Transforming Anxiety with Cold Water Therapy: My Wild Healing Journey

Marie Smith
Jul 8
2 min read

Updated: Jul 9

There's a reason why so many people who try open water swimming, wild swimming or dipping....whatever you want to call it! It's the amazing mental health and wellbeing benefits that so many of us have experienced.

After being afraid of the open water for so long, while crippled with anxiety and weighed down by depression, I decided to give cold water therapy a go! Talking therapy helped me begin the climb, I knew I had to add something else into the mix. I didn’t know then that the sea would be my sanctuary.

Cold Water Therapy = A Quiet Mind

My first open water swim in the sea at Southend wasn’t graceful; it was cold. Sharp. Breath-snatching. But strangely calming. That water demanded presence. It silenced my mind, which was like a box of jumping frogs!

It was like medicine. Week by week, my nervous system softened. My shoulders dropped. My smile began to return. In the cold, breathtaking water, my mind couldn’t overthink. It could only be.

Finding Joy in the Small Things

As the water healed me, so did the world around me. I began to notice the little things: sunshine on my skin, birdsong in the air, waves brushing the sand like breath.

Nature offered more than beauty. It offered truth.

One day, when things were especially bad, I forced myself to visit the beach. There were big waves and a group of us began jumping around, giggling and screaming like children. We laughed until time stopped, and for those few precious moments, I had no worries. That day reminded me joy doesn’t have to be distant. It just needs space. It still brings a big smile to my face today, remembering the joy that we all experienced that day.

The Power of Community

The beach became my sanctuary, and a place to meet like minded women. Fellow swimmers seeking something deeper: freedom, courage, connection.

We shared swims, stories, silence. Friendships formed. Vulnerability doesn’t feel so frightening when it’s shared in saltwater.

The Birth of Wilderness Waves

What started as a personal lifeline grew into something bigger: Wilderness Waves. A swim group for women cultivating courage, connection, and the wildness that sets you free. Together we swim, we laugh, we face the cold. We rise stronger.

Intra Wilderness: Transformation That Stays

Intra Wilderness brings all the strands together: therapy, nature, mindset, and movement. Rapid Transformational Therapy helps rewrite your story. Cold water therapy helps you live the new chapter. Healing isn't just mental, it’s emotional, physical, elemental.