawn to going in. The signals from my body have become so clear.

In I went. After a few moments of intensity, I felt like I was reconnecting with a much-missed treasured friend. I felt comfortable more quickly than usual. Then I felt something I hadn’t ever felt in 60-degree water. I felt warm.

How could I feel so warm? I knew my blood was rushing to my core, but this was so dramatic I began searching around for a natural spring on the floor of the bay. I found none. I continued to warm up as I moved to deeper waters. I felt so comfortable it was spooky. I also felt more energized, awake, and excited to be swimming in the cold than I remember from past swims.

I paused for a moment to take in the gorgeous ridge lines speckled with sunshine, grasses and California Oaks. Those lovely rolling California hills. They were gorgeously green from the rains. As my senses flooded with the beauty, I became even warmer. It was as though the beauty conjured a power surge in my body.

I’ve heard and read so many reports on the benefits of cold therapy and know the deep benefits. I wondered how much of my faith in the healing power of cold was coloring my sensory experience. I also wondered if the beauty of the surroundings and the deep peace and joy of the moment were shifting my physiology into parasympathetic and heightened cellular metabolism.

I am recalling a story I heard when I lived in New Mexico. A doctor there at the Indian Health Center told me he was so surprised when he saw that native children played in the snow without coats. The elders explained to him that there are many ceremonies when a baby is born. In one of them is the child is placed in the snow encircled by the tribe beaming love at them. The elders said this is why their babies love the cold.

I’ve also read about Tibetan monks who could raise their body temperature by as much as 17 degrees through meditation. ​​Herbert Benson, PhD, began studying these monks in the 60s and cited the phenomenon as a profound example of the mind’s ability to influence the body.

I used to have a very strong aversion to cold and didn’t know that could change. Alternating hot & cold in natural springs (I always start with a hot soak or sunbathing) was a highlight at a local retreat center my friends and I would visit with our kids ten years or so ago. I remember the first time I felt crisp, clear, and energized by cold water. It was such a delightful, powerful, and entirely unexpected surprise. There were times the surge of vitality I felt in those tubs in that breathtaking place felt like a spiritual experience.

The infamous Wim Hoff, known as the Ice Man, who climbed Mount Everest in a day in shorts and a T-shirt and without water said, “welcome the cold. Go inside, and let the body do what it does.” When we are present, connected to our bodies and clear in our intention, we can move from aversion to cold being open to cold as a powerfully healing medicine. When we are deeply present with the sensations we feel, we can quickly move through the initial intensity to comfort and even elation.

Awareness, attention and intention affect us on every level, mind, body and spirit. Our consciousness creates our experience, and influences subtle phenomena and even the material world. This is why we double blind research. This primacy of consciousness is principle of nature, a guiding principle of ancient healing systems, a principle of osteopathic practice, and a finding in scholarly works.

For a few years now I have been finishing my showers with a minute or two of cold (ok I started with maybe 10 seconds). Each time, I go inside, breathe and welcome the sensations this practice brings. I play with different qualities of attention and intention and allow my body to guide. Each time, the experience is unique.

Cold therapy is known to powerfully reduce inflammation. It can also heal our tissues, brain and other organs. Since hot expands our blood vessels and cold contracts them, alternating temperatures acts like a pump on the circulations of the body. From everything I’ve read and experienced, ending with cold is the way to go.

Learning to love the cold takes practice. It’s also easier than you may think, as evolutionarily speaking we are designed to benefit from much lower temperatures than we are adapted to now. Could it be time to explore your relationship with the cold?

Our awareness, attention, and intention affect our physiology

Some thoughts on how to begin. These are suggestions, as your body is in charge. Feel over formula.

🌀 Warm your body with a hot bath or shower, a sauna, the sun

🌀 Relax, feel your body and naturally slow your breath

🌀 Recall all the wonderful ways the cold can heal you

🌀 Set an intention to receive healing from the experience

🌀 Allow yourself to savor all the sensations that arise

🌀 As you progress, express gratitude for your amazing body!

I hope this story has inspired you. We’d LOVE to hear about what resonates for you, and about what you experience as you lean in to cold. Feel free to ask questions and share your thoughts, feelings and discoveries as you explore by simply replying to this email.

It takes practice to return to original behaviors. We practice, discuss, and delight in all things flow in the Flow is Medicine self-paced and live online community. Our doors are always open.

Thank you for being here, for being open, and for doing your best on behalf of your amazing body.

In Celebration of your emerging Glow & Flow,

Dr. Michelle Veneziano

& the Flow is Medicine community