We are what we repeatedly do Aristotle said therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit
The story of why I decided to do this is actually kind of funny
And yes, we are in my bathroom right now that somehow felt appropriate for this video. I don't know. Here we are
I've seen a lot of positive talk about cold showers recently and I saw a guy posted about his
Experience doing cold showers for a full year on Reddit and asked him for some advice
It's just a shower. He said I guess he had a point so I decided to give it a shot
Now why would I do this to myself especially when it's snowing outside I hate the cold
Well, first of all many of us not all of us, but many of us lead very comfortable lives in the developed world
I'll speak for myself here. All of my needs are pretty much always met
I never really have to worry about going hungry or being unsafe and I recognize that many of my ancestors
Didn't have access to those sorts of luxuries and many people in the world of today don't have access to those luxuries
So I do my best to be as grateful for these things as possible and not to take them for granted
But it is easy to fall into a comfortable life and the problem with a comfortable life
Is that for me comfortable equals not growing and expanding?
Life sometimes demands great things from us
Live in your own bubble for long enough and you'll start to become like one of those people in wall-e
I personally believe uncomfortable and challenging situations are good there what have shaped me to be the person that I am
So if that's how that works logically my thinking is that the more I put myself in those kinds of situations the more I'll grow
so
Discipline. I think we all like the idea of discipline
But the word has an almost mythical quality for a lot of us. Like where does it come from? How do you get it?
I hear you can attain it if you meditate in the forest at 6 a.m. I
Think in reality. It's a lot simpler than that
It's just a shower. I
Knew I had to build things up or I wasn't going to stick with this new habit
I mean, I really wanted to take this seriously, you know failure was not an option. So
My approach was to start off by setting the water right below lukewarm
so definitely not warm or hot, but also not shockingly cold
And lowering the temperature a notch or two every 30 to 60 seconds
I quickly realized that cold showers end up being fairly short. So within about five minutes I was out of there
Nice and awake
alert
Ready to tackle the day
In an attempt to build up my tolerance I would make sure that at least the last 10 to 20 seconds of the shower were
freezing and I would count slowly
Fortunately I found that my body adjusted to the cold throughout the shower
And once I was at that stage, as long as I focused on controlling my breathing
I could handle it without too much of a problem
You will find that if you set your mind on something you are capable of much more than you think
It's just five minutes of cold water. I'll say to myself. I've done much harder things
I noticed three immediate perks of cold showers: 1. There's a sense of accomplishment
I just did something that was a little bit challenging and that was optional. I didn't have to do it
but I did it anyway. 2. You feel wide awake. Like I would definitely feel clear minded which is huge for me
I mean
That's one of the main reasons
I'm creating videos in the first place
And 3. My internal body temperature would adjust and I would feel naturally warm for the next few hours, which is nice
Especially if you live in a cold place in the beginning, it was definitely challenging before every shower
I would get this pang of like I don't want to do this
however by week two I want to say I started to build up a streak that I didn't want to break and I almost
Started looking forward to these showers because of all the benefits that I just mentioned like the shower itself wasn't enjoyable yet
but all of the benefits became like afterwards or worth it and then even that changed because I started to enjoy
the cold itself
Believe it or not cold shower started to become
A way for me to give myself a natural boost and to like dive back into work
It really did feel like a natural alternative to like a cup of coffee or something along those lines
Another interesting thing happened my relationship to the cold has changed
The cold doesn't need to be this evil thing to avoid at all costs
it's not something you have to necessarily shy away from
it can be a positive thing something that pushes you it sharpens the senses a little bit. What I found in the last month is
That I just had to build things up slowly and now I have no plans to stop taking cold showers
Which I never thought I would say. So just a couple of final notes. I did not use the Wim Hof method
I think it's super interesting and helpful, but also not necessary. That's something that I might explore more in the future
but for this I found that as long as I
Took deep breaths and maintained a control and focus on my breath that I was all right
Also, I just want to reiterate really quickly that I think it's important to build things up
According to comfort level. It is important
I think to be a little bit uncomfortable, but I would really warn against doing anything extreme and
turning yourself off from the potential of
Exploring a really cool new habit the way I kind of see things is that if this improves your life even by like 2%
That's so worth it. If you enjoyed this video hit that subscribe button
I have a lot more coming soon that I'm really excited to share on the topics of mental clarity and building good habits and productivity
I've also posted a behind the scenes video on my patreon
sharing a little bit more what went into creating this
Okay, I just reviewed my footage and I think I'm showing too much thigh. So we're gonna reshoot this one more time
This was a really fun piece to work on. I'm trying to push my creative boundaries and really elevate the quality of my videos
So yeah, anyway, follow me on social media and I will see you soon. All right. Well, that was fun
You can leave the bathroom that way I would appreciate my privacy again. Thank you. Thanks for understanding