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?