How To Enhance Your Focus With Cold Exposure

Our culture encourages you to be safe, docile, distracted, comfortable, and happy through unceasing cheap dopamine.

This doesn't actually produce happiness, it produces pleasure (big difference).

This is the doorway to misery and destruction.

I offer that aging is the aggressive pursuit of comfort.

Most people prefer the comforts of cheap dopamine over the discomfort of intentionally focusing on the hard things that produce meaning and high-quality dopamine.

Cold plunging is a hormetic stress that strengthens the body. It's a fantastic way to elevate dopamine levels so that you don't engage in dopamine seeking behaviors to artificially elevate them.

What exactly happens to your body when you cold plunge?

You'll experience peripheral vasoconstriction as blood rushes to protect your internal organs. This will also mimic deep sleep, with the oxygen and blood rushing to the brain.
You'll activate brown fat, which turns calories into heat, leading to lower and better body fat percentages in the long run.
The well-researched mammalian dive reflex is activated when neurons in the face come into contact with cold water. This causes a shift into the parasympathetic state and calms the nervous system.
The liver releases LIN 28b and LIN 28a cold shock proteins that function to scavage free radicals.
- Cold shock proteins also improve insulin resistance
You get a solid and persistent dopamine spike lasting up to 6 hours.
- For reference, cocaine only spikes dopamine for roughly 20 min.

The beautiful thing is you can get cold exposure anywhere. A cold shower will work perfectly. Here's a protocol you can implement today.

Cold Shower Protocol:

Take a shower as you would
When you finish, take four deep inhales and exhale through the mouth
Turn the water to cold
Let water hit your face right in the forehead to activate the mammalian dive reflex (see above)
Practice box breathing
- 4s inhale, 4s hold, 4s exhale, 4s hold, repeat
Stand for 15-30s and turn slowly
After about 1 minute, move your arms around
Start doing these for 30s to 1 min at a time, and work up to 3 min

Love and Power,
Alex