My meditation journal

[Thittato]

Seventh session of winter-bathing this season.

No meditation today, but I did my seventh session of winter-bathing this season since I started up again 8th of December. I decided after this session that I want to reach 10 full sessions of winter-bathing before this year ends. That is going to be the perfect way to summarize this year. It should be easy. Only one more session and then I only have two more to go. Then I will take a little pause from this cold exposure project and just see what my natural inclination will be after this.

[Thittato]

Eight session of winter-bathing this season.

First 20 min of vinyasa flow yoga, and then my eight session of winter-bathing this season. So awesome!

[Thittato]

10 sun salutations today, and then 30 min of meditation. Nice. I'm so inspired by this project of doing 10 sessions of winter-bathing before the new year. Only two more to go. I feel so fresh and healthy. Been having tendencies towards having a little cold when I wake up in the morning after winter-bathing in the evening, but I quickly shake it off after I get out of bed and take a shower, and then I just feel very fresh and healthy. Maybe part of cold exposure therapy is triggering a very mild cold, and then letting your body fight it off. And after having done some cycles of that, ones immune system gets used to bigger fluctuations in what kind of temperature changes ones body is experiencing. Something like that is totally going on.

[Thittato]

Ninth session of winter-bathing this season.

Finally I became currious about Wim Hof's breathing techniques. So I did this one before I went down to the sea:

That was a very different experience. First of all the water felt much colder, probably because I was more calm and present, and when I came out of the water I didn't get that super-hero feeling that I usually get. Well, maybe a little bit of it, but mainly I just felt even more calm than after the breathing technique. Maybe this could be really interesting regarding my tendencies to become manic about stuff. Maybe it is really good that I didn't go into that super-hero feeling that I'm so addicted to. This state I'm in now feels really healthy in a very different way. I just feel very natural, calm and down to earth.

[Thittato]

10 sun salutations, 10 min of meditation, and 11 min of Wim Hof Breathing, today. Pretty smooth little program. It is interesting to get back in touch with breathing exercises again.

[Thittato]

Tenth session of winter-bathing this season.

Super-nice! Hehe.... :-) No resistance this time. Just pure joy. A quiet celebration of everything that has been, everything that is, and everything that will come.

[Thittato]

20 Days of Cold Showers Challenge

So I've been having a pause from journaling here and for the last month I've only been journaling by myself. It is nice to change things up a bit sometimes to get out of a rut. Last journal entry here ended with me doing my tenth session of winther-bathing this season on New Years Eve. For January I did another 12 sessions of winther-bathing, and I have only gotten deeper into the Wim Hof method. You might say that by now I have fully converted. But I still keep up with both my regular yoga and meditation, but my regular meditation is usually something I do after the Wim Hof breathing method. So as for now I feel that Wim Hof Method has turned into my platform and context. The start of this month I finally downloaded his app, and of my gosh how awesome it is to use an app like that to structure my practice. I'm continuing to do his breathing method daily, which I have been doing daily since 11th of January, and 1st of February I started doing his 20 days of cold showers challenge. It is very nice to try out different things when it comes to cold exposure. I would like to try out cold walks soon as well, walking around in nature in only my shorts. It was interesting that I actually find cold showers harder than winther bathing out in the sea. Don't know why, but the shock is much greater in the shower I find. Perhaps because the water is running instead of standing still. And perhaps the cold water in my shower is equally cold as out in the sea - I'm not sure about that because I haven't measured, but it feels equally cold or colder.

Anyways. So for this first week I'm showering in cold water for 1 min and 15 secs, then I'll be adding 15 secs every week, until I reach 2 min. It is much nicer to do it structed like this instead of just doing it on my feeling because even though I was staying in the water until the shock calmed down, I usually didn't push myself more beyond that, but now I get a chance to really exercise my ability to be in cold water, and gradually progress week by week. Also now I'm doing at least 5 cold water immersion per week, instead of "only" 10 or 12 in a month. But I feel I have been really building it up gradually and smoothly. It is really amazing to meditate after doing the breath work, and even more amazing to meditate after cold water exposure. I used to get really high and felt really raw and powerful after cold water exposure, but it has gradually turned into just feeling more and more calm but alert and energized - so I would say it has developed into a state which a find more mature and wise. This whole thing has been a really great vitamin-injection into my meditation practice. It feels like it is coming alive like never before, but in a calm and integrated way. Although it is a bit stressful that I so strongly feel this urge to want to preach to people that they should get into cold exposure therapy, but hopefully that will balance itself out soon. Anyways, last month has been really awesome, and I'm really looking forward to get deeper into this 20 days of cold showers challenge.

