Member-only story
What I’ve Learned From 2 Years Of Cold Showers
5 major rewards for withstanding the discomfort.
“The Flinch”, a book written by Julien Smith, fully encompasses my main interest in this seemingly ludicrous practice. The core motivator.
As the author puts it:
“The flinch is the moment when every doubt you’ve ever had comes back and hits you, hard. It’s when your whole body feels tense. It’s an instinct that tells you to run. It’s a moment of tension that happens in the body and the brain, and it stops everything cold.
In essence, the reaction right before something uncomfortable/painful happens.
It’s one of our most basic instincts to survive and defend against threats, which unfortunately too often, gets triggered with things that aren’t of actual danger to us.
“You don’t flinch at bears, because there are none. But you do flinch at the prospect of speaking publicly or joining a gym. You flinch at the doctor’s office. You even flinch for sitcom characters. Anytime there’s potential change, there’s a flinch, whether it’s a threat or not.”
As I read the book it suddenly became clear that a majority of the regrets I had accumulated until that moment in my life, mostly from NOT DOING certain things, were due to, in great part, this…
