The Cold Shower

I'm sure a lot of you have heard about the benefits of taking cold showers:

• Maintains Healthy Skin (Kissing the acne goodbye)
• Improved blood circulation
• Increases testosterone (For the dudes)
• Reducing your depression

... For the several other benefits... Google it :)

Now, in the past I've done some cold showers after an intense Muay Thai session to speed up the recovery from getting brutalized for an hour, however I typically have a regular warm shower followed by a decrease in temperature until it's just about unbearable.

Source: http://highexistence.com/the-wim-hof-method-revealed-how-to-consciously-control-your-immune-system/

The Dreaded Cold Bath

At home, I don't have the luxury of a shower head due to the design of my bathroom, so my only option was to plunge straight into a freezing bath... what could possibly go wrong -_- .

When the time came, I was confident that I could overcome the initial shock and just hold my breath until it subsided, but I couldn't have been more wrong.  As I stepped into the bath, the water molecules were warning me not to proceed and the hot tap was screaming out to me so that I could be saved, but I refused. Two feet in, I stood there looking down as they became increasingly sensitive, I thought it would be best to just let it go and turn on the hot water but then I asked myself, "Am I really going to allow a small pool of water to defeat me? I thought I was stronger than this!", so I decided to take the plunge...

10 minutes later... I hadn't moved an inch... I was ashamed.

Enough was enough, I realized how ridiculous my endeavor was, at this point, my feet were well adjusted to the cold so I only needed to take the initial leap and wait a few minutes for my body to get used to it... so I did. The next few minutes were pure agony, I felt as though I was battling with Poseidon himself, splashing and squeezing the side of the bath tub, waiting for the moment where the shock would subside. But then, I decided to try and put my mindful practice to work after a few weeks of meditation and suddenly... everything stopped. I disassociated myself from what was going on and I acknowledged that I was creating the pain myself, and all I needed to do was let go. The went from extremely painful, to surprisingly sensational in an instant, and i knew, that I had conquered my mind.

Aftermath

After I reemerged, I felt different, I felt fresh, I felt reborn, as If I had left my ego behind in the water. As I dried myself off, I looked around and everything felt brighter and all I could think about doing was using this as fuel to conquer the day just like I conquered my mind. That was day 1. I would've expected the honeymoon period to come to and end after a week of doing this, but I was wrong. Every cold bath is equally as invigorating, and the long term benefits are starting to kick in.

I recommend doing this every morning after your stretches, followed by a few minutes of meditation and you'll be well on your way to a much improved standard of living.

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