Lessons on Life

So many people love to take their warm shower since it keeps them in the comfort zone and it feels nice. But what if I told you that a cold shower actually feels nicer? During the warmer months it is nice to cool off with a nice cold shower but I still manage to use cold showers in the winter.

For me, cold showers have always made me more awake and given me more energy. The trade off is that I no longer have that nice warm shower to motivate me when I get up. I have learned to live with this trade off.

During the colder months I still take cold showers since I get really dry skin. The warm water opens up my pores and leads to me being very uncomfortable after being in the cold.

So those are the reasons why I use cold showers. Try it and see if you like it!

Here is someone else’s experience with cold showers if you are still unconvinced: https://www.runnersworld.com/training/a27952476/cold-shower/

When quarantine ends there will be three types of people:

The first and most common are the people who will emerge exactly the same. This is not necessarily a bad thing but this time could’ve been used to form stronger relationships, learn new skills, educate yourself, etc… Most of these people will keep up with their work and balance out their new Netflix and video games. While these people didn’t learn anything new per se, they got to catch up on lots of things they had missed out on because of work and school and can now start conversations on more things such as “Tiger King”. Overall, not a terrible thing but time could’ve been spent better.

The second type of people are the people that believe the quarantine is a vacation. There’s no shame in taking a break from work or taking some time for your mental health, but the truth is when the world starts up again it is about to be much more competitive. Jobs that previously existed will no longer be there and the economy will not be as it used to be which means earning will be a lot harder. The free time got the best of these people and they spend all their time on Netflix, watching porn, or playing video games. This time is a true test of character which these people will have failed.

The third and least common person post-quarantine are the people who took advantage of the time. They spent some time messing around but also kept up to date with their work. The rest of the time was spent improving their style, maintaining healthy relationships, working out, enjoying the outdoors, and preparing themselves for the future. These are the leaders of the post-quarantine world by overcoming themselves to build a new lifestyle.

Recently I decided that during productive hours of the day I would stow my phone away in a drawer.

And I’m relieved.

These past few weeks I’ve spent countless hours entertaining myself that booting up my PS4 or watching Youtube has lost meaning to me. My work would not be my best work and I struggled to complete assignments on time. These are products that rarely improve upon themselves, cause irritation to people’s eyes over a long period of time, and end up making people more unhappy. 

But I could pass the time with it, a lot of time.

In fact, my entire daily routine became centered around when I could watch my next Youtube video. I knew it wasn’t good for me but I couldn’t stop.

So as of today, I will no longer be checking my phone every ten minutes and save video games for when I am finished with my work. I have also decided to set an alarm for 9 AM everyday. I know it’s going to be hard.

If you’re interested in alternative activities to wasting time, here’s a list of activities that suffice: learning to cook, cleaning your room, solving a Rubik’s cube, playing a board game, and enjoying the outdoors.

As for posting about how much you miss your friends, or making everyone know how bored you are, or letting everyone know to save the Earth because you went on a giant plane to Ecuador, it doesn’t matter to me. And quite frankly, most other people don’t give a damn.

This is a time many people will not get again. When people ask you what you did during this time, what are you going to tell them? Are you going to say that you sat on your butt all day and played video games or say that you took the time to learn new skills such as cooking, meditating, reading, drawing etc…

Now is the time to better yourself. I have learned multiple life lessons during this time and I’m surprised it took a pandemic to learn these things:

• a lot of times, it’s not worth getting mad over certain things; you just have to accept it and move on
• no matter where your life is, you are not immune to boredom; even if you were the most popular kid in school, you would find struggles in that life

1. Take Cold Showers- While taking warm showers does feel nice, cold showers provide many more benefits in the long run. Taking cold showers increases your alertness and if done during the morning helps you stay up. The temperature also leads to more energy throughout the day and even strengthens your immune system. 

I personally use lukewarm water and make my way to cold water and it does wonders for me.  In the Winter I used to get really dry skin because that warm water was opening up my pores but I have since solved this problem. 

When you take your next shower, see how cold you can tolerate.

