A mother drove her university-age daughter straight from the airport to Genki Vitality, the contrast therapy studio in Auckland's Grey Lynn where I have, genuinely, the best job in the world. No pit stop. No "how was your flight." Just: we're going in.
The daughter had tousled curls and the expression of someone who was game but mildly alarmed. We did some breathwork first. The mother settled quickly, focused, present. The daughter took longer. You could see her brain running the numbers on whether this was a reasonable way to spend a Tuesday.
Then they went into the ice bath together. The daughter lasted about thirty seconds before she got out, laughing and shaking and looking genuinely shocked. The mother stayed in for three minutes, wrapped herself in a towel afterwards and said, with feeling: "That was incredible."
Later, in the infrared sauna, the daughter mentioned something she did at home when anxiety got bad. She'd press a bag of frozen peas against her chest, right over her heart. Just the cold, right there, until the racing slowed.
I told her about something my own daughter had learned in DBT therapy, that brief cold exposure can interrupt the stress cycle. That even holding an ice cube can work as a grounding tool mid-panic. The daughter looked up. "That's exactly what the peas are doing," she said.
We laughed about the therapeutic potential of the supermarket's frozen aisle.
Why it works
Cold exposure activates the vagus nerve, the highway between your brain and your gut, and one of the main regulators of your stress response. When the vagus nerve is well-toned, which regular cold exposure appears to support, you move in and out of stress states more fluidly. You recover faster. You're less likely to stay stuck in the loop.
Cold and anxiety
For anxiety specifically, the cold forces an abrupt interruption of the mental pattern. It is physically impossible to spiral about your inbox while your body is in cold water. That's not a metaphor. The nervous system simply redirects.
Cold and low mood
For low mood, the evidence keeps building. Cold exposure increases dopamine and norepinephrine, the same neurochemical pathways that antidepressants target. I'm not suggesting cold water replaces medication. But as a complementary practice, what I see daily at Genki is consistent. People arrive low and grey. They leave with a different quality of aliveness in their eyes. Not cured. Not transformed. Just more present.
A ritual of her own
And then I think about my own daughter.
What started for her as a way of using cold when anxiety was high has evolved into something much less clinical. These days, she has another little ritual: she fills a bowl with water, throws in a handful of ice cubes and plunges her face straight in.
It started as a nervous-system tool. Now it's become one of her beauty rituals too.
She swears by it for that fresh, awake, post-cold glow, the kind that makes your skin look alive and your face look like you've actually had enough sleep.
Which brings us neatly back to the frozen peas.
Sometimes we're looking for some complicated wellness solution when the answer is sitting in the freezer. Or floating in a bowl on the bathroom bench.
Cold is cold.
And sometimes, your nervous system and your skin both seem to appreciate the memo.
TempTango, for the ritual of heat, cold, and whatever comes with it. Shop the range
