Swimming Through Stress

Mental Health and Wellness has been front and centre of many peoples consciousness for some time now. And never more so as we navigate a very new world. Rates of stress, anxiety and depression are increasing. Even the most stoic and grounded of us have felt the impact of a global pandemic. Even if the worry that consumes them concerns the physical and mental wellbeing of their family and friends rather than their own. It is still worry and stress. We are drowning in a sea of negative emotions and stress.

Emotions can be both positive and negative and are a human response to your experience of the world. There are many and they are complex but they are all linked to the nervous system. It is how the body and mind are intrinsically linked – the body is responsible for your internal messaging system and it’s physical reactions to situations or encounters and your mind is responsible for processing your emotional reactions. Emotions such as happiness, sadness, surprise, fear and anger are all responses to an event or series of events. The fundamental purpose of the nervous system and the emotions it stimulates, is to help us to survive. The most common being the Fight or Flight reaction when we experience fear or surprise.

The Fight or Flight (and less commonly known Freeze) reactions are part of the sympathetic nervous system. These reactions to life threatening events could be the difference between whether you, as a human, survive or die as a result of the situation. Think prehistoric man encountering a large carnivorous animal – the sympathetic nervous system prepares your body for this stressful situation by releasing chemicals like adrenaline which initiate the release of glucose fuel and raise the heart rate to get oxygen into your muscles – so you can fight of flee. In the modern day world stress inducing situations are more likely to be experiencing new or unexpected things, feeling threatened or out of control. So losing your job, or being robbed in the street would be examples of these feelings and experiences. But they can also be any sort of change to your day to day situation – something we have all experienced of late! These situations trigger hormones which left unmanaged by being constantly exposed to stress inducing situations can lead to chronic or long term stress.

Once the ‘life threatening’ situation has passed, assuming you are still alive, the human body is designed to return to a state of ‘rest’. This is initiated by the parasympathetic nervous system. It returns the body to routine. The parasympathetic system is responsible for your body’s basic but very necessary functions like maintenance and repair, digestion – things that can be carried out best when the body is in a state of relaxation or sleep. The two parts of the nervous system, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic, oppose one another but in that way they work together. The problem that many of us now have, given the current situation of new, unexpected, threatening and out of control changes, is that our sympathetic nervous system is dominating our everyday. We are not fully able to return to a state of rest. No wonder we all feel exhausted and overwhelmed.

The stress and overwhelm of recent events has significantly impacted our ability to cope. Life has literally become unmanageable for many. And there is no sign of the situation ending anytime soon. We, and everyone around us, is showing the symptoms of long term, chronic stress. Mood symptoms are low mood, anxiety and depression. Behavioural symptoms include withdrawal, lack of sleep, irritability, being tearful or being angry. Physical symptoms can be headaches, nausea, IBS and memory loss. As the change to our way of living shows no sign of abating we need to process our emotions to treat the symptoms. Even if / when life does return to normal it is still an important step in the emotional cycle. Even if the cause of stress is removed we need to process our emotions to return to a state of rest. Some of the ways in which we can do this is to emulate rest which will give the parasympathetic nervous system the jump start it needs. I do this by swimming in the sea with a salty community.

In the book ‘Burnout: The Secret to unlocking the Stress Cycle’ by Emily and Amelia Nagoski they look at practical ways you can finish the stress cycle and return to a state of rest. Some, if not all, of the ways can be achieved by swimming in the sea with a connected sea swimming community. Here are a few of them.

1. Breathing: Breathing regulates your nervous system, yogis have known this for years. Breathing is also a fundamental part of swimming in a couple of ways. Those of us that swim outdoors year round regulate our breathing to negate the cold water shock reaction as we enter the water. We take deep slow breaths and purposefully relax our bodies to prevent gasping and achieve acclimistation. Once swimming, particularly front crawl, long breath out, or trickle breathing as we call is, is exactly the type of breathing that allows efficient relaxed swimming.
2. Physical Activity: Any movement of your body is a great way of completing the stress cycle by encouraging the release of happy hormones. Swimming in the sea, may be a cycle or walk to your swim spot, a run before hand or even jumping up and down to warm up afterwards are great ways of getting your body moving.
3. Positive Social Interaction: My swimming community, like many others, has created a safe space built on positive social interaction. We are a group that value each others wellbeing. It allows us to care for one another, we fiercely protect and prioritise each others “self care” providing a place that your body knows it is safe. Just typing that I let a huge breath out! It’s the part of sea swimming with the Salty Seabirds I love the most. Our interactions don’t need to be deep and meaningful, cake and a chit chat with a huge helping of kindness is all we need to find the elusive state of rest. Even for just a few moments.
4. Laughter: Who hasn’t been outdoor swimming when something touches your leg, you fall over on your way into a river or a wave knocks you flying. These events induce huge belly laughs, it is a universal language that reduces stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline and increases endorphins. Laughter really is the best medicine for those stress symptoms.
5. Affection: In their book, Emily and Amelia refer to affection as human hugs, something we are not always able to do. I have my own spin on it. By being intimate and vulnerable within a swimming community you are met with virtual hugs and affection from other swimmers. Every time a new swimmer requests a swim buddy, strangers, who will soon become swimming friends, are incredibly affectionate, kind and compassionate with their responses. I also feel that the sea can hug you, hold you, provide you with a safe space as much as another human can.

Those of us that regularly swim in the outdoors have a saying, “you never regret a swim”. And this is try because it leaves you in a good mood, sometimes a high that can last the whole day. These ways in which we can return to a state of rest, relaxation and routine alleviate the mood, behavioural and physical symptoms of long term and chronic stress. So swim, breathe, laugh, hug and eat cake!