Cold showers - learn to cope without hot water before you need to!

[Anchor]

Learn to cope without hot water before you need to! Take a cold shower instead!

Everyday for the last year with very few exceptions I have started the day with a cold shower. That is, just cold water and no hot! I have done this even up in the heights of the blue mountains where the water is very freaking cold.

I found out about it when listening to a Sikh talking about Ishnaan and Sadhana (videos below). It took me months of fighting with myself and chickening out, but the day I did it, I was so pumped. I was jumping mad happy that I had overcome myself to do it and felt like Superman, the feeling was amazing. I never looked back. It took some persistence to stay with it, especially during the winter, you definitely want to get dried of quicker and into warm clothes asap! The cold shower is done just after getting up in the morning.

I just went for it, but I guess you could work up to it slowly if you want to.

The reasons I do this are:

1) Wakes me up. It does. Actually that might be a bit of an understatement.
2) Cured me of my Hayfever. Apparently this is due to the strengthening effect on the mucous membranes
3) Helps circulation by bringing blood to capilliaries and increasing circulation through the body - seems to, I can get out of the cold shower and within seconds and steaming hot, misting up the mirror!
4) Improves the internal furnace, I find I can be warmer when it is cold
5) Makes loosing weight easier (you still have to follow the eat less move more diet!)
6) Makes morning meditation easier
7) It doesn't kill me, so it makes me stronger
8) Detoxifys, by contracting muscles to eliminate toxins - skin and hair also improves.
9) Saves energy
10) Makes me less likely to get inconvenienced in an energy disruption. I will still be showering and being clean without hot water.
11) Saves water - you shower cold until it doesnt feel cold. Stop. Soap. Rinse off, done. Trust me, in the winter, these are very short showers!

I can personally vouch for all these effects. I have not had a cold or flu since I started this, except one time when I was exhausted for other reasons.

Additionally I have eliminated all the "product" from my bathroom except: Toothpaste (fluoride free, natch), Soap and Shampoo. Nothing with Sodium Laureth Sulfate (sp) in it!.

Note: I have read that cold showers should not be taken during by women during her menstrual period. A lukewarm shower is recommended. Generally speaking, hot showers are not good for men or women at any time.

Note2: It is not my intention that you shower cold on an already cold body. My cold showers take place very shortly after I get up and out of bed, and I am still warm from that.

Here are some Youtube clips that started me off.

Medium Youtube Video (3m38s) Ishnaan Therapy (Cold Shower)]
Ishnaan, the science of cold showers
Go for it! When the cold water hits the surface of your skin (which has four layers) all the blood from way deep inside your body rushes to the surface in self-defense, vastly improving your circulation on the spot. This is called Hydrotherapy. It strengthens your entire nervous system. People pay huge sums of money for what is now called "Hydrothermal therapy" when in reality all you need is cold water!
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=EYxHagZ4W5E

Medium Youtube Video (10m54s) Sadhana - Video Lecture by Yogi Bhajan
Cold showers are a component of Sadhana.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=GK4307fPaPY

GO ON I DARE YOU

A..

[eugene_vn]

I totally agree. . . here in Vietnam, throughout the socialist years (up until early 90s) virtually all showers were cold. In the summer it was quite refreshing when temperatures were around 30-40 centigrade, but up in North Vietnam it does get down to 3 or 5 degrees in the winter so showers were short, just like you describe! Actually most people confessed to taking only 2 or 3 showers per week in the winter time, though partly that was due to water rationing as well as the temperature.

[Steve_A]

Hi Anchor,

Cold showers here in Brazil are the norm. Actually cold water is the norm. I was suprised when I first came here that people wash dishes with cold water!

I also raised my eyebrows to think that an Aussie needs to take a hot shower. I would have thought (excuse my ignorance) that with the Australian climate there wouldn't be a need as you would all take a cold shower more to cool off in than anything.

Over here the Brazilians can have up to five showers a day! I, of course try to keep up with the British tradition.

Best regards,

Steve

[Jenny]

I accept Anchor.

I do take cold showers ..

I also camp a lot and I do not have a portable Toilet.
I camp near a river, very clean, which I use for all my sanitairy needs.

When it is cold outside, the sun is down and mist is covering the meadows, I sometimes wake up in the middle of a starlit night and I really need to take a ****.

I crawl out of my warm bed, naked, and walk to the river and go in.
I do what I need to do, walk back to my tent, dry off and go back to bed.
My man wakes up and scolds me for waking him up with my very cold body.

I DARE YOU!

