Chill Therapy: Recalibrate Your Nervous System and Your Health
This is the EWN Podcast Network.
Cathy Worthington:Welcome to late boomers, our podcast guide to creating your third act with style, power, and impact. Hi. I'm Kathy Worthington.
Merry Elkins:And I'm Mary Elkins. Join us as we bring you conversations with entrepreneurs, entertainers, and people with vision who are making a difference in the world.
Cathy Worthington:Everyone has a story, and we'll take you along for the ride on each interview, recounting the journey our guests have taken to get where they are, inspiring you to create your own path to success. Let's get started.
Cathy Worthington:Hi. I'm Kathy Worthington. Welcome to the latest edition of late boomers. Today, we boomers are welcoming an incredible guest who is redefining the way we think about stress recovery and peak performance.
Merry Elkins:And I'm Mary Elkins. Chris Rice is the founder and CEO of Chillpod, a state of the art cold immersion system designed to help high achieving women reset their nervous system, boost energy, and reclaim their mental well-being in just two minutes a day. Welcome, Chris. I can't wait to hear about this.
Kris Rice:Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.
Cathy Worthington:It's a new subject for us. So thanks
Kris Rice:for even more fun.
Cathy Worthington:Yeah. Please tell us the backstory about how you started and how you find yourself in the place you're in today.
Kris Rice:Sure. Happy to. So, was just telling you ladies before we hit record that the spoiler alert is that I also hate cold water. So, like, let's just preface with that of I didn't I'm not one of those people that was, like, yearning to go jump in the cold. That was not the story.
Kris Rice:So, I am a mom to two young girls. They're roughly teenagers now. And when my younger one was a toddler, she had a lot of mental health struggles. And so I stepped into the role of really advocating and trying to find solutions for her mental well-being. And along the path of supporting her and finding, you know, creative different ways to support her and feeling better, I really was able to recognize my own struggle of anxiety, perfectionism, just trying to hold it all together and reaching a breaking point.
Kris Rice:And so in really realizing that and kind of having her as a mirror, I realized I needed to do my own self discovery and what could help me feel better day to day. So Mhmm. I came into it with a pretty curious mindset just what could be out there, what could I try, and I really want a more natural approach. I tried meditation, movement, all of these things that are wonderful and I still love to this day. But the reality was I was building all these practices that took a very long time to be able to fit into my day.
Kris Rice:You know, if meditation takes a half an hour and then I still need to go for a walk and I need to do all of these things, it Mhmm. Adds up and I just was feeling buried by my solutions again. And so it was from that place that one of my dear friends kind of kept poking at the idea of, Chris, I really think you should try cold plunging. Like, I think it's gonna hit home for you. I really think it's gonna support you.
Kris Rice:And I was like, no. Literally, no. It just sounds terrible. I don't wanna do it. No.
Kris Rice:Thank you. And so I said that for a couple of months and she stuck on it. She was like, hey. I've been doing it for a while. I genuinely think you should just try it.
Kris Rice:And so from that point, I was like, alright. Fine. I'm just gonna give it a go. I might completely hate it, but maybe it's the thing that has been missing for me. So I secretly bought a horse trough.
Kris Rice:I put it in my backyard. We started making our own ice, and the reality is from that first plunge, it really was like the reset that my body needed. And so from that point forward, it started this whole trajectory of trying to help more women understand the benefits of going in, understanding how you can feel.
Merry Elkins:How it changed. Talk tell us how it changed other women and changed your life.
Kris Rice:Yeah. For sure. So for myself, when I first started plunging, what I noticed was the increase in my dopamine. So I would get out and I was legitimately just smiling. And I was like, okay.
Kris Rice:That's not like usual.
Merry Elkins:How long did
Merry Elkins:you stay in and how cold was
Kris Rice:Good question. So when I first did it, I it was straight up horse horse water. It was hose water. So, it was just it was early spring, so the hose water was probably in the mid fifties, something like that. So it was cold, but it wasn't as intense as I can do now.
Kris Rice:So, when I did that, I wanted to stay in for one song, and my one song was, like, two and a half minutes. I ended up staying in for seven minutes.
Cathy Worthington:Wow.
Kris Rice:Yeah. But it wasn't super cold. When you hear 55, you think that's, like, intensely cold. You might be surprised. Like, if you turned your shower cold, that would be about equal.
