Caroline Cavanagh starts a 21-day cold shower challenge to test whether cold water helps her mood and to practice the accountability she recommends to her clients. She asks viewers to hold her accountable and promises to report back in three weeks.
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Cold water and me are not normally a good mix. I don't tend to get into any water unless it's called a bath, but actually today, as I'm sitting here and it's still in the high 20s, I may actually renegotiate on that one. So with my dislike— it's probably a mild word— of cold water, I've been having to fight quite hard against a few clients of mine who have been shouting about the benefits of cold water immersion, often based on the stuff that Wim Hof has been doing. I've got one particular client who has been trying to encourage me to go and do immersion, jumping into a freezing cold pond, lake, not a very big thing anyway, and I've been resisting very, very harshly. But it's kind of hypocritical because now cold water therapy is one of the regular treatments that's being acknowledged to help with depression. I've been able to use the excuse, however, that my shower has been broken for a long time and actually has no temperature control, so I couldn't actually turn it down. But we've had a new bathroom fitted, so this morning when I got in the bath under my nice toasty warm shower, that idea hit me that I can't actually use that excuse anymore. And actually, it's time to put my money where my mouth is and do things that I ask other people to do. So I whacked the temperature down. And you know, actually, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I don't actually know how cold the cold water is at the moment, probably not very, but significantly enough from where I started it. So it's a start. And so one of the reasons I am posting this video is because if I don't actually tell people I'm doing this tomorrow, the chances are I am going to wimp out and not do it again. When I've worked in the past with people who want to make any significant change— a couple recently, for example, were going to give up social media— I have always said you need to make this public, because for a big change like that, unless someone is there holding you accountable, chances are you will start to weaken. So I am asking you, anyone that's watching this video, hold me accountable. Come back to me tomorrow and say, did you whack that temperature down again? And I am going to commit to do this for 3 weeks until I go away. There we go. For the next 21 days, I will have a cold shower every day and just see This morning I whacked it down for a minute, and I think the aim is to keep increasing it. And then someone said to me, start warm, go cold, with ultimately you get straight in on the cold. So I've got a little way to go, but it's a start. And with anything that you want to do, it's all about consistency. This morning, all honesty, I didn't feel any different apart from being a bit colder. But you're not going to feel the change of anything instantly, and that's part of changing the mindset. You need to keep doing it time and time again. So I will commit to coming back in 3 weeks or so and let you know how I feel, how well I've done on my own little self-imposed challenge. And please hold me accountable because chances of me wimping out on this one are going to be high otherwise. Thanks for your help. Catch up with you soon.
