Go Big or Go Home!

On Wednesday night we had our first full moon of the Spring, formally known as the Pink Moon. From a purely astrological point of view, the first full moon of the spring takes place during the cardinal air sign of Libra and as my fellow Librans will tell you, that means it's all about balance, harmony and interdependence.

Its appearance during Libra means that April brings a greater need for socialisation and connection with others which, if you think about it, is quite in keeping with what naturally happens at the beginning of the season. Warmer, lighter nights bring us yawning and stretching out of hibernation and give us a gentle nudge towards peopling!

(I have no idea if that is a real word but it sure as hell is now!)

The pink moon also represents the beginning of blossoming flowers everywhere.

For me, this years pink moon brought something completely different, totally new and pretty bloody fantastic! (insert excited face emoji here!)

I had my very first pink moon dip in the North Sea at Blyth. Some refer to it as wild swimming, although I didn’t really manage much swimming, but it was one of the most incredible experiences of my adult life!

There is a plethora of research that shouts about the health benefits of this practice, and it's getting more and more popular as time goes on.

I’ve always been a paddler but the thought of setting foot in the freezing cold North Sea at 8pm on a rainy April evening was not something that I had ever considered.

As much as I never say no to a challenge, this just seemed like utter craziness to me.

What I have noticed over the last few months though was just how many people are doing this.

I was at the beach in January watching people 30 years older than me wandering into the sea to wild swim. It was –2 degrees on the shore and yet they were coming out with smiles on their faces. The more I saw this, the more I realised that there had to be something to it.

Throw my crazy Blyth Bluetit’s friend Katie into the mix, and it was always going to happen. It was just a matter of when!

So, as I stood on the darkening shore listening to the roar of the waves, trying to get changed into my swimming costume and questioning every one of the life choices that had brought me to this specific moment, I realised I had two options.

I could bail and probably regret it, or I could woman up, (yes, you read that right), and just walk my tush into that freezing cold water, hope to high heaven that there wasn’t some random hungry great white shark that had gotten lost on its way to somewhere else, and suck up the experience.

After all, you only live once so you gotta go big, or you gotta go home!

As the six of us crazy ladies began to head towards the crashing waves, my heart was pounding in my chest. The beach has always been my spiritual home - somewhere I go to ground myself and figure things out when problems hit, but I never go in the sea now other than to paddle. As kids, we were in all the time until I watched Jaws. Since then, I have never gone deeper than my ankles, so this was not just me fighting the urge to avoid hypothermia, but also a fight against a fear that has crippled me for years.

Stephen Spielberg has a lot to answer for!

That first step into the waves was excruciatingly cold but by that point, I was committed and there was no way I was going to be the only one not to go right in!

I have a reputation as a bad ass to keep up you know 😉

The strange thing was, the further in we went, the less I began to feel the cold. By the time we had gotten to our waists, I was feeling incredible. We spent around 20 minutes in there before we finally decided it was probably about time to get out.

Physically, I felt fantastic but what I hadn’t expected was the mental lift. As I mentioned before, there is a plethora of research now that confirms the benefits of wild swimming and cold-water therapies for both physical and mental health, but in the space of 20 minutes, I went from having had a difficult week to not caring because I felt ecstatic. I had the most incredible buzz, and I couldn’t stop smiling to the point that my jaw hurt when I got up the next morning. I haven’t felt that happy in a while!

Not only was I grinning like the village idiot, but I had movement in my right side without pain. I have arthritis that affects me quite badly at times, but for the first time in a while, there was no pain and no stiffness at all for a good while after. It allowed me a range of movement that I regularly struggle with, and my body felt 20 years younger.

On top of that, I officially became a bluetit with a badge and everything! If I’m honest, if there’s a badge involved, you can pretty much get me to agree to anything! 😛

In all seriousness though, I cannot recommend this enough. It was a spiritual, meditative experience that allows you to disconnect from whatever is going on because in the water, you have to focus on the now. You’re focused on breathing, the temperature, the feel of the sea. It takes away the worries and the stress of what is going on outside and allows you to just be in the moment. This is something that in today's world we all need more of, and its right there, free to whoever wants to take advantage of it.

Until next time........

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