Kris Rice:So it's not frigid, but I will always say it's not about how long you can do it, how cold you can do it. Like, that just felt right to me in that moment. Now I'm able to do a a colder temperature, but I do it for a shorter amount of time. There's no way I can do seven minutes in what I do now.
Merry Elkins:How cold?
Kris Rice:I do about forty six. So now now I upgraded. We have the chiller that I can actually say what temperature versus, like, my little boxes of ice that I would put in there. So
Cathy Worthington:Oh, wow. Yeah.
Merry Elkins:So in
Kris Rice:the beginning, that was really what I noticed was I just felt happier. Just felt better. Happier. Happy year is good. Like and especially If you've been underwater for a long time, I guess, pun intended, like, if you've been buried by stress and anxiety for a long time to just not even know why you're smiling, but to feel good is a really good relief.
Kris Rice:So that was what I noticed first.
Cathy Worthington:What really finally made you try it? Just your girlfriend urging urging, or did you read about it? Did you know someone that had changed?
Kris Rice:Good question. It definitely am, like, a curious person who will listen to the podcast. I'll, you know, read the books. I'll do all the backstory to kinda help myself understand it. And then she's just a trusted girlfriend.
Kris Rice:So I was like, she knows me, And if she's saying it works, I can trust her. Like, she's not gonna lead me in the wrong direction. So I kinda had the science and the research behind it, but then also a trusted person saying, just try it. You know? And I think it was when I finally let go of, like, the perfectionism of what it had to look like to say, okay.
Kris Rice:Like, it can be this ugly little trough in my backyard, but it gives me an opportunity to try it, and I don't have to be committed to it. If I hate it, I'm out a hundred bucks. Like, at the end of the day, that's it. So, I think that it was the combination of those two things, but having somebody that knew me and kinda knows how I am and how I function to say that was meaningful to me.
Merry Elkins:So That's nice. Would you I have two questions here for you that are brewing in my head.
Kris Rice:Yeah.
Merry Elkins:Could do you think starting with cold showers might be a good way? And do you get into a hot shower first and then turn on the cold, or you just turn on the cold? And
Kris Rice:Yeah. It's a great question. And I think that's a wonderful place to start. I really do because it is pretty accessible. Everyone has access to a shower of some sort.
Kris Rice:And even if you're in a warm climate, the water can go cold enough that you're gonna get the feeling of it. And when you do it, to get the most benefit, you would wanna be hot for your, like, normal shower, and then at the end, you turn it cold. So full transparency, I think that's harder. So you're cozy and warm from your shower. You feel good.
Kris Rice:You're relaxed. And then you turn it cold and half your body is getting cold and the other half is still warm. So I'm not trying to discourage anyone from it. I think it's a great place to start. And I say that just because if you go and do it and you're like, oh my gosh.
Kris Rice:This is torture. I hate it. Just know there's other ways to explore it. That's not the only way.
Cathy Worthington:Okay. Yeah. Because I used to always turn the water cold because they tell you to do that for your hair if you're washing your hair.
Merry Elkins:I do that too.
Cathy Worthington:Pores, but I could I I got to a point where I hated it, and I know I don't do it anymore.
Kris Rice:Me too. I did it, like, five times.
Cathy Worthington:Take a cold shower.
Kris Rice:No. I would rather try
Cathy Worthington:to climb into cold water than to shower with it.
Kris Rice:And then other thing you could try too is, you know, if if the cold shower is miserable, which I 100% get, you could also just do one body part. So you could have a bowl of water with ice in it if you wanted to, and you could sink your hands in that, you could sink your feet, you can even do your face if you wanted to just for ten seconds. And then you could, you know, obviously with your hands or something, could maybe explore doing that a little bit longer, but it's not to be discounted. It's still a version of cold therapy and you can try it and see if maybe that is a way to ease you into other ways too.
Merry Elkins:Well, let me ask you another question that I've had brewing in my brain. What are the well, you are now an expert on it, but what do the other experts say why cold therapy is so effective for mental wellness? And Mhmm. What what have you learned?
Kris Rice:Yeah. That's a great question. I think the main reason that it's so effective for our mental wellness is because it resets our nervous system. So you probably are aware, but I'll do like a quick little overview of so your nervous system has two ways of processing. It's either in rest and digest, it's calm and relaxed like we probably are right now, or it's in fight or flight.
