I'm sitting here waiting for my cold bath to run. Why? Because I'm finally getting on with the Wim Hof Method, the process by which you fire up your immune system with a course of meditation, deep breathing and exposure to the cold.
The meditation and the breathing are easy, the cold however . . .
What Is Cold?
It's just a sensation right? To most people it's an unpleasant one, but why?
I mean, it's just cold, in the short term it's not going to kill you, yet the sensation you get when you're cold encourages you to get warm.
But what is that sensation? How do we define it?
Pain?
Yes pain, a type of pain, not the ow-I've-stubbed-my-toe pain. Or the lingering pain of a broken limb, or the gnawing pain a bout of food poisoning brings on, but yet it is a pain.
Why?
I suppose we are evolutionary wired to always seek comfort. Cold in the long term can kill you, especially if it is extreme. Therefore it makes sense to have a biological aversion to getting cold.
Better safe than sorry . . .
Sensation Anatomy
At the end of the day cold is just a sensation, like warmth, like hunger.
Therefore cold is like warm, both are sensations, both draw a physical and a mental response. One is pain the other is pleasure, but are they really that different?
Pain is only felt because the reptilian part of my brain is trying to protect me from death. However intellectually I know I'm not going to die from a cold bath.
Therefore I must use my intellect to override my evolutionary responses . . .
I guess this is what's known as mind over matter.
Grin & Bear It
I will smile when I get in, I will anticipate the cold, but I will tell myself that it is fine, and the sensations I feel are just that, sensations.
Pain is not real, it all happens in the head, it's just a safety switch.
There are people born with rare genetic conditions whereby they don't feel pain. You can hit them, burn them, freeze them, shoot them and they won't feel a single tiny speck of pain.
The parts of their brains that are meant to register the sensations they are feeling as pain, don't function.
Therefore I know that it can be endured, even if those parts of the brain are working perfectly.
Cold is warm.
Pain is pleasure.
Let's go!
DO YOU MIND THE COLD? PERHAPS YOU HATE THE HEAT? WHAT ARE YOUR MOST AND LEAST FAVOURITE SENSATIONS?
AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!
Title Image: Alexandre Croussette on Unsplash
@cryptogee,
Well, if nothing else, you're going to burn a few calories. :-) If recollection serves, shivering burns roughly four times more calories than your resting state ... 10 minutes of shivering = 1 hour of exercise.
Careful mate ... you may end up as the healthiest patient in the asylum. :-)
Quill
Lols, that is a great benefit :-)
Oh by the way, I meant to put the research paper link in there, for the scientific minded people such as yourself. It's fascinating...
Voluntary activation of the sympathetic nervous system and attenuation of the innate immune response in humans
Cg
Cold is not my favorite, but with practice can be ignored (like long terms outside in winter along the shore). I applaud your efforts and will look for more here on your experiences. Good luck with it.
It is not my fave either! Though I can take a cold shower more than a cold bath, unfortunately I don't have a shower at the mo. I'll keep you updated! :-)
Cg
inner beauty
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I abhor cold showers/baths but it's funny what the body gets used to. We have very severe winters here in Minnesota and as we transition into fall and the temps settle around 20 degrees (F) it feels super cold but then around late February as the temps warm into the 20's it feels comfortable compared to months of below zero temps. I've been hearing a lot about Wim Hof these days. I'll have to research it.
Thanks for the clip, I'll check it out! Yes, we have skyways in Minneapolis and St. Paul that connect the buildings. You can literally walk from one side of downtown to the other and never step foot outside. When I worked downtown we would walk the skyways during our breaks and during lunch, it's how I stayed sane. : )
Man I would love to see that!
Cg
If you ever visit the Twin Cities I'll give you a tour. I used to work with a network of insurance sales people spread across the country who would visit time to time. One of them equated the skyways to those hamster habit-trails...lol.