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Shadowing practice: I took cold showers for 30 days

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  1. I'm such an idiot.0:01
  2. This is the dumbest thing I've ever done.0:02
  3. Alright, okay, here we go.0:05
  4. Ah.0:08
  5. Okay.0:11
  6. Fuck.0:15
  7. Bitch.0:17
  8. Guys, please.0:19
  9. Alright, it's cool.0:26
  10. No, it's cool.0:27
  11. Everything's fine.0:29
  12. This is normal.0:30
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  1. 30 days, cold showers.0:31
  2. This is it.0:33
  3. I hate my life.0:34
  4. Cold showers are so hot right now, but it's not a new discovery.0:36
  5. Cold therapy has been practiced for thousands of years, dating back at least as far as ancient Roman times, and today science is backing it up.0:40
  6. Researchers have found that cold temperatures get the body to burn more fat.0:48
  7. It might strengthen your immune system, circulation, and help reduce inflammation.0:52
  8. One of the biggest advocates of cold exposure is the Dutch athlete Wim Hof, also known as the Ice Man.0:56
  9. Studies have shown that Wim Hof's method of breathing, meditation, and cold exposure have allowed him to suppress the innate immune response.1:04
  10. I can talk like a hippie and say, hey, we got to change the world revolution time, and oh, love, and flower, and power.1:12
  11. You need science though.1:21
  12. Yes.1:22
  13. It's also said to be energizing, refreshing, and wakes you to fuck up.1:22
  14. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.1:27
  15. If even a fraction of what they say about the health benefits of cold showers is true, then it's something worth considering.1:30
  16. But I'm not doing it for any of those reasons.1:36
  17. I'm taking cold showers for the next 30 days because it's uncomfortable.1:38
  18. Because I know that the more you push yourself outside of your comfort zone, the more you grow, the more you learn, and the more you build up resiliency to1:42
  19. those things which make us feel well.1:49
  20. Well, scared.1:51
  21. And to be honest, this kind of scares me.1:53
  22. What the fuck?2:00
  23. That's my nightmare.2:04
  24. My face is a little numb.2:06
  25. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but it was good.2:08
  26. I liked it.2:10
  27. And just so we're clear, whenever I'm filming myself in the shower, I will be wearing swim trunks.2:12
  28. So, I mean, you know, they are cold showers.2:17
  29. I was in the pool!2:21
  30. I was in the pool!2:23
  31. When I was living at home in my parents' basement shortly after graduating college, I read as many self -development and entrepreneurial books as I could.2:26
  32. One that had the biggest impact on me was called The Flinch by Julian Smith.2:33
  33. It's the first time I ever thought about cold showers and what it represents for those looking to do anything meaningful with their lives.2:38
  34. The Flinch is about the moments when we shrink up before a big moment.2:45
  35. Before you speak in front of that audience, the difficult conversation with your partner, either you push through the Flinch or you succumb to a life of shrinking and defeat.2:49
  36. Julian writes, Want a real visceral example of what the Flinch feels like?2:59
  37. Try this.3:04
  38. When you're at home and have five minutes, go to your bathroom.3:05
  39. Walk up to your shower, turn on the cold water.3:08
  40. You see what's coming?3:11
  41. If you do, you should tense up immediately.3:11
  42. You should feel it in your chest.3:14
  43. You might start laughing to release the tension.3:15
  44. You're predicting a flinch that hasn't happened yet.3:18
  45. You're anxious about it, about something that hasn't happened and won't kill you, anxious about something that barely hurts at all.3:20
  46. Okay, do it.3:26
  47. Now is the time to step in the shower.3:28
  48. As the cold water hits you, you might shout or squirm, but the discomfort lasts only a second.3:30
  49. You quickly get used to it.3:35
  50. You get comfortable with cold instead of trying to avoid it.3:36
  51. A moment before, the flinch seems so uncomfortable that you might talk yourself out of this.3:39
  52. You convince yourself that it's pointless.3:44
  53. I'm such an idiot.3:45
  54. This is so stupid.3:46
  55. But it isn't.3:49
  56. It's training.3:50
  57. You need to build up a habit of seeing the flinch and going forward, not rationalizing your fear and stepping away.3:51
  58. Do you think that doing something like cold showers would that help other areas of your life?3:57
  59. Your body is always saying to you, be safe, be safe.4:04
  60. And as that happens, it's slowly shrinking your circle.4:06
  61. All you want in order to have a really decent life where you just have to reproduce and die is to be able to progressively increase the circle in order4:09
  62. to be able to get more and more experience.4:18
  63. It's not about the cold shower.4:20
  64. It never was.4:21
  65. It was never about any single moment.4:23
  66. It's about a habit of doing something that is hard and just because the other side is better and because the next flinch isn't going to be easier as a4:25