[Operator]

Hi,

Have not hot water here either. Would be easy though using a sun boiler.
However no need ...

Cheers

[sammytray]

Originally Posted by Jenny

I accept Anchor.

I do take cold showers ..

I also camp a lot and I do not have a portable Toilet.
I camp near a river, very clean, which I use for all my sanitairy needs.

When it is cold outside, the sun is down and mist is covering the meadows, I sometimes wake up in the middle of a starlit night and I really need to take a ****.

I crawl out of my warm bed, naked, and walk to the river and go in.
I do what I need to do, walk back to my tent, dry off and go back to bed.
My man wakes up and scolds me for waking him up with my very cold body.

I DARE YOU!

Now thats Livin!!!

[THE eXchanger]

i agree, a "cold" shower, does A lot of things,
however, a nice hot bath, is amusing too
esp. in a hot spring
love
susan
the eXchanger

[oldpaganfreak]

cold showers?....luxury...hell, i don't even have running water. i live without running water, heating utilities ( i use only wood heat ), grid electricity, refrigeration and many other luxuries. my isolated location demands some sacrifices, but it's well worth it.
do you think that when tshtf, that there will be any running water at all in the cities?
i think that running water will be one of the MANY things that those stuck in civilization will lose. the cities will be death for many.
get the hell outa dodge, people!!

Cold showers are good for the body and soul, but beware, for men there is a side effect: increased, ugh, "randiness."

That can be good or bad given your own personal situation.

[smat]

Excellent post Anchor.
I will give that a go.

[Swanny]

Its winter here so I will enjoy hot showers while they last thx, plenty of time to get used to cold showers when I need to.

[Dantheman62]

I agree with Swanny, I will deal with it when I have to...brrrrrr!

In all fairness, there is cold and there is cold!

Many of you posting are in warm weather countries. Jenny gets a pass.

Here in Washington state, if the water is fifty degrees (F) it is doing very well indeed!

I love my hot shower, and would curl up and die without it! Having said that. When we ran out of propane last year we maintained a large kettle of warm water on the woodstove and had very nice sponge baths.

But seriously, Dimitry Orlov has much to say about the luxury of a cold shower during the economic crash in Russia:

"It doesn't take a crisis to make public utilities go on the blink, but a crisis certainly helps. Any crisis will do: economic, financial, or even political. Consider the governor of Primorye, a region on the far side of Siberia, who simply stole all the money that was supposed to buy coal for the winter. Primorye froze. With winter temperatures around 40 below, it's a wonder there's anyone still living there. It's a testament to human perseverance. As the economic situation degenerates, events seem to unfold in a certain sequence, regardless of locale. They always seem to lead to the same result: unsanitary conditions. But an energy crisis seems to me by far the most efficacious way of depriving one of one's treasured utility services.

First, electricity begins to wink in and out. Eventually, this settles into a rhythm. Countries such as Georgia, Bulgaria and Romania, as well as some peripheral regions of Russia, have had to put up with a few hours of electricity a day, sometimes for several years. North Korea is perhaps the best Soviet pupil we have, surviving without much electricity for years. Lights flicker on as the sun begins to set. The generators struggle on for a few hours, powering light bulbs, television sets, and radios. When it's time for bed, the lights wink out once again.

Second in line is heat. Every year, it comes on later and goes off sooner. People watch television or listen to the radio, when there's electricity, or just sit, under piles of blankets. Sharing bodily warmth has been a favored survival technique among humans through the ice ages. People get used to having less heat, and eventually stop complaining. Even in these relatively prosperous times, there are apartment blocks in St. Petersburg that are heated every other day, even during the coldest parts of winter. Thick sweaters and down comforters are used in place of the missing buckets of coal.

Third in line is hot water: the shower runs cold. Unless you've been deprived of a cold shower, you won't be able to appreciate it for the luxury that it affords. In case you are curious, it's a quick shower. Get wet, lather up, rinse off, towel off, dress, and shiver, under several layers of blankets, and let's not forget shared bodily warmth. A less radical approach is to wash standing in a bucket of warm water - heated up on the stove. Get wet, lather, rinse. And don't forget to shiver.

Next, water pressure drops off altogether. People learn to wash in even less water. There is a lot of running around with buckets and plastic jugs. But the worst part of this is not the lack of running water; it is that the toilets won't flush. If the population is enlightened and disciplined, it will realize what it must do: collect their excretions in buckets and hand-carry them to a sewer inlet. The super-enlightened build outhouses and put together composting toilets, and use the proceeds to fertilize their kitchen gardens.

