Why I'm taking a cold shower every day
And why you might want to try this too, even when it’s not so hot.
I've been taking cold showers for about a month now. I started out turning the dial right to completely cold for 30 seconds after 2 minutes of my usual warm shower.
The first 20 seconds were the worst.
Those last 10 seconds were actually ok.
I got curious.
I extended out to 60 seconds of cold water. It was not pleasant to start with. But 5 days later, I was fine with it again.
I pushed out to 90 seconds. It took even less time to acclimatise.
The next step was 2 minutes. I stayed there for a week. I now added music and danced around a little too.
This was becoming fun.
I pushed out again to 2 mins 30 seconds, but the shower was over too quickly and I was still singing and dancing along to the track I was playing.
That's how I made it to 3 minutes of cold shower every morning in under a month. In winter (I’m in New Zealand).
Why would I do this to myself?
Water therapy has been used for centuries by people who want to take advantage of their bodies' natural tendency to adapt to harsh conditions. As a result, we become more resilient to stress. And this seems to happen in several different ways.
Before I go on, a brief word of explanation. This is a new section for paid members called Optimise. It’s a little play on words not only on how an optimistic mindset can help us to thrive, but also all the little tweaks we can make to make life better. You know, to optimise.
Each ‘letter’ will summarise a recent research paper looking at lifestyle tweaks and their influence on our physical and / or psychological wellbeing, and how we might use those results in our own lives. And sometimes I’ll include a little note on how I’m using that research in my own life too.
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