Newsletter #6

In the middle of the second year (July 2021), I moved to München, Germany. The reason for this move will be discussed in a later newsletter. A positive side effect was that München has winters, whereas Barcelona has no real winter.

The summer of 2021 was great; it was warm, sunny, and dry. During the summer, I continued practicing breathwork and enjoyed taking colder showers. As the weather began to cool, the real fun started. Cold showers were frigid; sometimes, my skin turned red (is that a good thing?). Best of all, I was able to run bare-chested in the cold. Running in the cold morning air was amazing. I felt very alive, and I was standing out as a lunatic, at least that is what I could read on the faces of some people.

What I noticed was that mainly older people were the ones who cheered me on. Younger people, not so much. I had contact with fellow "hoffers" who were swimming in the cold Isar (river in München). Winter swimming is something I also did, although not as often as running half-naked in the cold. One of the side effects of running while freezing is that sometimes my hands get so cold that I'm unable to turn the key and open the door. The warmest part of the human body is the lower back. I was able to warm up my hands and regain some strength. This part is warm because it has no blood vessels, and warm blood flows through it. Try it by putting your hand on your lower back (spine).

Outside of weak hands, I did not experience any immediate adverse effects of cold exposure. Throughout the winters, I did not get sick, except for a few one- or two-day colds. Later, I learned that not getting sick is not that great. When you get sick, your body eliminates a lot of waste. In a way, I was storing garbage. When I learned this, I started to question cold exposure, along with cold hands and sometimes red skin. Is cold exposure, along with stress, good for you? Are the amazing feelings afterward a reward for surviving a potential fatal situation?

Later, in 2023 and 2024, I began working out in the cold. This gave working outside a different dimension. In a way, it is harder to work out when it is cold, as my hands were weaker and my grip less firm. This is something I did not do often because of these reasons. The funny thing is that I saw more people working out bare-chested than running when it was cold.