Kris Rice:It's preparing for something bad. It's ready to, like, send you in the other direction. So the power of cold plunging is that you're intentionally putting your body into fight or flight, but only for a really short time. So where we could like for myself, I was in fight or flight for years and I had no idea until I got out of it and could recognize the difference. But if you're doing that act of actually putting yourself intentionally into fight or flight, knowing there's an end point and then allowing your body to recover from that.
Kris Rice:That's why you have so much better resilience to stress, it's why you're able to clear out that mental brain fog, things like that because your body is learning how to really process and respond to stress differently.
Merry Elkins:Yeah.
Cathy Worthington:I have a friend that does it and he says it actually gets rid of joint pain for like most of the day.
Kris Rice:Most of the day in the joints. Yeah. It's powerful for inflammation. If that's something that you struggle with, it's it's a great thing to explore and just try and see if it can can help. And that you touched on a really great point too is the benefits that you get, it's pretty amazing to me because few things can you do the hard thing and you immediately feel different.
Kris Rice:You know, if you work out, you might feel a little bit different, but your body doesn't transform in that one time where this you instantly feel different and better, but then it also trickles down slowly. So where a lot of things you'll have spikes of those hormone changes, this is like a slow release afterwards. So when you're talking about inflammation, I can see why that would last, you know, for most of the day if you're able to do that in the morning. It probably just slowly builds back over the day, and then you may do it again tomorrow.
Merry Elkins:Does it affect your metabolism?
Kris Rice:Yeah. It definitely speeds up your metabolism too. So Yeah.
Cathy Worthington:It's like it's good for weight loss. Right?
Kris Rice:It is. Yep. It definitely speeds up your metabolism, and it helps you gain more, lean muscle mass too.
Merry Elkins:Oh. Oh. Good for older people.
Kris Rice:Good for everyone.
Cathy Worthington:Yeah. Yeah. Do you think cold therapy is more transformative for mental or physical well-being?
Kris Rice:Oh, that's such a good question. I think it depends on the person. So I think it is a really personal practice where one person's body is gonna respond to it differently than another one is. I can say for myself, I definitely the mental benefits were far and above the physical. But then, like, I look at my husband and he's had a ton of physical changes from that.
Kris Rice:He would have chronic back pain, and it was all stress related. So if he goes and plunges now, it's gone. He's like, I used to have to do all these things to try and alleviate it. He's like, okay. I'll go hop in.
Kris Rice:I'll come back out, and I always feel better. So it's really personal to what you kind of have going on in your body, but I think everybody will have a mix of both to some degree too. Mhmm.
Merry Elkins:So you do it in the morning?
Kris Rice:I do. I do it in the morning. My hack is that I do it go I go from pajamas to my swimsuit because if I go to clothes, it never happens. So Yeah. That's that's my hack.
Kris Rice:I realized it the other day.
Cathy Worthington:Yeah. People I know that do it, they go straight to the pool or whatever they're plunging in, like, without yeah. Right from the bed.
Kris Rice:Yeah. Yeah. It it's kinda the easiest way to do it. You're, like, you're setting up your day. You've done maybe the hardest thing you're gonna tax your body with that day, and then, you know, it's impacting how you show up through the rest of the day.
Kris Rice:So the morning is a great time both for that as well as just reinforcing your circadian rhythm, reminding your body it's time to get up and get going for the day, all that. You're well aware of it.
Cathy Worthington:If you if you manage to get outside in the cold air Yep. Because most of us would be doing it outside. Yeah. But I know I know you've got alternative stuff you're gonna tell us about Yeah. In a few minutes.
Merry Elkins:Bathtub too.
Kris Rice:Absolutely. You could totally you could fill a bathtub just with cold water. Some people will do, you know, bags of ice or make your own ice and throw it in there too. There's lots of ways to do it. And it's funny when you said the cold water or the cold air outside, it made me think, maybe I'm just crazy, but I actually think it's easier to do in the cold weather because your body acclimates in that little bit of time.
Kris Rice:And so, like, from my walk from the door to my plunge, I'm able to I mean, I'm in my swimsuit. It's, like, 40 some degrees. You kinda get used to it a little bit, so it lessens the blow. When it's actually really nice in the summer, I think it's harder because you've got super nice weather, you've got sunshine on you, and then you're going in the cold. Right.
Kris Rice:I think it's harder.
Merry Elkins:Oh, much harder. Yeah. I can only imagine.
