In this gym you don’t work the body, but you cleanse the mind
Breathing, sound healing and an ice bath: in the “mental car wash”, an idea by UvA professor Levi Van Dam, young adults work on their mental health. “This is voluntarily putting yourself in a stressful situation and trying to stay calm.”
The entrance is grandiose. Through a forest of flickering light installations, the 120 participants enter an almost cathedral-like space. Countless candles and pillars, to which light installations are mounted, shine their light on the attendees, creating a stunning ambience. In between are dozens of mats, each with a blanket and bottle of water, where participants - mostly young adults - are allowed to take a seat.
In this audiovisual experience centre (Amaze, in the Westelijk Havengebied), the second pilot version of “the mental car wash” will take place on Friday morning. A concept best described as a kind of pop-up gym. Only not for physical, but mental activities. So on the programme is not a full-body work out, but a breathing and singing bowl session, followed by an ice bath experience - all under the guidance of specialists and in the presence of medical assistance.
The idea sprang from the brain of Levi van Dam, an orthopaedist who, the same afternoon, will become endowed professor of Resilient Growing up at the UvA after delivering an oration on the lingering mental health crisis among young people. Some 30 per cent of young people struggle with mental health problems, he observes. That's high, but not that much has increased in numbers in recent years. Because despite corona(measures), for instance, this percentage has been stable for decades, Van Dam shows, young people have only become better at naming their mental problems.
Emotions released
Never mind that the brand-new professor advocates a different treatment method. Too often this mental health crisis is still only approached therapeutically, he believes. An idea of first waiting for a patient to get psychological help (which moreover often takes a long time due to queues), and then everything will be all right. “Whereas before that, you can also do the necessary things to work on your mental health,” says Van Dam.
Pay attention to your breathing, for instance. By alternately breathing deeply and slowly, then more shallowly and briefly, you can enter a kind of trance, which releases emotions. It is audible in Amaze’s auditorium: here and there a sob escapes from the participants. The sound vibrations during the singing bowl session could also help cure mental disorders. With a bong and a Shruti box, so-called sound healers pass through the room, before collectively singing in conclusion: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna make it shine... make it shineee, make it shineee!”
“It’s an experience,” says Van Dam, who developed the mental car wash with Wouter Tavecchio and hopes to organise it on a monthly basis. 'We wanted to create something you can go to with friends because it's fun and exciting. So as part of your leisure experience, not because you have to, for example, for work or study.”
Always running
Tavechhio is the founder of Defqon.1 - the hardstyle festival where the first pilot version of the mental car wash took place last summer Beforehand - and spoke on stage friday morning. A bull’s-eye, because like no other Wouter Tavechhio can vividly talk about his path to spirituality. About how he was always preoccupied with everything and what others thought of him. And how that seemed to be working for him, until he came home and felt - he builds a silence - “totally shitty”.
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He decided to go to India, for a silence retreat. For a fortnight, being silent - alone with himself. “I went completely crazy,” he recounts. “Was constantly telling people there that I was leaving.” Until he realised, it was his own head that kept running wild. He completed the two weeks and has since found peace within himself, partly through gratitude exercises and daily cold showers.
The latter is what awaits participants in the mental car wash this energising morning, but in a much more intense form. The absolute climax. Breathing okay, singing bowl session agreed, but immersing yourself in an ice bath; that's another matter, it soon becomes apparent. “This is voluntarily putting yourself in a stressful situation and trying to stay calm,” says Rens Haen, facilitator of the latter part.
Bath full of ice cubes
Moments later, in a new room, the room is filled with painful grimaces. Taking turns, the participants sit in twenties across two inflatable pools, filled to the brim with ice cubes. First with just the lower legs, then the whole upper body. “Now just a little bit more under the water,” says Haen, looking impassive, “and then you can come out again”.
Probably the first part of his sentence freezes in space, because only the second part finds eager acclaim. Almost synchronously, the shivering participants rush out of the bath, heading for their towels. A sharp ginger shot and happy dance to conclude, and the participants can return home. Cleansed and satisfied, their visit to the mental gym is over.
