Submission (Part 2)

   Here I was, standing naked in my bathroom staring at the cold water as it hit the bathtub with full force. One-hundred thoughts crossed my mind. "Why am I going to make myself suffer this way? What is the point to this insanity? Can I use a life line and call my mother for this one? Just take a hot one, no one will ever know."
I set my timer to five minutes and I jumped in. WOW! It was cold... not so bad. I wet my arms and my legs. Then I turned around and let the water run down my back. I thought, "This should be easy Elsa, you do cycle showers almost everyday." But as that thought left my mind, so did every bit of common sense that I had in it and I began to feel pain all over my body as I screamed and yelled from the top of my lungs. My heart was racing while I stepped in face first into the freezing water, I gasped trying to catch my breath. It wasn't words coming out, it was groans, whimpers. From a hundred thoughts to a thousand, I felt super high all of a sudden and almost believed that I was watching myself go through this. "Am I having flash backs from back in the days when I used to party? Is that stuff still in my system? Why? Why? Why? Is it alright if I cry? Oh no, my tears are frozen and they don't want to come out!!! Help me, please, someone.  What am I saying? I think my bones are shattering. I am never doing this again. I kind of like this. I am nuts enjoying pain this way. Shut up. Get yourself together and take it. NOOOOOOO!"
    I soaped up and rinsed with only two minutes that had gone by and I knew I could stand it no longer. I wanted to turn the water to hot, but my body did not respond to my brain's wishes. Each second I groaned louder and louder and for some reason a bible verse crossed my mind.
Romans 8:26 "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans."
And this was true. At that very moment I felt vulnerable and weak, but my groans were as those of a powerful beast that lived within me. A beast that was fighting not the cold water, but my flesh. It was fighting my flesh so it would submit to this process of endurance. This is when I thought I had lost my mind completely because I started to laugh like a crazy woman, jumping under the coldest stream of water that had ever touched my skin. ALARM, ALARM, ALARM. Yes, my timer finally went off and so did the water.
   Now, sitting down on the edge of the bathtub wrapped in a big beach towel I tried to gather my thoughts and analyze what had just happened. "Why did I feel so energized and different?"

Submission (Part 1)

   A little over two weeks ago I received a message from my younger brother ( Trainer and best friend) saying that he found a few articles on something called Cold Shower Therapy. Most of the time when he sends me something different I know it is one of his new challenges and think at that moment that he has gone mad, but of course, since I am curious I read on. After reading this madness that I will soon elaborate on, I laugh and say "Yeah right!". I mean, I love hot showers. Showers so hot that I need extra lotion to make my dry skin come back to life. As I'm laughing at the idea of even trying this ridiculous "therapy" he sends me another message saying that he is starting the challenge the next day. And then it hit me. The feeling of my adrenaline pumping to compete and do it so I can show him that I am as crazy as he is. So I searched through more articles and read how the process goes. It is a thirty day challenge. For thirty days you may only shower with cold water for at least five minutes. This means if you shower more than once a day, yes, you will shower again with cold water. Now the question is how cold does the water have to be? The coldest your faucet will allow you to set it. You go in the shower with cold water and you will end your shower with cold water.
   I wanted to find some support in NOT doing this absurd challenge, so I told my father and my ten year old son about it. As soon as I said it my son told me he was in. WHAT????
The next morning I woke up to someone grumbling loudly in the bathroom and the water was running. Oh yeah, it was my ten year old son taking his first cold shower. I couldn't believe it. Now I had to do it not only because my son did it but also because I did not want to let him down.
   I got up, got dressed and went to the gym. During my kick class I tried imagining how I would do this cold shower thing. Later I picked up my son and I did my weekly conditioning while he kicked the ball around with my brother.
  And so then time arrived that I had to shower. I circled around the house looking for things to do, as to delay what I was about to endure, but I was being watched by my son and knew there was no way out.