The Resilient Mind - Mental Mastery: The Key to Holistic Health and Wellness - Wim Hof

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

In this episode, we dive deep into the revolutionary methods of Wim Hof, also known as "The Iceman," who has mastered the art of controlling his body and mind in extreme conditions. We explore how his breathing techniques and cold exposure methods can boost your mental resilience, immune system, and overall health.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Now⁠⁠This episode was created in partnership with Tom Bilyeu. Subscribe to Tom Bilyeu’s channel for more inspiring speeches:https://www.youtube.com/c/TomBilyeu Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you will be listening to Mental Mastery, the Key to Holistic Health and Wellness with Vim Hof. Get access to the Resilient Mind Journal by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. The power to adapt to this stressor in general, we lost this connection. It's because we wear clothes all the time and we live in a comfort zone behavior.

We think we can control nature, but by being non-stimilative in our behavior, we lost the connection in the depth of our physiology. Of course, we are able to adapt about to anything. We are built to be able to adapt without stress into any stressful situation and get a solution. The body knows, but because we got into this comfort zone behavior, hundreds of years, our genetics have changed, our physiology has changed, everything has changed.

And we lost actually the full power of the mind. And I'm here to bring it back. Impact. You better listen to this conversation. Yes. I like that. All right. So how do we bring it back?

I did many studies already because I don't like speculation. I go through study. the scrutiny and let any scientist prove me wrong because I like to go through the truth because I think there is more than meets the eye I did many studies and yes I could resist bacteria as thought of not being able by humans we changed medical history by showing a group of people compared to 16,134 people becoming sick after injection of a endotoxemia. And then suddenly 1,200% score within a quarter of our complete control over the innate immune system and the specific, by the way, the adaptive immune system.

And how did I learn to do that and to pass it on? Because it's already there in us. It only needs to awaken. The adaptive immune system is willfully regulated and controlling your T cells and B cells, and they are located in the bone marrow. We are able to willfully influence the bone marrow and to release the T and B cells, which are very specific in the targeting on the bacteria and the virus. And apoptosis, cell death, they create it instead of fever and uncontrolled shivering. and headaches and being sick, flus, fever, and all that, is the second layer we got into the third layer,

into the depth of the immune system, into the deepest. So, willfully being able to get into the bone marrow and release the TNB cells in case of inflammation. It's what we, and inflammation, I tell you, is the cause of any disease. Did you just say that you can willfully control apoptosis? Yes, anybody can. Okay.

For that, we have the breathing exercises, and it has been shown in the comparative study. All the guys who did their breathing exercises, the endotoxine normally creates inflammation, and thus uncontrolled shivering all over agony, headaches, and fever. And the people really get sick after being injected with the bacteria, E. coli. And that's normal, but it was not normal to be able,

to inoculate that reaction. How did we do that? By breathing exercises that are like a controlled hypoxia, where through the brainstem, the fight and flight suddenly activates the adrenaline and resets the body. And resetting the body is going past our comfort zone conditioning, going back in our primordial state the way nature man it to be, and that is being able effectively to battle this ease.

Very simple, very effective, very accessible for any human in the world. And then we go a step further. A step further is the last study wherein I was exposed to cold water and just by a thought I was able to make the skin temperature not going down while I was exposed to cold water on my skin, ice water. Ice water. Your skin temperature didn't go down? Yes, and normally it goes down. That is what everybody thinks, isn't it? And yes, 74 people before me, they did it and they saw all the same graphics. It goes down after exposure to cold water. And when warm water comes up, then it goes up again and goes down cold, warm, cold, warm, cold, cold, cold, cold. And then I did it. Same. I didn't do anything. Why? because I'm in command of my breath.

And with that, I become in command of my alchemy. And I'm able then to scent and to manipulate any part of my body. They looked inside the brain, and whereas normally stress comes to work on the body, and that could be cold, could be heat, but could also be emotion. Depression, bipolar, anxiety, fear. PTSD, trauma. It's all stress in the brain. And it gets inflamed. And we don't know how to break the loop. Now they looked inside of my brain while this stressor was gone on and I stayed out of the stressor when the cold came in. I just stayed over there and a warmth, cold warmth. I stayed in

