Getting Used to Cold Water

No matter how often one swims, cold water always shocks.

There is no way to completely avoid that initial discomfort (that I know of), but there are ways to make it easier and quicker to get used to cold water.

My prefered method is super simple. First wade into the water until you get to waist level before getting out of the water. Then you go back in. Boom. Done.

It's the simplest, and in my opinion the most powerful example of the efficacy of repetition, because you can literally feel the benefit of it. The benefit in this example being that cold water doesn't feel as cold the second time you go in.

The first time doing anything that's beyond a basic-level of difficulty is going to either feel hard or uncomfortable or overwhelming. Maybe you'll feel all those things at once.

But go at that same or similar task again at a later time (but, crucially not too much later) and those feelings will perceptively diminish if not completely evaporate.