Edited February 5, 2021 by Thittato

[Codrina]

? it's hard not to preach. I go outside with a sweater and a leather jacket in -5 Celsius degrees.

Two years of cold showers and I no longer suffer from cold.

Isn't that something everyone would want? To feel comfortable in cold weather?

Let alone all other benefits...

 

[Thittato]

First week of 20 days cold shower challenge done.

Did 5 rounds of Wim Hof breathing today, and then 15 min of meditation. Feels like the honeymoon phase with this method is starting to fade, so I'm glad I have this structure established now to help me deal with the resistance I now encounter. Encountered a lot of resistance today as I woke up, but now that I'm finished with my practice I feel great.

[Thittato]

11 minutes ago, Codrina said:

? it's hard not to preach. I go outside with a sweater and a leather jacket in -5 Celsius degrees.

Two years of cold showers and I no longer suffer from cold.

Isn't that something everyone would want? To feel comfortable in cold weather?

Let alone all other benefits...

 

Haha, yes, very difficult not to preach :-P

So awesome that you have been doing cold showers for 2 years!

[Thittato]

Started this day with 10 sun salutations, then 10 min of meditation, then I did 6 rounds of Wim Hof breathing, then 30 min of meditation, 10 more sun salutations, and then I finished with 10 more min of meditation. Feels like the Wim Hof breathing is the foundation for my practice now, and then everything revolves around that. The breathing exercises feels like a very nice bridge between physical exercises and meditation.

[Thittato]

3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing, and then I did 10 min of meditation before I went into the cold shower. 1:30 min in the cold shower today. Today I tried to cold shower without doing a warm shower at all. It was pretty awesome. My skin has been drying out because I take way too warm showers as a preparation for the cold shower so I needed to change something. It felt so awesome just skipping that whole warm shower thing, and actually when I came out of the shower I felt warm, especially when I was using the towel on all part of my body with lots of energy. This was much smoother than doing a warm shower first. It takes much less time, and the feeling of freshness is even greater. After that I meditated for 30 min in full lotus. I've been working on the full lotus again lately. It is something about how utterly composed and collected the body feels in full lotus that is really appealing to me, so I will continue to work on it. Seems like my knees can handle it now. I always used to get trouble with my knees when I worked on the full lotus before.

I had a mild depression going yesterday, which I woke up with today as well, but during my breathing exercises I was getting into a state of surrendering into it, which was really nice, and after the cold shower it was totally shaken off. So interesting how I always start to fight it and forget about surrendering, but I guess it is a natural process that needs to run its course so I can't just skip fighting and jump directly into surrendering until my body and mind is ready for that.

[Thittato]

Today I did 3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing, 10 min meditation, then 1,5 min cold shower, and then 20 min meditation. No warm shower today either. Those 20 min of meditation after the cold shower felt so awesome. Even though it has felt like the "honeymoon phase" with Wim Hof is over, it is nice that I can always step it up a bit more, like getting rid of warm showers altogether, and then the whole thing will continue to feel very powerful. And even though I'm saying stepping it up a bit more it feels like I'm taking this pretty slowly, but that is because I so easily become high on stuff like this and start to do it too much so I'm aiming for consistency and stability. But I did a second cold shower yesterday, and this evening I'm going to ice bathe in the sea with two friends, so I guess I'm pretty into it. Glad the mania around it has calmed down, though.

[Thittato]

Second week of 20 day cold shower challenge completed

Love this structure. At least 3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing every day, and then at least 5 days of cold showers per week. Glad that the honeymoon phase is over, too. I don’t walk around thinking so much about Wim Hof outside of my practice-time, but this practice has become an integrated practice that I’m just looking forward to every day.

