HolisticImprovement

When I first read about people who swore by taking daily cold showers, I thought it was crazy. I was happy with my long, comfortable, warm showers and couldn’t see why anyone would do anything else.

 
As I started researching the topic more, I found out many benefits of taking cold showers. Since I love trying out new, positive habits, I knew I had to start taking cold showers. It was really uncomfortable and unnatural at first, but I was determined to make it into a habit. I kept at it, and ever since I developed the habit of taking cold showers every single morning, I haven’t looked back once.

 
1)    Increases Self-Discipline

 
Taking cold showers is one of the best daily activities to boost your self-discipline. Self-discipline is like a muscle, the more you discipline yourself, the better you get at it. Self-discipline is an essential trait to have to be successful. Also, since showering is usually the very first thing in the morning, it starts the day off having completed a personal challenge, which sets you up for similar success the rest of the day.

 
2)    Face your fears

 
The first few times you take a cold shower, you will turn on the water, put your hand in the stream, and think, “There’s no way I’m actually going in there.” But why? Is it going to kill you? I struggled with this fear in the beginning, so I tried to dig deep into why I had so much aversion to just jumping in. After some self-reflection, I realized it was actually the completely irrational, yet very common fear of simply being uncomfortable that made me hesitate so much. With this realization, it became easier to jump in.

 
3)    Pushes your comfort zone

 
A main reason I started taking cold showers is because it pushes your comfort zone a huge amount, especially the first few times you try it. Every morning, I turn on the shower and stand in front of it for a few seconds, with a voice in my head giving me thoughts such as, “Turn it to warm water,” “It’ll be so nice,” “You don’t really need to take a cold shower,” “Everyone takes warm showers, etc”. That voice will keep talking as long as you let it, and it will become more and more convincing as time goes by. This is why I try to jump in right away, so that the voice doesn’t get a chance to convince me otherwise.

 
4)    It’s healthy

 
Cold showers have some great health effects, such as relieving depression, improving blood circulation, and keeping skin and hair healthy. Also, according to a study done in 1993 by the Thrombosis Research Institute in England, cold showers strengthen the immune system and increase testosterone. I would be completely sold on taking cold showers just because of the wide-ranging health benefits, not to mention all the added mental and psychological benefits.

 
5)    Becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable

 
It’s not easy to grow as a person. As human beings, we are biologically wired to try to do the least amount of work possible (mental, physical, etc). In order to go beyond our animalistic nature, we must first recognize it, and then strive to overcome it. The more we become comfortable with doing the uncomfortable (taking cold showers, pushing yourself past muscle failure in the gym, meditating for a long period of time, taking risks, etc) the more we grow as people and overcome the lazy, animalistic way of being that we’re wired to try to achieve.

 
6)    Wakes you up, saves time and water

 
Taking cold showers is amazing for waking me up in the morning, and it’s much healthier than having a caffeine addiction. It also makes me feel rejuvenated and fully alive. If you only shower at night, it still saves a lot of time showering. When taking a cold shower, you do what you have to do, and get out, while if it’s warm water you usually stay in there for a little while. Since you spend much less time in a cold shower, you will save thousands and thousands of gallons of water in the long run, which is no small achievement.

 
I urge you to start the habit of taking cold showers, and stay dedicated to it. I promise it will be worth it, however unappealing it sounds at first. Write about your experiences with this in the comments below!

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