2. Meditate- People associate meditation with a Buddhist monk on the Himalayan mountains but it is a habit practiced by millions throughout the world. Not only does meditation reduce stress and anxiety when done right, but even just 10 minutes can clear your mind of any doubts. People usually turn to marijuana when they want to get away and clear their minds but let’s be honest; weed is expensive. Meditation costs you only 10 minutes of your day  and has no chance of a bad high. Every time I finish meditating, I feel relieved and as if I have transcended. Meditation is a habit that so many people are sleeping on that really could benefit from it.

3. Clean your workspace-There is an obvious short term benefit of being more organized and having easier access to your work. There is also a long term benefit that many people are unaware of. There is a concept known as the locus of control which is defined as the degree you believe you have control over your life. By solving some problems in your life, you will feel more motivated because you actively set out to fix these small issues. This is the key to staying motivated for a long period of time.

4. Develop a proper sleep schedule- It’s no secret that when you are better rested, you have more energy throughout the day. Some small things you can do to improve your sleep experience are to only use your bed for sleeping, install a blue light filter on your phone, and to use a nighttime face cleanser that winds you down.
5. Dopamine Fast- The last and most extreme thing you can do is to try a dopamine fast. Be warned as this means a lot of boredom for one day and is only recommended for people who find no motivation every day. Find a day you are free and abstain from screen time and junk food. Anything you would find entertaining is off limits. The only things you can do are writing your thoughts down and meditating. You’ll find that normal things such as doing homework or taking a breath of fresh air is a lot more fulfilling. Life seems to be colorful again as you find pleasure in the simple things in life.

We often wish that we could go back and change the past to correct our present. Yet we never acknowledge the fact that we can change the present which will likewise change the future. I tried reliving the past to change the present and future in 10th grade. I realized that the only way anyone can change the future and the present is by doing it themselves and taking action.

In my freshman year, I was on track to a perfect honor roll year. In middle school this had always been the case so I saw no reason to worry too much about my grades. However, the pressures of high school had caught up to me, and for the first time, one of my quarter grades ended up below 90 percent. I went numb after discovering that I had failed at achieving the one thing I had accomplished all throughout middle school. I managed to pull myself together and finished the year with good grades but that feeling of failure stayed with me that year.

I thought I had hurt my chances at college because of one quarter and I needed to do something that would ensure that I get all 90s for 10th grade. I thought back to 8th grade where I had good grades and thought that if I could simply relive the past, I would magically get the grades I had in middle school. I went as far as copying my routine and listening to the same music to try and trick my mind that I was back in middle school. My brain knew this was not true though, and all through 10th grade I had quarter grades below 90. I felt as if I had lost my sense of direction.

In the summer of 2018 something different happened. School was coming up and I was doing absolutely nothing to prepare myself for junior year which was supposedly the most important year for colleges. I was following my summer routine of binging Youtube videos when I stumbled across a video on the benefits of cold showers. I had never taken a cold shower before, and when I came out, I felt like a completely new person. I felt a sense of motivation I never had before and saw that I needed to clean out my room which had not been cleaned in years. Seeing my room cleaned gave me a sense of accomplishment which is referred to as an Internal Locus of control. Taking the initiative to correct something (or in this case cleaning your room) causes the feeling that you are in control of your own destiny. 

If I followed this approach, I knew I could turn my life in high school around. After the summer, I had a huge boost in confidence in my ability to influence my outcomes. I took every class one assignment at a time, only submitting my best work and getting help from teachers and peers when I needed. From this newfound confidence, I applied for a part-time job as waitstaff at a retirement community which further helped me in improving myself with new time management, task accomplishment, and communication skills. I can attribute my success back to the cold shower and cleaning my room, which motivated me to take control of my life and get the good grades I had sought after. 

I now know that I am ready for college and am ready to put the lessons I learned during high school to good use. I am passionate about using these lessons to benefit a business and lead the way through example. College will be the next step in my life and I am excited to see where it takes me.

My name is Ronak Parida.

Between sophomore and junior year, I was struggling with grades and finding happiness. I then watched a video on the benefits of cold showers and it changed my life.

Now I try to teach others the lifestyle of self improvement.

Join me on this adventure in these uncertain times.