If Done The Right Way, Showering Can Greatly Enhance One’s Meditation Experience!

This is gonna be a fun post, I’m excited!

When it comes to showering there’s a ton to talk about. There’s the “normal” way of shower which 90% of people follow, and then there’s another way which can be really beneficial to one’s overall well-being.

Even if you don’t meditate, or have not been initiated into any spiritual practice/yoga, showering the right way can have a tremendously positive impact in the way you function!

So what is the “right” way of showering? And how does this all come into play for a spiritual practitioner? Don’t worry we’ll spend some time talking about this in great detail. For now I invite you to sit down for a moment and ponder….

 

Why Changing How You Shower Might Be More Harder Than You Think!

Taking a shower for most people has become habitual and routine like. As we know, changing habits is not always easy. When it comes to showering, altering the way you shower might be more harder than you think!

Sit down and see if you can bring your mindset to a point of being flexible and willing to try that what you consider unknown and maybe even slightly uncomfortable. See that in your present experience, it only feels this way because it’s not familiar to you. Whatever is unfamiliar, we tend to run away from. See if you can bring yourself to a state where jumping into the unfamiliar is at least a possibility.

Why is it important you do this now? Because everything that follows in the rest of the post will be futile! It’ll be futile because it’ll never come to fruition because it’ll never come to action!

Simply reading or watching a video about how to do something and then not acting on it is pretty much useless entertainment. The “juice” is in the action on your part. I trust that most of you already have some level of discipline since you’re looking to see how a shower can enhance your meditation experience. The very fact that you are meditating is fantastic!

I’m not saying this to frighten you because the shower routine I recommend is crazy extreme or anything like that! More so because most people find it very hard to change their habitual routines, even though it’s something as simple as a shower!

 

Taking A Shower Before Meditation Is Most Conducive!

If you shower before you meditate, this will be the most conducive. It’s not only about physical cleansing of the body, taking a shower where your whole body is covered in water cleanses the system on another level. To be quite honest, I don’t know exactly what happens and why, but one thing I can tell you with 100% certainty (based on almost half a year of experience) is that it works!

When you take a shower before you meditate, you’re up a notch in terms of awareness/focus and even the body feels lighter and more pliable.

Anyone who practices hatha yoga will definitely be able to relate to this. If you’re doing any hatha yoga practice such as Surya Kriya, Yogasanas or something else, you’ll know how different the experience is when you shower before. The body feels much more able!

We’ve established that showering beforehand is best, but what about temperature? Cold, warm, or hot?

Personally speaking, I’ve tried all 3 – cold, warm, and hot – and the one I’ve seen the most benefits from is definitely cold. A few degrees colder than room temperature is what seems to work best. I turn the shower on, gauge the temperature with my hand, and once it’s right I get in head first (this is important and we’ll see why later!). My showers take no more than 2-3 minutes.

It does not need to be a 20 minute shower! I know some folks like to enjoy their hot showers. This doesn’t have to be a long affair.

To summarize, cold showers (a few degrees below ambient temperature) for 2-3 minutes before meditation is most conducive.

 

You Can Watch A Video, Read A Post, But Let Your Experience Guide You!

I cannot overstate this enough. You may watch a video, read a blog post like this one, or a book, but all of these things are meaningless. Yes you may get inspired by this post and decide to attempt taking a cold shower. This is good! However, don’t let this post define what you should and shouldn’t do!

The only guide you should follow is that of your experience.

You take a cold shower and see it works miraculously, now you continue this regimen. This is fantastic! You take a cold shower and feel lousy after the fact, now you question why. This is also okay.

The point I’m trying to make is go by your experience, not what someone tells you. It doesn’t matter who that person is, it might be true for them but it’s not so for you. If you want to live a fantastic wholesome life, one way is to make everything an experiment…a never ending experiment that is rooted in exploration. Then inevitably you will find what works best, and what doesn’t.

This works for pretty much everything in your life, not just showers. You can use this approach to find the most ideal diet for yourself (including what to eat and how frequently), and also how many hours to sleep and at what times.

 

A Few Showering Tips You Ought To Consider!

In this video Sadhguru shares 4 invaluable showering tips. A few of these I’ve implemented myself and I can see significant improvements in how I feel during the day and also during my yoga and meditation practices.

In the video he talks about simulating a dip in the river, and how the first point of contact should be a certain point of the head. You’ll recall I mentioned this earlier in the post as well.

Again, a video/post is only entertainment. It only becomes useful when you actually put it into action in your life. This is the hardest part for most of us, definitely for me! I know my journey with cold showers has been far from successful or consistent.

I started with great enthusiasm and consistency and would religiously shower once a day with cold water. A month down the line and my enthusiasm started fading away slowly. Hot long showers were again what I’d fall back to. Lucky for me, summer came around quickly enough and hot showers when it’s 30C+ is definitely not something I enjoyed!

I’ve been able to maintain a cold shower routine all through summer and I’ve really started to enjoy it, so much so that I’ll shower twice or thrice a day with cold water!

Will this consistency remain come winter? Truth be told, I don’t know. However, I am definitely seeing a huge change in my well-being thanks to 2 minutes of standing in cold (ish!) water!

 

Don’t Be The Type Of Person Who Avoids Discomfort & Seeks Pleasure!

A cold shower is the very definition of discomfort for most people. Because of this, people avoid it entirely. If you ask me, they’re all doing themselves a great disservice because 2 minutes of slight discomfort yields tremendous long term benefits and well-being.

Waking up at 3:30 AM every morning is also a huge discomfort and nuisance to your body which wants to continue laying in bed, but if you pay the price of some initial discomfort and drag yourself out of bed to meditate, you’ll find something tremendously beautiful!

Have you ever read “The Breeze At Dawn” by Rumi? This poem perfectly articulates the splendor of this early morning time. Rumi says “The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.” If you wake up and meditate at this time, you’ll know exactly what Rumi is talking about!

This is exactly what I mean about living an exploratory life validated by your own experiences and what you perceive, rather than what you believe.

If you’re continuously seeking pleasure and remain unfulfilled, it’s time you start looking at yourself. Close your eyes and see where things have gone wrong. Once you do this, you’ll immediately see that only you can set things right!

I digress, but since we’re anyways talking about meditation and cold showers, it doesn’t hurt to give you a little extra. Hope you enjoyed reading and got some value out of this post. If you did, a share on the social platforms would be appreciated!

Your questions & comments are welcomed down below. Till next time!