I took cold showers for 30 days

I'm such an idiot. This is the dumbest thing I've ever done. Alright, okay, here we go. Alright it's cool, now it's cool everything's fine this is normal 30 days Cold showers, This is it. I hate my life Cold showers are so hot right now, but it's not a new discovery Cold therapy has been practiced for thousands of years dating back at least as far as Ancient Roman times and today science is backing it up Researchers have found that cold temperatures get the body to burn more fat. It might strengthen your immune system circulation and help reduce inflammation One of the biggest advocates of cold exposure is the Dutch athlete Wim Hof Also known as "The Iceman" Studies have shown that women of breathing meditation and cold exposure have allowed him to suppress the innate immune response I can talk like a hippie and say hey we got to change the world Revolution time and oh love and flower power. You need science though. Yes It's also said to be energizing refreshing and wakes you the fuck up If even a fraction of what they say about the health benefits of cold showers is true Then it's something worth considering but I'm not doing it for any of those reasons I'm taking cold showers for the next 30 days because it's uncomfortable Because I know that the more you push yourself outside of your comfort zone the more you grow the more you learn and the more You build up resiliency to those things which make us feel well scared and to be honest This kind of scares me That's my nightmare My face is a little numb. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but that was good. I liked it And just so we're clear whenever I'm filming myself in the shower. I will be wearing swim trunks. So I mean, you know They are cold showers When I was living at home in my parents basement shortly after graduating college I read as many Self-development and entrepreneurial books as I could one that had the biggest impact on me was called the flinch by Julien Smith It's the first time I ever thought about cold showers and what it represents for those looking to do anything meaningful with their lives The flinch is about the moments when we shrink up before a big moment before you speak in front of that audience The difficult conversation with your partner either you push through the flinch. We're used to come to a life of shrinking and defeat Julien writes want a real visceral example of what the flinch feels like try this When you're at home and have five minutes go to your bathroom walk up to your shower. Turn on the cold water You see what's coming, if you do you should tense up immediately. You should feel it in your chest You might start laughing to release the tension you're predicting a flinch that hasn't happened yet You're anxious about it about something that hasn't happened and won't kill you anxious about something that barely hurts at all Okay do it now is the time to step in the shower as the cold water hits you you might shout or squirm But the discomfort lasts only a second you quickly get used to it you get comfortable with cold Instead of trying to avoid it a moment before the flinch seems so uncomfortable that you might talk yourself out of this you convince yourself That it's pointless. I'm such an idiot This is so this is so stupid, but it isn't it's training You need to build up a habit of seeing the flinch and going forward not rationalizing your fear and stepping away Do you think that doing something like cold showers? Would that help other areas of your life? Have to reproduce and die is to be able to professionally increase the circle in order to be able to get more Was it was never about in any single moment? it's about a habit of doing something that is hard just because the other side is better and because then So if you want right now you could just pause this video and go take a cold shower, I'll be here when you're done There are three ways to take a cold shower One you can start with a hot shower and then ease into a cold shower at the end. This is the coward's way To you can start by placing your head in the cold water Working to your face and then eventually the rest of your body This is also the coward's way 3 you can charge in like a madman heading into battle I chose option number 3 almost every day though. I will admit there were a handful of days I downgraded to option 2 there were no hot showers though. I Had to see how cold this shit really is I'm not joking. This shit's got to be like 40 degrees. So I mean I got a cooking thermometer right now I'm gonna do an actual test Only 61 degrees That's I think it's broken this there's probably something wrong with this and so day after day. I stepped into the flinch. I Tracked my progress with a calendar. I taped just outside my shower it acted as a daily reminder So I wouldn't miss a day on the first day looking at all. The empty days in front of me It was almost laughable. It was like looking at my debt before I started to pay it off It seemed impossible to overcome, but you just get moving you take the first step Knowing that it won't be easy or fun but knowing that it's better than the alternative Each one varies a little bit. There are some days when I've just not in the mood and I'm like I'm gonna do this as quick as possible So I might be out within two to three minutes But for the most part, it's actually usually longer than five minutes, especially when I'm filming I've been filming most days and that means that I have to shower Get all these angles and then I'm wearing a bathing suit for part of it that I'm filming and when I stopped filming I think the bathing suit off. Sometimes it's like eight minutes ten minutes and the cold showers. I'm filming it, but that's it It's easy to get comfortable as we move up the ladder and our salaries increase once in a while luxuries become more common We take for granted having a car that runs every day and having a home in a decent neighborhood The practice like taking cold showers can build up your resiliency for when things go wrong Imagine a scenario where your water heater breaks and you've got to take cold showers for a week When you're forced into it your mind makes it out to be an all-out attack on your well-being But when you intentionally jump into a cold shower as shocking as it can be to your system You flip your perspective and you no longer view it as pain I mean after the initial shock probably like two three minutes in I was actually enjoying it There was one moment where I turned around water was hitting my back and it felt warm. I don't know I don't know if I was hallucinating. By depriving ourselves and simple experiments like this We can feel what it would be like to lose our current comforts We realize that life wouldn't be so terrible without it If something happens as we pursue our dream career for instance Or if we're fired struggling a client's month-to-month and have to move back in with our parents. We know that even in these scenarios those which we might consider worst case aren't that bad after all a Day 30, cold showers. This is it So did the cold showers get any easier I can honestly say that each and every one of them sucked. But let's look back at the first shower on day one I couldn't even speak I accidentally mixed up my shampoo and my body wash I went to get the shampoo, but it was body wash So yes, it did get easier, my flinch did subside This has been the least enjoyable moment of my day. It was like one less thing to enjoy every day But I'm proud of myself. I'm proud that I've got through it. To be honest, though I can't wait for hot showers. I. Can't. Wait If you want to get access to exclusive videos about how I make my videos access my personal vlog and secret podcast go to Patreon.com/scishow That's available for patrons at the exclusive videos tier Has anybody called you a minimalist before it's so interesting that you're the first person ever Say it to me that I can recall and it feels very real to me Get access to that interview plus 20 other videos with new content coming every month at patreon.com slash Machiavelli Thanks for watching

Channel: Matt D'Avella

Views: 5,860,686

Rating: 4.9120045 out of 5

Keywords: cold showers, the flinch, habit change, 12 habits for life, habits, benefits, benefits of cold showers, lifestyle design, fear, challenge, courage, confidence

Id: MsSBBPeNNDY

Length: 9min 55sec (595 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 05 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/aacceerr]

16C ?! that is a hot shower!

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[u/[deleted]]

This guy's great

[u/mattykens48]

This was the reason I started. On day 5 rn...

[u/Versti]

He motivated me to start taking cold showers.

[u/aNSFWartist]

ive been taking two ice cold showers because og him, i just started this