Cathy Worthington:Yeah. So
Merry Elkins:what do you think most people get wrong about cold plunging, which I think we both got wrong before we started to talk to you?
Kris Rice:Yeah. Oh, I think that the number one thing people get wrong is focusing so much on the distaste for the cold. So there is not a person I talk to that their first response is not, I hate cold water. I'm not doing it. I hate it.
Kris Rice:And it's just not about hating the cold water. It's about realizing what's on the other side of it and how you could actually feel. Because if you can transform how you feel and how you think in two minutes, like, isn't there isn't that worth a try?
Merry Elkins:Two minutes. That's it. It is. It is.
Kris Rice:And worst case, you do hate it and you don't feel different, but I have yet to see or talk to anyone that doesn't feel at least a little different. You at least get an energy boost. You at least have some little experience that you're like, makes me curious. Maybe I'll try it again.
Merry Elkins:And so if you're feeling a little down, you get into the cold water and immediately it readjusts your mental Yeah. State?
Kris Rice:Yeah. I mean, I maybe it sounds wild, but I always picture it. I literally feel the shift go from my feet to my head, and it's like it just almost like an electric electricity kind of feel where it, like, just washes that out and I can feel my head and everything just clearing and resetting. And there's nothing else that I do where I feel that kind of immediate shift.
Cathy Worthington:Well, you created a company called Chillpod, and you had women in mind for this. So what did you identified something missing in the market, but tell us about the equipment and how you developed this and what it is.
Kris Rice:Yeah. Absolutely. So, I mean, as I was sitting, it all was born from sitting in my little horse trough. And as I sat in there and was like, I I just have to help more women experience this, and there is such a big barrier to entry. So I kept I would go in there and then I would think about if I could have this be better, what would that be?
Kris Rice:If I could make this truly for a human experience for women to feel confident and, like, curious about getting in there versus so resistant, what would that be? And so I had all these ideas in mind. I got aligned with an incredible product design company and they took all of my many ideas and made it into a real life design. And it is beautiful and spectacular, and the things I love most about it is number one, it is made for the human body. It's made to take an uncomfortable experience and have you feel safe and held.
Kris Rice:And what that looks like is it actually has a chair inside of it. So it's like a lounge chair literally inside of the plunge. So when you sit, your arms are supported, your body's supported and held, and most of all, it's easy. So when I had the horse trough, it would probably shock you how much time and energy I spent making ice and trying to figure out how to get it colder and how to keep the water clean and all of these things. So for me, that was a big part of we're all busy.
Kris Rice:We have limited time. If you're leaning into something like this, you're probably, you know, needing a quick way to make sure that this is, like, taken care of for you. And so that's where I came from with that too, that it's clean. It's you know exactly what temperature it is, all of that good stuff.
Cathy Worthington:How much space does it take up?
Kris Rice:Ah, that was another thing that I took into account too. So if you imagine a lot of the cold plunges, they're really long and rectangular. Right? So they take I
Merry Elkins:don't know.
Kris Rice:They're really big. Seen one. I
Merry Elkins:haven't either.
Kris Rice:You can imagine, basically, like, two bathtubs. They're very long. So, if you find one that is, that style that'll have a chiller with it and all of the purifications done for you, They just get really sizable. And so in my opinion, like, few people have all of this extra space in their backyard or in their garage or wherever they wanna put it. So we flipped it on its head, and we made it this cute little stand up pod that is not a whole lot bigger than your body so that it doesn't take this huge footprint to be able to have it in your space.
Kris Rice:And it's beautiful and helps you feel good about it. Like, it makes you want to go to it versus feeling like you have to go in your Rubbermaid trough. Like, not that fun.
Cathy Worthington:How do you climb in?
Kris Rice:How does
Merry Elkins:that work?
Kris Rice:You just do two steps and you climb over.
Cathy Worthington:Oh. And and getting out is relatively easy for people.
Kris Rice:Yep. Yep. There's a little there's a little armrest even, but honestly, you'd be surprised by the time you do the two steps and you step on the seat where you would actually, where you'll sit on, it's not very far.
Merry Elkins:And and you don't have to fill it every time?
Kris Rice:Mhmm. Exactly. So it keeps it has a filter to keep the water clean, and that's part of the efficiency. I'm an Oregonian, so, like, sustainability is in my heart. And so I always wanna try and find ways to, you know, use less water, use less resources, all of that.
