I made a couple of observations this time around. Normally when you shower, you're in movement. Back, then head, then chest, back again, legs, junk, repeat. When dealing with water of an uncomfortable temperature, it helps to keep moving. This time, I let the water hit the top of my head for good long while and it eventually became unbearable. The sensation was familiar. It was just like an ice cream brain freeze. I might experiment more with this to see if I can push past the pain and get onto another plane. I have found this to be possible when doing calf raises, for example. I used to stop when my calves were really burning around 50 or 60 reps. But I realized that if I just accept the burn, I can bust through this artificial ceiling and go for 200 more. Perhaps I can break through the brain freeze, too? Or maybe I'll just have brutal cranial cramps.
The other thing I noticed, or realized, is that trying to do mindfulness mediation under a freezing stream of water at this stage of my process is probably not the best use of my time for exploration. The brain freeze experiment was something of a meditation, but it was adapted to the situation. At my winter showering pace, which is roughly every other day, I've got maybe six more left. I think running different experiments may be more insightful than trying to meditate when I already find meditation difficult enough in a dark room free of distraction.
Although no one is reading this (yet?), I think that I may start to incorporate some research on cold showers to supplement my probably very boring accounts of what music I danced around to and for how long. Tune in next time for my ten shower anniversary!
See the complete Spotify Cold Shower Playlist here.
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