Yes, You Can Get Instant Relief For Anxiety
Turns out humans are designed for it through the “diver’s reflex”.
Anxiety makes us feel “hot under the collar.” But evolution has provided a mechanism to help cool us down. Enter the “diver’s reflex” — or the mammalian diving response, the body’s physiological response to acute submersion in cold water.
Scientists have long known that aquatic mammals, such as seals, whales, dolphins, and otters can override basic homeostatic reflexes that keep an organism in optimal functioning in order to survive for long periods under the ocean’s surface. But it wasn’t until the mid-twentieth century, when an Italian air force lieutenant named Raimondo Bucher took a bet that he could free-dive one hundred feet down and back to the surface without his lungs collapsing, that scientists realized water may have a preservation effect on humans. Research by Per Scholander confirmed this idea — particularly, that at certain temperatures, water triggers an immediate decrease in heart rate.
If you’ve had the not-so-pleasure of feeling anxious, you’ll know how much anxiety impacts your heart — the pounding, the skip beats, the elephant’s weight crushing down. This is because your nervous system, an involuntary and reflexive, “behind-the-scenes” mechanism that helps to keep us alive, is stuck on…
