Coping with Pain During Covid19
I wanted to share with you all, my latest discovery! During the lovely hot weather that we experienced here in the UK about a month or so ago, Karen and I ventured, tentatively, into the sea! Karen couldn’t swim and had only been in up to her knees and I hadn’t swum for over 20 plus years!
It was glorious sunshine and the sea was welcomingly cool, neither of us swam though, we just bobbed about a bit! 😀
The thing we were both surprised by was how good we felt whilst we were in the sea, just up to our necks. We continued to go to the beach, visiting different ones in our local area, throughout the lovely hot weather. We took our beach tent to sit in and often my daughter and grandson would come too. Gradually our confidence began to grow and we started to swim a bit, even Karen although she will tell you it’s not swimming it’s ‘doggy paddle’, either way, it’s moving along in the water and it feels amazing!
We would come away from the beach feeling satisfyingly tired! We both began to notice that our pain would stay much reduced for several hours after swimming! It was a complete revelation to us! The more we read about sea swimming, we discovered that it’s well documented that swimming in the sea brings enormous health benefits!
Take a look at these links to read more about the benefits.
https://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/new-research-reveals-sea-swimmings-effect-on-wellbeing/
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/swimming-for-fitness/
The feeling of weightlessness that I get when I’m swimming is just amazing, moving through the water, I forget about absolutely everything except me and the water!
We have progressed to moving out of our comfort zone by the shore and now swim up and down the bay using the sets of steps as a visual marker of our distance, it just feels fantastic to be floating along in the water. We are finding that, just as with our walking, each time we swim our ability improves, our confidence grows, and of course we are beginning to reap the benefits!
We are completely hooked now and hope to continue throughout the winter months too! 🥶🏊🏼♀️
We have bought second-hand wetsuits to buffer the cold a little and we will see how it goes!
There is a little community of swimmers that go to the same stretch of the sea wall as us, all varying ages and abilities and they are all so friendly!! So I would urge people to look into it even if you don’t have anyone to go with, if you use Facebook have a look for your local sea swimming group, most groups are extremely welcoming to new members, and becoming a member is all about looking out for each other! You don’t have to be strong swimmers, or even swimmers, if you just want to go and bob about a bit you will be welcomed!
More people than ever are swimming in the sea the moment because lots of pools are closed or if they are open they have quite tight restrictions!
We prefer high tide because the steps where we swim make it seem like we are stepping into a giant pool, but you will have your own preference, just look up your local tides and do t attempt to swim in a rough sea!
Go swim with the fishes for pain relief and mental health therapy! 😊
