Episode 20

Hey guys, welcome to the NXT Gen Podcast. In this episode, I want to talk about why you should be taking cold showers. Even in the winter. This is going to be a shorter podcast, especially with me still having to catch up on work I missed from going to Disney.

Not surprisingly, I got the idea for this while taking a cold shower. While there are a plethora of physical benefits for actually doing this which I’ll discuss later because honestly I think they are secondary, I’d like to talk about the primary reason why I do this.

Cold showers most powerful benefit is the change in mental attitude: by taking them you are training your brain to voluntarily submit itself to uncomfortable situations, which is something I have talked about in a previous podcast episode.

Being able to voluntarily make yourself uncomfortable is a surefire way to make sure you’re continually growing in all aspects of life and can even help with procrastination.

Forcing yourself to take a cold shower routinely in the beginning require willpower and self-control, and both will improve because of this. Tolerance for discomfort also increases, allowing you to stay calm under situations that are stressful.

Self-control improves by your resistance to noy immediately turn up the temperature or just jump out of the shower altogether. This then applies to when you need to stay focused on a task, say no to that cookie, or anything else like that.

And weirdly enough, it brings a lot of clarity. Once you get over the initial shock of the cold water, I find a sense of really good clarity if I try meditating in the shower. Just closing my eyes, watching my breathing, and just feeling the cold water on my skin. In a way, when you stop resisting the inevitable, which in this case is the water, and start to accept it, you kind of get a sense of peace.

This also applies to many situations however, Buddhists believe that the source of all human agony is clinging onto what is continually changing. So if you can learn to accept the inevitable in any situation, you’ll be a step ahead of the rest.

Now that I’ve talked about the mental benefits very briefly, lets talk more about the physical benefits if your still not sold. Perhaps you don’t really buy all of the mental benefits, you should still give cold showers even if its purely for the physical improvements. And from literally everything from cancer to depression, cold showers are really magical actually.

The first one you’ll feel is that you’ll wake up. It doesn’t matter if its first thing in the morning or after that 2pm slump, I think cold showers is more effective than espresso or power naps. And because I don’t drink coffee and sometimes don’t have time for a 20 minute nap, a 5 minute shower will do the trick.

This happens because the cold water is shocking, and typically you’ll breath a lot more at first. The rapid intake of oxygen suddenly combined with the cold water jolting your nervous system proves to be an incredibly effective way to wakeup. Many people looking to start waking up 5am everyday typically pair that habit with taking cold showers to get rid of the grogginess when we first wakeup.

The second is that it improves circulation. Because the body wants to maintain homeostasis and a stable body temperature, your heart pumps faster when its cold. Circulation improves everything from clearing blocked arteries, lowering high blood pressure, to even improving recovery time from illnesses, sore muscles, injuries, etc.

Cold showers also have cosmetic properties because it can help you lose weight but also improves the health of your skin and hair. Let’start with why it can make your skin and hair look better because it’s the longer one to explain.

And by longer, I mean not really. Essentially, the cold closes up your pores, and keeps dirt out. IT also allows both your skin and hair to retain natural oils for longer, making it softer and shinier.

For losing weight, the scientific reason why you lose weight is called thermogenesis, where you expend energy to generate heat. The body actually has two kinds of fat, white fat that we all know and hate, and brown fat, which is actually used to expend energy and generate heat.

The theory is that exposing yourself to the cold morewill activate more of this brown fat, raising calorie expenditure which would help you lose weight, in the long run, all things considering. While the number of calories it actually does burn is up for debate, ranging from small but recognizable to actually relevant, every little bit counts.

So yeah, this again, was a little different than usual. I’m having a really hard time getting back into the swing of things guys, so please bear with me. Hope you liked this different podcast, and I’ll see you guys until the next one.

Until next time, stay woke.