Kris Rice:And so, yeah, the water, if you have it in your home, can be used for easily two to four weeks, and it'll be clean and perfectly fine for you to use.
Cathy Worthington:That's good because I would never waste all the water that goes into
Merry Elkins:a bathtub. Right.
Kris Rice:I know. I know. It kinda breaks your heart when you do that. And on again, like, the green in me also hooks up the hose and then actually waters my plants with the old water. You can do that too.
Merry Elkins:Oh, that's great. Good. I I might try it tomorrow morning in the bathtub.
Kris Rice:You should. I hope you do. I tell me if you do. I wanna know how it goes.
Merry Elkins:I might just try it with my feet too.
Cathy Worthington:Yes. Do you keep yours outside or in the house?
Kris Rice:Mine is outside just because of my space. That's where it works. But you could absolutely have it inside. And I can imagine, you know, if you have especially, like, an especially, like, an area that you live in that has really wide temperature swings, having it in your garage or having it in if you had room in a master bath or something like that, it might be nice to have it inside, but works either way. Oh, great.
Merry Elkins:Do you have any more advice for those of us who might be really scared to try this or or who really hates the cold?
Kris Rice:I'm my number one piece of advice is just to figure out, like, what your why is. If you are feeling stuck and you're just not sure how to change and feel differently, imagine, like, if somebody waved a magic wand and what those things would be that you were like, that would be incredible. I maybe can't even imagine that, and that's meaningful. So if you hold on to what your personal why is, you're inherently gonna connect with that when you're in there, and that's going you have those reasons for, you know, the thoughts that come up for a reason. So I think the more you can make it personal to you and what are those things that you wish that you could change, you know, even just as simple as sleeping better or, you know, being able to work out and feel stronger or whatever those pieces are that would be meaningful to you, hold on to those and watch what happens as you do it because you will start connecting with those.
Merry Elkins:Did you keep a journal about how you felt and how you changed?
Kris Rice:I sure wish I had. That would have been a great idea.
Cathy Worthington:Oh, so we should advise people to try that if they're gonna try the new. Yeah.
Kris Rice:That would be amazing.
Cathy Worthington:Honestly, because
Kris Rice:I was thinking that as I was saying it because I was kinda making, like, a writing gesture that I think it would be awesome if you wrote down your why. What are those things that you're like, oh my gosh. I can't even imagine that. And then to look back a year later or some time period down the road and you're like, oh my goodness. Look at that.
Kris Rice:Maybe I'm not even there, but I'm on the way to that. I can tell. So I think that's meaningful. I'm a huge fan of journaling or writing things down because even if you don't remember doing it or you don't remember the things you wrote down, there is intention in doing that.
Cathy Worthington:Oh, right. Well, we know that you've tried a lot of wellness practices, and you've kind of touched on this already, but why why did cold therapy stand out for you?
Merry Elkins:Oh.
Cathy Worthington:Was it just because it came at you more? The your friend was pushing it?
Kris Rice:Think I think the reason change? I think it's the transformation. It it's the way that you can feel so differently. Literally, the second you get in there, you start to feel different. And so I think it's that paired with the minimal amount of time.
Kris Rice:Both of those are really impactful for me. Having young kids, working full time, all of those things, like, it's really it feels amazing to be, like, on a day where maybe that's the one thing I get to, maybe that's my one self care practice to instead of being like, oh, I only had two minutes to be reminded that two minutes is enough, that two minutes was all I needed that day and I really feel good about that. I think that that's why I love it so much. That paired with feeling better fast, you kinda can't beat it.
Merry Elkins:Yeah. Would you recommend at all doing it at night or does it create too much energy?
Kris Rice:So I can I have a couple opinions about that? For me personally, it definitely makes too much energy. I had a few people recommend it and say they never slept better. I'm know, singing its praises, so I tried it. And that was not true for me.
Kris Rice:I was very energized. I was not able to get a good night's sleep. But like all things, like, maybe for you or someone else, that would be your exact right timing. So I would recommend trying it in the morning, seeing how that goes. And then if you're like, that's not really winding me up.
Kris Rice:It's making me feel relaxed. Then by all means, try it at night. See if that lands for you.
Merry Elkins:Alluding back to the question that Kathy asked you. You said and what you said earlier that your husband does it too. Mhmm. What kind of not to get personal, but did you see a lot of change in him?
