If you ask me what has had the biggest impact on my life this year I’d say it is embracing the cold. By cold I mean the cold shower I am taking every morning to feel awake and ready for the day. I started out of curiosity end of December last year and it is still happening! Lately I have been wondering why I keep doing it. What is the attraction of it for me? I came up with the following:
1 – I find it exciting to challenge myself in an uncomplicated way. Although I have been doing the cold shower for several months there is still this moment of “ooh this is cold!” at the beginning. To get started in the first place I followed the easy step-by-step description from The Wim Hof Method book. In the first week I did daily 30-second cold showers. Slowly but surely I increased the number of seconds over four weeks to end up with two-minute cold showers. Here is more about my experience.
2 – I feel it is on trend and I like to be part of it. This might sound cheesy to some but most of us come to new things for different reasons. No reason is wrong for starting something new, and no one’s reason is better than anyone else’s.
3 – I crushed a limiting belief and that makes me feel empowered. I think that is what attracts me the most! I was born with one kidney that didn’t function and had to be removed. While growing up, to keep my body healthy, it was important I didn’t get cold. As I got older I kept the belief engrained in me that my body couldn’t take the cold. It was okay for others but not for me. Starting the cold showers and learning to accept the cold helped me let go of a belief that was no longer true.
It has to be said, it feels amazing to free oneself from a limiting belief that has been with you your whole life. It is probably the reason I keep going on and on about cold showers… sorry everyone! The cold turned out to be a really good teacher.
I think most of us hold on to several limiting beliefs – I certainly do. Some of them we are not even aware of. They just sit in our subconsciousness and stop us from being fully who we really are. Maybe you can think of a belief that has been with you a long time and no longer serves you? Trying something that takes you out of your comfort zone can be a good way to find out more.
