How To Make Raising Puppies Less Stressful
February 5, 2024
by Diane Zahorodny
The last few years have been….something else. Stressful to say the least. I imagine I am not alone when I say, it was starting to get to me. I was getting unreasonably annoyed with inanimate objects and any attempts to stay informed about current events resulted in a sour pit of doom in my stomach.
You may wonder what this has to do with breeding, fostering and raising puppies. Well, nothing and everything.
This stress is no good for us or for our pets. And raising a litter of puppies is difficult and stressful enough. So I thought I’d share two simple things that have basically changed our lives for the better making these stressors much easier to deal with.
The Wim Hof Method
What I am talking about is called the Wim Hof Method (Wim Hof is a Dutch guy, aka The Iceman) which involves breathing exercises and cold therapy. https://www.wimhofmethod.com/
Now, if you froze at the word ‘cold’…I am with you. I hated the cold. It took me 9 months to finally try the cold therapy but I’m glad I did. So just hang with me.
In April of 2020, my husband started the Wim Hof breathing technique (Wim didn’t invent it, just popularized it) because he heard that it made working out easier but soon realized that it also reduced his stress and gave him more energy and mental clarity. Days also started to seem longer, not in a drag-on-forever way, but in a more fully-engaged-in-the-moment way. I started the breathing in Oct 2020 and noticed the same changes. The videos below show how to do it.
So what does this breathing actually do to your body?
Increases oxygen delivered to your cells
Raises your body’s pH making it more alkaline and less acidic (low pH has been linked to many diseases)
Reduces inflammation (which is linked to depression among many other things)
It’s more effective (and faster and easier) than meditation alone and it’s supposed to allow you to tap into the deeper parts of your brain, ultimately, allowing you to consciously control your autonomic nervous system, something the medical community thought was impossible (there are lots of videos and research about Wim and the method).
It has helped people with autoimmune diseases, MS, arthritis, Lyme disease, diabetes, asthma, addiction, depression and PTSD. It sounds too good to be true but Wim may have really stumbled onto something. He’s broken 26 world records (including climbing Everest in just shorts and shoes) using his method and has taught many other people to do things that science thought was impossible.
What’s my breathing routine?
In the winter do the breathing in the morning under the covers before I get up and it feels great (it’s a nice way to delay getting up while still being productive) and in the summer I do them on our front porch in the sun. Sometimes I get a good, buzzy feeling, sometimes I hear the sound of cicadas (reminds me of summer in the Midwest : ) and, one time, I got that emotional rolling feeling in my chest that you get just before you cry and then I started laughing.
I wake up, go pee, blow my nose and drink a glass of water (we dehydrate in our sleep)
Then I set another glass of water and tissues next to me (I often need a sip of water or to blow my nose during)
I either lay down in bed or sit on our front porch in the sun
I do 3 or 4 rounds of breathing (see the videos above for how to do it). I used to count my breaths but now I just do what feels ‘right’ which is somewhere b/w 20 & 40. I breathe in through my nose and breath out through either my nose or mouth (doesn’t matter). Usually takes me about 20 minutes.
NOTE: Do not do the breathing while driving or in water. Sit or lay down. If you have a heart condition, you should research these techniques before attempting. This technique has not been studied in young children or pregnant women. You may want to check with your doctor b/c I am certainly not one (although it is rare that a doctor will see value in this type of self care). Always listen to your body.
Exposure to Cold Makes You Warmer?
Ironically, exposing your body to cold will actually make you warmer - I know, it’s crazy – and it will lower your resting heart rate. I started taking cold showers on Dec 9, 2020 and have continued almost every morning…I hated the first two but they have gotten progressively easier almost to the point that they don’t feel that cold...I still find it hard to believe. My husband can’t believe I’m doing it and thinks I must be a pod person.
The idea behind the cold therapy is that because humanity has mastered living in our comfort zone (living indoors, central heat, AC, clothes, hats, coats, mittens, heating pads, saunas, hot showers, etc.) our skin is no longer exposed to extremes. It sounds like the consequence of all this comfort has, in part, led to an increase in heart disease. I know, that sounds weird. It’s because we have about 60,000 miles of arteries, veins and capillaries which have millions of tiny muscles and, since we live in comfort all year, these muscles never get stimulated and atrophy which forces our hearts to pump harder to compensate.
How the Hell Am I Able to Do This?
The cold therapy took me months to, ahem, warm up to. When my husband first started the cold showers back in April 2020 I thought, “You go right ahead but keep that shit away from me.” I was always cold. I wore a scarf indoors all winter. The cold was my nemesis and I finally realized it was ruining my quality of life six months out of the year. I hated the idea of cold showers but I thought about the quote by psychologist Carl Jung, “That which we need the most will be found where we least want to look.” What a jerk. When I realized that gradual exposure to cold actually decreases your sensitivity to the cold, I decided to try it.
What’s My Cold Shower Routine?
It’s not about making yourself jump into an icy cold shower and powering through – you take it slow. Start with a regular warm shower and end with 5 or 10 seconds of cold water (50-60 degrees F). You go at your own pace and add a few seconds each day. One of Wim’s mottos is “Don’t force it”. And if you’re thinking, “No way, José”…just know that my 80 year old mother tried it and liked it. She also likes the breathing exercises.
I take a regular warm shower
I try to notice the thoughts in my head dreading the cold part at the end and then let those thoughts go. We are all very good at talking ourselves out of the stuff we need but don’t want to do. The anticipation is the worst part. Just let it go.
At the end of my warm shower, I take a deep surrendering breath and turn it all the way to cold
I started with only 10 seconds of cold and then added 3 seconds each day. Now I’m at 2.5 to 3 minutes
Breathe deeply and slowly. My first time I made all the silly noises you make when hit by cold water but it won’t take many times before you can relax, surrender to the cold and breath slowly.
I find that singing really helps me to breathe and pass the time. It’s also just fun. My favorite cold shower songs are Only The Horses, Shake It Off, Footloose, Let’s Hear it for the Boy, I Wanna Dance with Somebody and I Want Your Sex
Use a timer or you will cheat : )
The ultimate goal is to start taking ice baths. I know…madness. But regular people do this and they don’t feel cold while they do it – no shivering, no chattering, no red skin when they get out (believe me, in the beginning I watched the videos looking for signs of misery). You have to condition your mind and body to get to this point but Wim teaches people to do it in just a few days. After three weeks of cold showers I already noticed that I was not as cold when I go outside and rarely need to wear gloves. We have done multiple cold plunges in the Colorado rivers near us…in the winter and lived to tell the tales.
Overall, we feel significantly better, physically and emotionally, as a result of the breathing exercises and cold showers. It’s not like I don’t still have days where I feel down but they are much less unpleasant and farther between. Something worth noting, some people who practice the WHM experience various types of detoxification symptoms such as cold or flu like symptoms for a couple days, headache, irritability or poor sleep on and off during the first month or two. We haven’t noticed much ourselves but I thought I’d mention it.
Give it a try. You might surprise yourself. We are all stronger than we think : ) https://www.wimhofmethod.com/
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