It was a cloudy Sunday around 4 pm, my younger kids were finally settled down for their afternoon naps in their rooms and my eldest was occupied with reading.
I needed a shower, so I had one.
Today, instead of turning on my water heater unit, I decided to shower without it.
I dipped my hands slowly into the shower stream, it was cold.
Then I quickly put my head in and out of the water like a chicken, jumped a little here and there, and then pushed my whole body under the strong stream of cold water. Gradually my body acclimatized to the cold water.
Although I was in a tropical country, it gets a lot of rain nearing our monsoon season during the end of the year and temperatures tend to dip down.
Why would I do this?
I had a water heater unit and we earned well enough to pay for our electrical bills for the house, so it wasn’t to cut down on my power bill.
Neither was I trying to wake myself up by showering in the cold or gain any inspiration from it.
I showered in cold water to remind myself that many others couldn’t afford to have heated water to bathe themselves.
I did it to avoid forgetting that I was privileged with what I had.
That I may not forget about those who had much less than me and my family.
In doing so, it also made me appreciate the comforts our family had and prevented me from getting too used to the high-end lifestyle that upper-middle-class families tend to enjoy.
I would recommend this to those who have the same thoughts as me or want to challenge themselves to be able to function well outside the convenience of their comfort bubble. Maybe a few times a week will be a good frequency.
Empathy, after all, is a good trait to have.