Putting your face, or your physique generally, right into a bowl or tub of ice water can immediately influence your temper. That barely panicked feeling you get comes from the activation of the stress response, or sympathetic nervous system, as medical psychologist Aric Prather, Ph.D. explains on a latest episode of the mindbodygreen podcast. “Chilly publicity will be alerting,” he notes.
And by activating the sympathetic nervous system, you can too scale back in-the-moment nervousness. “Chilly water immersion for the face is among the finest methods to tone that vagus nerve and permit your nervous system to have that sort of resilience,” train physiologist, private coach, and New York Occasions bestselling writer Ben Greenfield says in one other mindbodygreen podcast episode. “When your vagus nerve turns into toned, it is capable of extra successfully talk with the remainder of the organs—the guts, the lungs, the diaphragm, the mind—and it additionally is in a position to answer stress in a much more refined approach.”
To not point out, ice has anti-inflammatory properties when utilized topically1, which is why so many individuals go for facial icing to de-puff the pores and skin and soothe painful breakouts. But it surely’s not solely ice water that’s out there for this function—you can too use ice globes together with facial therapeutic massage for an much more useful ritual.
However to illustrate you’re in the midst of a busy workday and don’t precisely have the time (or the assets) to plunge your face into ice water—are there some other choices? Fortunately, the reply is sure: In response to Prather, you can too stick your head within the freezer—and basically reap comparable advantages.
