Take a Cold Shower for Your Health

My day starts at 5 every morning when I step into the bathroom and turn on the shower, warm. Then after I've cleaned myself I close the warm tap and turn the cold tap on for full blast for around five minutes. Through the rest of the day, I feel alert, active and refreshed.

This is just an anecdote from my daily life and although I haven't progressed to the stage where you can bath completely in cold water, I have felt the wonderful healing effects that a cold shower can have. A cold shower leaves you feeling energised, confident and alert.

A cold shower can have many other benefits too. It stimulates your blood circulation and strengthens your nervous system and mucous membrane. Exposure to cold also strengthens your immune system and builds your immunity against cold and coughs. Cold showers can make your skin look younger and healthy and even make you live longer. An outgoing centenarian, Edward Rondthaler even attributed his long life to a lifelong habit of cold showers in a CNN interview.

Cold showers have also been said to keep the hair shiny and smooth, something that might please the young ladies. Cold showers also improve your self control and discipline your mind and body as by stepping into a cold shower you are acting against your normal impulsive need for comfort and wielding a control and restraint over your desires and needs. This can help you become a more decisive and self assured person in life.

Of course getting into a cold shower takes a lot of willpower and you feel reluctant to turn off the hot tap in the first few days. In such conditions you can start by washing your hair first and then washing the different body parts one by one to acclimatise them to the cold water. You'll have a lot of difficulties during the initial days and will probably curse and swear a lot out of cold. But slowly your body gets used to obeying your commands and you can shower without feeling too uncomfortable. You'll want to turn on the hot water and might dream wistfully of hot water but the trick is to not concentrate on how cold the water is. Think of other things and occupy your mind with something else to forget the sensation of cold water. You'll be rewarded later when you step out of the shower with an unmatched energy and vitality.

A cold shower can increase your longevity, make you look and feel younger and help you gain control over your desires and impulses. Take a cold shower today and it can be your first move towards self improvement on a path that will reward you handsomely later on in life, as our centenarian friend Mr Rondthaler discovered.