Ugly Wolf

@Marco_the_Ape Thanks :-) I am not sure if it is entirely true. I am sure that you can overcome anything, but I am not sure where we actually start when we are born. We still have to follow Maslow's hierarchy, don't we? But then, there is at least only one hierarchy and not one per gender ;-) @Joseph Maynor That is a very good point. It seems that men and women are not so much held back by capability, but fear. As a woman, I can say that it is almost a universal fear to be called bossy, bitchy or ugly (or worse: cute) when you are just standing your ground and trying to be successful. Women are so afraid of it, because it is dead on target. Your biggest fear is being unattractive. An unattractive woman is a failure, right? You're not gonna find a man, be unlovable and will definitely become a spinster. Your mum was right after all, you better put on make up and modest, but at the same time revealing clothes and a smile, so people will like you. No one will see how ugly and aggressive you really are. Likewise for men. You're afraid that if you show how weak and confused you actually are, if you admit that you need help taking care of yourself in some aspect, people will say that you can't be a provider, that you're a nursing case, useless and are basically a disappointment as a man. Better man up and pretend to be in control, so noone will see what you knew in your heart all along. Both men and women are horribly afraid of being stripped of their bartering object, their masculinity or femininity, which they need to get love and approval. In the end, they want the same in different ways. It's no one's fault, it's systematic. And there are only two ways to escape it. A bad one and a good one.

In my twenties. I'll send you a PM to work out the details ;-)

I started several times, but I never persevered for more than a month. Luckily it isn't a problem for me to take a shower any time of day, so there were no real hurdles actually.... I've always been a wuss when it comes to being cold. Maybe now that I exercise regularly and have a bit of muscle mass to warm me up afterwads, I should give it another try and I won't freeze as badly. Ok, how about a deal? Something like a cold shower challenge? ;-)

That sounds great :-) I admire your goals and both methods sound very practicable. The one with wearing trousers and shoes has the benefit that you can move at the same time and get some exercise, so you don't have to muster the will power later. The one with the water bottles sounds good too. The discomfort is much more extreme and more abrupt. When it gets colder, you could maybe wrap the bottles with towels so the water doesn't freeze overnight ;-) OR just use cold water from the tap. If you stay outside afterwards you'll be freezing anyway. What do you think, which method would fit your main goal better? I'd love to know which one you decide for and how it's working out :-)

Do you want to practice the Wim Hof method because you are striving for resilience, health and more willpower? If you are, you should rather start a daily cold shower morning routine. Getting youself to carry a rock for 3 hours once is way easier than getting into the cold shower day after day when you have a vivid memory of how painful and uncomfortable it is. Besides, that is the way Wim Hof would do it. Doing an epic 3 hour walk is the reward for building up brown fat tissue over time by sticking to your routine. It's really hard. I've had dozens of first cold showers ;-) No. Exactly.

As already said, it mainly seems to be an issue of defining masculinity and femininity. If you’re interested in understanding the alleged duality of masculinity and femininity better, I’d highly recommend reading the books „The Way of the Superior Man“ by David Deida and „Women Who Run With the Wolves“ by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Both are fun to read and extremely different in their style of storytelling and reasoning. As different as they are, they both point to the exact same thing, but in completely opposite ways. In my opinion, that in itself is a great lesson. BONUS: You'll become great with women ;-) And don’t forget that humans tend to „naturalize“ constructs that society created over time, thinking that they are inherent to the nature of being human, or in this case, a certain sex. Things like aggressiveness in men, greater beauty in women, romantic love, are all relatively young social constructs. If there is one thing that is inherent to human nature, it is its plasticity or moldability. Almost nothing is a natural part of being human. Humans can be anything, adapt to anything, behave in every possible manner and believe anything. It might just be the same with what we define as men and women.