Controlling Your Mind by Controlling Your Breath
Who is Wim Hof? It’s possible you haven’t heard his name but it’s unlikely you haven’t heard of his legendary acts. Acts of running half-marathons barefoot on snow and ice. Of sitting for hours in a tub of ice up to his neck. Of climbing Everest in shorts and no t-shirt. Of swimming half the length of a football field under the ice of a frozen-over lake. His name is Wim Hof, but he is called The Iceman.
I’m sure I can’t be the only person who thought these tales must be urban legend — that I would be a fool to believe even half of them. And yet, Wim Hof’s amazing feats are well-documented and substantiated.
How can someone subject themselves to such extremes? I happen to love a
good winter backpacking trip into the snowy wilderness of Yosemite, but postholing a foot into an icy stream for even two seconds can spell disaster. So how can someone swim 50 yards underneath the frozen surface of a lake? Can science explain these amazing feats?
It sure can. And the answer lies, at least in part, in breathing. That thing we do all day, every day, almost always without thought. Wim Hof and the scientific literature agree: if you spend some of your day putting thought and intention into your breath, you will change your mind and body. By controlling your breath, you can control your mind.