control. And then they looked inside the brain. And whereas normally the activity, of the stress is highlighting the prefrontal cortex, the conscious brain, because it's cold. Oh, I feel bad because I'm divorced now and this and that and my business is gone and whatever, you know, stress, real stress. And then the insula, which is normally active, very activated, when you go into deep meditation, then the insula gets, is becoming more red, and then this is blue because deactivates the normal daily consciousness, and the insula, the deep meditation is on,

blood flow goes in the deeper parts of the brain, suddenly becomes all active, and it's pleasant, it's nice, euphoric. And the stress coming to my body did not make my prefrontal cortex active. And then they saw something very remarkable, which is a robust activation of the PAG, which is part of the brain stem, that is the deepest part of the brain, the fight and flight, the survival, but also the area of the hormonal peri-aqueductal gray hemisphere, which is responsible for the activation of opioids.

And we got an epidemic on opioids, isn't it? But we don't know how to tap in and to make these opioids work for us. Again, it's like pain killing and algesia, natural ones, very strong inside of us. We lost the connection, but now it is here. And the other one is the euphoric hormones, the cannabinoids. Endocannabinoid system. Both are there, and they saw me activating for the first time in medical science, robustly into that area. That's why it did not only solve the stressor from not being cold.

It was warm and the professors they had a difficult time putting more ice in the water because I was warming up the water and I was doing nothing That is the power of our mind and what I can do anybody is able to do So when people are depressed or bipolar or anxiety or or fear, or trauma, or PTSD. It is stress. And they cannot break the loop. I tell you, we found the key to break the loop. That's where I am right now with the science.

And now this needs to be implemented for those in need. And there are many, many in need. Another thing is they say what we are doing right now and we got it endorsed through the John W. Brick mental health care. foundation, 1.2 million to endorse this study on the DNA in San Francisco with the top researchers over there. See if you're changing DNA or if you have a mutation that allows you to do. DNA changes itself. It prolongs in cell activity, cell division, which is a telomeres.

The condition of the telomeres is about longevity and the quality of life. If it is not attacked by inflamed transcription factors, then the genome expression is going to be just nice and right. And besides of that, the protective proteins around the cell are then through the hormatic exercises or the breathing, you just mentioned, together with the cold showers. It is hormatic stress. Let's define hormetic for people. Hormatic is like positive stress.

Conscious stress. Your neurology is inside that and it connects with your body the way nature matter to be. And in the primordial state of our cells, the cells should be protected by proteins. But because of our comfort zone behavior, they are inactive. And thus the flammatory impulses through the transcription factors, just little assholes, who go into the cell and they begin to mess up the telomeres, the longevity, the cell division, the condition thereof, and we live shorter and better, so less, and we are becoming vulnerable for the wrong genome expressions, and that causes diseases.

This is really interesting. If this is really shaking down to Hormices, which said another way, is a little bit of bad, does you a lot of good. And so you actually need something that stresses a system in a way that most people would think of as bad. It actually ends up being good. And this is where I'm jarred in the best way possible with what you were saying about it being this meditative experience for you. Because I think of going in ice as brutally painful of requiring all of my discipline and desire to battle through. And I wouldn't have thought of it as being something that I have to relax into of really sort of releasing.

letting go, relaxing, almost removing myself from the, certainly removing myself from the suffering of the pain. But I'm curious, are you, when you're doing this, and you've talked about dipping under the ice and going into this meditative state, and you've described it with these sound effects, which I always found really interesting. But when you're going into that, do you feel the pain and divorce yourself from the suffering? Or do you literally not feel any discomfort?

You feel anything, but you learn to let go. You follow the breath and thus the hormonal system, the endocrine system, which we have shown in scientific research, is really active within your command. And with that comes the adrenaline, the epinephrine, the opiates and the cannabinoids. They are very strong. If you go into the eyes, you're really not thinking about your mortgage or your wife or this or the... that. You're not going to picnic. You feel the focus will be on your feeling. How to get this feeling into adaptation and to overcome whatever is coming. And it goes directly. I tell you, the cold has been my teacher. I just followed the teacher, the feeling, learned to let go.

Intuitively, I felt I want to do this. I did yoga, I did Kung Fu, did all. kinds of things and great. But the cold is really merciless but righteous. And I was ready to go in. I felt intuitively, I want to go in because it has got something. I don't know what it is. And yes, I went in and I felt it. The connection was there beyond any word.

