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  • Cold Showers

    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:

    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:
    • 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.
    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.
    17
    cold.
    17.65%
    3
    warm.
    64.71%
    11
    lukewarm.
    11.76%
    2
    whatever my chi flow urges is right.
    5.88%
    1

  • #2
    I like hot showers and, if I have a bath, warm baths. The issue of feeling less energetic has never shown up for me. Strange
    Sifu Andrew Barnett
    Shaolin Wahnam Switzerland - www.shaolin-wahnam.ch

    Flowing Health GmbH www.flowing-health.ch (Facebook: www.facebook.com/sifuandrew)
    Healing Sessions with Sifu Andrew Barnett - in Switzerland and internationally
    Heilbehandlungen mit Sifu Andrew Barnett - in der Schweiz und International

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    • #3
      My preference is towards the warm side ( especially in winter ) and ends with a zap of cool shower to the head and spine .
      Damian Kissey
      Shaolin Wahnam Sabah , Malaysia .
      www.shaolinwahnamsabah.com

      Comment


      • #4
        Hi, Olli,

        Nice poll. I like that you've included, "whatever the chi flow urges is right" as an option.

        I like warm showers, and warm baths. At the spa, I like alternate between the hot and cold tub. Spending a minute in very cold water after a hot bath is quite an experience.

        For the sake of experience (and science) I will experiment with cool showers. Since I live in the tropics, cool will have to do. We don't really do cold.

        Damian Siheng: "winter"? What is this winter you speak of? I'm looking forward to the cool hills of Mt. Kinabalu!


        Yours,

        Charles
        Charles David Chalmers
        Brunei Darussalam

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Charles David View Post
          What is this winter you speak of? I'm looking forward to the cool hills of Mt. Kinabalu!
          well , not the winter of the soul .....

          By the way , aside from winter hot baths whilst living in Europe years ago , i also fondly remember warm mud-baths in rice fields as a kid ...

          Fotos : winter stances with Japanese nieces and borneo paddy fields
          Attached Files
          Damian Kissey
          Shaolin Wahnam Sabah , Malaysia .
          www.shaolinwahnamsabah.com

          Comment


          • #6
            On Baths by the Great Energy Master Dr Randolph Stone

            ...while waiting for more polling :

            A warm bath in the morning is very good. For this bath use a wash cloth with soap on it and also some baking soda (soda bicarb [sodium bicarbonate]) and table salt on the soapy cloth. Mix two parts of soda with one of the salt (not in the water but dry on the wash cloth that is wet and soapy). This should be used on the face, neck and allover the body. It is a cleansing and refreshing bath, and has the soothing effect of bathing in the ocean. Such a bath removes the gummy substance from the pores and eliminates body odor.

            Then rinse well with warmwater and use cold water, especially down the spine, as a final shower. This closes the pores and one does not catch cold after the bath. Even though there is no danger of this in the summer time, a cold rinse is always refreshing and invigorating.

            While the body is still wet, rub the entire body, including the face, with olive or almond oil, or some good body oil. It takes very little to cover the entire body - by first blending a small amount in the wet hands, then rubbing them over the face, arms, legs and body. This dissolves certain types of gummy substances on the skin, which water and soap will not remove. Then briskly rub the body dry with a towel. In fact, the body will be practically dry by then, but a brisk rub with the bath towel is also beneficial. The body will then feel refreshed and cleaner than ever before.
            Damian Kissey
            Shaolin Wahnam Sabah , Malaysia .
            www.shaolinwahnamsabah.com

            Comment


            • #7
              I prefer cool showers, it helps me wake up in the morning, so refreshing. The true pleasure though is taking a cool shower after working outside all day.

              Cheers,
              Shaolin Wahnam USA

              "Every morning you are born again. What you do today is the most important thing".

              Comment


              • #8
                Hei Olli,

                Intresting that you prefer cold showers here in Finland, where it's cold enough already.

                I'm a fan of sauna myself. Enough coldness outside.


                Best wishes,

                Nessa
                Nessa Kahila
                Shaolin Nordic Finland
                Instructor
                nessa@shaolin-nordic.com

                www.shaolin-nordic.com

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