I just started incorporating cold showers (a controlled "cold plunge") into my routine for a variety of "life hack" reasons, so was a bit let down by the content. Maybe it could add a cold shower on cold showers?
EDIT: The original title was simply "Awesome Cold Showers"
My dad was always going on about how he never got colds because he did alternate hot/cold showers (as in hot/cold within one shower session). This is also something I saw the old folks do at the mineral baths in my hometown of Stuttgart: take blisteringly hot showers, then jump into the cold, bubbly, sulphury pool, repeat as long as you can withstand it. It's very relaxing but not sure it has any lasting benefits.
The human condition is such a weird one that for me the biggest benefit is hacking with hedonic adaptation. Of constantly resetting baselines so there is appreciation of the many wonderful things in life.
Many of the most enjoyed moments in my life -- moments when I really was living the moment, and appreciating and enjoying every element -- were often after "bad" moments. Not bad like war or trauma or anything, but like my best camping moment ever was when it had been raining for days, we were cold and miserable, but then the sun rose and it was a warm day and that day, with everything drying, warmth, and comfort, suddenly everything was brighter and better than it had ever been. The meal we made over the fire was next level. My best moment skiing was having a long, tiring and intensely cold day and then going into the blazing hot cabin to sit by a fire and have hot chocolate.
I make a french press pot of freshly brewed coffee and honestly the experience quickly becomes....meh. It's just coffee. But then I go on a business trip for a week, where I can only source mediocre coffee, and suddenly come home and my home coffee is just revelatory. It is just something I can sink into and sit in awe of.
So cold showers for me are like that. It is intense discomfort to reset the baseline, and suddenly warmth feels exhilerating and wonderful.
Haha, I've been doing this for years. When I'm done with my hot shower, I flip it cold and do a cool down even in the winter. Reminds me how much of a miracle hot water from a shower is.
Only downside is I live in a desert so the water from the tap is warm when it's summertime.
I took a real cold shower yesterday for the first time. Lasted about 35 seconds, but honestly felt great for a couple hours afterwards. Couldn't bring myself to do it again today :D
Absolutely. I recommend doing the Wim Hof breathing technique right before turning it cold, it gives you a little boost of adrenaline that just tips the emotional valence of the experience from, "this is terrible why would anyone do this on purpose" to "wow this is exhilirating".
I think a cold shower in the morning, when I do make it happen, gives me a can-do and energetic emotional state for the rest of the day. Force your body to start moving, and the mind follows.
This is a plot, a trick, a ploy. You're all some sort of environmental mega zealots, trying to trick me into cold showers to save hot water power costs. I won't have it, I won't.
Wim Hof, a man who learned one of the most advanced spiritual practices (Tummo), and uses it to teach people to stay warm. It's like studying with a Michelin chef then working in McDonald's.
Unnecessary put-down I think, the guy is also an author, coach, TV personality, etc. If you want to make a McD's analogy, he'd be the engineer that fabricates and optimizes their meals.
That may be, but my point is he's learnt an amazing technique and doesn't teach its true purpose. It's wasted on him it seems, as he's just trivialised it.
EDIT: The original title was simply "Awesome Cold Showers"