Skip to main content

Day 56: Embracing Discomfort: What Cold Showers Taught Me About Growth


Cold showers.

Just the thought of it sends shivers down my spine. Literally. Who in their right mind would willingly stand under freezing water when there's a perfectly good hot setting right there? Me, apparently. And let me tell you, it's been... interesting.

The Accidental Challenge

It wasn't supposed to be a challenge, really. I was fourteen literally ten years back. Right after my circumcision. The doctor advised that I should limit hot baths for my surgery to heal quicker I should do cold instead. Mhm. So first day I stood there in the morning. damn! I was in pain. Thinking to myself should I just warm the water, take this bath and get it over and done with. Bear in mind this is a cold winter morning.

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." - Joshua 1:9

Well, the Lord might have been with me, but warmth certainly wasn't.

I had two choices: Take the shower (not really an option after painful procedure, would have to probably re do it r something if I didn't quite follow instruction) or brave the cold. With a deep breath and possibly some cursing under my breath, I stepped in.

And BLOODY HELL! It was... awful. Properly awful. My body tensed up, I couldn't breathe properly, and my brain was screaming "GET OUT YOU ABSOLUTE MADMAN!"

But then... something weird happened.

After about 30 seconds of what felt like torture, my breathing steadied. Another minute in, and I was... okay? Not comfortable, mind you. Just... surviving. And when I stepped out, I felt... alive. Properly awake. Forgot about the pain a bit. Like I'd conquered something.

The Science Behind the Suffering

"All things are difficult before they are easy." - Thomas Fuller

Turns out, there's actual science behind why cold showers make you feel like you've just climbed Everest in your birthday suit.

Research from the Netherlands found that people who ended their showers with a 30-second blast of cold water took 29% fewer sick days than those who stuck with warm showers. Twenty-nine percent! That's not just coincidence, that's your body saying "Cheers for the wake-up call, mate!"

And according to the book "What Doesn't Kill Us" by Scott Carney, exposure to cold actually activates brown fat (the good kind) that helps burn calories and improve immunity. So my accidental freezing shower was basically a health treatment? Well, that's one way to look at it.

The Comfort Zone Is A Lie

Here's the thing. We're all obsessed with comfort, aren't we? Soft beds, warm showers, Netflix, UberEats... we've engineered a world where discomfort is optional.

And yet...

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." - Romans 12:2

Every single bit of growth I've ever experienced has come from discomfort. Learning to type. Starting my first business was awkward. Public speaking made me want to fake my own death. But each of those uncomfortable experiences pushed me forward.

The cold shower was just a very literal, very in-my-face reminder of something I've always known: growth and comfort don't share the same address.

The Five-Day Experiment

So, being the slightly mad person that I am, I decided to keep going with these cold showers. Even after had completely healed. Five phases I went through.

Phase 1: Still horrible. Questioned my sanity repeatedly.

Phase 2: Marginally less horrible. Still questioned my sanity.

Phase 3: Found myself actually looking forward to it? Who am I becoming?

Phase 4: Noticed I was more alert in my morning meetings. Didn't need that second cup of coffee.

Phase 5: Stood under the cold water and thought, "I'm a cold shower person." 

Now, was I transformed into some superhuman productivity machine? Did I suddenly solve all my problems and achieve enlightenment? Of course not. Let's be realistic here.

But I did learn something properly valuable: discomfort gets easier with exposure. The thing itself doesn't change – cold water is still cold water – but my relationship with it changed.

The Bigger Picture

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." - James 1:2-3

Dr. Kelly McGonigal, in her book "The Upside of Stress," talks about how our mindset towards stress and discomfort can actually change how they affect us. Read that again our mindset towards stress and discomfort can actually change how they affect us. If we see discomfort as harmful, it becomes harmful. If we see it as a catalyst for growth, it becomes exactly that.

My cold shower experiment wasn't really about the shower at all. It was about facing something uncomfortable willingly, and discovering I could not just survive it, but actually benefit from it.

What's Your Cold Shower?

So here's my question to you: what's your cold shower? What's that uncomfortable thing you've been avoiding that might actually help you grow?

Is it having that difficult conversation? Learning that new skill? Waking up an hour earlier? Setting boundaries? Whatever it is, I'm betting the discomfort is far worse in your imagination than in reality.

And like my shower experience – the first 30 seconds are the worst. After that, you find your rhythm. You adapt. You might even start to appreciate it.

