The Benefits of Cold Showers
It is said that cold showers give you superpowers; you feel like James Bond afterward! They say that taking a cold shower can really change your life in powerful and subtle ways. Some guys have actually experimented with taking cold showers, wanting to find out about this powerful tool as a way of enhancing fitness, health, mental toughness and yes, quality of life!
Remember Wim Hof, known as the Iceman; who trained himself to endure the extreme cold. Many people were influenced by this man, deciding to dive in as well. Simply put, there are lots of benefits to be gained from cold showers. It wakes you up, energizes you and increases alertness and the ability to concentrate. It is known to strengthen the cardiovascular and immune systems, to enhance recovery, reduce inflammation, increase testosterone, and improve hair and skin health. Apparently, that is not the only the icing on the cake, however. Deliberately moving out of your comfort zone, in this case taking a cold shower every day when you usually don’t do such a thing, you won’t believe it, but it reaps in the best rewards.
If we had to be honest, no one really enjoys taking a cold shower, right? But when you stick to it, you notice things start happening. It was Joel Runyon who said that if you are not willing to be uncomfortable for 5 minutes taking a cold shower, how will you endure situations where the outcomes are so much greater and more people are affected by your decision than just you? And he’s right!
The Benefits of Cold Showers
1. You’ve got to be 100% in; willing to take “the uncomfortable.”
If you are not 100% in it, you won’t make it, period. In an awkward situation, you will be miserable, but if you are not willing and ready, you’re not a candidate for cold showers. In other words, you need to want this. If you’re not 100% on board, you’re not going to make it. The point here is, it takes willpower, it’s the simple idea of being comfortable with being uncomfortable, testing your resolve to see what you are made of.
2. Learning to be flexible
It’s good to have a basic plan, sticking with it as best you can, but not too rigid. It requires flexibility to ease into the situations, the shower in this instance, more gradually – almost every time John would end up going colder, for longer. The key again is making progress, by pushing your limits.
3. It requires endurance
Even after 18 months of disciplining himself to take cold showers, John still found it hard to do so, every time. He always heard a voice telling him to give up, just set the water to warm. He said he had to beat the fear of facing that icy water, all the time, over and over again, but he knew that to endure would make him the champion.
4. Refusing to weasel out of it
You will want to quit, but you must be prepared for that eventuality. John often wanted to give in, thinking, ‘today, I’ll just skip this one,’ giving himself great excuses for skipping the shower; early warning signs for quitting. But he never gave in; didn’t even come close!
5. When facing resistance, search for the right motivation, but keep going!
In this instance, John waited till after his gym when he was hot and sweaty, knowing it would turn out better! It might even be nice. It also aided in recovery and inflammation reduction.
He turned negativity into positivity.
There’s more to cold showers than just a long list of health benefits – a lot more.
Cold showering, simply put, is one of the things you have to experience to understand. It teaches you a lot about yourself – it gives you superpowers. There certainly are heaps of health benefits, even relieving depression and stimulating weight loss. But as you can see, it does far more. It builds character too! It fixes you as someone who regularly overcomes resistance. And it builds confidence where you believe you can reach any goal you set for yourself, even when “resistance” tries its best to get in the way.
If you can overcome the discomfort and expose yourself to cold showers daily, believe me, you will have created a solid foundation for overcoming more challenging obstacles and uncomfortable situations. That’s aside from the health benefits!
Keep visit CredoForLife for more articles like this.