Kris Rice:I really did. He
Cathy Worthington:And in the relationship. Curious.
Kris Rice:What was that?
Merry Elkins:And in the relationship.
Kris Rice:Yeah. Great question. So where I had so many of the mental shifts, he definitely had physical shifts fast. He had been on a little bit of a weight loss journey anyways, and I think that honestly, as I look back, I think it made him feel stronger in his own body to go start trying things physically that he didn't want to do or felt just unsure where to start before, like lifting weights. So over the course of him cold plunging more consistently, he started lifting weights for the first time, and then he started doing it more and more consistently.
Kris Rice:And now that's just a part of his practice. And for the longest time, that was not something that he was drawn to. And I just think there's for both of us and for our relationship, I think that recognition that you're doing something really hard intentionally and you're showing up and doing those difficult things, I just think that is meaningful and plays out in a lot of ways that aren't even tangible or you wouldn't even realize they're connected. But I just think there's a thread there where that that sense of resilience and trust that you can make it through really difficult circumstances are that really is it's pretty amazing to see that play out.
Merry Elkins:Mhmm. Well, so what do you think the biggest mindset shift is that people need to make about cold plunging?
Kris Rice:I think it's the well, I I think it's two things. One would be feeling like it's all or nothing. Like, either I am going in super cold water and I'm staying in there for multiple minutes or I'm not cold plunging at all. Like, realize that there's lots of ways to play with that. You know, whether that is playing with your temperature range, the amount of time you're in there, all of that stuff.
Kris Rice:I think that is the main thing. Like, it doesn't have to look one way. You can definitely make it your own. And then also the thought that you're ever going to be like, I love cold water. I love this.
Kris Rice:Like, it's not gonna happen. I still most mornings get up and think, maybe I won't do it today.
Merry Elkins:Do you do it every day?
Kris Rice:Then I do it. I do it almost every day. And, you know, to the ditching perfectionism, I don't do it every day. So I probably do it four or five times. Today, I didn't.
Kris Rice:I was like, you know what? I'm good today. I've done it three days in a row. I'm gonna give my body a little rest, and I'll go back tomorrow. So I think just ditching that idea that you think you're ever going to fully embrace and love the cold, it's okay not to love it.
Kris Rice:I don't love it either. I love being warm. And so, you know, set that aside. That is what it is, and you don't have to try and solve that. Again, think to the other side of the water and what that could be.
Cathy Worthington:When someone's just starting out, would you take an iPhone and put the timer for two minutes? Or how's the best way or pick a song that plays for two minutes or what?
Kris Rice:I would do that. I would, as much as you can, tap into your five senses. So if you're outside, I personally like to close my eyes, but that's just me. You it's really nice to, like, look around and see the trees or have the sun on your face or whatever that is. So give yourself a visual, And then I think sound is a huge piece.
Kris Rice:So, I've kinda jostled around between liking music or I also really love, like, a short little mantra that I'll listen to. I really like Gabby Bernstein, so I'll listen to hers for two and a half minutes. But to your point, pick something that's, like, doable. And even if it's a song you love, know that you can make it till the chorus and then get out, and that's fine. And then that's almost a great marker of success too.
Kris Rice:When you finally make it for the full song, you're like, oh my gosh. I did it. It's great.
Merry Elkins:That's great. That's great.
Cathy Worthington:Yeah. So you wanna kinda maybe start slow or start with a limited number of seconds, let's say Mhmm. And build up
Kris Rice:to two minutes. I would I would start max? It really it's very personal, but I feel like two to three minutes is a really good high range. So when you think about cold exposure, it can be anything from 40 degrees to 60 degrees. So that's a really wide range.
Kris Rice:So if I was starting, I would always tell somebody start as close to 60 and do it for fifteen seconds. Maybe then you do it for thirty seconds and just really tune into what your body is saying. If your feet are feet and hands are the most sensitive. So if your feet are feeling like, discomfort to the bone, get out. Like, listen to your body's cues on that, and you will know when to get out.
Kris Rice:And I think that's another thing that is so powerful. We're listening to our intuition. We're listening to our body's guidance. And, again, that's throughout the whole day then. So you've done that once in a very hard setting.
Kris Rice:Now you're gonna listen to that differently through the day.
Cathy Worthington:Yeah. Maybe it's not gonna be so noisy. Your body isn't gonna be talking to you so much.
