What Doesn't Kill Us

by Scott Carney

There is nothing special to the technique. You can fill a bucket or bathtub with ice and jump in. You can turn the shower on as cold as it gets and soak for a minute. Or, perhaps the closest to what our ancestors faced, wait for it to snow and then walk outside in nothing but shorts. Whatever the cold source, the goal is to give your system a little shock. Don’t ease yourself into the frigid waters and wait for your body to acclimatize. Jump right in and see how your body responds, like you are doing a polar bear plunge. Start with taking 30-second cold showers and build up from there. The immediate sensations are rarely pleasant. You’ll start breathing fast, your pupils will dilate, and you’ll want to start moving to keep yourself warm. Feet in the snow will often turn red as blood courses through the veins before they turn lighter in color, once vasoconstriction sets in. While you’re in this moment of shock and pain, you have two basic goals. First, you need to control your breathing and keep calm. The sensations that most closely match the feeling of burning will dissipate if you focus your mind on the pain. Try to relax instead of tightly clenching up every muscle. Enduring the snow is the same exact mental trick as trying to delay a sneeze or resist being ticklish. Once you feel reasonably calm, the second thing you need to master is suppressing your impulse to shiver. After the initial shock of the cold recedes, your body will soon click on an instinctual program to ...