Wim Hof: Cold and breath rewire your immune response

1. 0:00 – 2:29

   Intro

   1. WHWim Hof0:00

      Very soon you will be in the ice bath with me.

   2. SBSteven Bartlett0:03

      But I don't like the cold.

   3. WHWim Hof0:05

      Let's go.

   4. Whoo!

   5. Yeah.

   6. Hoo, ah!

   7. SBSteven Bartlett0:08

      Oh, gosh.

   8. WHWim Hof0:08

      Same with your breath. (laughs)

   9. SBSteven Bartlett0:11

      Wim Hof has defied logic time and time again.

   10. WHWim Hof0:13

       He's able to withstand extreme cold.

   11. SBSteven Bartlett0:16

       And even ran to the top of Everest in his underwear.

   12. NANarrator0:19

       He's proven we're all capable of pushing our minds and bodies way past what was thought possible.

   13. SBSteven Bartlett0:24

       They call me The Iceman.

   14. WHWim Hof0:26

       What is the purpose of living? Happiness, strength, and health. The rest is bullsh-- but this society is sick, and we cannot deal with stress. It drains us. But if we listen to our body, we can change that through science.

   15. SBSteven Bartlett0:40

       So, what is the first step?

   16. WHWim Hof0:42

       Breathing exercises. It's about handling our emotion and feel that we are on top of it, no matter what. But we have never learned in our schooling how to do this. Next, through the power of the mind, we learn to make our bad feelings, disease go away.

   17. SBSteven Bartlett1:00

       You were injected with E. coli. You had no negative immune response. You took volunteers, trained them on your techniques. And when they were injected, their responses were similar to your own.

   18. WHWim Hof1:10

       It's all possible.

   19. SBSteven Bartlett1:11

       How do you do that?

   20. WHWim Hof1:13

       First, we have to...

   21. SBSteven Bartlett1:15

       Wim, was there ever a time where the pain was even too much for you?

   22. WHWim Hof1:19

       My wife took her own life.

   23. SBSteven Bartlett1:24

       Uh, and, whoo...

   24. WHWim Hof1:26

       That led to depression, and I was not able to do anything.

   25. SBSteven Bartlett1:32

       There's so many people that are going through different forms of grief. What would you say to those people?

   26. WHWim Hof1:37

       The only way to break that is...

   27. SBSteven Bartlett1:43

       We've just hit six million subscribers on the Diary of a CEO. Um, so me and my team would like to do something we've never done before as a little thank you, and we're calling it the Diary of a CEO Subscriber Raffle, and here is how it works. Every episode this month, we're going to pick three current subscribers at random, and we'll send one of you a 1,000 pound voucher, one of you tickets to come and watch the Diary of a CEO behind the scenes live with our team. And one of you will have a 10-minute phone call with me to discuss whatever you want to talk about. If you're a subscriber, you're in the raffle. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to do something that me and my team love doing so much. It is the greatest honor of my lifetime, and I hope it, I hope it continues, uh, off into the future. Let's get to the episode.

2. 2:29 – 4:52

   What is Wim's Mission

   1. SBSteven Bartlett2:29

      Wim.

   2. WHWim Hof2:30

      Yes?

   3. SBSteven Bartlett2:32

      What is your mission?

   4. WHWim Hof2:34

      My mission is to bring, uh, love and power. Very simple, but done through science. So, there is no speculation about it. There, in all the songs you hear, love is the greatest power, and all that, you know? But we should be able to feel it. And because we could not feel that anymore, and to be, uh, uh, uh, too consumed through consumerism, through, uh, everyday very hectic, stressful lives, we, we get confused in it all. We are depleted in our energy. Our energy is being drained through a system that is un-... inequally being divided in, uh, i- its wealth. And therefore, people are not able, uh, to use their energy to bring up, uh, the, the right values back in the family, which is patience, which is empathy, creativity, uh, love, uh, uh, uh, uh, composed by happiness, strength, and health. So, because there is confusion, uh, in that area, that's why, uh, I, I thought, hey, I'm gonna start somewhere. Here and now. I'm gonna change the world. And I see the wars, I see unhappiness, I see depression, I see pollution, I see abuse, I see, uh, all that. And, uh, people think that is normal, and we have to abide to those, uh, realities. And I think, no, it's sick. And what I'm gonna do about it, I'm, uh, I'm gonna start looking, searching inside. 'Cause I, I think every, uh, mother in the world should be able to bring happiness, strength, and health to their children, and keep it there. So, that's my mission, to bring it. And because nobody's listening to a person like me saying that from the roof, "Uh, we'll get you, uh, wa-... Love is the power," and all this. Uh, that's why I go through science. But first, I went into the cold. And the cold I met because intuitively I felt, hey, the, uh, cold

3. 4:52 – 6:24

   Society's problems in the modern day

   1. WHWim Hof4:52

      is able to bring down my thinking.

