Well, ladies
Group chat update. I was late to my 8am client on Friday because I was doing Clare's wall sit in my hallway in my underwear and lost track of time. This is not a joke. I slid down the wall, my legs started shaking at twenty seconds, and I got so competitive with myself that I held it until my timer went off and then had to sit on the floor for a minute. I was seven minutes late. My client was already stretching. I am not sorry.
That is not what this is about though. This is about the shower.
Somebody sent me a podcast episode about cold exposure. I do not remember who. It has been sitting in my queue for weeks because cold exposure sounds like something a man with a chest tattoo does at 5am while telling you about discipline. I was not interested. 😂
I listened to it on Thursday while cleaning my apartment (which happens about once a month, do not congratulate me). And the thing that caught me was not the ice bath stuff. It was this: the last fifteen seconds of your regular shower, turn the water to cold. That is it. Not a cold shower. Not an ice plunge. Just the last fifteen seconds.
The claim is that it triggers a norepinephrine spike. That is your brain's wake-up chemical. Not caffeine. Not sugar. An actual neurochemical response to cold water hitting your skin. The research says the spike is significant and it lasts for hours, not minutes.
I tried it Friday morning after the wall sit disaster.
I do not want to be dramatic about this but I walked out of that shower like a person who had been lightly electrocuted in a good way. My skin was buzzing. My brain was on. I was late, yes, but I was the most awake late person in the building. 🔥
I have done it every morning since. Fifteen seconds. I count. It is horrible every single time and I do not think that part gets better.
But the after is something else. There is a window from about five minutes post-shower to maybe two hours later where I am sharper, calmer, more present than coffee makes me. Coffee wakes up my brain. The cold wakes up my body. They are not the same thing.
I told Sonia about it and she said "absolutely not" which I expected. Then she said "how cold" which I did not expect. I said cold cold. She said she would think about it. That means she will try it Thursday and not tell me until next week. I know how she works. 🙌
Clare has been doing some version of this already because of course she has. She runs her wrists under cold water for hot flashes and when I told her about the shower thing she said "same principle, different delivery." Four words. No enthusiasm. Clare.
Here is the thing I am actually recommending. Not the podcast. Not the science. The fifteen seconds.
Tomorrow morning. End of your shower. Turn it cold. Count to fifteen. You will hate it. Your chest will tighten and you will gasp and you will want to turn it back.
Do not turn it back. Fifteen seconds. Then step out.
Notice how you feel twenty minutes later. That is the recommendation.
