How the Wim Hof Experience Breathed New Life Into Me

Wim Hof is a hard dude to describe. Weird, funny, charismatic — but beneath the crazy facade is a man driven to change the world. He is fighting a war on terror — not against the terrorists that are demonized in the media, but on the terrorists within us. The negative emotions that hold us back — fear, anxiety, depression, self-doubt, self-flagellation — have no place in the world that Wim envisions.

Fast-forward to this weekend. I’m standing in front of the San Jose Center for Performing Arts, staring out at crowds of people who have been changed profoundly by this man’s teachings. I entered, sat down, and was immediately slapped across the face by the explosion of personality that is Wim Hof.

He walks out on stage — hair wild and ragged, feet bare, his body adorned with an unstylish t-shirt and shorts combo. He jumps out of the gates discussing how our society is full of bullshit, giving us unrealistic demands and stress that serve only to weaken us. The antidote, according to Wim, is deep breathing and the power of mind control. We’ve been so indoctrinated by media and the education system that there are certain prescribed patterns for life and dealing with difficult situations which drown out our inner voice. But our inner voice knows what we really want, and what we really need. And it’s impossible to hear that shy little voice when our brains are overloaded with stress and information. In fact, our brains are so inundated with bullshit that Wim claims we only use around 16% of our brains. That’s an astonishingly low percentage. But through the power of breath and meditation, we are able to unlock 100% of our brain power. Imagine what you could do if you had the same daily tasks to complete, but had 6 times more focus and willpower and access to buried knowledge? Can you imagine the potential that could unlock? Creatively? Emotionally? In terms of just general satisfaction with life? We would be superhuman. Or, in my mind, we’d really just be human. I believe that humans were equipped with the world’s greatest and most computationally complex computer for a reason. We can use our brains and our minds to do more than we ever thought possible by electing to calm the stormy seas of our thoughts and emotions. And there’s no more shining example of that than Wim.

After an hour-long break, it was time for the dreaded ice bath (cue *dun dun DUN* music). To get prepared, the entire audience was directed through a vaguely tribal ceremony of squatting in a “horse stance” and exhaling on “HOO! HA!” as we moved our arms to one side and the other, tai-chi style.

This was meant to make us incredibly present, as well as promote a sense of group unity, and it was honestly just a lot of fun. I felt like a freaking warrior about to enter battle, and the sound of everyone doing it at once was one of the most badass things I’ve ever been a part of. We closed our eyes and were told to visualize the experience of walking out to the ice bath, the sensation of cold, the process of controlling our breath as those sensations flowed. In essence, we were overcoming the ice bath far before we ever even went near it. As we continued our tribal ceremony, people filed out row by row to face the challenge, as the crowd cheered their support. My row was somewhere in the middle, and by the time we went out we had been psyching ourselves up for this for a good half hour, and I felt indestructible. We walked outside of the venue, where there large blue inflatable pools of ice. We watched group after group of people enter the ice bath, chanting “OMMM” and focusing on their breathing as they faced an unconscionable 2 minutes of glacial immersion. When my time arrived, I knew there was no going back. I had flown all the way to California for one day just to do this ice bath and GOD DAMN IT I WAS GOING TO CRUSH IT. I entered the ice bath and experienced cold unlike anything I had ever experienced before. Within seconds, I felt my hands and feet go so numb that I started to feel pain, and I felt a familiar terror creep into my consciousness. But strangely, I was at peace. Whether it was the knowledge that there were others going through the same ordeal, or the “HOO HA” mental preparation, or the deep breathing, there was something within me that knew without a doubt that I was going to be fine. I had been preparing for this for months, and I let my resistance go so quickly that I surprised myself. Before I know it, the “10, 9, 8…” countdown had begun, and in the blink of an eye I was on dry ground, away from the perilous pool. I DID IT!

I felt a surge of invincibility, of happiness, of such positive emotions that I can’t quite articulate them on this page. I could do anything, be anything, and manifest anything I dreamed of in that instant. As I stood on the stairs and watched the masses enter into the ice, I knew that I had permanently destroyed a barrier within myself. I felt that I would never quite approach fear the same way. Next time a challenge appeared before me, I would stare it in the face and show it who was boss.

As the crowds trickled back into the auditorium, we returned to our tribal chanting for a short while. We cheered and laughed and the positive vibes in the room were palpable. As the evening wound down, we entered into a Q&A session with Wim that was hilarious. In fact, as serious as I may make the event sound as a whole, it was actually unbelievably playful. Wim doesn’t give a damn about what people think of him, and is prone to saying whatever comes to his head at any given moment, which is often so ridiculous that you can’t help but wonder what goes on in the playground of his thoughts. I was laughing throughout the entire event. Wim also read some of his poetry, which talked about his experiences diving into an icehole (not an “asshole”, Wim made sure to point out — his strong accent definitely made this a viable word for this to be misconstrued as!) swimming beneath the ice, losing track of his exit point, and briefly experiencing death beneath the arctic waters. He had an incredible classical guitarist and flautist creating the soundtrack for his stories.

Like the ease of the guitarist’s fingers across the strings, Wim seems to go through his life as if there are no worries, a contagious feeling. I’m not usually one to get into the ra-ra of an event, but so much of the impact for me was less about what Wim was saying and more about who he was. He was a grown-up child that had been given a stage to perform. He was a missionary, driven to show the masses that our limiting beliefs about the world are only perceptions. We are infinite, limitless, pitifully underutilized. He had soaked this belief into his bone marrow and it resonated with every word he spoke. A man like Wim is rare — a man so in touch with an objective reality that he would stop at nothing to ensure that others could gain the same level of clarity.

I am honored to say that I had the opportunity to participate in such a powerful event with a true sage of our age. I have already started to implement the Wim Hof method into my daily life, and I cannot wait to see its positive impacts reverberate through my present and my future. To all who are considering going to the Wim Hof Experience, I would recommend it with all my heart. Take a step to be the best version of yourself and watch as your trivial concerns fall away. Live every day to the fullest, and in the words of Wim, “JUST BREATHE MOTHERFUCKER!”

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