The Morozko Method: A Sensory Immersion Meditation Technique for Deliberate Cold Exposure

One woman’s gentle guided approach to health and well-being

By Deborah L. Monroe

Adrienne Jezick is one woman who discovered the healing power of Deliberate Cold Exposure and is on a mission to share with the world how she transformed her life. It is her passion not only to share her story but also to teach others how to heal their bodies and, consequently, their lives.

Adrienne Jezick is the co-founder of The Morozko Forge Ice Bath along with her husband and President of the Company, Jason Stauffer. Adrienne created the Morozko Method, a sensory immersion meditation technique for Deliberate Cold Exposure. She and Jason are also the co-creators of the Morozko Podcast, where they share the details of their spiritual journey of healing mentally, physically, and spiritually through deliberate cold exposure and discuss the many healing stories of clients who have used the Morozko Method. 

When asked if there is a meaning behind the name of her business, she enthusiastically replied, “There sure is! Morozko is a Russian fairy tale, a Jack Frost-Father Winter type mythology. And there is a story that goes along with it and tells us that If you meet the cold with stoicism and grace, it will bestow great gifts upon you.”  

“If you meet the cold with stoicism and grace, it will bestow great gifts upon you.” 

Adrienne’s battle with her health began in her early thirties when she suddenly became ill and was diagnosed in a short amount of time with three auto-immune disorders: Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Eosinophilic Esophagitis, and Urticaria. Over a few years, she experienced significant weight gain, started taking copious amounts of prescription pills, was administered two live antibiotic shots per month, and taking up to 20 pills and supplements per day. “Nothing was making me feel better. If anything, I was continuing to feel worse.” Zelick stated.  

In fact, she also began developing several debilitating allergies to foods and fragrances – things she had been exposed to for much of her entire life such as eggs, bananas, perfumes, and everyday products. 

As time passed, Adrienne’s condition worsened. Dealing with severe heartburn, debilitating leg pain, weight gain, and extreme fatigue, she felt as if she had exhausted the traditional medical options of treatment.  

With the help of her husband Jason’s “birds eye view” in his own career in healthcare data analysis, he began to see the patterns and futility of the efforts of traditional medicine as they were applied to his wife’s situation. He began looking for natural alternatives for her health and healing. In October 2017, he was introduced to the practice of ice bath therapy through a local yoga instructor in Phoenix, Ariz. Due to her busy schedule, Adrienne was unable to attend most of the ice bath gatherings. In his efforts to help her, Jason set up a makeshift ice bath in their backyard.

9 Seconds led to a lifetime of healing. 

Adrienne’s first experience with the ice bath immersion lasted only 9 seconds, but the results were so profound it began her journey of healing. Due to that brief ice immersion experience, she said, “For the first time in years, the chronic pain in my legs was completely gone. And I felt a sense of empowerment like I’d never felt before. I realized quickly I had been living my entire life in this state of blind confidence. This active fight, challenging energy state. My body was just tired.” 

She continued, “It was probably my third ice bath that I realized I couldn’t do this violent dropping in. I couldn’t do this hyperventilative, holotropic breathwork anymore because it was too high energy for me to prepare myself for this ice bath experience. I had to find a way to calmly surrender to the cold. Partly because I knew if I could stand it for two minutes, I would get maximum health benefits, and partly because I became really afraid of dropping myself in.”  

Adrienne recalls a key moment of awareness when preparing to take her fourth ice bath when she called on her previous experience with dialectical behavioral therapy. She worked to calm her mind by bringing herself back into her body and engage her senses. 

“I’m looking around at the sunshine in the backyard, I’m hearing the birds, I’m feeling my feet on the ground, and I decide I’m just going to step in. And when I step in, I decide I’m just going to sit down and lean back and breathe. And I did. These benefits from deliberate cold exposure were happening every time I took an ice bath – it was like stepping out as a whole new person,” she said. 

