The Incredible Benefits Of Having A Cold Shower Every Day

Cold showers might not sound like a fascinating thing to do, especially if you live anywhere aside from the tropics. You may dread the sense of stepping into a cold shower, as you know that every inch of your body is going to be stabbed with countless cold, wet knives.

However, cold showers are incredibly good for you, to the point that they can improve your life. And no, we aren't joking.

While this article focuses on the mental benefits of cold showers, there are also some amazing scientifically proven benefits as well.

Having a cold shower every day can:

• Increase alertness
• Improve immune system
• Ease stress
• Relieve depression
• Increase blood circulation
• Improve sleep
• Improve testosterone
• Speed up metabolism
• Activate fat loss

It sounds too good to be true, right? But if you need to read more, here are five more psychological and mental benefits of cold showers:

1) You Learn to Accept

When you wake up in the morning, and you know that you'll step into a cold shower, you eventually start to accept that sometimes you just have to do what you don’t like to do. That the environment you put yourself in is not always going to feel good, and by learning to accept you also learn how to be grateful for what you already have. Because the more you accept the bad things, the more you will learn to appreciate the good.

Look at the happiest countries in the world, and you'll discover that the nine most content countries worldwide are all located in Northern Europe and Canada. Now think: what do they all those countries have in common? They're all freezing cold.

As morning after morning of cold showers, the experience of going outside and braving the freezing weather teaches people to accept what they have to deal with. That ultimately makes it easier to become happy.

2) You Learn to Be Humble

When we get too big-headed, it’s always significant to have something in our lives that can pop our balloon and knock us back to the ground. For some of us, that “something” is a cold shower. You might feel awesome and strong, but the moment you step into a cold shower, you will shiver and internally beg for it to stop just like everyone else.

The cold shower has a way of being daily life’s great equalizer—it's the only moment we have in the modern world where nature has total power over us with temperature.

Experiencing this moment every morning can keep you on the ground, as well as remind you that you are a human, just like everybody else.

3) You Learn to Tolerate

There's one piece of advice that anyone who wants to achieve anything must always remember—you have to learn to be uncomfortable.

By not knowing how to be uncomfortable, you will end up spoiled, and you will never let yourself get dirty or exhausted, even if you're working towards something you want.

A famous type of meditative technique teaches that is called Vipassana meditation. It's when you meditate in total silence for over ten hours a day, and for those hours, you are not allowed to move at all. Scratches, itches, sore backs, and cramped legs—all of them should be ignored until you finally learn how to control your body with your mind.

Cold showers can add value to you in the same way. They teach you to tolerate stress as well as uncomfortable situations. Your mind learns how to figure out how to cope with situations that cause the body angst and stress. With cold showers, you learn to become the owner of your body and not the other way around.

4) You Learn Discipline and Willpower

There's no stronger human trait than willpower. It determines everything that you do with your life. It measures how much you can resist temptations, control addictions, keep yourself healthy, and be a better person in general.

Willpower is the greatest trait you can develop, and many people who lack the willpower to achieve greatness believe that it is something you are born with.

Cold showers help you improve your willpower in just one minute a day. Stand in the cold shower without moving and you'll build up the wall of discipline within you. This can be applied to all areas of your life as well.

5) You Learn How to Meditate

Wim Hof is the world record holder for dozens of temperature records, which means that he can outlast and survive temperatures that would turn others into shivering piles of bones. Scientists have studied about him, and they discovered that he has the unique ability to control his immune system with his mind.

He also teaches how to do this to students. Cold is his number one training tool.

Wim Hof believes that everything lies with your breathing. Once you feel a rush of cold, your body naturally begins to gasp for quick breaths. When you learn how to control your breathing, you enter a state of meditation. That can help you wash away your regrets, stresses, and anxieties, and improve your day as a warm shower could never do.

Reference: Ideapod