Ice baths may look rad but can lead to stress and injury. Personal growth and resilience benefit from learning to understand how you adapt progressively towards your thresholds, finding comfort in the discomfort, without pushing. Coaching sessions for mindful cold water immersion in more manageable temperatures in beautiful settings along the Victorian and NSW coasts are just one option to build your capacity.

A group of Year 10 Scotch College students embarked on a program of resilience building through breathwork, immersing in the hot and cold waters of the Peninsula Hot Springs. During a three-day immersive experience focusing on outdoor activities, yoga, and breathwork the students learned to manage stress and enhance self-awareness via breathing techniques and thermal contrast therapy. This custom developed program fostered resilience and mental strength, demonstrating the benefits of mindful practices amid academic and sporting pressures.

In Australia, we love the underdog. The struggler, the battler.

The one we least expect to overcome adversity. The least likely to come out on top. The one considered weaker of the opponents. Less powerful, less funded, and unfairly treated, less just. The one entrenched in some kind of adversity, struggling for success.

We love to see them rise to the top. And take out that poppy. The tallest one, with its neck stuck out.