Arjun Khemani

Observation

I took cold showers almost every morning throughout the entire winter. Very rarely would I take a hot shower either for the sake of pleasure or when I was sick. But the contrast in these two kinds of showers is tremendous. Especially after taking the shower.

Although ironical, you feel warmer after a cold shower than a hot shower when it’s cool outside. My theory is: this happens because your body is cold after the shower with cold water. But the room where you stay inside is relatively warm. So the warmer environment makes you feel warm and good. But when you take a hot shower, the warm environment in the room is not that warm so as to allow you to continue with that sense of warm comfortableness you felt in the shower. It’s usually colder outside than your hot shower. That makes you feel cooler after taking a hot shower when it’s colder outside. It’s very intriguing, I’d encourage you to experiment with this.

Lesson

This cold & hot shower phenomena, I think aptly puts forth this interestingly simple idea which was introduced to me by Naval Ravikant:

“Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”

Jerzy Gregorek

Due to the great luxury of existing in the modern age, we are blessed with (unasked for) choices that we know consciously are bad for us. But the monkey mind that seeks comfort has no problem with them at all.

Shutting off and breaking away from the instant gratification habits is hard. It’s the ultimate struggle and a path with no end. But a little discomfort in making a rational choice will save the big consequence of a choice made for it’s immediate comfort.

If you want to know why I take cold showers in bitter winter, read this post.