  67. result of you doing this one.4:34
  68. So if you want right now, you could just pause this video and go take a cold shower.4:35
  69. I'll be here when you're done.4:41
  70. There are three ways to take a cold shower.4:49
  71. One, you can start with a hot shower and then ease into a cold shower at the end.4:52
  72. This is the coward's way.4:56
  73. Two, you can start by placing your head in the cold water, working to your face, and then eventually the rest of your body.4:58
  74. This is also the coward's way.5:04
  75. Three, you can charge in like a madman heading into battle.5:07
  76. I chose option number three almost every day, though I will admit there were a handful of days I downgraded to option two.5:10
  77. There were no hot showers though.5:17
  78. I need to see how cold this shit really is.5:22
  79. I'm not joking.5:28
  80. This shit's got to be like 40 degrees.5:29
  81. So I got a cooking thermometer right now.5:31
  82. I'm going to do an actual test.5:34
  83. It's only 61 degrees.5:41
  84. I think it's broken.5:44
  85. There's probably something wrong with this.5:45
  86. And so day after day, I stepped into the flinch.5:47
  87. I tracked my progress with a calendar.5:53
  88. I taped just outside my shower.5:55
  89. It acted as a daily reminder so I wouldn't miss a day.5:57
  90. On the first day, looking at all the empty days in front of me, it was almost laughable.5:59
  91. It was like looking at my debt before I started to pay it off.6:05
  92. It seemed impossible to overcome, but you just get moving.6:08
  93. You take the first step, knowing that it won't be easy or fun, but knowing that it's better than the alternative.6:12
  94. Each one varies a little bit.6:21
  95. There are some days when I'm just not in the mood, and I'm like, I'm going to do this as quick as possible.6:22
  96. So I might be out within two to three minutes.6:28
  97. But for the most part, it's actually usually longer than five minutes, especially when I'm filming.6:33
  98. I've been filming most days, and that means that I have to shower, get all these angles, and then I'm wearing a bathing suit for part of it that I'm6:38
  99. filming, and then when I stop filming, I take the bathing suit off.6:48
  100. Sometimes it's like eight minutes, ten minutes, in a cold shower because I'm filming it, but that's it.6:51
  101. It's easy to get comfortable.6:58
  102. As we move up the ladder and our salaries increase, once in a while luxuries become more common.6:59
  103. We take for granted having a car that runs every day and having a home in a decent neighborhood.7:05
  104. A practice like taking cold showers can build up your resiliency for when things go wrong.7:11
  105. Imagine a scenario where your water heater breaks and you've got to take cold showers for a week.7:16
  106. When you're forced into it, your mind makes it out to be an all -out attack on your well -being.7:20
  107. But when you intentionally jump into a cold shower, as shocking as it can be to your system, you flip your perspective and you no longer view it as pain.7:24
  108. I mean, after the initial shock, probably like two, three minutes in, I was actually enjoying it.7:33
  109. There was one moment where I turned around, water was hitting my back, and it felt warm.7:38
  110. I don't know if I was hallucinating.7:43
  111. By depriving ourselves in simple experiments like this, we can feel what it would be like to lose our current comforts.7:45
  112. We realize that life wouldn't be so terrible without it.7:51
  113. If something happens as we pursue our dream career, for instance, or if we're fired, struggle to get clients month to month and have to move back in with our7:54
  114. parents, we know that even in these scenarios, those which we might consider worst case, aren't that bad after all.8:02
  115. Day 30, cold showers.8:10
  116. This is it.8:11
  117. Ooh, alright, it's it!8:17
  118. So did the cold showers get any easier?8:19
  119. I can honestly say that each and every one of them sucked.8:21
  120. But let's look back at the first shower on day one.8:25
  121. I couldn't even speak.8:28
  122. I accidentally mixed up my shampoo and my body wash.8:32
  123. So yes, it did get easier.8:40
  124. My flinch did subside.8:43
  125. This has been the least enjoyable moment of my day.8:45
  126. It was like one less thing to enjoy every day.8:49
  127. But I'm proud of myself.8:52
  128. I'm proud that I've gotten through it.8:53
  129. To be honest though, I can't wait for hot showers.8:55
  130. I can't wait.9:00
  131. Oh, yeah.9:15
  132. Oh, my goodness.9:17
  133. It's good, so good.9:19
  134. I just released early access to my full unedited interview with Gary Vaynerchuk that's available for patrons at the exclusive videos tier.9:21
  135. Has anybody called you a minimalist before?9:29
  136. It's so interesting that you're the first person to ever say it to me that I can recall, and it feels very real to me.9:31
  137. With all this talk of cold showers, it can be easy to forget the benefits of hot showers.9:37
  138. Get access to that interview plus 20 other videos with new content coming every month at patreon .com.9:42
  139. Thanks for watching.9:49
  140. See you guys next time.9:51

