Most people hear of a cold shower and they shiver at the idea, the thought of a nice hot shower in the morning when waking up brings everyone out of bed. Yet there is a growing community of those who enjoy and love cold showers with the many benefits it comes with, even throughout the winter.

Although there are benefits to having hot showers like such as:

• improving circulation
• relaxation (less in the moment stress)
• opens the pores 
• can help regulate blood sugar levels 
• and a few more

what if i told you that cold showers have many if not more benefits compared to hot showers? even if done in short spurts. If you can't sustain full length cold showers, you can have he majority of your shower being warm or hot then have cold shower for a few minuets to finish the shower off. If the cold bothers you too much, start off with having the water as cold as you can bear and slowly lower it, whether it be from one shower to the next or very slowly lower the temperature in your current shower. 

Before going to the benefits I will quickly go over my method of having cold showers. I start my shower off hot to wash up and clean then towards the end I turn down the temperature to what I can bear and slowly turn it down further as I can. As you get used to the cold its easier to start lower and progress faster. At the very end of my shower I turn the shower down to as cold as it goes and put just my arms and legs under the water as I find it easier to bear. You can progress and take the challenge in anyway you want. starting in hard with very cold for long or taking just a few seconds of lukewarm water. which ever fits you, starting slow is better than not at all. Before you know it you will be very far into it.

Some benefits are as follows:

• Clear up your skin (helps tattoos)
• improves circulation
• lowers inflammation
• gives energy
•  boosts the metabolism
• relieve muscle soreness
• help increase oxygen intake and lower your heart rate
• helping with weight loss

Just to name a few.

The trick is to focus on your breath when umping into the cold water, the first instinct is to stress and take a deep breath to hyperventilate, relax and focus on keeping your breath slow and deep, feeling the breath. This will prevent a lot of the natural stress that comes up from the bodies natural reaction. Once you get into the habit your body adjusts to like the cold the same way it likes the warmth, you will love to enjoy the feeling after the shower. Growth is stepping out of your comfort zone, cold showers allow you to do this with something you already do and at the comfort of your own house. Many people who actively have cold showers find that it vastly improves their discipline as much of it is a mind game. The only limit is your own perception of it.

As a final note, there are many online forms and youtube videos/channels that follows and explains in depth about cold showers if you would like to pursue further, if there is support here for more posts about it I will happily create more. Further there is breath work that helps cold showers become easier such as the Wim Hoff Method and DMT breathing, I will go further into breath work on another post!

Happy cold showers!

Thanks for reading