Thermolophobia - Fear of COLD SHOWERS

[Guest guest]

This is post from Guruprem. It gives some of the finer points of getting

to and through a cold shower (Ishnaan). I like that he is integrating

good Ayurveda "common sense" in his approach and recommendations.

Dharam

P.S. Guruprem....you still out there

 

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RE: The Sensitive Space of a spiritual coward

Thu, 02 May 2002 22:00:32 -0400

khalsayogi

Kundaliniyoga

Kundaliniyoga

CC: khalsayogi

 

Dear Gian Kaur,

 

A few things:

 

1. Cut your cold shower time to 2 minutes. It is not necessary

to torture yourself with full imersion in cold water for a

full five minutes. You may be able to handle it eventually,

but it's better to do 2 than to do none. So drop back to two.

This is especially applicable if you have low blood pressure.

 

2. Be sure you "acclimatize" yourself to the cold. Start by

letting your hands experience the cold, then rub your arms

vigorously with the cold water, starting with your hands,

then working up the wrists/forearms to the upper arms. I

is REALLY IMPORTANT that you "let your body know" what

you're about to do!

 

3. Do the same thing with your feet. First get your feet wet,

then massage your calves with the cold water, then do your

thighs.

 

4. Only then do you DARE get your torso wet with cold water.

If you don't "do" you extremities first, you will SHOCK

your system, and that is to be avoided. Your instinct is

"in the right" to fear it. However, if you move into the

cold gradually, you will "tell" your nervous system that

it is about to get a "wake up call" and it will accept it.

Challenge your navel center first with the cold water,

and ONLY THEN your back.

 

The benefit is that once you have "driven" your blood

inward to the internal organs, your body will THANK YOU

for being so considerate. Vibrant health and long life

are worth the price of getting into cold water for a few

minutes. Just get into it GRADUALLY!

 

gs

 

Guruprem Singh ('GS') Khalsa

Berkeley, California

 

408-396-7249 cell, 24 hrs.

 

P.S. I've been following Yogi Bhajan since 1972... And I still

can't "face" a cold shower every day!

[Guest guest]

Thanks to Dharam for reposting Guruprem's cold shower advice. I think it

was this posting that originally encouraged me to take a cold shower.

 

Before then, I'd read the cold shower postings on the list and thought to

myself, "I'll never do that!" However, I began to wonder if I shouldn't

just give it a try. Guruprem's words reminded me of the tactic I used as a

child to wade into chilly Lake Michigan. I didn't just dive in, but entered

the water gradually: walk in up to hips, dip hands and arms into water,

splash water on face and front, then take the plunge.

 

On the day that I took my first cold shower my partner was out of town, so I

wasn't worried about waking him with any whoops or hollers. I got up before

dawn, turned on the cold water, left the shower door open (in case I needed

a quick escape) and used the "Lake Michigan" technique.

 

It worked! The shower was not the ordeal I'd feared. I added cold showers

to my sadhana routine, and now look forward to their invigorating effects.

 

Sat Nam

 

Chris B

[Guest guest]

Satnam ji's

I could not help laughing at the heading for cold showers. I use to tell

people the only thing about my religion is the cold showers that we have to

take.In Sikhism we are told to take a cold shower for it's spiritual

cleansing of the soul.

I didn't care for this and I resented this for a long time. I figured I could

get away by not doing it if I chanted or did more seva or something.

Well after many years of this, I read somewhere that Yogi Bhajan said when

asked what has made him the man he was and what has given him strenght was

his " cold showers".

Cold showers in the ambrosial hours are not to just wake you up but to

cleanse your soul and make you spiritually strong.It puts you through a

process of surrender and reliance on God and you have no choice but to call

on God when you do it!

For a while I decided to only take a cold shower in the morning and only do

11 minsl of yoga and that was it! The cold shower was a meditation in itself

and I was going to treat myself to a sleep after that.Well It worked.I

showered and slept and then I could not sleep because the cold shower was so

energising it was hard to go back to sleep!

The cold shower awakens us spiritually and gets rid of a lot of garbage and

anger that we have stored inside ourselves. YB said that if you can take the

coldness of the water you can take the coldness of the world and face it.

I had to con myself into doing it but it was the best con ever!

Try it .

s.i.r.khalsa