Under this combined set of circumstances, there are three causes of mortality to avoid. The first is simply avoiding freezing to death. It takes some preparation to be able to go camping in wintertime. But this is by far the easiest problem. The next is avoiding humans' worst companions through the ages: bedbugs, fleas, and lice. These never fail to make their appearance wherever unwashed people huddle together, and spread diseases such as typhoid, which have claimed millions of lives. A hot bath and a complete change of clothes is often a lifesaver. Baking the clothes in an oven kills the lice and their eggs. The last is avoiding cholera and other diseases spread through feces by boiling all drinking water.

It seems safe to assume that the creature comforts to which we are accustomed are going to be few and far between. But if we are willing to withstand the little indignities of reading by candlelight, bundling up throughout the cold months, running around with buckets of water, shivering while standing in a bucket of tepid water, and carrying our poop out in a bucket, then none of this is enough to stop us from maintaining a level of civilization worthy of our ancestors, who probably had it worse than we ever will. They were either depressed or cheerful about it, in keeping with their personal disposition and national character, but apparently they survived, or you wouldn't be reading this."

[371]

It seems, soon we'll all be spending most our lives- living in an amish paradise...

[motov]

Originally Posted by Jenny

I accept Anchor.

I do take cold showers ..

I also camp a lot and I do not have a portable Toilet.
I camp near a river, very clean, which I use for all my sanitairy needs.

When it is cold outside, the sun is down and mist is covering the meadows, I sometimes wake up in the middle of a starlit night and I really need to take a ****.

I crawl out of my warm bed, naked, and walk to the river and go in.
I do what I need to do, walk back to my tent, dry off and go back to bed.
My man wakes up and scolds me for waking him up with my very cold body.

I DARE YOU!

hope am not downstream taking a sip of water....

[conjuredUp]

10 years in the Navy took care of this for me. :-)

[THE eXchanger]

the "amish" in canada
near niagara falls-certainly know how to create
real cozzy homes, even in the depth of the winter

never taken cold showers in cold times and never will!! haha

[Antaletriangle]

I've got a canal half a mile dine the road-i just jump in there with the old rusty prams and bikes-no harm done-the fish jump out though when i jump in!!lol.
Nice post-there are a few posts in the canal also!!lol.

[raulduke]

Good suggestion Anchor, I do hate to step out of a nice hot shower into the cool air, which of course feels ten times colder than it is after a hot minute in the shower. So, I'll give it a shot.

Originally Posted by historycircus

Cold showers are good for the body and soul, but beware, for men there is a side effect: increased, ugh, "randiness."

That can be good or bad given your own personal situation.

I'm not quite sure what other personal experiences are, but I've been told that a cold shower would quash that sort of randiness, fortunately, I guess, I've never been quite that hard up as to take a cold shower for that reason.

[Connecting with Sauce]

I did it this morning Brrrrrr…. It certainly did kick start me, so to speak and I did have to make loads of animal noises to get through it but it was quite nice to have a loverly warm feeling out of the shower and to not have steamy mirrors

[iainl140285]

Originally Posted by 371

It seems, soon we'll all be spending most our lives- living in an amish paradise...

Or so many on this site would have you believe ....
For so many claiming to live off the 'fat of the land' there aren't half a lot of folks with internet access.

Must have the flexes plugged into lemons huh.



Peace
Iain

Originally Posted by raulduke

Good suggestion Anchor, I do hate to step out of a nice hot shower into the cool air, which of course feels ten times colder than it is after a hot minute in the shower. So, I'll give it a shot.



I'm not quite sure what other personal experiences are, but I've been told that a cold shower would quash that sort of randiness, fortunately, I guess, I've never been quite that hard up as to take a cold shower for that reason.

Hot showers actually cause the brain to release chemicals that inhibit sexual arousal, while cold showers have the opposite effect. It might not seem like it while IN the shower, but it does.

Taking a cold shower to inhibit "randiness" is a myth; it has the opposite neurological effect.

Originally Posted by iainl140285

Or so many on this site would have you believe ....
For so many claiming to live off the 'fat of the land' there aren't half a lot of folks with internet access.

Must have the flexes plugged into lemons huh.



Peace
Iain

You make the mistake of assuming that technology plays no part in environmental consciousness. "Living off the fat of the land" does not necessitate forgoing modern technology. I believe that it is the development of nearly instantaneous communication methods that will allow us to return to the land. The technology revolution will render urbanism obsolete.

[Antaletriangle]

The ideal would be to have high technology and live in unison with the planet,living and respecting the land.Eco friendly house next to a waterfall-a proper shower -thanks for the post.