Cold Therapy & Growth

In 400 BC Greek philosopher, Hippocrates used cold therapy to treat alignments and pain. This is the same greek philosopher who said ‘let food be thee medicine. Cold therapy is very in vogue these days with Wim Hof receiving a lot of attention and his 26 world records relating to cold exposure earning him the nickname Iceman.

When I ask most people about cold therapy the response is almost always the same: "Oh I don’t like being cold". This is the same unanimous response I get when asking people about fasting: "Oh I like food too much". Get where I am going with this?

I have learned to acknowledge (not respect—because I can’t respect something that holds people back) the basic truth that people do not like discomfort. Most people have no interest in being uncomfortable for even a few seconds. This aversion to being uncomfortable becomes the uncrossed hurdle that is thwarting growth and may just be contributing to the devolution of our species. Change, in its very essence, is uncomfortable. If we don’t learn to develop a taste for being uncomfortable our life will in many ways be a backwards journey.

Human beings are born with an insatiable desire to grow. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t. Watch a baby move through the first few years of life. Crawling, creeping, standing, falling down, getting back up, this process of falling and getting back up and enduring is part of our spirits. We are all born with an incredible capacity to endure discomfort and triumph.

I began exploring cold therapy a year ago and, at the risk of sounding dramatic, it has changed my life. It has changed my mindset more than anything. Over the next several blogs I am going to walk you through why, when, and how to begin doing something so simple and profoundly healing that could change your life.

-- Johnny