Spiritual benefits of taking cold showers

[Igor82]

I have taken cold showers since 18 months ago, every time I take a shower, its a cold one (except around 6 hot showers total)

Nowadays I take a cold shower every day depending only on if I decide to throw the day down the ditch and binge for the whole day (which rarely happens)

The physical procedure:

• Get naked
• Prime the water with cold water
• Get into the bathtub
• Do the mental preparation*
• Place the hose on top of my head
• Count to 5
• Pull
• Enjoy for 5 minutes

* = The spiritual thing explained below

Water is getting really cold here in Sweden, and only recently I have developed this technique to muster the courage to surrender into the cold

I do not practice the Wim-Hof method. I do the horse stance after the shower to heat up, but I do not do the breathing exercises before the cold exposure (I have not built up that practice)

Now, I treat the cold as a powerful teacher in the way that I can surrender into its force. The "fuck-it" part of the shower is only stepping into the shower, but rather than saying "fuck-it" and pulling the lever, I consciously face my fear of pulling the lever.

I treat the initial 5 seconds of the shower (the unbearable part) as an ego death, as it is fearful and very uncomfortable to face, and its rewarding in a sense. I chant to myself "I am ready to surrender into anything that happens when I pull the lever, I am ready to die", and I consciously strip away all my values and everything, preparing myself for my death, where only the discomfort of death will remain, but not my clinginess.

Then I count down from 5 (I have never ever betrayed this countdown, I trust this fully, and I only do it when im certain to pull the lever, I always pull the lever at 0) And I face my fear. I try to completely surrender into the experience... My body will react and start to breathe heavily, then move the hose around etc, I don't put too much effort into keeping the hose at the same place, but I will with time.

That was the practice, here are some things to say:

• I am preparing myself for an ego-death in real life, to be able to more fully surrender into it
• This is very rewarding as im pushing through my fear, getting to know it, its a very controlled practice
• I feel good overall by doing this
• The showers are always cold, they won't "get warmer" by time, only your mindset will

I can not prove the benefits of this though, I have not faced ego death yet

This practice actually replaces my 50minSDS (which I have replaced by Kriya yoga in the mornings), I am fully conscious in the initial moment of surrender, but when I get used to the cold in the shower, there is no more need to surrender.

I will answer questions if you want to know details about my cold showers in general, but I have one question for you:

Do you suspect/know that this practice will help me through an ego-death in the future or not?

 

[Joseph Maynor]

Wow you do 5 mins, I’m impressed.  I do about 20 seconds of cold shower at the end of my morning shower.  It makes me tough as shit.  That along with working out everyday.

[Rob456]

As an amateur in spirituality I think it will help you. I've for the last month started cold showers as well but without a set frequency or requirement. I started because of the energy boosts but I fell in love with it for another reason. Facing fear. When I'm facing the fear I'm reassuring myself that "I always do what's emotionally most difficult". I'm always happy while doing it, because I prove to myself that in fact do face my fears and honor that principle. 

But what I'm interested in is: Do you also at some point of those 5 minutes just surrender to the discomfort? Do you even surrender at all? How long do you resist it before you do? When do you become conscious of your self-made resistance and decide to let go?

[Igor82]

2 hours ago, Rob456 said:

But what I'm interested in is: Do you also at some point of those 5 minutes just surrender to the discomfort? Do you even surrender at all? How long do you resist it before you do? When do you become conscious of your self-made resistance and decide to let go?

 

I surrender into the initial cold because that is the most fear-based and uncomfortable after that does the self-made resistances show up, and I do notice them. I try to relax into it, and I have practiced doing longer periods of initial surrender into the initial cold over my head, but I do not strain myself into resisting my self-imposed resistances, which are: Moving the water hose along my shoulders and other parts of the body rather than a continuous stream along the neck, and also touching my body with my hands, keeping myself busy essential until it does not get uncomfortable anymore, which happens at around 15 seconds.

I do not surrender anymore after the initial part, as I have gotten comfortable enough to the cold for no fear to show up, although if I put a continuous stream of cold water on my neck, it tends to get uncomfortable after a while, but that would be the same style as surrendering into the plank position (you know when you work out), it does not include fear.

I want to surrender into the fear, no fear shows up DURINg the shower unless something out of the ordinary happens.

[Igor82]

@Joseph Maynor I find it more comfortable to do a cold shower initially, they tend to be much harder to take after the hot shower, and it gives an excuse to only do it a few seconds, I mean, my cold shower IS a shower, I use soap and all that. I prefer the convenience.

Once I did a 20 min cold bath (in the same water temperature), I got used to the feeling after a few minutes, then I tried to be still in there, and after a while, all the cold sensations disappeared. My body was functioning properly, etc, but when I got out, supposedly the warm blood in the organs mixed with the cold blood in the skin and so I was shivering like crazy (fearful), with 5 blankets on me beside a radiator. This is why I do the horse stance after every shower, and its also why I don't take longer showers than 5 minutes. You get comfortable yeah, its bearable after the first 20 secs, but at a point, the body will give a (subtle, like habits) intuitive sense that its time to stop, and so I do. Around 5 minutes.

