Remember my summer reading list? Slowly I am making my way through, devouring one Commissaire Maigret after the other. This is what I found:
“He had a bath, followed by a cold shower, and ate a substantial breakfast while watching the rain fall as continuously as on a November morning. At nine o’clock he had the ballistic expert on the line.” (Excerpt from “Maigret and the Surly Inspector”)
Not only James Bond – Commissaire Maigret also is fond of cold showers! Georges Simenon wrote this story in 1946. Something that was once common wisdom, namely that a cold shower does one good, has mostly been forgotten.
Just as a reminder – here are the benefits of ending each hot shower/bath with a cold shower (don’t do it if you have uncontrolled high blood pressure and/or arterial disease).
A daily cold shower
• boosts immune function
• lifts your mood
• fights fatigue and hangover
• normalizes your blood pressure
• decreases chronic pain
• trains and improves blood circulation – arterial and venous
• detoxifies the body
• deepens breathing, relieving obstructions in the lung
• tones subcutaneous connective tissues
• improves lymphatic circulation
• rejuvenate and heals skin
• regulates the activity of all glands (pituitary, thyroid, adrenal, ovaries/testes
• enhances motivation for physical exercise
• is helpful in diabetes, obesity, gout, rheumatic diseases, chronic fatigue, varicose veins and hemorrhoids
• regulates sympathetic/parasympathetic nerve system (the non-voluntary part of the nerve system) to an optimum
Now that the water is summer-warm it is the perfect time to begin cold showers. In February, it will be murder – I am screaming every time I have to get into the cold shower. But I do get in! Read More
Blog: On Health. On Writing. On Life. On Everything.
Life Is Not Fair
August 5, 2010
Life is not fair! How often have you said that, and grumbled?
Poor, rich, healthy sick, gifted, dumb, beautiful, ugly - most attributes come to us unbidden, and are unfair. This is a lesson we have to learn in life, if we want or not.
The world is not a fair place - the only thing that is in our hand is making it a fairer place.
We can lend a hand to the down-trodden; or we can kick them down a bit more. In most cases, nobody will see it.
Only we ourselves know what we have done - and we have to live with ourselves - with our friendly self, with our mean self - for the rest of our lives. Read More
Loved Ones
August 1, 2010
What is the most important part of your life? Your job of saving the world? Your career as a great artist? Becoming rich and famous?
Mine is my family. The small one and the wider one. We have yearly family reunions with about fifty people, in different locations so that all have a chance to attend.
But today I am writing about the small part of my family. My husband and son are on a hike. On a rather difficult hike. I am sitting here at home biting my nails. Perhaps my husband should have married a more adventurous wife. I love walking and weekend hikes. But out there, in the real wilderness, I could not even carry my own backpack.
What if …
What if something happens to them?
We all have those black thoughts, and what they teach us is that we should love and care while it lasts, because even in the best of cases, it will not last forever.
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