In the Cold

One week down of a new trial and I’m feeling pretty good. It’s been a long day, hence why I’m not publishing this post til nearly 10 PM, but I am really looking forward to hopping in the shower to get a blast of that ice cold water. I’m still working on measuring the benefits of taking showers but I have at least one thing in mind now. Regardless, even after just a week, I am feeling pretty good about it.

Usually, the place that most of us get some good thinking done is in the shower. While I might not be coming up with the next idea for r/showerthoughts, I’m focusing on the task at hand, to get clean and move on with my day (in my case usually my night). I figure I probably cut the time it takes to get in and out of the shower and on to the next task at hand in half, at least. I would say an average shower before would take me about 6 mins. I don’t have a stopwatch on it or anything, but by listening to music while I shower, an old habit of mine, I’d typically be out in about a song and a half to two songs. I haven’t started clocking my showers now, but I do want to start. I do fear that knowing I’m being timed will lead to me rushing more than I have been, though it’s not like I can start this as a blind study.

I would’ve liked to see the possible impact that cold showers had on utility bills but the new apartment I moved into only charges for electric. The night of the move led to possibly one of the best showers of my life. After hauling all the crap I have up to the fourth floor, by elevator luckily, dropping off the moving truck and then parking my car a half mile down the street to avoid the parking meters nearby, it was just shy of 5 AM on Saturday. ON a side note shout out to my brother Brandon for driving with me all the way up from TX and helping me throughout the whole move. I didn’t want to get my freshly washed sheets covered in my nasty sweat, so I hopped in the shower. Even though it was ice cold and so early in the morning, it felt amazing. Most days thus far have felt nice. The initial drop of water is a bit jarring, but once settled, it feels good. Whenever I start to get uncomfortable, a line from the song Laugh Til I Cry by The Front Bottoms pops in my head…”And I will take cold showers from now on cause once you’ve fucked with fire all that’s left to do is burn baby burn baby burn.” That line gets me thru it every time.

I am definitely enjoying this more than I thought. The showers themselves and the trial in of itself. It’s much simpler than ones I’ve done in the past. It takes next to no willpower to get myself to do it. Similarly to biking every day, it felt like just a part of the day, not something I had to actively think about what I was doing about it that day. On that note, I’m grabbing my watch and gonna cool off before heading to bed. Let me know in the comments what you’ve been trying out lately!