American accent training with Matt D'Avella's unscripted cold shower vlog

This clip opens with Matt D'Avella muttering to himself before he steps into a cold shower, then pivots into a narrated explainer about the science of cold exposure. That shift from raw private reaction to prepared voiceover gives you two deliveries of the same American accent inside one recording. The level is B2, matching an intermediate learner who wants real speech, not a slowed down lesson.

The pace measures 216 words per minute, faster than 74 percent of the catalogue, so this is a clip for someone who already manages slower material and wants to close the gap toward natural speaking speed. There are 152 lines in total, enough to build a full session of english speaking practice without repeating the same handful of sentences. The mix of muttered asides and narrated facts also makes it useful english listening practice for picking up how stress shifts between casual and formal American speech.

Muttered reactions and narrated facts: what to catch when you shadow this line

The opening minutes swing between two registers, and both are worth noticing before you try to copy them.

  • "This is the dumbest thing I've ever done." comes out clipped and fast, each word getting roughly equal stress, the kind of flat delivery people use when they are annoyed at themselves.
  • "One of the biggest advocates of cold exposure is the Dutch athlete Wim Hof, also known as the Ice Man." is the scripted voice: longer, evenly paced, built for a listener who is not there in the room, useful for practising sustained breath control across one sentence.
  • "I was in the pool!" repeats twice back to back, and the second time carries more pitch and volume, a shape worth copying if you want to improve your english accent on repeated or emphasized lines.

An english shadowing practice route through this fast American cold shower clip

Work through the opening in three passes rather than trying to match the full pace on the first try.

  • Start with lines 1 through 15, the short bursts like "I'm such an idiot." and "Guys, please." Repeat each one until the stress lands on the same word D'Avella hits, since these are too short to hide a mistimed syllable.
  • Move to the narrated block, lines 16 through 21, where sentences run long and the science vocabulary appears, including the word advocates. Read the sentence once for meaning, then shadow it at full pace to build the breath control the longer sentences demand.
  • Finish on "I was in the pool!" said twice. Shadow the first pass flat, then the second with the extra pitch, so you practise varying your delivery instead of flattening every repeat into the same tone, useful groundwork if your goal is to speak english fluently rather than just recite.
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