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I Took Cold Showers


         My dog started it. Well, not really. I had recently learned about this new thing called cold plunging. A cold plunge can expensive (think a spa), but cold showers are not. Although this is a current fad, the reason people do this comes from decades and even centuries of medical and common opinion. Louisa Mae Alcott's book Eight Cousins talks about a little girl Rose who has a poor constitution. Part of her uncle's treatment plan includes cold baths. 

        Certain groups of people around the world practice cold baths, like the Icelandic people, so the idea is neither modern nor fleeting. But we do have modern reasons for doing it, including mental health treatment, well-being boost, among other non-scientific reasons and beliefs. 

        So before the recent introduction, I had heard about it as a way to build self-discipline, better for your body in the winter, and then lastly as a mood booster. As a tool for self discipline, I was not convinced. Suffering in a cold shower is not how I want to become a better person. Better for my body--ha! The water is cold. A mood booster. Hmm. That is worth considering, but, still, the water is freezing. And I like really hot showers. 

        The dog comes in because I had to bathe her. She rolled in chicken poop and stank. I do not like to cuddle a stinky dog. I didn't want to do the whole soak-the-bathroom ordeal, so I tried to bathe her with the hose. The water was cold. She didn't like it, and I had take her into the shower anyway, because I couldn't get all the soap out. 

        Since I had put the cold water on the dog, I put it on myself. It was--cold. I dried off and--eureka!, 'This feels really good!" I waited until now to write about it, because I wanted to talk about it after I had actually tried it for sometime. The date of publication marks one month of cold showers. What are my personal benefits?

        It helps me go to sleep. The stimulation from the cold water is similar to that of using a brush or any sort of relaxing technique, and it does improve the mood. This is an opposite effect from what most people experience, but that's how it works for me. 

        The cold water has served as a distracting pain killer. When standard methods don't work, I've been able to lessen a headache with a cold shower. 

        I do think it helps as a mood booster, and it's completely free. I don't need some fancy cold-plunge tub, and the free part--it doesn't even require a water-heater. There is one caveat: there is no way to gradually acclimate to the cold water. I tried starting with a lukewarm shower, and I just couldn't stand it once the water got cold. True, my cold showers are short, but who needs a long shower anyway? I'd rather read a book. 

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