PHOTO STORY

Cold Water, Warm Soul

How the Helford River inspired me to create

My husband and I bought a wonderful view with a tired Cornish bungalow attached in 2016.

A short walk down a steep path from our old address, Bar Road, leads to Bar Beach, where you can access the Helford River — strictly speaking, it is a tidal inlet.

I arrived in Cornwall from London, burnt out from decades of work as an acupuncturist. The beauty of the Helford took my breath away. I was forever taking photographs.

In our third year there, halfway through the renovation project on the bungalow, I swam in the Helford for the first time. It was September, and the water was relatively warm. It shifted something inside me. It was the start of the most creative year of my life.

A throwaway comment from someone led me to the YouTube videos of Wim Hof and the benefits of cold water immersion. I hate the cold, but I was inspired. I decided to swim in the Helford every day for a year.

Sitting on the beach after my cold water swims, I would sip ginger tea from my flask and play with the stones and twigs surrounding me.

I would scour the beach for just the right size pebbles.

And I would bring home the sea glass I found there.

I swam in wind and rain, hail and snow. It got colder, but I never missed a day.

Every day was different and brought me closer to nature and my creative self. I started to bring home seaweed to work with.

I found a way to embed the seaweed into paper and create homemade wrapping paper and cards.

I started to forage for food and bring home cockles, mussels, oysters, and razor clams.

Then I would hunt down edible greens: sea spinach, wild garlic, hogweed shoots, and more.

We ate a lot of things in Cornwall at zero cost.

As I continued to swim through winter, I was joined by two robins. I named them Ebb and Flo, and they learned to eat from my hand.

I used to worry about jellyfish stings until I got stung. It didn’t hurt at all. Cold can numb pain. The best cure for jellyfish or weaver fish stings is hot water, the hottest you can bear — it neutralises the toxins. And I always had a flask of hot tea with me, just in case.

I continued to find things on the beach that I turned into gifts.

I picked up pine cones and decorated them using paint pens.

I spent hours on the beach playing with the stones and shells there.

I picked nettles and gorse flowers to make tea when I got home from my swim. Nettle tea is full of nutrients and is an excellent tonic.

I connected with nature in a way that nurtured my soul. I dived with cormorants, swam with a seal, and saw dolphins.

And my inner artist continued to play.

I swam every day for a year, and it was the best year of my life. So far.

There are 21 photos in this story, but my best memories are the ones I did not record. I would often swim naked in the dark. On one 3:00 a.m. swim in October, I entered the water to find it was full of fairy lights. I was swimming with bioluminescent plankton. The tiny bursts of light that surrounded me as I dived beneath the water is a memory that will stay with me forever.

I felt a surge of joy and wonder - as if I had discovered a secret world. I heard the gentle splash of the water, and my own heartbeat. I tasted the salty tang of the sea, touched the smooth pebbles and let the cold water caress my skin.

Swimming in the river was more than just a hobby. It was a way of reconnecting with myself, with nature, and with my creativity. It taught me to appreciate life’s beauty and mystery, overcome my fears of the cold, and express myself in new ways. It taught me mindfulness and how to be fully present in the moment.

We are all artists and creators. Sometimes, we need a little help to access what is within us. For me, it was a daily swim. What was it for you?

Maybe you have already found it, or maybe you are still searching. Either way, I hope my story inspires you to keep looking, keep creating, and keep living.

Perhaps the best memories are yet to come.