Wim Hof aka “The Ice-Man” is known for breaking multiple Guinness world records. Most of them include withstanding sub-zero temperatures like climbing Mt Everest past the death zone in just shorts.
What makes this even more impressive is that he’s teaching others to to do the same.
From various documentaries and scientific studies there’s conclusive evidence that we too can become the Ice-man.
For the last 10 weeks I’ve been following Wim’s 10 week course, essentially undergoing a modern-day bootcamp to improve myself.
In this post I’ll be sharing the benefits that I’ve gotten from the last 10 weeks in hopes that you can use these lessons to achieve your goals.
What is the Wim Hof Method?
The WHM consist of 3 key practical concepts:
- Cold Exposure — This is Gradual exposure to the cold in the form of cold showers and ice baths
- Breathing Exercises — A set of exercises to energise your body
- Will power — The glue that holds together the WHM
That’s it! Doing steps 1–3 will take roughly 20 minutes each day. Now let’s get into the juicy details, the benefits!
1. Seize the day
I’m sure you’ve had those mornings where you just dont feel like doing anything.
Turning on Netflix and becoming a couch potato for the whole day just feels like the easy thing to do.
Fast forward 4 hours, you’re shitting yourself and feel guilty for wasting your time. Cue in 6 hours of hardcore work…
Doing the WHM in the morning snaps you out of this daze and makes you feel energised to seize the day.
It’s that natural high you feel after working out.
The WHM takes me only 20 minutes each morning. If I’m short on time, I’ll compromise with a 2 minute cold shower and then I’m ready to seize the day!
This has a domino effect on the rest of my day. I’m prepared to handle that shitty boss who gives me unrealistic deadlines and somehow the tiny things just don’t stress me out anymore.
Doing the WHM will result in a myriad of positive ripples in your life, just like how training will encourage you to eat healthier. Carpe Diem!
2. Nothing Can stop you
With a sudden shock from the freezing cold water, every inch of your body is screaming for you to get the hell out.
You body really doesn’t like this, it feels like a thousand needles are relentlessly smashing against your body, without sympathy and concern for well being.
This is what I experienced each day, and it never gets better until I accepted it and dealt with it.
By focusing my mind on saying “I’m strong and I can deal with the cold” as opposed to “I need to get the F**K outta here”, the cold felt a lot more manageable.
Even though I’ve heard the common phrase of “accept it and deal with it”, it never fully internalised until I applied it myself.
And applying it once isn’t enough, it’s a skill that must be used over and over again.
By facing a stressful situation each day in the shower, you’ll equip yourself with the tools to effectively deal with stress in everyday life, something we’re not taught in school.
When an important, STRESSFUL situation comes up, you’ll be A-okay… Because you’ve prepared.
And what better way to prepare in the comfort of your own home :)
3. Iron Will Power
Will power is something that can be trained.
Just like how we train our muscles at the gym, we can also train our will power to push us the extra mile everyday.
Doing the WHM is hard. You’ll have several moments where you just don’t want to do it.
But each time you soldier on, something changes inside. You’ll find doing things that benefit you in the long term, easier. From going to the gym to eating healthy.
And I believe it’s because you’re doing the WHM which is hard!
Each time you push yourself to take a cold shower or to breath for 10 minutes, you’re training your will power.
And there’s a lot of research that suggests that will power, or in other words, your ability to resist short term temptation for long term gain, has a direct correlation on leading a happy and fulfilling life.
A classic example is the Marshmallow test. This is where dozens of children are sat in a room by themselves and are given a marshmallow.
They’re told if they don’t eat that marshmallow for 2 hours they’ll get another marshmallow!
The kids who ate the Marshmallow now, tend to be those who want shortcuts, those that don’t want to do the hard-work. Where as the kids who delayed their gratification got double the rewards.
If you track the kids decades later, you’ll find they’re more successful, have a higher income, lower divorce rates and a higher status in society.
They know there are no shortcuts and delaying immediate satisfaction will pay off in the long term.
And this applies to a lot of situations in our lives — from deciding not to order that takeaway and to instead cook a healthy meal at home.
Or putting off that Netflix binge and instead going to the gym. We all have those situations in life where we’ll have a choice of choosing a marshmallow now, or later.
Doing the Wim Hof method each day will take a lot of effort, and you’ll come to a cross-road where you can choose to do it or not to do it. And every time you choose to do it, you’re training your brain to go for long term gratification instead of short term gratification.
Closing Thoughts
Seize the day and become an unstoppable force with an iron will power. All it takes is just 20 minutes of your day.
I’m a huge fan of the WHM after these 10 weeks, and I’ll be continuing to practise the method, hopefully you’ll join me too!
If you’d like to read more awesome articles, I’ll be posting each week. To stay updated feel free follow me on medium!