Kris Rice:Because you're listening more intuitively. You know? You've already done that. So first and foremost, always listen to what your body is saying or whether that's in the water or out. If you get out and again, say your feet are really cold, like, can't warm them up for hours, that's a good sign to be like, nope.
Kris Rice:Went too far that time. How do I dial that back and try it in a different way another time?
Cathy Worthington:Maybe not so freezing cold.
Merry Elkins:Yeah. Yeah.
Kris Rice:Always temperature is a good one to play with.
Merry Elkins:Well, does the water feel like it gets warmer ever? Like, when you're in a swimming pool and you move around, it gets warmer.
Kris Rice:Yeah. A little bit. You know what's funny? It's the opposite. So if you stay still, you get little pockets of warm around you.
Kris Rice:So or if you lean against something, if there's a back or something to it and you lean against that, you get a little warm pocket. And then if you move, you're like, oh, man. So it I do think the intensity is in the beginning, and then the more that you can kinda just center your body, remind yourself you're safe, you're gonna be okay, then that sort of I think the water just feels a little more tolerable.
Cathy Worthington:Wow. So, Chris, I know you have a message for our listeners. If someone listening is struggling with stress or burnout, what's one thing they can do today to feel better?
Kris Rice:I really think just try one of the things that we've talked about whether that is, you know, submerging your hands in cold water for ten seconds or doing your feet or maybe you end with a cold shower, try something. Like, we all hate the cold. Just think about what that could be and how you could feel differently and just be open to what that could look like for you. So I would just encourage, like, kinda ditching what those expectations you've had are and just coming into it with a fresh mind and seeing what what it could be.
Merry Elkins:That's such a good Chris. Yeah.
Cathy Worthington:Yes. Good takeaway.
Merry Elkins:Great takeaway. Thank you. I'm gonna I am gonna try it tomorrow even if it's just turning the cold on in the shower.
Kris Rice:And any amount of time counts. That's the whole thing. Like, celebrate your wins in doing that. If you turn it cold for five seconds, it's five seconds you didn't do the time before. So really, like, it's okay.
Kris Rice:Like, have compassion for yourself. It's not easy.
Cathy Worthington:We all beat ourselves up when we don't do it
Kris Rice:for the place. Mhmm.
Merry Elkins:We do. Too much. Way too much. Yeah. Well, thank you, Chris.
Merry Elkins:That was truly enlightening, and I won't say chilling because it was warming.
Kris Rice:Well, thank you. This was a very fun conversation. I'm so glad that we got to have it today.
Merry Elkins:Oh, us too. And our guest today on late boomers has been Chris Rice. She's the founder and CEO of Chillpod. And you can go to the thechillpod.com for more information. And, Chris, is there anything else or any other place you'd like to recommend our audience go?
Kris Rice:Yeah. Definitely. I've got two spots that you can go. So if you are into Instagram, you can follow me if you're curious about, like, my founder journey, how to see how I cold plunge in real life. It's kind of like behind the scenes.
Kris Rice:You can follow me at Chris Rice Wellness, and it's Chris with a k. Also, you can follow the chillpod. So it's the chillpod.co, and that's actually the same for the site too. So, .c0 is where you can go check that out and same thing on Instagram. So we'll give you lots of science behind it.
Kris Rice:You'll get some sneak peeks on the product and just to be able to have a really great and empowering community that also is curious.
Merry Elkins:Great. Thank you.
Cathy Worthington:Thank you. Thank our listeners for listening to us, and please subscribe to our YouTube channel for the late boomers podcast. And take us along in the car and know let us know if we inspired you to take action. Please follow us on Instagram at I am Kathy Worthington and at I am Mary Elkinson at late boomers. Next week, we will be talking to Marty Strong, a former Navy SEAL, who will let us know how to see change as an opportunity.
Cathy Worthington:Thanks so much, boomers fans, and thanks again to Chris Rice.
Kris Rice:Thank you.
Cathy Worthington:Thank you for joining us on late Boomers, the podcast that is your guide to creating a third act with style, power, and impact. Please visit our website and get in touch with us at lateboomers.biz. If you would like to listen to or download other episodes of late boomers, go to ewnpodcastnetwork.com.
Merry Elkins:This podcast is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and most other major podcast sites. We hope you make use of the wisdom you've gained here and that you enjoy a successful third act with your own style, power, and impact.
