What Doesn't Kill Us

by Scott Carney

The first time you experience the cold will be the worst. Every nerve will fire like it is raw and has never been used before. Your heart will race and you’ll want to do anything you can to retreat into warmth. Unless you are in weather where frostbite is likely, you’re not in any serious danger, even though your mind will tell you that you are. The veins in your hands and feet will clench with the force that it reserves for severing a limb. If you are jumping into a cold body of water, go with a friend just in case one of you runs into trouble. Nonetheless, if you last just 5 minutes your entire body will probably be screaming for relief. Go inside and warm up. Most likely, the sensation of vasodilation, when the veins loosen and let warm blood back inside, will hurt even more. For some, the process of rewarming is more painful than the initial exposure. Think of the pain as a sort of baptism. When you try it again the next day, it will be much more manageable. Of course, not everyone has access to cold on demand. If you live in a temperate climate or are in the throes of summer, then you may have difficulty finding a reliable source of icy water. A lot of this is going to be up to your own ingenuity. Maybe you just take cold showers—turn the knob as low as it will go and let the cold water cascade over your head, back, chest, and legs. Or maybe you can spend an inordinate amount of time in the freezer section of your grocery store. Perhaps you fill up a bathtub with ice....