Sonia O’Sullivan: A break can be needed to alter the cycle – to reset and restart

It’s that time of year already when the long hazy days of summer start fading into the rear-view mirror. And fading fast. If anything that fading light gets increasingly noticeable with each passing day, and most evenings it’s dark soon after you get home.

It also means that waking up in the darkness and the morning routine doesn’t seem to have that same energy it did just a few short weeks ago.

I always find the change from summer to autumn requires a bit of an overhaul, and we do eventually settle back into the old winter routine. Still, the ability to reset and restart for the winter ahead can sometimes involve a bit of recharging, and with that maybe some change in the daily routine.

The daily habits that surround us typically involve exercise, eating, sleeping and all of which impact on productivity levels. We all know what gets us going, but sometimes doing the same things over and over again can get a little boring, and not as energising as they once were.

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You often find at the end of a long season athletes will take a break to rest and recover. Only the longer you take to restart the harder it is to leave behind the comforts and refinding the comfort in some discomfort, or the challenges that motivate us and give purpose in our daily life.

It’s easy to take the break and cast aside the daily routine, but some things never change – the constants in the daily life. For me it’s the morning routine; boil the kettle, squeeze the lemon, grind the coffee beans.

For some there is no time to stop and think, which can be both good and bad; for others there’s always the search for something new, a trigger in your day that takes you away from just settling for all that you already know.

Open sea

Being back home in Ireland for the last few weeks, as the summer came drawing to a close, I’ve had my first few swims in the open sea, and now I wish I’d been a bit braver earlier in the summer.

When you measure things in your life based on purpose, there seems no need to swim if not preparing for an event. Cycling and running are easily interchangeable, swimming is an extra level of commitment, knowing it’s going to be cold and wet.

The sea temperature has been quite tolerable, some would say “balmy” or “lovely” or just “plain warm”. When I am in the sea it can be nice – it’s the exit that gets me, the chattering teeth and frozen fingers and toes to deal with in the immediate aftermath. Yet overall the feeling of exhilaration and alertness is incomparable to any other activity you will do in the day.

That first swim of the summer – when you literally shock the system – is something that many people haven’t experienced in a very long time.

I’ve been adopting in other ways too, trying to build up some tolerance, something that is shared in the step-by-step method of Wim Hof.

Many people into cold-water swimming will have heard of Wim and his method, which he first practised in the lakes near his home in The Netherlands, and his belief that the modern world has left behind all the natural strengths and immunities for a more comfortable lifestyle. For Wim the method is based around breathing, cold therapy and commitment.

We have been thought in life to think if something is painful then we should stop what causes the pain, listen to our body and accept ‘that’s it, I can’t do that anymore’. Yet with time and patience we can all find ways to maximise what it is we love to do.

We all need guidance to get back there and push ourselves through the pain using deep breathing techniques and cold therapy.

Must be mad

There are many people in Ireland who already realise this. Most of us look on and think they must be mad swimming in the sea all year round, only to realise it’s a natural therapy we are all missing out on.

I took a break from running for a few days as much as I enjoy it – sometimes it’s good to be without purpose. A break is needed to break the cycle, the habit of doing something every day.

It was time to recover, reset and restart. Sometimes you don’t even realise it and can be afraid to stop and lose fitness, lose the routine. The shake-up is required to really take a deep look inside and come at things from a different approach, a different motivation and feel reenergised.

When something is part of your daily routine and you stop it can be hard to fill the gap – there is still plenty to do but the engine-starter is lost. There are so many muscles in the body,yet we only use a few when we do the same activities over and over again, the things we are good at, the things we enjoy, the things that fit nicely in our lifestyle.

I went for a kayak around Cork harbour with my cousin, heading quite far out into the sea. There’s always a bit of fear in doing something you don’t do regularly. For me just leaving the land always brings fear – if conditions change you can very easily end up in the sea, battling to get back in. Paradoxically, the calmness of being on the sea gliding along can negate any fear.

All the while we were paddling around Haulbowline, alongside Spike Island and looking back at Cobh, there was talk of maybe going for a swim on the return.

It’s amazing when the thought gets into your head, the idea of a swim sounds great, then taking the plunge is never as easy as it looks.

There was still warmth in the sun when we got back to Cuskinny. It was like a Roman baths there was so many heads bobbing up and down. You can tell the swimmers from the triathletes as the triathletes are all in wetsuits, heads down ploughing through the water.

As I stood on the ramp, with the tide high, it should’ve been easy to get in, but I counted one, two, three… a few too many times before realising there was no return now and I had to commit and go for it. Once you accept the initial panic and that take-my-breath- away feeling, it’s quickly replaced with adrenalin and exhilaration.

Recover, reset, restart.