The Tidal Year x Mental Health Swims

This blog post is written by Freya Bromley, author of The Tidal Year

When people ask me how to get into cold water swimming, I usually suggest starting in September when the water is warmest and keep going throughout winter if you can. I followed none of this advice myself when I started swimming back in 2021. It was the first of January, and I was meeting my friend Rohanna at Hampstead Heath Ladies Pond for the New Year swim. We’d met at a bereavement retreat the year before and bonded after sharing our experiences of sibling loss. Rohanna said she started each year with a dip. I thought that sounded like something a woman in a film would do, so I agreed to go with her. At that time, I was feeling a lot of grief and despair. Then I climbed down the metal lamber into the amber-coloured pond and the shock of cold water melted everything away. Since then, I’ve been totally hooked.

I love the post-swim glow. The way my skin feels ablaze, and my body rushes with endorphins. Swimming teaches you how to have control over stress responses which is something that’s incredibly helpful for the trauma of grief. On that New Year’s Day Swim, women bustled around a trestle table laden with cakes and cold sausage rolls. Hot mulled wine was passed around. People were chatting and strangers became friends. And that’s what’s kept me returning. The community. The camaraderie. The friends.

Swimming was also how I met Miri, my best friend. Together we went on an adventure swimming in every tidal pool in Britain. The adventure took us from a pool hidden in the cliffs of fishing-village Polperro to the quarry lagoon of Abereiddi via Trinkie Wick where locals meet each year to give the pool wall a fresh lick of paint. With every swim—and every stranger I met in the water—I learned that everyone has a reason why they swim. I like to chat to people by the poolside and find the conversation often touches on death, divorce or depression. We’re all in the water to be well and stay well.

I’ve always admired how Mental Health Swims bring people together around this shared commitment for wellness. Community is so important. And it’s the main reason I’d suggest seeking out tidal pools. The news and social media often make us think that the world is quite a scary place, full of anger and disagreement. But when you visit a tidal pool, you’ll see that the world so many of us talk about wanting exists in these special places. We want the same things: community, joy, safety for future generations. When people come together to fundraise, protect and conserve shared places in our coastal communities, that’s what their wishing for.

Notes:

The Tidal Year by Freya Bromley is available wherever you usually buy your books.