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A year of cold showers: what are the benefits beyond body health?
From September 1, 2019 to September 1, 2020, I tried to turn the shower faucet to its coldest end as often as possible. This voluntary discomfort exercise, which I had already carried out for a month in the winter of 2018, has had concrete effects on my health and, above all, my well-being.
Within the framework of this challenge, a cold shower simply consists to expose yourself to the lowest possible thermostat temperature from the beginning until the end of the shower under normal/high water pressure. It is a voluntary discomfort exercise recommended by many stoics. Seneca, for example, used to take cold baths. He was inspired by Plato. His practice was accompanied by the blame for the pleasures of hot water. In Letter 51 (6) to Lucilius, he says as follows:
To be conquered, in the first place, are pleasures, which, as you see, have carried off even the sternest characters. If a man has once understood how great is the task which he has entered upon, he will see that there must be no dainty or effeminate conduct. What have I to do with those hot baths or with the sweating-room where they shut in the dry steam which is to drain your strength? Perspiration should flow only after toil.