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." - 2 Timothy 1:7

Look, I'm not saying you should go turn your hot water off right now (though if you do, let me know how it goes). What I am saying is maybe, just maybe, the thing you're avoiding might be the very thing you need.

And if you're thinking, "Yeah, but..." I get it. I'm the king of "Yeah, but..." The world's greatest procrastinator (see my blog post from last week if you don't believe me). But sometimes you just have to take the plunge.

Or in my case, the freezing cold shower.

Start with 30 seconds. That's all. Thirty seconds of discomfort. See what happens.

Because at the end of the day, growth isn't about being comfortable. It's about being better. And sometimes, being better starts with being bloody freezing.

Word of the day: "Discomfort." Because That's what we do now.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 13: 18,446,744,073,709,551,615

DISCLAIMER: THERE ISN'T ANYTHING MUCH WRITTEN IN THIS THAT YOU DON'T ALREADY KNOW. INSTEAD OF WASTING THE NEXT 15 MINS OF YOUR LIFE, JUST GO ON WITH IT. WELL IN CASE YOU WANT TO WASTE IT ANYWAY, DO NOT READ ANYTHING IN BRACKETS OR IN RED TEXT, THAT'S A BIT OUT OF CONTEXT USUALLY MY MIND OFF RAMPING. IT WILL SAVE YOU SOME TIME TO DO MORE IMPORTANT THINGS. (SOMETIMES IT'S GENUINE LINKS TO ARTICLES WITH MORE INFO SO READ AND CLICK IT). Imagine this: You have a chessboard in front of you. It's a standard board, 8x8 squares, 64 in total. Now, you decide to play a little game. On the first square, you place one grain of rice. On the second square, you double it and place two grains. On the third square, you double it again, placing four grains, and so on. At first, it seems like nothing impressive.  By the 10th square, you've got like what 512 grains? Meh...still manageable. By the 20th square? You're at 524,288 grains, okay...And by the time you hit the 64th squa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 9: Potential, Creativity and Stuff. Just not Today Folks

DISCLAIMER: THERE ISN'T ANYTHING MUCH WRITTEN IN THIS THAT YOU DON'T ALREADY KNOW. INSTEAD OF WASTING THE NEXT 15 MINS OF YOUR LIFE, JUST GO ON WITH IT. WELL IN CASE YOU WANT TO WASTE IT ANYWAY, DO NOT READ ANYTHING IN BRACKETS OR IN RED TEXT, THAT'S A BIT OUT OF CONTEXT USUALLY MY MIND OFF RAMPING. IT WILL SAVE YOU SOME TIME TO DO MORE IMPORTANT THINGS. (SOMETIMES IT'S GENUINE LINKS TO ARTICLES WITH MORE INFO SO READ AND CLICK IT). Okay, let's get real. We all have those moments, right? Where life feels…well, kinda blah. Like a long, beige (beige is a cool colour though, maybe let's use grey) carpet stretching out endlessly in front of you. You know the feeling: that nagging sense that you're meant for more, but you're just spinning your wheels. Well that's exactly how I feel right now, it's 05:13 I've been trying to get this blog together since 03:30, I have been drafting and redrafting I'm not really getting the hang of it so I will ju...
2 comments
Read more

Day 29: You are not a Victim

DISCLAIMER: THERE ISN'T ANYTHING MUCH WRITTEN IN THIS THAT YOU DON'T ALREADY KNOW. INSTEAD OF WASTING THE NEXT 15 MINS OF YOUR LIFE, JUST GO ON WITH IT. WELL IN CASE YOU WANT TO WASTE IT ANYWAY, DO NOT READ ANYTHING IN BRACKETS OR IN RED TEXT, THAT'S A BIT OUT OF CONTEXT USUALLY MY MIND OFF RAMPING. IT WILL SAVE YOU SOME TIME TO DO MORE IMPORTANT THINGS. (SOMETIMES IT'S GENUINE LINKS TO ARTICLES WITH MORE INFO SO READ AND CLICK IT).   Alright, let’s talk. Have you ever felt like life has some personal vendetta against you? Like maybe you wake up feeling motivated for once, ready to conquer the world, and then, boom! your phone dies, your car won’t start, and your mom decides today is the perfect day to remind you that you’re wasting your potential? Suddenly, you're convinced that the universe is just a big bully and you’re the helpless kid it keeps pushing into the mud. Well… I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you are not the victim. I know, I know. It ...
Post a Comment
Read more