**Just Tried This and Whoa**
I didn’t plan for this to be a life-altering moment. It started the way most questionable decisions do: half-awake, scrolling on my phone, thumb hovering, brain offline. Somewhere between a productivity thread and a stranger confidently saying, “This changed my life,” I thought, *Sure. Why not.* Five minutes later, I was standing in my bathroom, staring at the shower handle, about to turn it all the way to cold.
That’s the only sentence that accurately describes what happened next.
### The Reluctant Beginning
Let’s get something straight: I am not a cold-shower person. I like warmth. I like easing into my mornings. I believe comfort has value and suffering should come with a clear payoff, preferably immediate. Cold showers, as a concept, sounded like something invented by people who enjoy running marathons “for fun.”
But curiosity is sneaky. The promise was everywhere: more energy, better mood, mental toughness, clearer skin, improved focus, a mysterious glow that suggests you have your life together. It felt exaggerated enough to be fake—and that made me want to try it more.
I told myself I’d do it “just for 30 seconds.” That’s how you trick yourself into bad ideas.
### The First 10 Seconds: Regret
The water hit, and every cell in my body filed a formal complaint.
My breath vanished. My shoulders shot up to my ears. My brain screamed, *This was a mistake.* There is a very specific kind of panic that happens when cold water surprises you—it’s primal, ancient, and deeply convincing. I understood, in that moment, why our ancestors feared rivers.
But something interesting happened around second fifteen.
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