Cold winter day! You get up and see lots of snow on the ground.  It’s sunny outside, but you know that the sun doesn’t make the air warm. Outside temperatures are freezing. 

On a cold winter day like this you might think of going skiing, sledding, or building a snowman, in your warmest winter gear. But of course, you wouldn’t think of going outside in a swimsuit and jumping in a cold icy lake. 

A year ago, I would not think of it either. But now it is different.

I’ve been observing my mom swimming in icy lakes and dumping cold water on herself for a while. I even did the water dumping once or twice before. You go outside in the snow in a swimsuit and a bucket of cold water and dump it on yourself. But it was not a consistent activity, like I said it was only a few times.

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This winter I decided to go extreme and try to actually swim in icy water. No special suits that warms me up or  hot tubs around, just me and the ice.  

I tried it and I absolutely loved it! It was amazing!

Of course at some point it was uncomfortable and cold, but the feeling I got afterwards was hard to describe. The feeling was AWESOME. After swimming in the cold water I felt light as a feather.

It felt so good that I decided to make it a regular activity and it became my hobby.

To defined a hobby – it is an action or activity that you do on a regular basis that you enjoy.

Yes, I do enjoy swimming or jumping in the cold icy lakes. It is still a new hobby for me. I am planning on continuing it. Sometimes it is hard to get into right mindset to do it. It requires time, discipline and courage. But I know that the kids can do hard things! That is why I do it, no matter how hard it seems!

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