First Psychology blog

While people have been cold water swimming for centuries, its popularity has soared in recent years owing to its incredible health benefits. The effect of the cold water not only improves our physical health, but it also has a powerful impact on our mental wellbeing. How does cold water swimming effect our body? When we submerge ourselves in cold water, our body goes into fight or flight mode due to the sudden shock. This then triggers the stress hormone, noradrenaline, to kick into action, making us feel more alert. How can this boost our physical health? Ongoing research has found that there are many physical benefits of immersing yourself in cold water. Because your body has to work harder to keep warm when you’re in cold water, it speeds up your metabolism, which in turn aids weight loss and promotes better sleep. Your heart pumps more blood to your organs, improving circulation, reducing inflammation of muscles and flushing toxins from the blood. When your body goes into flight or...

The use of social media has grown exponentially over the last couple of decades, with a staggering 5.03 billion people worldwide now connecting online. In July 2022, the Datareportal overview reported that: 59% of the world uses social media (4.7 billion people) there were 227 million new social media users in the last year alone the average time spent on social media is almost 2.5 hours a day While this might not surprise you, the negative impact social media has on our mental wellbeing might. Of course, social media has many positives but when you begin to feel it is having more negative effects on your mental health, it’s time to make some changes. How social media can negatively impact our mental health Constant use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and many others can affect us both mentally and physically. From feelings of anxiety and symptoms of depression to disruptive sleep patterns, these can take their toll on our overall wellbeing if ...