What Taking A Cold Shower Every Day For A Month Taught Me

After learning that hot water would not be great for my new skin condition. I ventured to motivate myself to have a cold shower. It was something I did not want to do. But it was the only way I was going to get better.

I figured that if I could handle cold showers, the cooler showers I would have to take would not feel too bad. So I did what anyone else would do when trying to find an excuse to do something. And that was researching the benefits to incentivize me.

Upon typing cold showers into the YouTube search bar, I came across Matt D’Avella. His video resonated with me because of his responses to taking cold showers. Especially his introduction to the video when he exclaims, “It is the dumbest thing he has ever done.” I felt like that too.

After hearing what he learnt from it, I decided to take the courage to do the same. But I needed one more extra push. I had to be sure that cold showers were not going to kill me and at least had some benefits. To my surprise, both were true.

The benefit that applied to me was the reduction in itchy/irritated skin. However, it came with much more. Things like increasing your circulation, giving your skin a healthier glow, and even helping with weight loss.

At this point, I had no excuse. So, I picked up my towel and started that very morning. Having come to the end, I am relieved. Even though I can not have the cosy warm showers I was having before. Having a cool shower feels much better than a cold one.

Over the past 30 days, four things have stood out to me as lessons learnt. And hopefully, you can learn through my experience, so you do not have to go through what I did.

Our Bodies’ Response To Difficult Task

On day 1, I turned my shower temperature down and looked at the water hitting the floor. I had not even touched the water yet, and my body began to shiver. I started to get sweaty hands as my heart rate increased, and I was breathing like I just came from a sprint.

You have probably heard of the fight or flight response. It is a built-in default setting our body turns to when we are in tough positions. It is believed that this psychological phenomenon has occurred due to evolution.

When we would come up against large animals which wanted to eat us. Our brains had to make a quick decision. It would either give us the confidence to fight the beast or make us run away. We face fight or flight situations all the time, especially when faced with a difficult task.

The good thing about having a fight or flight system in us means we protect ourselves.

But, the problem with fight or flight mode is that fighting is the last resort. Of course, for our safety and survival, this makes logical sense. But when it comes to completing an interview or doing a presentation at work, our brains are trying to stop us from fighting/tackling the task.

Have you ever noticed you start to think the worst thoughts before a nervous situation? Or you start to remember things you have not done to prepare right at the moment. It is the brain’s way of telling us we need to run or else we are going to endanger ourselves.

So, if you did not know already, it is always easier to run away from our difficult problems in life. And our brain is wired to do that. So, it takes much self-discipline and determination to overcome our urge to run from our difficulties.

Whilst standing outside the shower, my brain was giving me hundreds of reason to not step in. I had never experienced flight mode like this before. I found myself backing away from the shower, without me realising I was at the door to the bathroom again.

But then I did it. I shut off my thoughts, and I ran in like a mad man. The instant shock came over me, and I was still breathing heavily. When I finished showering, I reflected on how fast my body snapped into fight or flight mode. And how quickly my brain filtered out all the reasons for me having a cold shower.

I learnt that our brains are master over exaggerators. Because I knew I was about to complete something difficult, it started to scream before I had even done anything.

I learnt that the body’s anticipated response to a difficult task is always worse than the task itself. Once you know this, you can block out the screams to run much easier. And this is what happened over the next 29 days. It became the norm to silence the brains negative thoughts telling me to run. And I overcame it with my in-built fight response.

So, next time you hear those thoughts creeping in before you do a difficult task, remember that your brain’s anticipation of the fear is worse than tackling the fear itself.

Why We Procrastinate

After the first week of cold showers, I found myself procrastinating. I had started getting over the fear of my brain telling me to run away from the situation, but I realised my delay in getting into the shower was getting longer.

I would find myself in the bathroom, with the cold shower running, and me on my phone. Sometimes, I would even get everything ready for my cold shower. Then sit at my desk for an extra 20 minutes typing something.

What broke this cycle of procrastination was an emergency meeting with my manager. It was only then I realised I could not sit on my phone for 10 minutes before taking a shower. I had to jump straight in. It shocked me out of this habit of procrastination, and the cold water felt worst that day.

