Wander along the beach or walk by one of Fife and Tayside’s revamped tidal pools these days, and it’s not uncommon to see intrepid dookers taking a deep dip into the world of wild swimming.
The pastime’s potential mental and physical health benefits are well documented with post-pandemic anxieties often cited as a reason for the resurgence.
According to a recent documentary, wild water swimming has tripled in popularity in Scotland in the last three years with 81% of outdoor swimmers seeing it as beneficial to their wellbeing.
Support of Still Game star and ‘Miss Hoolie’
Fife-based Still Game star Greg Hemphill (Victor) and his actress wife Julie Wilson Nimmo (Miss Hoolie in CBeebies show Balamory), recently showcased their love for the pastime on the BBC Scotland show Jules and Greg’s Wild Swim.
They travelled to Luss on Loch Lomond.
There, the water temperature can reach a high of 15.5C in summer and a low of 5.5C in winter.
But this was no ordinary wild water swimming session.
It was a ‘Soulful Sunday’ session established by yoga teacher Natalie Valenti during the Covid-19 pandemic.
What is Soulful Sunday?
The sessions encompass yoga, breath work and cold water therapy, pushing mind and body “through your comfort zone in a calm, safe and supportive environment”.
After yoga on the beach which focusses on breath work, participants silently enter the water where they continue their focus on breathing before submerging their shoulders, staying in for an average of three minutes.
They then come out, sit around a fire drinking flasks of coffee or tea to warm up and chat.
Most participants say it leaves them feeling invigorated, proud, stretched, energised and strong.
How did Soulful Sunday Broughty Ferry sessions start?
Dundee-based yoga and fitness instructor Lesley Monaghan got into cold water therapy herself when she attended one of Natalie Valenti’s Soulful Sunday sessions.
But with over 2,000 people now attending weekly sessions throughout central Scotland, she has launched her own Soulful Sunday group on Broughty Ferry beach – and she hopes demand will grow.
Her launch event was attended by TV stars Julie Nimmo Wilson and Greg Hemphill.
As reported by The Courier, they also recently took a dip in the Tay in Broughty Ferry during filming for a new TV series.
Amusingly during the Soulful Sunday launch, Lesley says, many folk didn’t recognise the TV stars until they’d left!
Originally from Ayrshire, Lesley, 35, moved to Dundee with her Dundonian partner two years ago.
She was a regional sales and marketing manager for various hotel chains.
Giving birth to her son five years ago, she started training as a fitness instructor “on the side” when her son was small and during lockdown.
She went back into the corporate world of hospitality as her son got a bit older.
But earlier this year, she lost her job – a job she “never liked anyway”, but one which she wouldn’t have left without being pushed.
Already into fitness and yoga, Lesley became “hooked” on cold water dipping after attending a Soulful Sunday session in the west.
But taking advantage of her new found availability in the jobs market, and discovering that Natalie was running a Soulful Sunday teacher training course, she decided to sign up.
Taking advantage of situation to retrain
“It was almost like things aligned at the right time for me,” she said.
“I lost my job one week and the next week I was starting this course.
“Someone had cancelled, there was one space, so I signed up!”
Through yoga, Lesley had already discovered so many benefits to her mental health.
It was a “stress relief”, she said.
However, having found Soulful Sunday as well, the opportunity to do this course which then offered a job at the end of it – setting up her own Soulful Sunday – seemed too good an opportunity to miss.
When do Soulful Sunday Broughty Ferry classes run?
Lesley now runs yoga classes full time during the week and runs Soulful Sunday at Broughty Ferry on Sunday mornings.
So far it’s been “really popular” and feedback has been “fantastic”.
“Mental and physical health is a huge priority for people at the moment, and it seems to be tapping into the demand for that,” she said.
“It’s guided meditation, breath work, yoga and then there’s a specific breath work technique that we use to guide people into the water.
“After that we all come out and light a fire and we all sit round and have some coffee and biscuits and a good chat.
“Really it’s just to set people up in the best way for the week ahead.”
What do participants get out of it?
Lesley said that at the start of each session she asks people to give themselves a rating out of 10.
How are they feeling physically and mentally?
“One girl told me last week she was a ‘three’ when they started,” she said, “and then when she was driving home she asked herself the same question and was a ‘nine’.
“That’s really kind of what we are looking for.”
Lesley says people often “open up” about their reasons for being there.
Three weeks in, one woman said: ‘this has changed my life’, adding “I couldn’t be without this now”.
Lesley said: “That was a real kind of ‘wow’ moment when you realise actually what you are trying to do is working.”
What’s the ‘science’ behind Soulful Sunday?
When it comes to the ‘science’ of cold water therapy, Lesley explains that in terms of the physical, it’s been proven scientifically to reduce inflammation in the body.
That’s why you’ll see athletes like Andy Murray getting into an ice bath after a long match.
Lesley says a lot of participants have rheumatoid arthritis.
While there’s a time and place for traditional medicine, the physical benefits of getting into cold water for three minutes in a controlled environment can help manage the pain.
But as well as the physical, there are also significant proven mental health benefits.
“When you first get into the water your body enters that ‘fight or flight’ status,” she said.
“When you first get in there, your body goes into that initial shock.
“And then as soon as you get your shoulders under, your vagus nerve at the back of your neck, your body starts to shift from its parasympathetic nervous system into the sympathetic nervous system.
“That’s when everything starts to down regulate.
“People have been known to say that at that moment your mind just completely clears.
“There’s no mental chatter.
“You’ve gone from ‘fight or flight’ into complete calm.”
Importance of Soulful Sunday calmness
Lesley says that’s why they do things “slightly different” at Soulful Sunday.
Many people have tried the ‘Loony Dook’ at New Year when they run into the water.
It’s all high energy.
At Soulful Sunday, by contrast, they walk into the water silently so they can hear their own breath.
Lesley added: “It is all about recognising when that down regulation of the system comes, and just feeling the benefits of being in the cold water.
“When you get out, there’s then that elation that you’ve done it.
“For a lot of people that’s what it is – it’s actually stepping outside your comfort zone and doing something you never actually wanted to do in the first place, but then doing it and realising, ‘anything I can put my mind to, then I’ll take that energy into the week’.
“It’s about mental clarity and strengthening your mind.”
Supplement to mental health services
Lesley says the impact of modern living is definitely having an impact on demand for alternative therapies.
The post-pandemic world is still impacting on peoples’ mental health.
Mental health services are struggling.
But she also points to wider generational and societal changes that have led to higher levels of anxiety.
“It’s almost like we’re not in the generation of our grandparents who knew their doctor, and if they had something wrong they could phone that person and go and see them that day and get a prescription,” she said.
“If you are talking anything to do with your mental health, you first of all have to phone and be triaged by a receptionist that you don’t know.
“You’d then be referred to a doctor who could be anyone in the practice that you don’t know.
“You might not even get a face to face appointment with that person.
“A lot of things doctors are saying to people now is ‘have you tried yoga or cold water therapy?’, and that’s why people are coming to us.
“It’s almost like you are having to be that buffer between people and mental health services.”
The main objective is that people leave a session feeling a little bit better than when they came, she said.
But the community aspect of it is also “huge”.
Some Broughty Ferry participants have already become friends and are meeting up for coffee out-with the sessions.
How to get in touch with Soulful Sunday
Tickets for Soulful Sunday are £20 per person per session.
Sessions are also running at Aberdour and St Andrews East Sands.
For more information go to soulfulsunday.co.uk/book-now
For direct enquiries, Lesley can also be contacted via Instagram: @cool_calm_and_connected
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