   2. SBSteven Bartlett4:55

      What is it about the nature of society, when you look out on society at the moment, that makes you sad or concerned? What is it about the way we live-

   3. WHWim Hof5:03

      Yes.

   4. SBSteven Bartlett5:03

      ... the way we've built this thing called society?

   5. WHWim Hof5:06

      So, uh, society is a very complex, uh, uh, uh, uh, opportunistic, uh, uh, uh, uh, way, uh, uh, through time. Nobody, uh, is able to trace it down, where the problems are, uh, how it has been arisen. It's too complex, too confused now. And there, I, I, I say, hey, okay, this, look at the establishment. Is this perfect? Is this paradise? No, huh? There's nothing wrong with our knowledge, understanding, and intelligence, but the way we use it. We have to change our consciousness. And our consciousness is our way to perceive. Perceive is what we see and what we are able to deal with. And we cannot deal with the stress coming in our lives. It consumes us. It drains us. And there we are. And, uh, uh, uh, uh, and look what we can do. We can go to the moon. We can go to Mars. We can build bridges, so we can create AI, uh, uh, all those things. But we cannot create happiness, strength, and health? We gotta reset. Say let's stop...... massively in the world, and elevate our consciousness to, uh, being good

4. 6:24 – 9:13

   The impact of the Wim Hof Method

   1. WHWim Hof6:24

      to each other, not to be competitive.

   2. SBSteven Bartlett6:27

      If I, if I'm an individual listening to this, and I follow your methods, what can you promise me will be the outcome on my day-to-day life?

   3. WHWim Hof6:36

      A lot more energy. That's number one. Two, you will feel just alive. What is the purpose of living? It's life. To love life as it is, pure. No thoughts, no confusion. It's not there. Just feel alive when you, uh, uh, arise from the bed, you feel, "Okay, uh, uh, uh, this is a new day. What, uh, what, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna change the world today because I feel so good. And even though I'm not fully on right now, I know it's coming, and I want it. I want it so much." And, uh, uh, you know what? It's called purpose. And that purpose, I'm, I'm living it. And that purpose is stronger than my thinking. And this society is not driven to fulfill each and every one's purpose, it's to, uh, uh, uh, have the, the, the society maintained. The system maintained, controlled by a, a couple of people. All the energy for what? Where is the happiness? Where is the strength? Where is the health? Every day, when I live my purpose, and, uh, uh, uh, and I want to change the world, I want to bring love and power, and I'm doing that, uh, with mathematical precision, with, uh, uh, the mission impossible things they, uh, uh, I found, which I tested in, uh, scientific, uh, comparative studies showing that suddenly we have so much more control. Instead of being controlled by the system, opp- oppressing our purpose, our life's energy, and to connect with that, uh, purpose, it's like love, when you feel love for your woman, for your love, your sex, this, this. You, you don't think there is that power, and that power you should be able to live a- a- and to feel for life itself every day. But we are blocked too much. Going into the cold brings you out of this thinking brain. It brings you directly into the deepest part of the brain. Because you are doing it, going into the cold, then it, it needs to sh- be switched on, the deepest part of the brain, survival part, the brainstem, and, uh, to battle the danger of the cold, but it's there. And once it's there

5. 9:13 – 10:45

   We need more discomfort, we've engineered out discomfort

   1. WHWim Hof9:13

      and you are doing it, you are connecting.

   2. SBSteven Bartlett9:15

      Is that part of what you're saying, that-

   3. WHWim Hof9:17

      Yeah.

   4. SBSteven Bartlett9:18

      ... the way that we live our lives is a little bit too comfortable, so we're not reaching those sort of deeper levels of our, of our brain? We're kind of... And we are optimizing discomfort out of our lives in every chance we get.

   5. WHWim Hof9:30

      Yes.

   6. SBSteven Bartlett9:30

      You know, from every, you know... I got here today in a nice warm car. I arrived in a nice warm building. I had a nice warm shower.

   7. WHWim Hof9:37

      Uh, very soon you will be in the ice bath with me. (laughs)

   8. SBSteven Bartlett9:42

      (laughs)

   9. WHWim Hof9:43

      That's, uh, uh, uh... It's gonna be nice, you know? It's gonna be nice. But tha- tha- tha- uh, the, the difference is we choose if we go to the cold, and the cold will not come to us. We tackle the problem before it arises within us. With the cold, which is a very, uh, uh, uh, negative, aggressive power inflicted upon our bodies, it's an impact.

