I saw Jake Shane (@octopusslover8) polar plunge, so now I polar plunge (in my own ways)

I’m not alone when I say Jake Shane, a.k.a. @Octopusslover8, is the funniest person on the internet right now. If you don’t know who I’m talking about, maybe his viral video about Diet Coke finding out about Coke Zero duetted by The Jonas Brothers will ring a bell. Or any of his numerous skits acting out completely made-up scenarios requested by his followers. Here are a couple of my favorites in case you need a refresher or just a good old belly laugh:

• Pink finding out there’s a hot pink HERE

• Washington finding out Benjamin gets to be on the $100 HERE

• Pluto finding out it got kicked out of the planets HERE

Jake’s TikTok virality has been like a rocket ship, gaining a huge amount of traction in such a short period of time. To put it in perspective, he gained 1M followers in less than 1 week and recently signed with WME, one of the top talent agencies in Hollywood home to household names like Meghan Markle, Adele, and Dua Lipa. 

Despite the excitement surrounding his successes, Jake’s new public-facing career has presented its own set of difficulties and brought out existing anxieties and OCDs he had to begin with. As he told GQ:

“I catastrophize a lot of things. Part of my anxiety has always been that when something is going good, all I can think about is how it could go bad. So when you have a lot of people on the internet saying that they think you are funny and that they love you, the only thing that I could think about was that moment that they decided they don’t anymore. It kept me up at night, even right now. It’s so scary because it feels so good when everyone loves you, but I can only imagine how bad it feels when everyone hates you.”

Jake isn’t someone who keeps his own mental health struggles to himself. In fact, he frequently creates content in the moments he feels most anxious or overwhelmed. In large part, his desire to share his own experiences with others is rooted in not wanting himself, or his followers, to feel alone. This authentic connection he has formed with his community extends past TikTok and onto other platforms as well. Jake explains, ”I do this thing on my Instagram story where I ask if people are tents up or tents down today. It’s just like a check-in.”

”I do this thing on my Instagram story where I ask if people are tents up or tents down today. It’s just like a check-in.”

Apart from being vulnerable about his feelings and emotions, Jake has started bringing followers along for his cold plunging journey, a practice said to help with mindfulness. The shock to your system is supposed to help snap you into the present moment, and the reliance on breathwork to handle frigid temperatures is its own form of meditation. 

Before you say you could never try this or don’t have access to a spa with a cold plunge, there are ways to experiment with this practice on a smaller scale. Here are a couple of methods I’ve found to be most helpful when battling varying levels of anxiety, as recommended by my therapist:

Before

Ice Rollers

This is a hot take, but I’m not the biggest facial tools person. Maybe I’m not using them correctly, but I feel like they have more of a placebo effect than actually helping me look any better in the mornings.

Recently, I’ve started storing my Gua Sha and Jade Roller in the freezer before using them which really helps to wake me up and, sometimes, helps improve focus. Because of this, I use these tools a couple of times a week as a preemptive ritual in my downtime.  

During

Ice Water Bowls

When I have a panic attack, it can be easy to start spiraling very quickly. Not only do I start breathing heavier, and quicker, but it's common for me to lose sensation in my fingers and find myself disassociating. 

In these moments, the most helpful thing to do is to remind myself of where I am as quickly as possible. Sometimes, sniffing the lavender incense next to my bed, or grabbing a textured object, can do the trick. But if it’s really bad, I’ve learned to run to my bathroom and dunk my face under the sink with the temperature as cold as humanly possible. Once I’ve calmed down enough, I fill a big bowl with ice and water and let my head sink in for 30 seconds on and off. It’s a nice combination of a polar plunge with the coziness of wearing pajamas from the neck down. It also has a non-fail rate of bringing me to the present moment as quickly as possible.

Ice Cube Snacks

When I’m feeling anxious in a public setting (but not panic attack level anxious), I will fill up a cup of ice and start sucking or chewing on it. This has the same effect as the ice water bowl but on a much lesser level. A good baby step!

After

Cold Shower

This one is so hard because I love burning hot showers more than anything. So, in the spirit of baby steps, I finish the last 30 seconds of my post-anxiety attack shower with a cold water moment.

I won’t lie, it’s dreadful at first and all I can do is reminisce on how good the burning hot water felt. But after a while, I do feel slightly more energetic, and it makes stepping out of the shower a tiny bit less painful. On an emotional level, it does feel like a reset where I can start fresh as a newer, now colder, person.