DR, feeling relaxed without a mask, cold showers:
Ever noticed how people enter a beach on a warm day? You've been in really cold water and what you're seeing confuses you, this water isn't cold but you see raised arms, a little jump here and there as small waves threaten to move the water up their bodies by 100 mm. The sooner the face is under water, the sooner the feeling of peace, the feeling of being in the water.
It's the same when taking a cold shower. If the water hits my face first and I remain breathing, then the cold water doesn't feel cold, it's more a mental awareness that it is cold but irrelevant. I've always been skinny, always found it hard to get warm (not necessarily keep warm but get warm) but this (or yoga) has been the way to heat my body in the morning. After a shower like this, any day seems warm. I seem ready. Cold showers: they don't match the notion of boot camps, the army or brutality.
So I look at the people at the beach, with their hands raised to the side of their bodies, crunching their shoulders to keep as much of their bodies out of the water. What I see is their central nervous system (ever heard of Korean Baths - movement from hot to cold baths?); a (mild) feeling of constriction and panic.
Disclosure: I attended one of Sebastien's courses a couple of years ago. Being new to diving of any sort, I spent most of the time (on the surface) with that feeling of constriction and panic - just as most people experience when trying any new exercise routine (this feeling of anxiety during the commencement of exercise seems particularly strong in the overweight).
