Loading practices
Loading practices
Areas › Your body › Grounding and settling
This is one of the few things that works when you are too far gone to concentrate on anything. It asks for no skill and no privacy beyond a tap. Lean over the sink, hold the cold against your face, breathe out slowly while it is there. If cold makes you flinch or feels punishing, leave it and use something warmer instead.
and sent down water from the sky to cleanse you (Quran 8:11). The same verse ends with hearts made strong and feet made firm, which is close to what you are reaching for at the sink.
الأنفال
إِذۡ يُغَشِّيكُمُ ٱلنُّعَاسَ أَمَنَةࣰ مِّنۡهُ وَيُنَزِّلُ عَلَيۡكُم مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مَآءࣰ لِّيُطَهِّرَكُم بِهِۦ وَيُذۡهِبَ عَنكُمۡ رِجۡزَ ٱلشَّيۡطَٰنِ وَلِيَرۡبِطَ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِكُمۡ وَيُثَبِّتَ بِهِ ٱلۡأَقۡدَامَ
Remember when He gave you sleep as a reassurance from Him, and sent down water from the sky to cleanse you, to remove Satan’s pollution from you, to make your hearts strong and your feet firm
Qur’an 8:11read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
There is no trial of face cooling in this evidence set, so treat the mechanism as a plausible one rather than a proven route. The nearest relevant study randomised people to hear relaxing music before a laboratory stressor and found their autonomic nervous system recovered faster, while the effect on cortisol was less clear. That much supports the general idea that a simple outside input can shift the body's state, without telling you how much cold water does.
Thoma MV, La Marca R, Brönnimann R, Finkel L, Ehlert U, Nater UM. (2013). The effect of music on the human stress response.. PloS one doi
Strength of evidence: long taught, never tested. Widely used and long taught. No trial has established that it works.
Cold on the face triggers a reflex that slows the heart, and it does that without needing your cooperation.
Skip the cold if you have a heart condition, unless a doctor has told you it is fine.
Five minutes chosen for the state you are actually in beats twenty minutes of open sitting. Pick the one labelled stressed, or cannot sleep, or about to walk into work.
If sitting still with your eyes closed has never worked, do it moving. Walking, washing up, gardening: the exercise is the same, and there is something to hold on to.
Cross your arms over your chest, hook your thumbs together, and tap your shoulders slowly, left then right. You set the pressure and the speed.