Adrienne continued with this method for several months, and when Jason began to see the incredible progress in her health, the idea to create their own ice bath was born. The idea stemmed from the challenges they faced in creating an ice bath each and every time Adrienne needed to take a plunge. Jason researched countless online options available for at-home ice bath therapy, but at the time, the cost was exorbitant, and none would reach below 40-45 degrees to sustain the ice or create metabolic change in the body. Jason got to work with the couple’s then other business partner, Tom Seager, to develop a concept for an ice bath that would meet Adrienne’s needs and, likely, those of others who had a need for regular ice bath therapy at home. With much trial and error, they created a makeshift prototype in the Jezick’s backyard. 

In 2018, the team took the rudimentary prototype and founded Morozko Forge. They began research and development to turn into a beautiful, fully functional product and enlisted the help of locals to test the units, which Jezick says are still in use today.  In January 2019, Morozko Forge sold its first unit, and as the word spread about the health benefits of deliberate cold exposure, so did the awareness of the company.

“We’ve grown exponentially every year. We’re the leaders in this space – there are other people now that are making cold plunges – but we’re the ones that make ice. We get down to those freezing temperatures that we’ve seen have an effect on people mentally, physically, and emotionally,” she says. “From November 2017 to August of 2019, I fully reversed every trace of auto-immune (disease) in my system.”  

Shortly after her last doctor’s appointment, Adrienne realized that her doctor was not going to share her miraculous recovery with others. It made her angry. “It was at that last visit seeing women in the waiting room who were overweight, depressed, unhappy. And I thought, ‘She’s not going to tell a single person that I cured the chronic illness that I would have had for the rest of my life.’” She continued, “The pills she said I needed to take in order to stay alive. She’s not going to tell anyone about that!” 

After that appointment in August 2019, Adrienne made it her personal life’s mission to shout the healing benefits of cold therapy from the rooftops. She’s turned cold haters and non-believers into deliberate cold exposure evangelists. 

Along with the ground-breaking design of the Morozko Ice Bath, Adrienne also developed a guided practice to accompany ice bathers on their immersion journey, which she teaches at her studio in Downtown Phoenix – now called the Morozko Method.

“I developed a guided sensory immersive technique for helping people move through that fight or flight response to cold with a calm, meditative mindset,” she notes. “At Burning Man in 2019 – that was my first experience guiding dozens of people, every single day, through this process, using sound healing, scent healing, and light.”

Adrienne’s mission today is to educate others on the tremendous healing power available inside our own bodies. She knows from experience. “We have the power to heal our bodies, and we can do it through natural remedies. The number one thing that we need to enforce our body’s healing is to create natural resilience, build our own immune strength. This can be done by introducing these outside natural healing factors like extreme cold or heat. Our bodies are magic mechanisms designed to be able to heal themselves.” 

How is the Morozko Method Different?

Adrienne points out the difference in the Morozko method to other methods is the gentle guided process of immersion. It teaches people how to self-regulate their fight or flight nervous response. 

“Over time the body learns to self-regulate the fight or flight response. It is something that can be used in all areas of our lives,” she said. 

The approach includes gentle meditation, breathwork, and intention setting to give clients an overall awareness of their senses and purpose, bringing clients out of their heads and into their bodies, and using their ability to control their breathing and focus during the experience. With her gentle presence, Adrienne guides her clients through the fight or flight response and recovery. 

Adrienne is now offering services to trauma recovery centers and sober living facilities to help reframe and re-pattern brain responses. She also offers online training courses, sharing her technique throughout the world. 

She notes that many A-List celebrities and professional athletes have worked closely in their own healing practices with her and have incorporated the benefits of the Morozko Forge Ice Bath in their own homes.

And while the process of healing physical, emotional, or mental wounds can certainly take significant time and may not always be under our control, Adrienne’s words ring clear and true: “How we choose to heal is up to us.”

While Morozko Forge products are proudly hand-crafted in Phoenix, their ice baths have been shipped throughout the world to international clients in Canada, Dubai, Germany, London, Paris, Portugal, Mexico, and Costa Rica. 

7150 W Roosevelt St, Phoenix, morozkoforge.com