We caught up with Mark Hughes, pre-event to find out the reasons behind this incredible achievement. What made you want to create this incredible event? Having used cold water immersion for many years myself and knowing the positive mental and physical benefits, we started introducing it to clients who we coach to help them change their physical state and mindset, to help them change direction and break out of anxiety and depression. In running fortnightly group ice baths, we have built a big community and saw the opportunity to create a lot of awareness around the benefits of the cold and the idea came up to stage a World first event to truly get the awareness out there. Can you go in depth about the charity the event is raising money for and why it is so important to you? Beyond Blue is the largest Australian mental health charity which enabled us to gain awareness instantly when we mention who we’re raising fund for. While smaller organisations are vital too, we had a single-minded vision to make raising awareness the focus; by default, everything needed to have the best visibility and possibility of enabling us to reach this goal. Personally, I have, in the past, struggled with crippling anxiety and depression and I now work with many people in similar positions, not least of all following covid or those that do fly-in-fly-out work. Beyond Blue provides a framework to help people in all areas of mental health, so we wanted to further help the awareness grow. Cold water exposure, and breathwork, which we use regularly has been proven many times over in significant peer-reviewed studies to have a multitude of physical and mental health benefits, not least of all the incredible increase in dopamine (improves mood and sense of wellbeing) which lasts several hours after taking an ice bath. This alone can be enough for participants to ‘see’ a light at the end of the tunnel and help them focus on changing other aspects of their lives. 7
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