I must admit, I really do love this time of year. For me, there’s nothing quite like it. I love the Spring. I love seeing the world come back to life after a dreary, bleak Winter. I love seeing all the colours and hues dotted around, the flowers pushing through, the longer and increasingly warmer days. In short, I love it and I live it! It’s true, I have grown to truly appreciate the other seasons: I never used to be much of a fan of Autumn/Fall or Winter, but as I’ve got older, I’ve realised that they are part of the wheel of the year, all works in a circle, a cycle. Spring always has been my favourite for all the things that I mentioned before. I think it’s also inevitable to associate Easter with Spring, just as we do Christmas with Winter (that is, at least those of us living in the northern hemisphere). Whilst Easter isn’t as seemingly big or important in mainstream society as Christmas is, sadly, it has to be said, I do love being able to go out for late evening walks when the sun is still up, or simply finishing work and still having some daylight available to try and make the most of. I set myself some goals at the start of January, with some fitness goals in particular, but I couldn’t truly get into anything properly for love nor money! I struggle to be physically motivated in the cold, dark winter months. I guess I feel much closer to the cycles of nature than perhaps I give myself credit for. All I want to do is snuggle up, light a fire, and either put the telly on or read a good book. It’s interesting though, isn’t it? I mean, if you think that we humans are of nature, we are mammals, and if you have read and believe mainstream factbooks, we supposedly come from apes and monkeys, so we ought to be quite inclined towards nature and its cycles. The thing is though, we’re not anymore, are we? In this 21st century since Jesus purportedly walked upon this earth, I’m not sure if we have ever been further away from nature than we are now. It’s kind of like the film The Matrix. For those who haven’t seen it, give it a watch, it’s interesting, to say the least. In simpler terms, we almost always find ourselves trapped in this ‘rat race’, slogging our guts out on a day-to-day basis just to get by, often not having time for anything other than work, house, children, and anything else that we can cram into our hectic lives. It can often become overwhelming, especially during those tough winter months, but I’m not writing this post in order to paint a dull, pessimistic outlook, for there is always hope, and Spring is more often than not the catalyst of said hope for me.
I have found that even by spending 5-10 minutes outside between my lessons, I instantly feel better (weather permitting, of course!). Something I have worked on a lot since the start of the year is using breathing techniques. I came onto this topic through a number of different external sources and inspirations, but mainly thanks to a now-famous motivational speaker called Wim Hof, a.k.a. The Ice Man. Whilst I won’t delve too much into his philosophies here right now, if you haven’t heard of him, look him up! His cold showers and ice baths are a game changer!
Anyway, I digress… Whenever I go outside and focus on nothing more than my breath, simply in and out, coupled with the abundant and inimitable beauty of Mother Nature, I feel so much more ‘grounded’ and ‘here in the now’. It helps to clear my mind, or, as I have often heard from different Buddhist practitioners of meditation, it helps to calm the ‘Monkey mind’ from going ape inside your head, then gently bringing your mind down. Another thing I also really love doing is going out into my back garden and being barefoot on the grass. Now, as someone who lived abroad for many years in many European cities with only a balcony to use, I am so thankful for the fact that we have a back garden! It goes without saying that we are so lucky to have it, and I love doing things like sitting out the back and listening to the birds, eating lunch or dinner out there, or simply watching my kids play and interact with nature. It’s a true blessing, make no mistake. So, weather permitting, I like take my shoes and socks off, and then spend a little time ‘feeling’ the earth beneath my feet. It helps me feel a little more human again, not just Daniel the teacher, Daniel the husband-to-be, Daniel the father, or Daniel the dishwasher/sweeper/cleaner!! So think about yourself…how do you get your fix? I mean nature, of course, but I hear a lot of people talking about getting their fix, and sadly they are often talking about less spiritual or natural things, such as caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, casual sex, or whatever else. Nature is absolutely free: the air that we breathe, the sun that beats down on us and that we bask in, the wind that blows through our hair and ears, the birds that serenade us from dawn till dusk, the wonderful colours on display for us to marvel at, the good feelings that we can get from simply being outside and taking a break… they’re all free.
