...now the lifestyle experts want us to try "dark showering," which does not mean you have to listen to someone reading Poe or or Cormac McCarthy while you suds up and off. No, not at all. Just take off all your clothes, turn off all the lights, and hop in that shower.
Here's why it's good, according to Nidhi Pandya, a NAMA-certified advanced ayurvedic practitioner and bestselling author of Your Body Already Knows.
“Unlike [an early] morning shower, which is typically bright, energizing, and focused on cleansing and awakening the body, a dark shower is a ritual for the nervous system. By dimming or turning off the lights, you create a sensory cocoon that signals the body to unwind.”
And here's why it's bad. Why are you taking a shower in the first place, I ask rhetorically? Are you trying to get clean and ready for the new day, or are you trying to get into a "sensory cocoon"?
Most of us are just trying to get last night off our faces and be clean enough to put on some clean clothes. We are not trying to tell the body to unwind. We are saying, hey, we're up, might as well face the day and not be stanky.
Advocates of taking a shower with no lights on claim it reduces stress (except when you can't find your washcloth, shampoo, or towel), it improves sleep (we just got up!), it resets your mood (but you can get it back), and it enhances mindfulness ("When the lights are low, your mind has fewer distractions. You start to notice the sound of water, the sensation on your skin, the rhythm of your breath.")
The hills are alive with the sound of water! Turn on the light real quick, please, I need to get the soap out of my eye. I am very mindful about how much it stings!
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