I stood on a beach in Dorset on January 1st, 2026, in my underwear, staring at the ocean.
Let me be clear: I am not the kind of person who does cold water plunges.
I'm the person who wears thermals 80% of the time. Who shivers through Army Reserve exercises even in moderate weather. Who has carried a deep-seated belief my entire life that I am "chronically cold" and that cold = pain = something to avoid at all costs.
But on New Year's Day, something shifted.
The Family That Changed Everything
I watched a family wade into the water. They were screaming — loud, high-pitched, chaotic screams — but they were doing it. And they weren't special. They weren't soldiers or olympians or extreme athletes. They were just... people.
Normal people who decided to walk into freezing water on the first day of the year.
And I thought: If they can do it, why can't I?
That question sat heavy in my chest. Because the answer was simple, and uncomfortable: I can. I've just never believed I could.
So I made a choice. I could walk away, carry the weight of disappointment around all day, and bring that same limiting belief into 2026. Or I could walk into the water.
I chose the water.
The Walk In
I reluctantly stripped down to my underwear. (I had no intention of doing this, so no swimsuit.)
But I knew if I didn't do it in that moment, I never would.
The water was sharp. Cold doesn't even describe it — it was like being enveloped in fire made of ice. My skin lost sensation almost immediately. But I kept walking, wading deeper, repeating to myself:
"I am a zen monk. I am strong. I am a winner. I am doing this."
(Of all the mantras I could have chosen, "zen monk" is hilarious in hindsight. But it worked.)
I didn't scream. I didn't thrash. I moved with quiet, controlled resolve — the same resolve I accessed during the birth of my second child. That birth was drug-free, pain relief-free, using only breath, visualisation, and hypnotherapy. I knew how to do this. I knew how to override my nervous system's panic and stay present.
And then I did it. I plunged my shoulders beneath the water. I swam a few strokes.
When I came back to shore, my skin was vibrating, tingling, alive. The pain had subsided. And I felt something I hadn't felt in a long time:
Proud of myself.
What Marissa Peer Taught Me (Again)
A few days before this, I started re-reading Ultimate Confidence by Marissa Peer. My husband (boyfriend at the time) bought it for me back in 2020 after we attended one of her seminars together. He had it signed for me. It's been on my shelf ever since, waiting for the right moment to re-engage with it.
And clearly, this was it.
In the book, Marissa writes about how children praise themselves constantly. They have no inhibitions, no vanity, no self-consciousness. They take pure delight in the world around them and their only goal is to have fun. They don't worry about looking foolish. They just... do things. And then they celebrate themselves for it.
"Look at me! I did it! Watch this!"
When did we lose that?
When did we start second-guessing ourselves, downplaying our wins, worrying about whether our achievements are "significant enough" to share?
I'm sharing this story not from ego. I know that to some people, a cold water plunge might seem insignificant. But to me? It was monumental.
It was proof that I can rewrite my beliefs. That I am not defined by my past limitations. That the narrative "I am not that kind of person" is just a story — and stories can change.
Hypnotherapy in Real Life
This is what I do with my clients every single day. We identify the beliefs holding them back — the "I'm not good enough," the "I don't deserve love," the "I'm not that kind of person" — and we rewrite them.
Through hypnotherapy, we access the subconscious mind and prove to it that change is not only possible, it's inevitable.
The tools I teach? I use them myself. Every single day.
In my VIP hypnotherapy package, clients receive a care package that includes a book I've carefully chosen for them — tailored to what I intuitively feel they need in that moment. It's something I do for myself too. The right book always seems to find me exactly when I need it.
Ultimate Confidence found me again at the start of 2026. And it reminded me: the mind is more powerful than we think. And we are capable of so much more than we believe.
So, What's Your Cold Water?
What belief are you carrying into 2026 that's ready to be rewritten?
What would it feel like to walk into your version of the cold water — the thing you've always believed you couldn't do — and come out stronger on the other side?
You don't need to be fearless. You don't need to be an athlete or a warrior or anything other than willing.
You just need to take the first step.
The rest will follow.
Trust me. I've done it. And if I can, so can you.