   10. SBSteven Bartlett10:09

       When you say, "If we go to the cold before the cold comes to us," is that a metaphor for life? Are you-

   11. WHWim Hof10:14

       Yes.

   12. SBSteven Bartlett10:14

       Okay. You mean we go, we put ourselves in discomfort, and if we don't, then our lives will be met with discomfort in other ways.

   13. WHWim Hof10:21

       Yes, and then we are not prepared.

   14. SBSteven Bartlett10:23

       Yeah. Right.

   15. WHWim Hof10:24

       And tha- uh, and, uh, uh, uh, uh, a lot of people are maybe okay with this in this system, but, uh, so many more people are not okay with this. And for those, we stand up. We, who have the, uh, wealth of being and feeling okay, great, that's wealth, we should

6. 10:45 – 14:14

   When did this start for Wim

   1. WHWim Hof10:45

      be able to stand up for those who cannot.

   2. SBSteven Bartlett10:48

      Wim, when did this start? When did this start for you? Because a lot of people that I meet on this show, you know, their early journeys or the sort of pivotal moments in their lives can be traced back to maybe when they were 12 or 13. But, your journey starts even earlier. The first domino that fell seems to fall when your mother was giving birth to you.

   3. WHWim Hof11:05

      Oh, yes. Uh, uh, y- subconsciously, it started at my birth. My mother told me. I'm one of the twins, unexpected. Back then, we had no echographics and, uh, all these tools.

   4. SBSteven Bartlett11:20

      So they didn't know that there was another twin baby there?

   5. WHWim Hof11:21

      Exactly. And so I was almost, uh, born too late. They discovered me, uh, uh, almost too late. And, uh, so I came out while they were pushing, uh, the bed with my mother to the operation room in the, in, in the hallway, like purple because I almost suffocated coming out in the cold of the hall. Very traumatized. It started over there. It started with a trauma. And I, uh, uh, let me tell you, I was, uh, I became a seeker because of that trauma. Pe- uh, people become seekers. If they have deep traumas, they always will seek, uh, compensation, always try to seek relief in one way or in another. Not directly to the trauma, but i- i- indirectly, bypassing it, uh, and they don't know. It influences directly, deeply your behavior.... in life.

   6. SBSteven Bartlett12:21

      Just wanna make sure I'm super clear on this. Your m- mother ha- had two identical twin boys, and the doctors only knew that one baby was there. So when they finished delivering, um, your brother, your identical twin brother, they were moving on with the procedure. And then at the last minute, while they're in the hallway, they discovered there was another baby in there, and that other baby, yourself, was at risk. And from that whole sort of traumatic experience, you feel that that sort of embodied a trauma, which you've, which turned you into a seeker looking for answers on the universe, rejecting the conventional thinking. And that takes us all the way through this sort of, um, very curious childhood, up to the point you described at 17 years old, where you're stood in Amsterdam by a very, very cold lake, and you feel called to jump into that lake.

   7. WHWim Hof13:09

      Yes. Yes, uh, cold and called. There are no words to describe it because you are led by intuition. You are led by a way, uh, the bo- uh, uh, the body is able to solve whatever is inside because you cannot relate by thinking what is going on. Because I was a baby back then. But it always blocked me. It made me a seeker. And, uh, at that moment, when I went in, I just followed the intuition. It's a feeling. And there, I felt, "This is it. This is it. What I've always been trying to find as a seeker." My intuition had led me to, uh, uh, go into that water to meet my trauma. And that is activating a innate capacity of ours to deal and to process whatever is going on in the deepest of the brain, in the deepest stored up, uh, tissue where is trauma, uh, present,

7. 14:14 – 15:04

   Your first experience with cold water

   1. WHWim Hof14:14

      which we, uh, haven't learned how to access.

   2. SBSteven Bartlett14:18

      That first time you got in the cold water...

   3. WHWim Hof14:22

      (exhales deeply) Yeah.

   4. SBSteven Bartlett14:23

      Did you react like I react when I get in the cold water now? Did you... Were you (gasps) ?

   5. WHWim Hof14:27

      Uh, uh, no, absolutely not. I was, uh, surprising. And you will go with me later-

   6. SBSteven Bartlett14:32

      Yeah.

   7. WHWim Hof14:32

      ... and you will not go the way you just expressed.

   8. SBSteven Bartlett14:35

      Okay. (laughs)

   9. WHWim Hof14:36

      We will go like you will smile beautifully like you do right now-

   10. SBSteven Bartlett14:40

       Yeah.