Changing the subject somewhat, I’d like to come back to Mr Wim Hof and his cold shower routine. I’ve been a follower of his for a few years now, although it’s only within the last year or so that I’ve really bought into his ideas. But, to give you a better idea of the bigger picture here, allow me first to paint one. My life has gone under immeasurable changes over the last year or two, in so many ways that I may not be able to explain. I’ve changed physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and in so many other ways, too. Getting into Wim Hof has coincided with a lot of my lifestyle changes, with one of the biggest ones being having a cold shower every morning. Yes, every morning! Once I get into something, I am all in. It’s like a game of poker where you go all in; everything or nothing. That’s just my nature, plus if you throw into the mix that I’m on the autism spectrum and can easily develop obsessive, persistent hobbies, it means that I live and breathe anything that I like, there’s no casual hobby for me! Let’s backtrack a little in order to understand my journey a little better: if you had suggested to me even two years ago that I take a cold shower in the mornings before work every day, I’d have dismissed it out of hand. “No way, not for me! What’s the point in that? It sound painful. Why suffer? Too uncomfortable.” But, as I said before, I have changed so much over the past few years. After all, life is water, not stone; times change, and so do people. Hm? Now I find myself trying to spread the ‘gospel’ of the cold showers, and I try to ‘evangelise’ people through my words. The benefits I have felt from cold showers have been countless and, frankly speaking, amazing! When I have a cold shower in the mornings, usually before 8am, the after-feeling is like having had 2-3 cups of coffee; what’s more, my hair feels great, my skin feels lovely and blemish-free, my general mood is much better after the shower, and my whole outlook for the day changes. My tiredness disappears in a matter of seconds. How long do I get in the shower for? 3-4 minutes, no more. Doesn’t it hurt? No, not really. Not once you’ve learnt how to control your breath as well as your mind. Do you start on hot and then move down to warm and then finally to cold? Nope, I begin with the tap fully on cold, but I start with my feet and work my way up, thus controlling my breath and mind as the cold water hits my skin and enlivens it! Any other benefits? Aye! It’s helped a lot with aches and pains, and refreshed my body so many times. Honestly, no word of a lie, since getting into cold showers, I’ve cut down massively on coffee. When I was living in Italy, I was easily drinking 5-6 coffees a day just to get through the slog; then, once I was back in Britain, I went down to about 2-3 a day, but still have serious comedowns once the caffeine wore off. Now, with a minimum of one cold shower a day, I probably only drink 1 coffee a day at the moment, but I recently went about 10 days without any coffee, just to test myself and my body (something I love doing!). I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, and I did… we have the power, we programme our minds! I sometimes have more than one cold shower a day; I have one here and there later in the day whenever I’m flagging, it’s great! Furthermore, it saves me money as well because I’m not using hot water and our boiler, just good old-fashioned cold water. I took cold showers all through the winter just gone, and it gave me power! I won’t lie, it was tough before I got in as there were times when the last thing I wanted to do was leave my bed and strip off, but once I embraced the cold water, and once I had got out, I then had power over the ‘cold’ that I could feel around me. To describe the feeling, it’s as if you have been dipped in champagne or something, it’s magical! So many people that I’ve spoken to have poo-poo’d the idea as it’s been too cold, but now the Spring is here, and the warmer times are here as well, so why not give it a go? What do you have to lose? You don’t know until you try, that much I have learnt in my 3-and-a-half decades on this planet!
On another note, from a religious perspective, the past few weeks have been quite unique in that there have been many holy feasts or holy weeks taking place at similar times. We’ve had Easter, of course, for both Catholics/Protestans in the west, and then Orthodox Christians in the east; we’ve had the Holy Week of Pesach (Passover) in the Jewish tradition which ended recently; we’re also coming towards the end of the holy month of Ramadan in Islam, something which a couple of my students are observing, and something for which I have immense respect for. We’ve also had Ostara in the traditional pagan Wheel of the Year, and for those who don’t resonate with any of the above, we had a beautiful full moon the other week which lit up our starry nights. Is it a coincidence that all of these things are happening around the same time? Who’s to say? I certainly feel the magic of this time of year, and I wish you a peaceful and enjoyable Springtime, doing the things you love with those whom you hold most dear. I hope to write again before the summer is in full flow, but let’s see if my teething 9-month-old lassie will allow mummy and daddy to get some much-needed shuteye! With all my love,
D
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