Wim Hof, The Dutch Iceman

Wim Hof, the Iceman, has won 20 Guinnes World Records awards for enduring extreme temperatures. He has already climbed Everest and Kilimanjaro wearing only shorts and shoes. He has been able to maintain himself for hours immersed in icy water and has run a marathon in the desert without water.

Your goal is always to show that you can exert total control of your body and mind. A power so extraordinary that scientists, doctors, neurologists and psychologists around the world are interested in it. In this way, your body became an object of study for several areas.

It was hard years of training that allowed him to develop a personal breathing technique that allows him to have greater control over his body. Wim Hof ​​claims that he is able to control his immune system at will, as well as his cardiovascular, hormonal, muscular, and nervous systems. All this through breathing.

Wim Hof ​​and its method

The history of his method goes back to 1995, when his wife had a strong psychotic crisis that ended up claiming her life. From then on, he had to face life in another way, taking care of his four children alone. That was the starting point of his goal: he set out to show the world that the will can take us where our desires take us, including controlling our body and mind.

This amazing Dutch man, also known as the Ice Man, earned this nickname for building one of the pillars of the method that takes his name based on exposure to the cold. The Wim Hof ​​method is apparently very simple, which doesn’t change the fact that we need many hours of work to develop it.

For many, this Dutchman demonstrated that human beings are capable of influencing the entire body system, both in immunological matters and in the sympathetic system itself through a breathing technique.

This means that we have the ability to reduce systemic inflammation at will, as well as release certain hormones such as adrenaline and dopamine, which have very interesting effects on our health. It also appears to have many benefits for depressive symptoms and for strengthening the body and mind.

In fact, there are several studies that confirm the benefits of these assumptions. For example, it has been shown that breathing, which is also important in many disciplines such as yoga or meditation, has a decisive influence on health and our body weight, as correct breathing technique helps to reduce inflammation and reduce stress levels. of our body.

His words highlight an idea: we try to change our nature without knowledge. We do not think about the possibility of adapting to it, with attitudes such as maintaining a constant body temperature throughout the year based on heating and cooling, not consuming food according to the season and little by little destroying our planet with constant polluting emissions.

Wim Hof ​​Method Phases

Exposure to extreme cold

Hof explains that low temperatures contract the small muscles that surround the veins. This causes blood flow to improve and heart rate to slow down.

Cold therapy, if done correctly, offers a large number of benefits to those who practice it. These include strengthening the immune system, balancing hormone levels, improving sleep quality, and producing mood-enhancing endorphins.

Breathing

The Dutchman claims that we are unaware of the enormous potential of breathing and the significant benefits it produces if we simply manipulate the breathing rhythm. Your conscious breathing system increases blood oxygen levels, providing more energy, lower levels of stress and an increased immune response to pathogens.

Meditation

Meditation paves the way for us to have greater body awareness and mental clarity. According to the Iceman, the mental component of his method is essential to achieve success in his feats.

In several interviews he has been asked what else he would like to achieve, and he always answers the same thing: “I would like to make my mind disappear all the pain of loss, have my love lost and give love back to the world.”

Scientists, neurologists and psychologists around the world marvel at Wim Hof’s achievements, and he is also happy to contribute to science and to use his body to carry out experiments and research on the cure and prevention of disease for which today we do not have effective treatments.