The 7 Day Cold Water Challenge! Join Me and Start Changing Your Life for the Better!
Why cold showers? Because I seek better emotional control and stability.
I don't know about you, but lately I have found myself in a rut. Happiness seems harder to obtain, and damn near everything pisses me off anymore. Reading the news, watching some videos, or reading posts/comments can sometimes trigger me into emotional responses that are... well... occasionally trolly and somewhat dickish. At the time I write them, I feel entitled and correct in my response. But down the road I look back at some of my statements and realize that I am part of the problem and not really helping anything or anyone.
What does this have to do with cold showers?
From what I keep reading, one of the most important parts to becoming a better person and gaining control over yourself and your emotions, is to start the day off right. Mornings are not everyone's cup of tea, but how you respond to them can directly affect the rest of your day. Since my daily routine usually starts off with contempt for getting out of bed and having to go to work, I will seek to flip this on its head - starting with cold showers.
Instead of my usual routine of hitting the snooze button, waiting as long as possible to get out of bed, then chugging a Red Bull to wake me up, I want to do the opposite. I want to start jumping out of bed with excitement for what the day has ahead of me. I want to rekindle my childhood lust for life, and maybe, just maybe cold showers will be the first step in the right direction.
The first cold shower morning (today)
Scene from The Elf
When I woke up, I immediately dreaded the notion of following through with the challenge. The first thoughts were:
"Screw this, I'll start tomorrow. I feel like shit and don't need this right now."
That lasted for a good half and hour as I delayed departing the warm comfort of my queen sized bed and down comforter almost locking me in position. But I began remembering why I took this challenge, and how much I desire to better myself and regain control over my body, mind and spirit.
"Ok damnit. Let's do this."
I crawled out of bed, hesitantly walking towards the bathroom. My mind was already beginning to fear the brutally cold water about to hit my flesh. Almost like a kid going into a doctor's office for vaccinations, I had to psyche myself up to do it.
My hand turned the shower on, and I slowly got in skirting around the falling water. First I let my feet feel the aqueous bullets of ice as it started to send shivers throughout my body. Then my hands and arms as I splashed some water over my body.
"Dear god, this is intense!"
As I was focusing on which body part to succumb to the chills of the water, I noticed that I was wide awake at this point. Normally it would have taken me another hour or so of drinking an energy drink and trying to focus my mind on the morning tasks for work to wake up. But today, it was nearly instantaneous!
Upon realizing this, I became a little excited to be honest. It almost started to become like a game of how much of my body can I freeze under the water before having to dance around a little. Next thing I know, I am almost accustomed to the water (not really, but as much as you can be) and am going through the cleaning routine in a lively fashion.
Not only did this bolster my spirits, but it changed my morning mentality of dread to that of fun and thrill. It is hard to explain how cold water can be "fun," but it almost brings back memories of playing in cold pools when I was a kid.
And now, I sit here in front of my computer buzzing with energy and ready for the day. Being the skeptical cynic that I am, I keep wondering how much of this is just placebo and will fade away with time. But there is only one way to find out for certain, and that is to keep up the challenge! This is just the first day, can I survive the whole week? If I feel as good as I do right now, and with the same high spirits, perhaps I will keep it up for good!
Will you join me? Will you dare to say goodbye to your beloved hot showers?
There are a plethora of great reasons to start this habit including improving mood, circulation, fertility, skin/hair health and more! And it is not just me talking about it, my original inspiration was from reading other user's posts until finally @tinyhomeliving inspired me to just do it already =)
Check out some other users already going beast mode with cold shower power!
@tinyhomeliving - Hot water heater is broken and I have been taking cold showers . . . I LOVE IT!
@dailystudent - Why I Only Take Cold Showers
@wbe4ever - Cold Showers
@neyerjm - Why you should learn to love cold showers
@cryptogee - 30 Days that Changed My Life
@biowealth - Biohacking Meets Steemit
I've tried this so many times. The best I can do is start with a hot or warm shower and change it to cold for the last 20 seconds or so.
This second cold shower morning was actually harder to do than yesterday. I had a bit of insomnia last night, so maybe that contributed, but what I ended up doing was first setting the shower to cool (not 100% cold, but like 70%) and then working my way to up from there. By reminding myself of why I was doing it, and the benefits I wanted to see in my life, this helped me jump the initial "hurdle" of starting the routine.
But I think even having your shower cold for the last 20 seconds would probably still be beneficial. Your skin and hair health might still be affected by the initial hot shower, but I imagine the last bit of cold water should still prompt a circulatory and immune system response for those benefits (not a physician, but it sounds logical right?).
I think you might be right about that. It makes me feel better, anyway. Right now the days are hot...not sure how this will play out in the winter.
Yah, winter will definitely be harder...
I am a huge Tim Ferriss fan & have tried cold showers...but I constantly fail... ugh
I can truly see the willpower building effects...
I must try harder!!
ice ice baby
Tell you what, if you do it and post about it tomorrow, I will send you the rest of my SD funds! It's only $3.60 at the moment but hey, it's better than a kick in the pants and maybe will motivate you to keep it up XD
I need all the kicks I can get!
I am interested in the Wim Hof method...that dude is a beast!!
I watched a mini documentary on him (was it Vice? I forget) and it was pretty amazing! I had no idea that breathing techniques could do so much... medically and mentally =P
This is a great idea, and I am going to start doing this. I first read about this idea on a post from mises.org I think. The only thing is actually washing, you need hot water. So I will start with a blazing hot shower, uncomfortably hot, wash quickly (I always wash quickly) and then rinse off and flip it to cold.
You don't need super hot water for washing, it just might take a couple more seconds of rinsing though to get the soap out =P
Your method is called the "Scottish Shower" where you switch between a hot and cold shower to open and close your pores.
It doesn't need to be hot but trust me, I spent the better part of 7 months frequently attempting to wash clothing with 'laundry' soap bars. The cold water makes it very difficult to get anything clean. Super hot is not necessary, but it also does cause a shock effect and once you warm up, it accentuates the cold shock. So, it's not necessary, but I think it helps.
Great job for doing it! I hope a lot of people take you up on this challenge, it feels amazing : )
I'm in. 7 days, let's do this. I did my first day today and it was horrible. FU. God damn, how long do you go for? I am doing an ice bath tomorrow for sure. Also, we mention your challenge in our show, you may want to check it out https://steemit.com/steemit/@steemnation/steemnation-3-enter-the-first-ever-steem-lottery
I'm still hoping it gets easier lol! These last couple days have been a bit harder to keep the motivation up =P I cheated on Saturday and started with warm water then moved to cold at the end..
But to answer your question:
As quick as possible! I am in there cleaning FAST to be done and out lol
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