Your Cold Spot
Alison Brooks-Starks
If my feet are too cold, there’s nothin’ doin’. I can not sleep. How could I sleep with blocks of ice for feet? Socks? HA! I laugh at your “socks” idea. Socks would seem to imply that heat from the feet would radiate off the feet and trap warm air in the air pockets of the socks. HA! I scoff again, there is zero heat in my feet to do this. It’s just over for me.
And cold feet outside? It really can ruin everything and send me scampering indoors. My nose is cold? Ears? Didn’t even notice. Don’t care. My personal cold spots, the places on my body that can send me inside and have me giving up entirely on my adventure are: my neck and my feet.
What about you? Have you ever thought about your body? Okay, that just went pretty philosophical. Or gender studies. Or somatic psychology. But really, have you? We’ve been taught to be so disconnected from our bodies. Doing so is actually a big way we all get through the winter, cutting off from all bodily sensations. If we pretend we don’t feel the cold, we can make it from the house to the car without crying.
But how could we learn to feel the tight chest of anger or the subtle pressure behind the eyes of abandonment if we are constantly training ourselves not to feel our body’s knowing? Our heart’s truth, our honest wants, are found in sensations from all over the body, all the time.
A great place to begin is with the basics:
Am I thirsty or hungry?
Do I have to pee?
Am I too hot or too cold?
Let’s continue with the thread of #3, noticing where you are consistently too cold (literally where on your body, your one wild and precious body). Strange that you’ve never thought about it eh? Even here, in #wintercityyeg where we know it will be cold. Or if you have thought about it, too bad we’ve never honoured our good bodies enough to do anything about it. Maybe we could. Maybe you could think about it, or notice the cold, and then research or ask around about it and buy yourself something special and warm.
I’ll give you some top ideas here, but I welcome emails and we’ll brainstorm about your cold spot specifically and get you toasty warm.
Hands - Make sure your mitts aren’t made of cotton, add liners in mitts for air pockets, keep your core warm which will help your extremities stay warm (someone test this for me!), use hot pockets
Feet - Walking works (boo!), switch to wool socks and make sure there’s some space for warm air pockets, add insoles or other padding, and for in your bed or sleeping bag - put hot water in a water bottle or use rice bags
Neck - I just always wear a neckwarmer or two (who wears neckwarmers?? Just me I think.)
Nose - Neck warmer pulled up or a buff over your mouth and nose (buff = brand of neckwarmers)
Butt - No cotton underwear, puffy skirt or shorts over your (just riffing here), sitting on a foamy pad,
General warmth - In your sleeping bag try less clothes so your body heat can warm up the air pockets, hot water in a water bottle, do some squats before bed, eat a snack, empty your bladder (weird but true)
Alrighty, what are your cold spots that chase you indoors? What has been tried and failed to keep you warm? Top Hot Tips?