And that's what I was looking for. This tapping into deeper parts of the brain. feeling, pure energy, feeling, power, innate, capacitated power we have to deal with that. I was looking for that. And since then, I went on and on and on, and on. I did all these records and many more challenges. I did crazy stuff, really, sitting all the night in your shorts, outside and freezing temperatures and feel great. That is something. That is power. And I've been adventuring and discovering more and more. And finally, I began to realize but it's all in the mind. Oh yes. So learning to let go in the right way, following your breath, the breath is able to

prime the body and then your mind, the neurology of the mind, if I'm able to make my skin temperature not going down while being exposed to ice cold water, skin temperature, that's the same. power. And that power is the same power we can learn to embrace and awaken in which we are able to tackle any stressor in the world, any stressor emotionally and physically. And mentally, whatever you come up, we are built to be able to oppose that, to get through and to learn and not to be afraid, because we have the power of the mind. These breathing techniques, learned to do in extreme cold. So they are extremely effective. Very soon I was able to stay and prolong my time in ice water feeling great. But is the breath just about

oxygenating the tissues? Oxygenating not only to go past in this case, to go past the lymphatic knots which normally inhibits the oxygen to go deeper. Now we found a way to go past these knots into the lymphatic system and with that you come into the depth of your body and making you able to alkalize your blood within a couple of minutes and with that a when the blood is the right pH degree then suddenly the neurology of the mind which is like electricity is able to run through on a subtle basis we do control hypoxia, like controlled high stage strain. We just did a study in the Andes mountains in

South America on 4,500 meters is about 14,000 feet. And they compared diomox, which is used for acute mountain sickness, very strong medicine to the breathing and the breathing one. So the breathing is more affected on those heights and in those extremes than a medicine. And this is unknown. And we got eight more studies coming out. Hey man, we got the power to be the alchemist within our body. That's the way nature meant it to be. Another thing is, they say 20% of our brain is working.

Fuck that, man. It is 100%. And we got the innate capacity to enter into any part of our brain. And now we have shown to get into the deepest. And with that, we become the commanders of our own mind and body. So actually, we are mammals. We are about, you know, we are built after millions of years as mammals. If geology is inside, the wiring and everything is inside.

And three times the world's length is vascular systems inside of us. Killer number one in our society is cardiovascular related. It's big time. And that is because we wear clothes. We are never being stimulated through cold, warm, and pressure. It's no longer there. So there is a mediocre state of our vascular conditioning. And for that we take cold showers.

There's some shock to the system that does something to the vassumesis. We do it consciously. And with that, we connect even with the brain, with the vascular system all over. And it's amazing how simple it can be, how simple we can tackle this serial killer, their cardiovascular related diseases. We can tackle a cold shower a day, keeps the doctor away. We got so many people who don't commit suicide because they found this. Because nobody wants not to live, but they don't know how to live. And this will reactivates and resets their body to the way nature meant it to be.

And that is to be happy, strong and healthy. Yeah, talk to me about your wife and how... This is the way I started. My wife jumped from an eight-story down in 95, four children. No money, just there with four children. My children made me survive and nature healed me. And that was the cold. Because in the cold, you shut up.

And all this turmoil, the emotional confusion, the broken heart, it's all physical. It's all real. The cold is able to shut it up, shut it down, and survive. And with that, I came slowly but surely in control over my emotions. And now I'm able to make people aware of that capacity, even without cold showers and all this day. But that's where it came from. Now, I was powerless then with my wife,

who was schizophrenic and psychos, that put all kinds of pills in, injections. They don't work whatsoever. They're always powerless. But now I'm in power. In the subcurrent, I'm working now with those kids. They work with me, and we get spread this all over the world that we found a way how to deal with emotions,

with the cold, with the heat, with the stress. In the brain, in the body, we found it. And now I'm almost so far that I'm dealing with a new competitive study with Wayne State University in Michigan on a comparative study on bipolar people. Within four days, I will make them have a absolute sense of control wherein they are able to redirect their brain and balance within the out-of-balance hormonal manic depressions and all. And with that, my circle is round, from being powerless to power.

And I'm a dropout from school. I'm teaching professors and doctors now all over the world. And they say, after seeing the results of me in the brain scans and the way I activate parts of the brain thought of impossible by humans, they say, this is a transformational technique that will change mental health care. And we see it. The cold is my warm friend. Thank you for tuning in. Continue strengthening your mind by listening to our other episodes.