In this episode Sandra Reivik, the youngest Wim Hof Method instructor talks to us about the benefits of this method. Sandra explains how the Wim Hof Method can help us with stress management learning to master 3 pillars: Breathwork, Cold exposure and mindset training. 

Here the highlights of the session:

So let’s start maybe off with who's Wim Hoff. So Wim Hoff is a crazy Dutch man in his sixties. Now over 30 years ago, he started to develop this method, which entails Breathwork Cold exposure and Mindset training. So 3 pillars.

He actually came from a really hard point in his life where he was in severe depression because he lost his wife, due to suicide and he was left alone with four children. So that's actually when he started to do different breath work practices, as well as going and diving into cold waters and, started to develop these human capabilities that were taught not to be possible.

He was actually the first person in the Western world that showed that we can actually influence our autonomic nervous system because this was never done before. You know, we have all the yogic people in the Himalayas from places all over the world who have done amazing things, but it never has been  scientifically tracked. And Wim was the first person who showed that the autonomic nervous system can be influenced. So things like the heart rate, body temperature…  That actually led the scientific books to be changed. Now he's on a mission to share that everyone can actually practice the breath work, the cold exposure and the mindset training, and have that understanding of  the innate capabilities that we actually have. The power within us and that we can adapt to any kind of environment. Is it a stressful one? Or not? This is his mission now to share this. And there are so many people from all over the world who have benefited from the method. Um, if they have any kind of diseases, mental health issues, there is a track record. It's growing, it's coming slowly bit by bit too mainstream as well, which I'm really happy about.

“Conquering the fear”.  Because actually our bodies are so intelligent, and as well more capable of what we think. So conquering the fear… it's also something which is, you know, a little bit counter-intuitive. You think you're going into the cold exposure aspect, right? Ice bath, uh, or cold shower, however, it happens for you, right? Um, you think sometimes that you need to be fighting with the feeling. But it's actually the opposite. We have to be flowing.

You find comfort in discomfort and, and that’s the thing that we're kind of aiming for and understanding we're not fighting. We're surrendering to the process and coming from a place of relaxation, into a place of “I can, you know, I can do this. I can do this and I can go through the experience in a calm state”. So it's all connected to stress management in essence. How we can, down-regulate how we can influence our mind-body states, from a practical point of view.

I guess one of the things is connecting to the power within us. It's a big one. What does it actually mean? We have been conditioned by the environment we have around us. In the past, we would be able to adapt easily. And now, going through this experience of the breath work or the cold, it actually brings us back to the innate capabilities that our body has to adapt and to feel alive through it.