You might be scratching your head in bewilderment right now, wondering where I got balls from, considering it appears that I currently present in female form in this particular lifetime. So to set the record straight- physically I do not possess a set. They just happen to be an easily grasped illustration tool. 😉 But rather than dig myself in any deeper here, let’s get to the point. Why the cold shower?
Because it’s a shifter! A game-changer, a mood-lifter, a mind-bender; an alteration to my once usual routine shower. A means of becoming uncomfortable that switches things up. I’ve been working on my response to the cold for the last year after learning that Tony Robbins plunges himself into a cold pool every morning.
I started spending bits of time last winter outside without winter clothing on, bore the coolness of air-conditioned waiting rooms without my usual sweater this past summer and was further spurred on to stand in an icy shower after reading What Doesn’t Kill Us .
I’ll be honest with you- I have a need for intensity and embracing the cold is a bargain basement method of finding some (this from the woman whose feet and hands freeze at anything below 90 degrees!) but it’s about so much more than that. Yes, it shocks your system at first, but the surprising thing you realize is that as with most things, it’s not about your body handling it. Your body is fine! It’s just another mind game. And overcoming mind blocks is the name of the game! I completely align with Scott Carney’s assessment that the difficult part is not standing under the freezing water, but instead in the moments before your hand turns the dial to cold and your mind is saying “I can’t do this, I can’t do this, I don’t want to do this…” But then discipline commands your hand to act and the next thing you know, you’re standing in it. You’re just doing it. Is it so important that you stood under freezing water? Yes, (I truly believe the cold to be beneficial for our bodies) but that’s not the entirety of it. The important part is that you just modeled to yourself that I CAN DO THIS. You are teaching your mind that you can override the self-doubt it’s attempting to download on you and in doing so you are training your brain to bypass your logical mind to instead laser focus on and then access the self-discipline muscle that will propel you to act. In conquering the cold blast of an icy shower you are setting yourself up to triumph over the next bit of discomfort that meets you on your journey- be it what it may. And damn, is that feeling empowering!
Retraining your brain doesn’t require being by an icy mountain stream or traveling to another place, or building/installing expensive equipment that you don’t have. If you can do those things, that’s wonderful (I’ve definitely got a set of monkey bars on my future wish-list) but the only thing you ever need is the faith and desire to be led and a willingness to listen and the universe will provide the rest. It will meet you where and when you’re at and show you a way. Every time. How do you think I got the terrifically informative and motivating book on my wish list that I’m reading now? I “just happened” to win it in a Goodreads Book Giveaway. And it “just happened” to be delivered to me right when I needed it most. Coincidence? NO SUCH THING.
fit BEYOND form 
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