When the cold water hits my back I scratch my teeth and mutter:
"FUuuuCK!".
It hurts worse than getting a tattoo and I start to shiver.
Focus
I have just decided to take my first cold shower. I already regret it.
My breathing is shallow and I shake like a leaf.
I take a deep breath and remember what I read online I should be thinking:
I endure. This will get easier. Keep breathing
I repeat in my head while counting my breaths: one, two, three.. always going back to one if I lose count.
FUCK THIS IS COLD!!
I move my attention to my back, to my knee-jerk reaction of running, to my shivering body and my temptation to turn the faucet to the right, to the warm release.
I resist.
I stay here with the cold water, I am present, I look ahead and I smile: "This is fucking HELL."
Eventually, after months [ it's been 3 minutes really ] I step out. I wait a second then put a towel around my waist.
I FEEL AMAZING
I want to tell you that this gets easier but after months of cold showers I know that it doesn't, you just get more used to it.
But why are you doing this, anyway? Are you #INSANE?!
I hope I AM! And I know exactly what you mean, why would anyone give up their comfy nice warm shower?!
It started about a year ago. I was feeling down and sluggish. I was in a pretty bad place: weak, demotivated and defeated.
As usual, I was browsing the internet when I came about a thread on Quora.
"What's one habit that changed your life?"
I'm always curious to see that people say and someone answered " cold showers" and a lot of people agreed.
I thought this is peculiar. Is this even a habit?
A quick search revealed that this is [almost] a movement.
There's an Art of Manliness video, a tedx video, a subreddit, Tim Ferris recommened in his book and countless people taking on the 30 days cold shower challenge.
The benefits were supposed to be numerous and substantive:
- Increased energy, alertness and mood
Basically, every shower is an adrenaline rush: you wake up and feel alive. Cold shower can simulate the secretion of noradrenaline which is associated with improved mood in depressive people.
- Keeps your hair and skin healthy
This is something that dermatologist recommended for ages: the less hot water the better. Hot water strips more of the healthy natural oils from our skin fast and dries the skin too. So it makes sense that cold water would benefit the skin. ( a side note: most soaps and shampoos don't foam as much with cold water, but clean just as well! )
- Improved immunity
This is based on an old study and from the fact that Russians and Finns who regularly swim in cold water seem to get the flu less often. BUT a lot of people jumping on the cold shower train talk about their improved resistance to illness.
- Stress reliever and Anti-aging
Cold showers seem to relieve stress and improve the metabolic rate which are highly associated with longer lives. IS this true? Some swear by it, the studies are unclear though.
help a duck!
Why wasn't everyone taking cold showers then?!
The most obvious reason is that a lot of people doubt there are real benefits to this and I was one of those. And for good reason: studies for the effects of daily cold showers are few, mostly old and kind of shaky.
Still, there's no study that suggest that it can be bad for you.
But I knew this: doing something so crazy every day can only make me better.
The second reason is this: It's so damn HARD. Daunting. Scary. Giving away your comfort is always difficult. But as the saying goes: "Comfort wants you dead! ".
So, I did it. Then I did it again. And again.
Each time, as hard as the last. Each day, a test of will.
I read that some warm up to it but I am a proponent of the jump in method. Turn the cold all the way up and jump under. The initial shock will remind you - if you need to - that YOU ARE ALIVE.
For me, the main reason was to prove myself that I can do it.
I know that I am weak-willed and give up too easily and I don't like this about myself. I wanted to face the uncomfortable in the face and not shake, not waver.
And I wanted to do it on my terms.
Every day, after gym, I turn it cold, I look at it for a few seconds...and I move in.
When I'm not feeling up to it I tell myself that if I can't do this for 3 minutes, what can I DO?!
The older I get, the more I feel that life is a mental game. You need grit and determination when you get hit in the face.. And YOU WILL GET HIT IN THE FACE! Can you grin and move on afterwards?
I don't known, but I can totally grin and move on after a cold shower!
Let me tell you now about one of my sneakiest suspicious: people from colder climate are tougher and..well, better. It's not them, it's the weather!
Think about it: In Romania, if you wanted to spend summer singing and lazying around, you could. There was A LOT of summer and the earth was abundant. Food and shelter was easy to find. Sure, the winter was bad time but you probably didn't die. You had the privilege of being lazy. You couldn't be lazy and live in the north.
That how the magic Nordic gene. appeared.
So, I wanted to become a northern. I wanted to have that toughness and fortitude.
I didn't chose where to be born, but I can chose, every day, to take a cold shower.
Winter is coming isn't it?
I've seen plenty of the "advertised" benefits: improved focus, improved alertness, better skin, improved confidence.
But the most unexpected is benefit is that it changed how I view myself.
I question myself a lot. One question comes back again and again:
"Am I a coward?"
Going under that ice shower gives me hope that I am not. I feel brave.
Because it's tough every day, I get to feel brave every day.
A few months ago, I was at the seaside. I've always been one of those people who take 10 minutes to get into the water, even if it's relatively warm. This time, I was first in, I didn't blink, just jumped in: one step, another, and jumped. It was cold as death, my body was screaming "GET OUT" but my mind was serene. I was breathing.
It felt like Home.
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