A Month of Cold Showers?
Yep, you read that right. I subjected myself to a whole month of cold showers. Willingly, too! Why did I do this?
Well, it started after I watched a Matt D'Avella video of him doing the exact same thing (link is below). The argument behind taking a cold shower is to embrace The Flinch: leaning into the discomfort, because the anticipation and dread of the experience is usually worse than the actual experience itself.
The flinch is about the moments when we shrink up before a big moment, before you speak in front of that audience, the difficult conversation with your partner. Either you push through the flinch, or you succumb to a life of shrinking and defeat.
I like a lot of what Matt produces. He's pragmatic and realistic in his approaches. If he can do it, I can do it.
Right?
The first week was absolute hell. I'd turn on the shower, gingerly get in, and slowly move more and more of my body under the incoming hypothermia until I got acclimatized to the cold. Once that happened, amongst a barrage of swearing, the fastest shower I could muster while still getting clean was performed, and I was out in no time. I bet no shower lasted longer than five minutes.
It's at this point that I re-watched his video. And it's like he called me out.
You can start by placing your head in the cold water, working to your face, and then eventually the rest of your body. This is also the coward's way.
Ouch.
He has a point, though. It was the coward's way. It's not about the cold shower – it never was. The whole point of this was to embrace the discomfort, and I wasn't staying true to that.
And so every shower after that was getting in the shower, followed by "three, two one" and into the water I went. Every morning, without fail. For the entire rest of the thirty days.
After the thirty days was over, I decided to treat myself and go back to my old ways. And you know what? That shower sucked. I missed the cold shower already. I missed being able to conquer one small challenge at the beginning of my day for essentially free.
If I can do it, so can you.
My Weekly Finds