However, I learnt the reason why we procrastinate our difficult task. A huge part of procrastination is finding ways to delay difficult things that we need to do. It is not “flight mode” because we are not running from it, but we are delaying the pain of doing it.

The delaying of my cold shower made the task less of an optional one and more of an urgent one. Taking a shower is a mandatory task. And I do it around the same time every day to keep my working from home schedule consistent.

But after soon realising I did not like cold showers, I started finding more ways to push the time back. And it was only until it came to a time where having a shower was an urgent task, that I actually decided to do it.

Procrastinating made my optional cold showers feel like a mandatory urgent task. It was almost like cramming in a bunch of revision the night before an exam. You would never do that much work in one day. But because it is now urgent, you find yourself being “productive” and getting it done.

So, procrastination allows us to feel forced into doing something. And when we feel that pressure to get something done because of a deadline or something urgent coming up. We tend to do it with no excuses. And most importantly, with no distractions.

But, I found that this was not a good way to complete difficult tasks. It paints an unrealistic view of the world because not all tasks are going to have deadlines. Also, we are not always going to be getting pressured by someone to get something done.

So, we must learn how to self-motivate ourselves to get a difficult task done. I found giving myself a little pep talk before getting in the cold shower helped. My self-talk included me counteracting all the negative thoughts in my brain. I would say stuff like:

“It is not going to kill you.”

“You will feel great after.”

“You are going to be stronger.”

So, maybe next time you find yourself delaying a task, try this. Say out loud the exact opposite to the negative thoughts your brain is thinking. Then get straight into it.

Resilience Requires Self Control

The number of times I felt the urge to turn the hot water on was uncountable. Every 8-minute shower of pain was filled with this constant urge to make the situation more comfortable.

It was difficult because I was aware that I was self-inflicting this pain. No one was forcing me to do this, and all the members of my body knew it too. So it became hard to stand in the cold water without having second thoughts about everything.

Most of the time, when we speak about being resilient, we often mention pushing against the odds. But we hardly ever talk about going against your desire to give up.

I experienced both whilst standing in the freezing shower. Part of me was standing firm in the cold shower letting the water hit my skin. Despite it being difficult and unbearable, I overcame my fear and had a cold shower. But at the same time, I was fighting my urge to back out of it because it was so easy to do.

So, resilience is not just about finding the motivation to complete a hard task. It is also having the self-control to overcome your desire to not want to be resilient in the first place.

Next time you find yourself wanting to give up. Remember that resilience is not just the ability to complete your difficult task. It is also having the self-control to not give up whilst being resilient.

Self Esteem Is Increased When We Complete Difficult Task

Finally, I would never forget the feeling of getting out of the cold shower and wrapping myself back in my robe. Although I was shivering, I had a massive smile on my face.

When taking a cold shower, you go through a journey of very mixed feelings. Before you step in, you feel like you can not do it. Everything in you is telling you to run from the situation because you are not strong enough.

Then, once you jump in, you are experiencing the physical pain of your fight. You realise it is not going to be easy to last for another second. The only thing you can think about is the easy way to get out of this pain. That would be to turn on the hot water.

Finally, you hear the alarm and quickly turn the cold shower off. You sort of hate yourself initially for putting yourself through that. Plus, no one is there to applaud you for your courageous efforts. It is just you and your cold skin shivering for warmth.

But, upon stepping out, you realise that the initial thoughts you had about yourself were a lie. You were strong enough to do it, and you are resilient enough to push through difficult tasks. Once you realise this, you grow in confidence in your ability.

Eventually, the cold showers became easier. And this last week has been easy for me. This is not to say that the cold showers are still not painful. But it is to say that I am beginning to grow in confidence for myself. Every time I faced a cold shower this week, I told myself I can do it because I have done it before.

Completing difficult task pushes us out of our comfort zones. It makes us realise that we are capable of more than we thought. And this gives us more confidence to face even harder things in life.

Next time you feel like you can not do something. Remind yourselves of the time where you did overcome something challenging. It will boost your self-esteem at the moment. And motivate you to complete the problem which faces you.

Closing Thoughts

The 30-day cold shower challenge has made me appreciate myself more. I hope you have also learnt something from this article which you can apply to your life.

Because I have already, you will not need to take any cold showers yourself. However, if you dare take on the challenge, you are more equipped than I was, after reading this.