The energy crisis of the last year made me reflect on how I consume energy, mainly ‘harmful’ energy like gas. My appartment is heated using gas and due to the insane prices of the past year, I too lowered my heating. I spent a big part of december with the heating turned off but once it got to 8 degrees Celsius in my appartment I figured that I should turn on the heating. It was set to 13-15 degrees Celsius throughout the winter. It made me realize that I don’t mind living in these temperatures. With a sweater on and underneath a blanket, it was actually quite comfortable. I also slept better in these temperatures than winters with the heating on.
So now that it’s getting warmer again, I felt like I might as well have cold showers. To save on gas (note: it’s not like I’m living in extreme poverty or anything, I just like finding ways to consume less), but also to see if the claimed health benefits are true. People like Wim Hof made a fortune selling books and courses on how to make your body adapt to cold temperatures and ice baths, making sometimes outrageous claims about its health benefits.
While I do know there are studies on the topic, I am also curious to see if you guys have any experiences taking cold showers and what effects it had for you.
I’ve taken cold showers almost every day for the past 3 and a half years. I highly recommend if you can get into the habit. When you get out, it feels like when you come in from cold rain and put on dry clothes that have been on the heater. And it’s sort of like a factory reset on your body; I feel all the lethargy and aches go away.
It’s hard to convince yourself to go in, but when you do it a few times, your body kind of figures out it’s a good thing and it’s not as difficult. These days, I can get in and immediately turn the cold water on myself, and it’s always a little shocking, but not too bad. I usually don’t need to ease myself into it. I do live in a subtropical climate though.
Wim Hof has some pretty impressive feats when it comes to handling cold weather. I don’t really follow him, but if he can handle extremely cold temperatures, he probably has interesting things to say. I like his breathing technique, but I don’t use it all that often. It feels like meditation for me in the sense that it has great benefits for me, but I don’t need to do it often.
Edit: Cold temperature, like exercise, releases endorphins which are a natural pain reliever. Hot temperature suppresses endorphins. But your body can get acclimated to some level of endorphins so it’s actually not a bad thing to take a hot shower every once in a while.