4 Years Of Cold Showers, Here Are The Benefits

4 Years Of Cold Showers, Here Are The Benefits

#4 Mental resilience

In 2016 I remember reading an article online called The James Bond shower.

Being an avid Bond fan, it grabbed my attention.

The article went on to explain that James Bond would have a warm shower then finish up completely cold for a minute or two.

I tried this a couple times, it was a complete shock to the body and I started hyperventilating.

I mean technically that’s what your body is doing to keep you alive. Deep fast breathing.

Little did I know at the time, I thought it was a horrible experience and didn’t see the benefits.

But 4 years later, I do it every day and I can’t live without it.

Early 2019, after my horrible experience of cold showering, browsing Interwebs I came across an interesting man named Wim Hof or The Ice Man.

Wim has accomplished incredible feats like being submerged in ice water for hours, sitting in tubs of ice cubes and climbing Mount Everest in just shorts.

Astonished, I started to read into his philosophy and discovered that exposing yourself to cold temperatures has numerous health benefits, like:

• Improved immune system

• Reduced muscle soreness

• Boost mood and reduce anxiety

• Improved circulation

• Reduced inflamation

• Improved will power

• Less sensitive to the cold

His journey towards this natural super power started with cold showers.

But there was a method, you need to build yourself up to bare with the cold. You can’t expect to just be able to instantly adapt to cold showering every day.

The Method

Have your normal warm shower, then when you’re squeky clean ready to get out, slightly reduce the warm water, just cold enough to be slightly uncomfortable.

Focus on breathing.

Breathing is what keeps you warm.

Stay for at least thirty seconds, but try longer an minute

Repeat this method every day, slightly reducing the warm water by a bit more, until youre able to completely turn off the warm water and you’re left with the naturally cold temperature.

The goal is to hot shower, then completely cut over to fully cold and stay for 1 minute.

The Panic

Every time you turn off the hot water, your mind will say “get me the fuck out of here”.

Your body releases stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol.

Fight or Flight?

You will hyperventilate. Blood vessels and skin cells tighten.

Just focus on the breath, don’t panic, you will not die.

You might feel some numbing in your feet, legs and hands, but that is normal. If you feel unsafe, get out.

You have a choice. Fight, or flight?

We have these choices daily in life and I’ll explain further how this daily action builds mental resilliance to become a fighter not a flighter.

You must focus, choose to fight and trust that you will feel warm under that cold water soon.

Staying, focussing and breathing — your body is responding to stress, it’s responding to external shock, it’s engaging it’s survival program and survive you will.

The Pleasure

The act of breathing deeply and quickly speeds up the heart rate, blood pumps through your body quickly and rushes into your core to keep warm.

Your skin will adapt to the cold and my gosh, you’ll get overwhelming feelings of euphoria as hormones like serotonin, dopamine and endorphins are running through your body you’ll feel relaxed, mentally refreshed and feeling happy.

You’ll feel more alive than ever. You’ll feel like a superhero.

You survived shock and you resisted the mind telling you to flee. Nice work!

The Benefits

Personally after having done this for 4 years, I can confidently say I experience:

Not getting sick

I’ve barely been sick in the past 4 years, except for COVID, but that doesn’t count, it was a new virus and the effects were very mild. I had a cough and low energy.

Daily good feelings

Boost of seretonin and endorphins — you truely feel awesome after the cold shower, your mental energy is ecstatic and you also have a lot of physical energy.

Many people jump straight into exercise after a cold shower, because they believe it gives them heightend stamina.

Less anxiety

The process, as shocking as it is to your body is quite meditative afterwards. You’re forced to focus on your breathing and not about anything else. The survival instincts kick in and all your worries dissapear for a few moments.

You’re then left with euphoria and happiness

Mental resiliance

Like I mentioned earlier, every day you have a choice. A choice to fight or fly away.

Making this decision to fight on a daily basis, re-wires your neurotransmitters to fight.

It’s like a daily exercise for your will power.

Over time, you’ll notice this carry over to other situations where you would normally take the easy road, or easily give in to self doubt or fear.

Cold Resistance

Finally, the initial reason why you would do this. Resistance to the cold.

When I walk into a pool, the ocean, a lake or a river, I’m not afraid of the cold at all.

I don’t get agitated, or do that funny movement where you don’t really want the water to touch your stomach area.

I don’t walk with my hands hovering above the water, trying to keep my balance of not falling further in.

No, I gracefully walk into any body of water with no shock or fear, I just focus on breathing and enjoy the amazing feeling.

I even walked into an ice lake in Finland — I must say that did take some focus and I could only sit in the water for a minute.

It was the coldest and best cold exposure experience in my life and I want to do it again!

You don’t need to wait 4 years to get these benefits, you will often experience most of them after a couple of months.

These are just the things I’ve observed in my life since I’ve started cold showering daily.

Your cold tollerance also depends on your location, when I was living in the Australia the water from the shower was no where near as cold as it is here in northern Europe.

You may want to experiment with ice baths in that case.

With benefits like this, why would you not do it?

You shower every day, so there’s no excuse ;)