Hot summer days might leave you wishing for an ice-cold shower, and as science suggests, you should be turning down the water temperature when you get clean because it’s better for your health – and also the health of the environment.
Scientists have found chilly water revitalizes the entire body, as uncomfortable as it may be. Here are a few benefits to a cold shower.
Let us begin with the physical benefits of taking cold showers.
1. Helps balance and maintain a healthy sleep cycle
2. Helps you maintain a healthy metabolism rate.
3. Helps your circulatory system
4. Helps managing stress.
5. Helps you reduce fat
6. Helps you become more aware of your surroundings.
Now that we are done with the physical benefits of taking cold showers, let us now talk about the more emotional and mental aspect of the benefits that cold showers bring.
1. ACCEPTANCE
Acceptance is one of the most underrated virtues there can be. One might ask what a cold shower has to do with acceptance, but there is a lot in this regard. Acceptance of having to do things that you are not particularly thrilled about, but still going through with it because sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Without both good and bad experiences, one does not learn to accept the value of the good things. Accepting things makes you a better person and be thankful for what you have and are.
2. HUMILITY
Given how the World works, it is actually pretty simple to grow a big head and start thinking of oneself as more important, higher and mightier. A cold shower is quite literally the pin that bursts your bubble and grounds you. Ever wonder why everyone liked watching the ALS ice bucket challenge so much, especially when celebrities did it? Because a bucket of cold water feels the same to everyone. It makes us all shiver and tremble, irrespective of who we might be. It makes us realize that we all have a common link, which is the link of humanity. It makes us humble.
3. WILLPOWER AND DETERMINATION
Braving a cold shower on a daily basis helps you develop a stronger willpower and helps you discipline yourself. We sometimes drain our willpower undertaking different activities throughout the day but every time we step into a cold shower, we rebuild it from scratch and prepare ourselves to take on a new day. Cold showers help you discipline yourself as you brave though it without stopping and completing the task at hand.
4. TOLERANCE
Nobody can spend their lives in their comfort zone as a life like that would be stagnant and mediocre. You need to be uncomfortable and take everything in stride as you move forward in life. Cold showers are a small example of uncomfortable situations, almost like a little net practice that helps you deal with the stress of an uncomfortable situation and ingrains the virtue of tolerance in you.
5. MEDITATION
William Hof is well-known for surviving extremely cold temperatures that would most likely kill other people. He does that only by controlling his breathing. He states that if you don’t give in to your body’s general behavior, you enter into a state of meditation. This state of mediation helps you calm and soothe yourself and develop better control of your body.
There are innumerable reasons to switch off your geyser for good and delve into a world of physical and mental well being that a cold shower brings.
