Winter hacks: 6 ways to fool your body into feeling warmer

Here are ways you can warm up on days when you can barely get out from under the covers

Instead of blasting the electric heater or wearing an extra scarf, feel cosier by utilising these surprising scientific strategies. As compiled from Huffington Post and Reader’s Digest magazine, here are ways you can warm up on days you can barely get out from under the covers.

1. Get nostalgic

Take a few minutes and listen to the songs you loved when you were a teenager. When asked to recall old times or to listen to nostalgic music, people reported feeling physically warmer than when they were asked to remember ordinary things, found a study published in the journal Emotion. They were found to immerse their hands in ice water for longer and thought a cold room was a higher temperature than it really was. Psychological warmth activates the same circuits in the brain associated with physical warmth, which convert the memories’ golden glow into the perception of heat.

2. Take a ‘vase’ breath

In a Tibetan study, participants used a meditative “vase breathing” technique to raise their core body temperature to 101 degrees. You might not want to aim for that just yet but begin by inhaling deeply. On your exhale, contract both your abdominal and pelvic muscles so that your lower belly takes on the shape of a gently rounded vase or pot. Some practitioners also recommend visualising a flame on the spinal cord and continue breathing smoothly. For something simpler, try yoga’s staple Ujjayi breath: constrict the back of your throat as you slowly breathe in and out through your nose. The constriction creates more work for muscles involved in respiration, helping build internal heat.



3. Feed your inner oven

The more work it takes to digest something, the more heat your body produces, suggests Robert Kenefick, a research physiologist at the Research Institute of Environmental Medicine. One trick, he says, is to add slow-to-digest, good old butter. “Hot chocolate with half a stick of butter tastes good, generates heat and warms you up when you are freezing  or working outside in the chill.” But Kenefick only recommends rich, caloric stuff for when we’re outside for long periods of time.

4. Clad yourself wisely

Layers trap heat and help prevent sweating, which makes you feel colder. Start with a tight-fitting bottom layer made of a fast-drying fabric, such as polyester, rayon, silk, or another synthetic blend. Experts suggest stay away from slow-drying cotton and make it exclusive to summertime. Add a long-sleeved shirt or a cardigan sweater on top. If you’re still cold or vacaying in Quetta, add a jacket on top of your cardigan. Another fabric to embrace for people who can’t stand winter is wool. It is one of the best natural insulators and keeps you warm all day alongside being exceptionally comfy.

5. Ginger up

When the chill is getting into your bones and there’s no electric heater at hand, it is time to grab some adrak. “Ginger is a stimulating herb,” claims Judy Griffin, author of the bestseller Mother Nature’s Herbal. This means the herb helps stimulate and increase blood circulation. “It warms you up from the inside,” she explains. But just because it works for ginger doesn’t mean you can rely on all spices to warm you up this winter. Other spicy foods will cause you to break a sweat, which could in turn cool you down.



6. Watch Shah Rukh Khan flicks

If you find yourself skimming through a lot of rom-coms this winter, there may be more at work than your love of blissful endings and dreamy songs. Your subconscious may just be regulating your body temperature for you. Experiencing the warm, loving personality traits in others enhances feelings of physical warmth, findings from a study published in the journal Social Psychology suggest. Subjects felt warmer after hearing stories about caring, loyal, kind and sensitive characters. “Warmer hearts, warmer rooms,” the researchers conclude, adding to the mounting evidence that the brain responds to social warmth with an actual rise in temperature.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2015.

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