What have you tried recently in order to kickstart your day? Are you in need of a killer morning routine to get yourself off on the right foot?
As someone whose work schedule has required him to be a part of the 5 am club (or sometimes earlier) for several years now, I have tried a few different strategies to shake the fatigue and grogginess after I pull myself from the warm embrace of my memory foam mattress.
Don’t worry, I’m not the guy who’s going to sit here on some high horse and tell you to stop drinking coffee, I’d be a hypocrite if I did. I will say though, it would probably behoove you to consider giving cold showers a try first thing.
I know it’s scary, I know they suck, and I know it’s kind of painful, but just hear me out for a moment friend!
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They give you a nice surge
I first started to take cold showers because I heard there were numerous health benefits associated with them such as lowering inflammation and boosting circulation in the body.
This is all great, I’m all about optimizing my health in any way I possibly can! At the same time, I wasn’t aware of how effective the cold water would be at snapping me out of my early morning haze. The effects of the icy water hitting your skin are almost instant, it jolts you awake and narrows your focus.
I almost look at the water streaming down as if it’s pure energy now, it’s how I charge my proverbial battery in the morning. I love the way it shakes me out of my tiredness so quickly.
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Something I never expected to happen
Since cold showers in the morning gives me such a satisfying boost of energy, I have come to somewhat rely on them when I start my day. Sure, I would even say they have become addictive.
Who would have thought that something which is so difficult and can feel so scary would end up becoming something I lean on daily?
When I don’t stand under the cold water for the 1–2 minutes I usually do after waking, something ends up feeling slightly off. The cold shower feels a little bit like hitting the reset button. When I don’t have that, I end up craving it. This is akin to craving the feeling of soreness many people get after doing a hard workout. Sure it hurts a bit, but it also feels good. It hurts in the best way.
The best type of pain is the pain associated with either growth or healing. Standing under cold water gives you a mix of both of these things.
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On the other side of the coin
Being somebody who spent much of his youth anxious and high-strung, I eventually started searching for anything which would help me to calm down and not suffer so much.
After hearing that cold water could be a thing to help me mentally toughen up, I gave cold showers a try.
One thing I learned over time was how, not only did they wake me up, but they also helped me to relax at the same time. Standing there under the frigid waterfall makes you want to tense all your muscles and stop breathing, but you need to train yourself to do the opposite!
When you learn to stand there without fighting what is (what is being that it’s fucking cold and painful) you end up training yourself to stay more relaxed in the face of life’s other constant stressors. This is a cool benefit because something else happens when you learn to relax in the face of such stress.
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The gift that keeps on giving
In the same way that the energy-giving component of the cold water makes showering in cold strangely addictive, the relaxing element of cold showers has helped to make me more present over time.
To the average person who hasn’t tried it before, it might seem like it wouldn’t even be possible to relax under the cold water. This is where presence comes into play. When the water first hits my bare skin I want to tense up, fidget, and move around. I have trained myself however to become present by focusing on my body, breathing into my belly, relaxing my anus (yep, you read that right), and feeling my feet flat on the tub floor.
Sometimes I close my eyes while breathing and can see colors, almost like a psychedelic experience.
I have found that by getting into a deeper state of presence, I am able to see the cold water for what it is. I find that it isn’t anywhere near as bad as I was making it out to be, the cold is only a small part of my overall experience.
When you go into the cold, you cannot think. You have to be. You 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲, to be the best version of 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳-Wim Hof
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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White Fragility: Talking to White People About Racism | Escape the “Act Like a Man” Box | The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer | What We Talk About When We Talk About Men |
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Photo credit: Tim Wilson on Unsplash