How cool are you?
Personally I like cold showers and have started to like them even more as I have advanced in chi kung.
I am now quoting a site from an experienced acupuncturist who has given some good advice on taking cold showers from the perspective of chinese medicine:
Be sure to check out the suggested cold showering protocol on the linked page above if you are new to it and open hearted enough to experience the cool. A chill tip for the forthcoming UK Summer Camp is to keep applying this chi kung wisdom in your regular bathing, so that you will have had a good foretaste what it is to apply chi flow in everything you do.
Then there is scientific evidence on the same acupuncture site for the benefits of taking cold showers.
Personally I like cold showers and have started to like them even more as I have advanced in chi kung.
I am now quoting a site from an experienced acupuncturist who has given some good advice on taking cold showers from the perspective of chinese medicine:
In a warm bath, your skin goes pink, you perspire and relax. These show your body doing its best to cool you down. Here it exerts Yin Qi, doing its best to dissipate the heat.
Conversely, in cold showers, you shiver, the pores of your skin close up and you tend to contract muscles. Here your body exerts energy (Qi) to keep you warm, specifically Yang Qi.
You may notice that, save in exceptional situations, after a warm shower or bath lasting more than a few seconds, you will feel less energetic. Your body has to work quite hard to cool you down.
[...]
Chinese medical theory sums this up more succinctly:
[...]
'Wei' Qi, the kind of Yang Qi that seems closest to the Western scientific concept of Immune Function, is boosted if your Yang Qi is increased.
Conversely, in cold showers, you shiver, the pores of your skin close up and you tend to contract muscles. Here your body exerts energy (Qi) to keep you warm, specifically Yang Qi.
You may notice that, save in exceptional situations, after a warm shower or bath lasting more than a few seconds, you will feel less energetic. Your body has to work quite hard to cool you down.
[...]
Chinese medical theory sums this up more succinctly:
- In extreme Yin you create Yang. Yang energy is used to move, change and protect your body. (If you are short of Yang energy, ie Yang deficient, you tend to feel cold.)
- In extreme Yang you create Yin. Yin energy is used to nourish and rest your body. (If you are short of Yin energy, as in Yin deficiency, you often feel a little warm or restless.) Yin deficient people are more exhausted by hot humid weather than Yang deficient people.
[...]
'Wei' Qi, the kind of Yang Qi that seems closest to the Western scientific concept of Immune Function, is boosted if your Yang Qi is increased.
Then there is scientific evidence on the same acupuncture site for the benefits of taking cold showers.
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