[Thittato]

Wow. Such a beautiful practice today. First 10 sun salutations, then 3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing, then I was doing three different yoga-poses and spending 5 min in each of them, also doing one round of Wim Hof breathing in the last of them (the childs pose), then I did 1,5 min cold shower and then I meditated for 10 min in full lotus. It all just so naturally seem to flow together these days. The breathing exercises has certainly been a very clear bridge between my yoga and meditation practice, and the cold showers, damn, they just give so much energy and inspiration to the whole thing.

[Thittato]

4 rounds of Wim Hof breathing today, and then 1,5 min cold shower. Tomorrow starts the 3rd week of this challenge with 1 min and 45 sec cold showers. That should be no problem at all. I’m just going to power right through the last 10 days without any pause. This challenge is a bit unclear, because it is divided up into weeks where you do at least 5 days of cold showers per week, but it is called «the 20 day cold shower challenge,» but it lasts for 28 days when you include those 8 days when you can have a pause from the cold showers if you want to. Well, for the last half of this challenge I’m just going to see it as 10 consecutive days, where as the 5 first days will be 1 min and 45 secs of cold shower and the next 5 days will be 2 mins. It seemed nice with two pause days per week when I started this challenge, but I don’t need it anymore and I crave the cold water on those days when I decide to stay away from the cold and end up doing the cold anyways. I don’t feel exhausted from the cold anymore either. At some points before I sometimes started to find it wearisome, but not anymore. It is just a really nice routine now that I’m well-adjusted in regards to.

Today in the cold shower I also focused much more on my breathing. Like breathing very deep and slowly. That was very interesting. I’m going to continue with that focus.

[Thittato]

4 rounds of Wim Hof breathing today, then 10 min of meditation, then 1 min and 45 sec cold shower, and then 20 min meditation. It is getting easier to integrate my  vipassana-meditation into this routine, and that felt like a huge added bonus. This is like my normal vipassana-meditation but with some really cool added tools to it. It is also really nice to ride out the inspiration of starting something new that kicks up a lot of energy, and cold exposuere therapy certainly in itself kicks up a lot of energy, but to ride it out and integrate it back into my regular practice, so that I haven't really left my old practice and started on a new path, but I have just added on more cool stuff to the practice I was already doing.

Edited February 15, 2021 by Thittato

[Thittato]

4 rounds of Wim Hof breathing today, and then 1 min and 45 sec in the cold shower. Some resistance towards the cold shower today because I was stretching it quite far yesterday, but after 4 rounds of the breathing I was getting my strength and motivation back.

Yesterday I first started the day with 3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing, and then I went into the forest with 3 buddies to ice bath together and burn a bon-fire. On the way in we started talking about creating a mens group, and how going into the forest like this was the perfect kind of setting. As we came to the place we wanted to make into our camp it was so cool how we organized. Two of us made up the fire and gathered more new wood for it, and two took axe and showels to remove the snow from the ice and start to make a hole. After the bath and when the fire was burning steadily we had a sharing around the fire talking about stuff you would talk about in a mens group. I was so inspired by being in the forest in front of a fire, so when the others had to leave I stayed on for quite some time. And then when I came home I didn't feel that I had had enough, so I went down to the beach to do one more ice bath for the day, and holy schmokes what a kick I got out of that. I haven't quite gotten used to ice bathing together with other people yet. It has been like this ritual I'm doing by myself where I get into this really meditative state. When there are others around there is so much more stuff going on around the whole situation that my focus gets more scattered, but sharing it with others also gives a lot of inspiration, so I can probably soon adjust to getting into my meditative state also when doing it together with others.

Edited February 17, 2021 by Thittato

[Thittato]

8 rounds of Wim Hof breathing and 1 min and 45 sec cold shower before I went to work, and when I came home I did both weight-lifting and yoga, and then I did another cold shower for 1 min and 45 sec. This totally rocks! My mind is just so much clearer. I think so much clearer about everything in my life.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Thittato

[Thittato]

3rd week of 20 days cold shower challenge completed

4 rounds of Wim Hof breathing and then 1 min and 45 sec cold shower.  Now 3rd week of this challenge is completed. This is much better than when I did 10 winter baths in December, or 12 winter baths in January. Now I'm cold showering at least 5 days per week, and making it into something almost daily I think are increasing the benefits much more. I'm not going to take a break between the weeks this time, so 4th week just starts tomorrow and then it will be 2 min of cold showers. That should be no problem at all.