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'Wild swimming helps me process the grief of losing my son'
Whether it’s for physical or mental health reasons, there’s no shortage of people extolling the benefits of swimming outdoors.
On Jules and Greg’s Wild Swim, actors Julie Wilson Nimmo and Greg Hemphill meet some of those people who regularly brave the elements to take a dip in our most beautiful wild swimming spots.
Among them they meet Aileen Peter who tells them how she has found a release in cold water therapy, in the face of great personal tragedy.
Aileen began wild swimming after the death from cancer of her 11-year-old son Joe. Before he died, he had a simple message for his family, one that Aileen has taken to heart.
She recalls: "He said ‘I do want you to think about me, but I want you to live happy lives’.
“And I just thought it was a gift because he knew that our lives would stop and we might not want to go on, or we might be sad the whole of our lives.
"I think, if Joe can say that to me when he’s dying, and he knows he’s dying, then… I can kind of continue living and be OK with it and not feel guilty about it.”
Entering a different world
Cold water swimming is one activity that allows Aileen to respect Joe's wishes.
“It’s a very brave thing to do, to put yourself in cold water,” she explains. “Your body goes into fight or flight.”
Aileen finds the cold focuses her mind. “My brain starts to slow down, I’ve forgotten all the things in my life that I’m trying to maybe, like, process."
On top of this, spending time outside in nature brings its own rewards.
"It’s breathtakingly beautiful, even in Scotland. On top of the water’s amazing but under the water I discovered it’s a whole different world and the sound’s different, so everything switches off and you’re very vulnerable.
"So when you come out you feel really relaxed 'cause you’ve let everything out into the water it’s all kind of like evaporating away."
A short dip can be transformative, leaving Aileen feeling "invincible".
"It’s that kind of feeling where you think, actually, life is really flipping great and to be part of it is amazing.“
Occasionally, this cold water therapy can surface Aileen's raw emotions.
"I cold water dipped one day with a group of people and when I went into the water I started crying. I thought, that was weird... kind of not pleasant but quite OK.
"I think sometimes when you go into the water and you've maybe got stuff that you’ve got from your past... it’s almost like it’s a release."
And while that may be upsetting, Aileen believes that wild swimming has given her the means to regularly process her emotions.
"Grief is grief. I mean, I’m never gonna get over Joe dying, ever," she says.
"Grief is all consuming and you need something that’s going to counteract that and give you that joy of life, and that’s what being in cold water does."
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