Cold Plunging, Boredom (Part 2) and Chögyam Trungpa
August 11, 2024
8 min read
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Newsletter
{Body}
Is cold plunging good for you?
Cold plunging is a recent trend in the biohacking and wellness community. In it, brave souls submerge themselves in ice cold water for minutes at a time, attempting to remain stoic while being pummeled by the uncomfortable sensations of freezing to death. It’s a practice that I used to participate in often.
Why would anyone do this to themselves? Well, as anyone who’s successfully waited out those long minutes will tell you: the “natural” high you get is virtually unmatched. You feel absolutely incredible.
But what is happening biochemically to create such a high? An adrenaline surge, of course. Your body perceives the freezing cold water as a life-threatening situation, which stimulates your adrenals and liver into overdrive to heat the body back up.
Despite how good it feels, the chemical makeup of adrenaline actually makes it quite toxic and corrosive to the cells of your body. That is, its life-saving properties also scorch the liver, brain and surrounding tissue.
Moreover, research is coming out about just how taxing ice baths are on the heart, damaging its muscles over prolonged exposure.
{Mind}
How to deal with boredom?
This is Part 2 of 2. Click here to read Part 1.
When you completely unplug from stimuli, expect the following stages of discomfort to occur: physical agitation → mental agitation → spiritual agitation.
That is, your body will begin to feel increasingly restless → your mind will turn manic with sudden inspiration → your unresolved memories will flood in, reminding you of your “disgraceful” past.
If you resolve not to distract yourself during all three waves (i.e. you wait patiently), a fourth one eventually emerges: the wave of peace.
This wave is the recognition of your own intrinsic adequateness. It is the brief, yet substantial remembrance that you need nothing beyond yourself to be fulfilled.
This fourth wave is the antithesis of boredom as it acknowledges the objective perspective upon which all experience — both dull and exciting — occurs. After all, how could you be bored when you realize that you’re just watching a riveting movie — mere light on an impersonal screen? Sure, sometimes there’s a lull in the plot, and sometimes there’s a slow scene of character development, and sometimes there’s a seemingly pointless moment that foreshadows something exciting to come. But seen in the grand context of the fourth wave, every second becomes necessary to fulfill your destiny as a character in the film of The Universe.
In other words, you deal with boredom simply by sitting through it. In this way, it’s a bit like ignoring a poison ivy itch — horribly uncomfortable at first, but necessary for healing to take place.
{Soul}
Your perception of time can surely warp, but can the effects of time itself be avoided?
In other words, can you stop a baby from becoming a toddler? Can you slow down the dependable clockwork of the galaxy? Can you stop your next thought from happening?
Of course not. For better or worse, this is the Universe we find ourselves in: things happen as they happen, with or without your verbal consent, the arrow of time pointing ever forward, generating, altering and disassembling whatever it comes in contact with.
This is bad news for the personality structure who relies on time to bolster its fragile, transient self-image.
This is good news for the Awake Self who recognizes that time is simply a tool for manifesting reality.
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