My alarm is set for 5:43 am every week day. I get up then and take a cold shower. That wakes me up! After 60 seconds of cold, I towel off and feel ready to tackle my day, knowing that I’ve already finished the hardest part.
After lunch, I like to go for a walk and do a little jog. If I slump with my energy later in the afternoon, I take another cold shower. Wakes me right up and energizes me to work hard.
I have friends with chronic depression. I recommend to them a cold shower twice a day. It wakes you up and takes you out of whatever thought habits you’re stuck in. You never leave a cold shower with the same thoughts that you took in.
Here are some benefits of the cold shower:
James Bond wasn’t the first to enjoy the benefits of a shot of cold water. In ancient times, hot water was a luxury. People had to live near a hot springs in order to enjoy the comfort of a hot bath, so for most of human history people bathed in cold water. But even when the Ancient Greeks developed heating systems for their public baths, they continued bathing in cold water for the health benefits.
The Spartans, hard-asses that they were, felt hot water was for the weak and unmanly. When they did take baths (which was, like, once a year) they used only cold water because they thought it tempered the body and made it vigorous for ass kicking.
During the first century, Finnish folks would sweat it out in saunas and then jump into an ice cold lake or stream, a pastime which is referred to as “avantouinti” or “ice hole swimming” and is still enjoyed by modern Finns and others wild and woolly Scandinavians.
