& other thoughts on balance
This is one of those habits I’ve started slowly incorporating into my routine. I can’t say that I do it every morning, but I try to – and when I do remember to, I have a better day. Sort of like meditation.
Note – I don’t consider coffee or tea to be substitutions for warm water. This is because both are considered diuretics, which “increase the excretion of water from the body” – which doesn’t sound very hydrating.
Life is probably meant to be a balance between doing things that comfort, soothe, relax the body (easy things) & things that excite, agitate, aggravate the body (hard things). Warm showers & cold showers. Pilates & HIIT training. Yoga & sprints. Taking the elevator & taking the stairs. Leisurely walking back from my morning workout & sprinting back to write this blog post before I have to leave for work.
Why warm water?
I originally started drinking warm water in the morning because I wanted to have ginger & lemon water in the morning. Cold water doesn’t transmit flavors very well. It sort of… takes but doesn’t give. This is probably context-dependent – after a sprint in the hot summer sun, cold water gives, but the mechanism by which it cools you down is that it provides a vessel (itself) that absorbs your excess thermal energy. You have produced too much (thermal energy) and you need to siphon some off. Maybe there is an argument to be made that the cold water is, in fact, “giving” you something – that something being… Cooling? Relaxing? But this is not even the scientific understanding. Heat is a measure of the average speed at which molecules are moving. Slower moving molecules in cold water are not, by some force of gravity and invisible power, calming down the faster molecules of the warmer host. The faster molecules are hitting the slower molecules, and the gradual loss of momentum is bringing everything to an average temperature – slower than the fast molecules started. Energetically, cold water is taking something from you.
I don’t generally have a lot to give in the mornings. (this is not entirely true – I have a lot to give, but to other things. not to my cold water. by no means do I have an excess.)
In contrast, the warm water, by being closer to your body temperature – and potentially warmer – is a more generous drink. Those fast moving particles are conferring their thermal energy upon you. This is not even to mention the fact that your body temperature peaks in the morning as one of the many circadian signals to your body that you must wake up and take on another day. Why not align your fluid intake (what a sterile phrase) with these rhythms?
All of this is to say that cold water soothes via a taking mechanism, and warm water soothes because it gives. Warm water giveth.
The Warm Water in the World
It might sound a bit ridiculous to extend thoughts about the temperature of water you drink in the morning much past the world of your kitchen and kettle, but hear me out –
Your friends – cold water or warm water? How does their molecular speed compare to yours, and how do your particles’ collision impact you?
Your job – cold water or warm water?
Your hobbies – cold water or warm water? Do they siphon off extra energy so you can return to homeostatic baseline? Or do they give you more energy?
Both are probably necessary. You need things and activities that are opportunities for you to siphon off extra energy (exercise, for instance, seems to be really important for burning extra fat & sugar in your body in a way that radically affects health and longevity). Cold water has its place. It is also overly simplistic to categorize one activity as either cold or warm.
Personally, in my life at this moment, I am missing warm water.
Or maybe it’s not that deep.