I wanted to give a lot of thought to icy cold showers before writing anything about them, not because I didn’t know a thing, but because I wanted to see for a long time and realise all the secrets lying within cold showers.
Disclaimer: All the secrets in this piece of writing have been tested by me, which makes this knowledge first-hand. You won’t find it elsewhere!
I could have written just the nuggets but what’s the fun in that? The thought of writing a detailed piece on this came to my mind on a frostbiting Winter mid-night while I was taking an icy-cold shower when the recorded temperature was 4-degree celsius.
Why did I start taking cold showers?
It all started in 2007 when I was in my 5th standard in school.
I used to stay sick. Sick for months with cold, cough, fever, viral and what not – for almost all the 8 to 10 months out of 12.
My parents took me to every possible doctor. But unfortunately, the recovery lasted for only a few months after which my sickness returned. This continued for a few years.
In winters, I used to feel extreme shivery cold and wore 4-6 layers of clothes, yet felt the chills all the time.
[animated gif]I was sick of being sick and cold all the time and that’s when I decided to find a solution (or make one, if there wasn’t any).
Moving forward, my every day routine involved collecting as much information as possible, which included eBooks from the internet and books from libraries to understand why are things the way they are with me and how to solve them.
After going through 100s if not 1000s of health articles, information by famous legends from the history, athletes, health experts, body builders, and many more professionals, I found one common solution mentioned everywhere but I could not validate it unless I implied it. (isn’t that the case with everything we want to do?)
The solution i found was stated multiple times and i felt it was over exaggerated when it said it could do wonders and give the power of great health to anyone in need.
What I found?
The thing with was – take cold showers with one strict rule. The rule was that no matter what happens, the person needs to take the cold shower daily! Every single day. In winters, cold weather, and on snowy days. You aren’t supposed to ever skip even in extreme conditions where we sometimes skip showers.
I was a person who took a warm/hot shower all year long. Changing this habit was not going to be an easy task.
I thought about it and wasn’t sure if i should do this as it seemed to be an extreme situation to imply. But after a few days of giving it a good thought and doing months of research, I felt it is definitely worth a try.
Some of the Benefits I found on the Internet:
- Helps you sleep better if taken right before sleep
- Helps in weight loss
- Speeds up muscle recovery after a workout
- and many more (you can google more benefits)
Starting of new decision
I started taking cold showers in the Fall of 2012 i.e. in my 10th standard.
During the fall, (Around August 2012) the temperature is normal. I started taking cold showers then, but I promised myself that no matter what happens I will go through the winter of 2012 with cold showers.
It wasn’t much painful to take cold showers in the month of August, but it got more challenging with the onset of winters.
My experience with cold shower:
The first 10 mins are the most challenging, not because of the cold biting water, but because convincing my mind to jump into cold water is extremely difficult. And i have to do that every single day.
Jumping in would give me the asset of great health, while continuing with warm shower would give me the comfort. But I wanted both.
It’s that time when my mind experiences inner conflicts. I have all the possible reasons to give up and go back to warm cozy showers but there is only one reason to choose cold showers – great health.
And it was high time that this asset had to be earned. I was waiting for something like this for a long time.
So, the first few weeks were extremely hard as it had to be done everyday. Every time I jumped in cold shower I deliberately did not move for 10-20 seconds until i felt alive and better.
I used to think that this was the hardest thing to do, but at the same time I was doing it every day. That’s where i first started breaking my own self limiting beliefs.
But 2 months after doing it, I got sick and this time it was the worst cold and cough ever. Worse than I ever had.
I had two choices, either to stop trying this cold shower experiment and return back to the way things were or keep doing it until I make it work.
Winters arrived and water got freezing and unbearable. I wanted to give up on this every single day.
But I had to earn the asset of great health.
Whenever I went to take bath, I made the decision to take the cold shower every single day.
Soon, I saw my health improving with time, I started feeling warm all the time. Cold showers did not affect me like they did initially after I took them daily for 2 years.
Taking things to a further new level that I thought wasn’t there.
Fast forward to Feb 5th, 2017, a group of my new like-minded friends decided to try the God Mode (a story for another time), he told that cold showers should be icy-cold.
After 7-8 months, I started taking Icy-Cold baths to take health as an asset to a whole new level.
To this day, I have been reaping the benefits of icy-cold showers and I’ve not faced any health issues ever since.
The things I read on the Internet, in books and from all those random places worked, but after a few years of religiously practising this in my routine. I additionally found a few secrets that were not mentioned elsewhere.
Benefits I discovered with Cold Showers:
- When the cold water comes in contact with your skin, your mind starts to wander and crazy good ideas can come. So, implement them as soon as they come. (that’s where the thought of writing this piece came to me.)
- Fighting for what you believe is right is the right step.
- Things are going to go south before they come in your direction.
- Good things come when you say enough is enough and work towards it.
- You can take charge of your fate.
- Many times there are hard choices in life, believing in yourself is the only right choice.
This was one of those things that I wanted to share with the people who follow me and read my work; but was procrastinating for some time. I had a goal of writing some pieces of articles in my check-list where i give away one of my secrets to the public before 2018.
I have been fortunate enough with the help of Growth Scribe to put my resources here at Kartik Ahuja and sharing my experiences.
The frustration of staying sick for so many years made me do the research, finding out the solution and jumping in every single day no matter what the temperature/weather was or what people would think about me and my crazy plan.
Even to this day, if I could I would take the warm, hot bath but in order to get this luxury and the great asset of health, cold Showers are what I choose every single time.
I keep on updating the same blog for anything that I discover new.
Following are the resources I combined for everyone staying and reading till the entire page.
Cold Shower Resources:
- Amazing compilation of the best videos on the internet to help you understand Cold Showers
- Facebook Group of People performing Wim Hof Method
P.S. – Share this with a friend who needs to read this.
