'My breath was knocked out of my body': Jade Seah tries ice bath in Bali

With Singapore's heat, you would think that fans and air-conditioning are a necessity, but not to local celebrity Jade Seah.

"I'm terrible with cold. I don't sleep with air-conditioning and don't actually even need a fan most nights in Singapore," said the 40-year-old in the caption of her Instagram video last Wednesday (June 7).

Thus, she felt that people wouldn't believe that she went for an ice bath and posted a video as proof.

"Nobody believes I actually did this! Is it #novideonocount?" Jade wrote in the beginning of her post.

The video was taken at Sanctuary Potato Head, a wellness spa in Bali, where breathwork and ice sessions start from 550,000 rupiah (S$50) per person for two hours.

In the video, the chilly experience started with a facilitator Valery taking Jade through breathing exercises before the latter fully dipped herself in an ice-filled bathtub.

Jade recalled that the "first 30 seconds were the worst" and that it felt like her "breath was knocked out of [her] body from the cold" - evidenced by the scrunched-up face and mild gasping she exhibited in the video.

After Valery talked her through the same breathing exercise as before, Jade made it through the two-minute mark.

Though this was already a big accomplishment for the actress who gets "grouchy" on winter trips and air-conditioned spaces that are "too cold", Jade took up Valery's challenge to put her hands in the bathtub.

[[nid:622601]]

"The hands have the most nerve endings. This really brought the struggle up!" Jade wrote in the video.

After the entire experience, Jade shed tears, although she was unsure if they were from joy, exhilaration or relief.

Even though she aimed for 2.5 minutes, which was the minimum recommended to experience all the benefits of an ice bath, Jade "surprised" herself by staying in for the full five minutes.

The video ends with Jade bundled up in a towel, jumping happily to warm up her body.

Adding that she "slept like a baby that night", Jade wrote: "The human mind is such an amazing thing, and pushing it past what I thought were its limits reminded me of the strength and resilience within every one of us — if only we would push ourselves out of our comfort zones enough to challenge the boundaries."

[email protected]

No part of this article can be reproduced without permission from AsiaOne.