You should try a cold shower without the hot shower first, see how you like it.

[SageModeAustin]

@Igor82 I do cold showers as well.  I have been doing it for more than half a year?  Nonstop everyday

Ive had moments of ego death, but I don’t know if it was actual ego death, or just twinges of enlightenment.

Cold showers could have helped,  but the main factor is meditation.

Daily meditation is the key and writing down your insights whenever you get them.

[Hellspeed]

Nice! Thx.

[Igor82]

@SageModeAustin Why writing down the insights?

[SageModeAustin]

@Igor82 Because you want to review them.  You will forget a lot of it. 

[Igor82]

@SageModeAustin Do you specifically mean that insight about the nature of reality won't stick, or insights in general?

I find insights to be like paradigm shifts, always sticking around unless you prove them wrong in the future.

[Tony 845]

Has anyone became enlightened this way? 

[Igor82]

@Tony 845 I don't know if Wim-Hof is enlightened, but Leo mentioned him to be stage turquoise in his spiral dynamics stage turquoise video (If I heard right)

Other than that, I have no idea

[Tony 845]

@Igor82 Igor where can I find these color videos??? 

[SageModeAustin]

@Igor82 I'm just saying that you should write your insights down because you will forget them. 

This can be anything that piqued your interest. Most of my insights pertain to myself, the more you can understand who you are, the closer you will become to achieving ego death.

 

[Igor82]

@Tony 845

 

[AstralProjection]

Yeah the spiritual benefit to cold showers is that it shrivels my penis, which makes me not horny, which in turn prevents me from committing lust, which in turn prevents me from jacking off, which in turn helps my kundalini energy arise from the base chakra, which helps me become enlightened, which leads to liberation, and liberation is what I really want, which is why I take cold showers.

Note that was just a joke, don't take it too seriously.

On a serious note I sometimes alternate cold and hot in the shower but I always end with cold because that is what I read.

Edited October 23, 2018 by AstralProjection
typo

[Charlotte]

You know what I else I do that I find similar to this (this is going to sound mad). You know when you get leg numbing pins and needles and you can't walk on your leg/legs. Surrendering to the pins and needles and walking on your leg. Your mind just doesn't want to do it and I find it hilarious.

[Joseph Maynor]

14 hours ago, Charlotte said:

You know what I else I do that I find similar to this (this is going to sound mad). You know when you get leg numbing pins and needles and you can't walk on your leg/legs. Surrendering to the pins and needles and walking on your leg. Your mind just doesn't want to do it and I find it hilarious.

Totally.  Taking cold showers basically increases your pain threshold so you're calmer all around and can weather conflict whether physical or emotional much more.  Also, you'll become more assertive too because you'll be less fearful of painful repercussions from being honest and truthful.  Combine cold showers with daily cardio and daily resistance training.  I do pushups and situps and stair-climbing every day.  I also ride my exercise bike for 30 minutes every day.  And of course I meditate every day.  You'll be calm, strong, and assertive if you do that.  You'll feel powerful.  You won't be as averse to being ripped out of your comfort-zone.  It's people that feel weak that will do everything they can to stay in their comfort-zone.  And you don't have to do it for very long, just work up to 20 seconds at the end of your shower.  At first you won't even be able to do 4 seconds.  Oh yeah, count like this: One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Three Mississippi.  Also, what I do is before I turn the water to cold, I first turn it up to as hot as I can stand it, then I turn it to cold.  Spin around under the shower head too so the water goes over your head back and shoulders evenly.  So, you spin your body around while you're counting under the cold water.  I do this for 20 seconds which is a long time under a cold tap.  But it works.  That's what I like about it, there's results.  Tony Robbins talks about how he has an ice bath that he full body submerges in every day.  Same concept.  I even heard him say that when he doesn't have access to his ice bath due to travel, he'll jump into ice cold water like a lake or something and swim around for a while.  

 

Edited October 23, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Charlotte]

@Joseph Maynor  Interesting. I'm going to give it a go this morning. 

Another exercise I think is absolutely amazing is stress positions e.g. holding your arms up in the air until it starts to ache like mad. At first it's comfortable, then the pain kicks in, then you can either endure it through grit teeth (resistance) or completely surrender. I've reached beautiful places doing this type of exercise. Kundalini yoga is awesome for this. 

[Igor82]

@Charlotte I do the plank to endure pain.

Oh lord, it gets painful. You can surrender into infinite pain  only if you can stay awake and observe what it is, but the body won't let you, it will move, your breath will become weird, all sorts of thoughts will come up, and awareness will fade, then pain slams you down to the floor and then comes the ecstasy  

Its a matter of willpower, really. But such exercises are healthy!