Cold showers: My one year journey

At this moment you’re probably reading this story in a comfortable chair in room temperature. Warm and comfy…. But with a troubled mind, tired of daily routine, wondering…

I want to feel free...

What if I told you that there is a way of achieving that…

By taking ice cold showers

Here’s my story…

The morning after graduation day. From the moment I opened my eyes, I felt happy and free. Just couldn’t believe I had nothing to do and was free of any worries. Endorphins were running through my body. It felt like heaven. I basically didn’t do much that day until evening fell. It was a summer evening and still bright outside so I decided to take a ride on my bike. A ride through the wonderful city that had shaped my life as a mid-twenty lad. Riding the bike and passing the university library, seeing hundreds of students submerged in books. It felt bittersweet. For the first time in my life I was able to see them from the other side. As a graduate, full of knowledge and confidence, I relaxed and laid down on the grass, looked at the clouds without a single worry. Just being present and enjoying the moment. It felt amazing. I was happy.

Time passed…

and life happened. Endorphins died out and I was back in a normal state. Energy levels faded and personal problems raised. Problems like finding a job, disappointments, worries just to name a few. Obviously first world problems. It wasn’t necessarily about surviving, but still. I didn’t feel happy and whenever I don’t feel happy or satisfied, I search for distractions. Internet, movies, news, you name it. Things that provide instant gratification. Obviously, I was aware of the fact it’s not a healthy way to live. But hey, that’s what we humans do right? We tend to ignore our prudent side and reach out to instantly gratifying things. In that sense I fell victim to the traits of modern man: Short attention span, restless and… entitled.

Modern life…

(Social) media has become a medium to quickly grasp man’s attention and maintain it. The trick used to maintain one’s attention is by showing updates simply by scrolling down your phone. In other words, big companies like Facebook have identified and capitalized on our constant need for instant gratification and thus feeding our needy brains with “news feeds” and “status updates”. “They” have capitalized on our addiction. Addicted to the rush of tiny spikes of endorphins one “feed” at a time.
In modern days, society and so our parents thought it was a good idea to constantly feed us with encouragement and a sense of self-worth by saying things like: You are amazing no matter what you do. A philosophy that was, in my opinion, an inevitable result from years of social oppression. The fifties till late seventies were characterized by social status. A period with its main focus on financial wealth and social approval. People born between the eighties and early two thousand, or so-called Millennials were brought up with the opposite idea: Entitlement.
The sense of belief that you’re entitled to get anything from life, by doing nothing. Therein lies the biggest problem of our generation. We gradually step into the pitfalls of arrogance and (over) self-worth. Any type of discomfort is shied away from and resort to instant pleasures of any kind. We lost patience and humbleness. We act as if we know it all, because we saw a few informative YouTube videos and we won’t let anybody tell us what is good or bad. Because,

“fuck that, I wanna be me”

I too fell into this trap. Happiness was “out there”. Famous people in Hollywood and whiz kids from Silicon Valley with huge successes made it seem like there was only one way to be someone. Being inspired is one thing. It’s something else as soon as you start to think, you are in any way very special, and hence entitled to it all. To be honest, I still find myself to be very special, and therefore dream of being amongst the stars of human kind. I know this is utter bullshit, but I am too a victim of our generation.
Luckily the twentieth century is not only defined by ugliness. To every Yin there is a yang. Two sides of the same coin. Due to the open library of the world wide web, we have access to basically an unlimited amount of information to educate ourselves. In this way we are on the least able to identify and analyze our behavior and thought patterns. We live in an amazing time of opportunity. We just don’t realize it enough. Too much of our attention is headed in mindless web browsing and cat videos. However, among the countless sources of entertainment and information feeding off at instant gratification, some pearls can be found.
After graduating I found myself to be without a job for quite a while. Besides writing and sending resumes to companies, I had a lot of time to kill. One day, while browsing the web, I stumbled upon a viral video about a guy that seemed to perform crazy feats of cold exposure. At first, I thought it was just another freak show, but something about him intrigued me. Intuitively I knew there was something special about his achievements, and so I started my journey into the topic of cold exposure.

From my online search for conducted research on this topic, I found out that there is no scientific consensus on the (positive) effects of cold exposure. However, one research has been done around 2014 in the Netherlands by the Radboud University Medical Center. In this experiment they investigated the effect of the iceman’s breathing methods and cold exposure on the sympathetic nervous system and the attenuation of the immune response in humans.

Up until this experiment it was assumed that these systems could not be voluntarily influenced. The experiment was conducted by a group of 12 people trained by Wim Hof for 10 days and a control group of 12 people that did not receive any training. Both groups were exposed to an experimental endotoxemia. The results showed a statistically significant difference in responses of the test subjects. The group trained by Wim Hof showed an increased amount of chemicals that lessened the effect of the administration of the endotoxin. Basically, this lead to a reduced number of symptoms such as nausea and headaches.

These results I found very intriguing and hence decided to do a cold shower and breathing experiment upon myself…

I can proudly say that by this time I have been taking daily cold showers for 1 year and 3 months. I did this every evening starting off with a nice warm shower after which I switched it to ice cold temperatures between 3 to 4 minutes. Before you think that I became this Zen like enlightened person in full control of the body and mind, I can honestly tell you that is not the case. Cold showers are hard and uncomfortable. Though there is a difference between the times I first began and now.

I got used to the initial shock from the moment the water covers the body. Basically, the initial shock became more bearable and easier. As of noticeable health effects, no sweaty hands and feet, less anxiety and smooth skin! I believe these benefits stem from exposing your body to small amounts of external stress, contracting and relieving the veins inside your body. This in turn makes the vein muscles stronger and more efficient in transporting blood through the body. Also, by repeatedly staying calm and relaxed when cold water hits the body might enhance your inner state when exposed to external stress caused by any circumstance. Accepting the pain and stress instead of fighting it. This might be the trick to handle stress a lot better. Cold showers have led me to intuitively believe that daily breathing and cold showers lead to a more balanced life when it comes to the mind and body. Obviously, this should go hand in hand with a healthy lifestyle such as your regular workouts and veggies.

Lessons learned:

Cold showers don’t magically lead to a more balanced happy life. Problems don’t fade. The world couldn’t care less about your cold showers. It does provide, however, a safety net to fall back on. In a way, I believe it beautifully symbolizes the bumps and stumps that life has the tendency to throw at you (for no apparent reason). The cold teaches the mind to accept the struggle since, fighting it only makes it worse. By embracing this uncomfortable realm of cold, the body tends to adjust to this threat on its own. Accepting the struggle, staying calm and relying on your own capabilities to put through, are lessons that can be applied to every aspect of your life. When you’re worried about some big task you have to complete at work, stressed out about your annoying criticizing boss or any other (self-induced) worry, just be aware that the best way to deal with this is by accepting, embracing, staying calm and relying on your capabilities. Just as you would while taking ice cold showers.