'Take a Cold Shower'

"Go take a cold shower. Up, GET UP, Run a cold shower and get in it, NOW!" messages I received from a close friend as I lay not wanting to get out of bed. My life and everything I believed I was or could be seemed so distant, so cloudy. Getting out of bed was the last thing I wanted to do and stepping into a freezing cold shower was definitely not something I even wanted to consider. I wanted to stay under the shelter of my covers, warm and swaddled in the only type of comfort I could feel, but almost everyday for the next four weeks I woke up exhausted, swollen eyed from crying all night, with messages yelling at me to get into a cold shower. I would drag myself up out of bed, begrudgingly make my way over to the shower, turn the knob, take a long hard look in the mirror while taking a deep breath, and then I would step in. The cold water would hit my face and I would let out a high pitched breath, trying not to scream, clenching up my fists and scrunching up my face as if the cold water was painful. It was. painful in a different way. It was awful and the initial shock of it hitting my body made me want to cry. That pain only lasted a few seconds however. Once I got past the first few seconds of shock, the endorphins would start kicking in and an almost euphoric feeling would take over.

Those cold showers were the first steps to regaining my self. The first difficult step taken to improving my mental health after getting out of the hospital, and they were hard. Stepping into a freezing cold shower first thing in the morning when I didn't even want to get out of bed felt like the hardest thing in the world to do, but those cold showers allowed me to start and carry out my day, they gave me back my sense of self by improving my mood one turn of the shower knob at a time.

My mental health had been suffering for while, due to a few different reasons, from family pressures, relationship issues, past traumas, career goals, and overall self esteem. It was building up and finally over time it got me. I started to feel like a failure more and more in every aspect of my life, and nothing was helping. I turned to my relationship in a last ditch effort to save whatever was left in me, which only ended in breakup and 72 hours in the hospital. I was distraught. The lowest i've ever been in my life. 29 years old and I was giving up and I didn't care who I was dragging down with me, as I clawed and clung to whatever or whoever would reach out for my hand. I was scared. I said things and I did things I never even imagined I would ever do. Pure fight or flight emotions. Similar to someone drowning, reaching out, grabbing, clinging, scratching for air, for dear life, I was desperate, and I was heart broken. This point in my life was the biggest turning point i've ever been in. Those 72 hours at the hospital were terrifying, sitting for hours in the ER watching people come in and out, sick injured, dying. I was tired, and hungry, exposed, and vulnerable, all I wanted to do was mourn the end of my relationship, but I couldn't, all eyes were on me. The mental health system in America is slacking in so many ways, And it was never more clear to me that I NEVER wanted to end up in that situation EVER again. I have never been so stressed out in my life, and it was a huge slap in the face that I needed to get my shit together. I needed to fix my mental health, improve my mood once and for all so that I would never let anything in my life cause me to get that low, ever, again.

"How do you eat a shit sandwich" One bite at a time. Those cold showers were the first bites of that shit sandwich and i've never been more determined to make my life better than it was before.

There is extensive research on the benefits of cold water immersion, everything from improved circulation, increased immunity, boost in mood and decreases in depression and anxiety, its no wonder stepping into a cold shower first thing in the morning helped me so much in the initial days of getting back on my feet.

Dive. Lift. Jiu-Jitsu. Repeat

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Cold Water Immersion

Benefits

Stress Resilience - Cold water immersion stimulates the bodies adaptive stress response, which can improve its ability to handle stress in the long run.

Improve Mood - Studies suggest that consistently taking cold showers over a longer period of time helps decrease depression and anxiety

Improve Circulation - Cold water causes the body to work harder to maintain its core temperature which causes the body to increase its blow flow circulation. An increase in blood flow circulation can help with muscle recovery.

Increase Metabolism - Because the body is expending more energy trying to stay warm during cold water immersion, it can help burn calories and increase metabolism.

Reduce inflammation and muscle soreness

Relieve localized pain

Citations

GO TAKE A COLD SHOWER!!