   11. WHWim Hof14:41

       ... and, uh, go with me in. It is a moment that you will feel a little bit of (gasps) , but I, uh, I'm there. We are there. You're my brother. You're, you're, uh, I'm your uncle. Uh, I'm your family. I want you to feel good. I, I want you... I, I, I am... I'm here to make you strong. Strong i- i- it means to stay in the eye of the hurricane

8. 15:04 – 15:59

   What spiritual questions did the cold water answer?

   1. WHWim Hof15:04

      when it is, when the stress is most.

   2. SBSteven Bartlett15:07

      When you first got into the cold water, you said it seemed to answer a lot of your spiritual questions.

   3. WHWim Hof15:13

      Yeah. Oh, yeah. All.

   4. SBSteven Bartlett15:15

      What, what spiritual questions did getting in the cold water that first time answer for you?

   5. WHWim Hof15:18

      All wha- all what has been propagated by all the religions, all the esoteric disciplines and doctrines, that the nirvana, enti- uh, enlightenment, chi, qì, pneuma, uh, whatever they call it, uh, uh, i- in name, uh, that, that is just our mind. "Let's feel strong. Let's be strong. Let's be healthy. Let's be happy. Just unconditionally." That's what I felt at that moment, "This is it." And it was not words that came to me. It was a pure opening, uh, o- of my feeling being uninterrupted

9. 15:59 – 17:40

   Being outside of society

   1. WHWim Hof15:59

      by thinking.

   2. SBSteven Bartlett16:02

      For many, many years you lived as a squatter. Fr- was it from 17 to sort of 20 f- your sort of mid-20s that you-

   3. WHWim Hof16:09

      Yeah, yeah, yeah.

   4. SBSteven Bartlett16:10

      ... you lived as a squatter? So-

   5. WHWim Hof16:10

      Eight years.

   6. SBSteven Bartlett16:11

      You were, you were-

   7. WHWim Hof16:12

      Best time of my life. Having no money whatsoever. I was in society living outside of society. Outside. I had no money. I lived off the scraps of the, uh, the marketplace, and I loved it. Was a party time, was feast every day, wi- with all these o- other people who are freethinkers. Do- don't think a time, have a, have a sabbatical. A, a, a sabbatical of this, uh, way the system maintains itself through paradigm, th- uh, s- uh, through, uh, certain way of thinking. If you just leave it a time, you start to think, uh, uh, uh, the, uh, thoughts and emotions are able to emerge without inter- w- without this helmet on, this heavy helmet which is interrupting your flow, your being, your expression. And then you, you cannot trust that expression. You are lost. You're getting lost of who, who you are. There, I was able to free think without even thinking about it. I played the guitar in the hallways. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, I did yoga, uh, all these postures in the, in the courtyards naked. Uh, uh, and, uh, uh, uh, uh, in the wintertime, uh, I became so strong. If you only let the life force

10. 17:40 – 19:54

    What is a life force

    1. WHWim Hof17:40

       express itself, you become so strong.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett17:43

       What is the life force-

    3. WHWim Hof17:44

       Uh- uh- uh-

    4. SBSteven Bartlett17:44

       ... for anybody that doesn't know?

    5. WHWim Hof17:45

       Uh, anybody has it, yeah, uh, like here and right now. If I... Uh, uh, like I was talking bi- before we entered into this podcast, 76 years old this man was, and he was suffering from li- uh, Lyme's disease, and he wanted to climb the Kilimanjaro in record t- time without having any experience in, in climbing. 76 years old, Lyme's disease, suffering with that condition doing a mountain which normally is done between five and nine days, fully dressed, because up there at 6,000 meters, it's really cold. And there is h- uh, less than half the oxygen, so the cold comes even harder in, and out there, I saw life force.... a-a-a, uh, uh, th- his life force was so determined to climb with me, an impossible, physiologically impossible task, 'cause normally between five to nine days. He did it in 31 hours, 76 years old. What el- el- uh, what else is that than a life force you never expected it to be, just to take on the challenge? He had a deeper feeling within himself, "I don't know what I got to do, but this guy is saying he wants to climb the Kilimanjaro past the physiological limits, eh, according to science and, uh, I feel, I feel something." That is your life force talking to you, which wants to free itself. He was suffering from Lyme's disease. He was in the system, always abiding to everything, and suddenly with an autoimmune disorder he could not control at all. And, and, and there he was. So, he, he felt the same thing as I felt when I was 17 going into the cult. He came with me and he climbed the Kilimanjaro in 31 hours. Not five to nine days, 31 hours. So, uh, uh, that is the life force. Our life force capable of so much more than we are

11. 19:54 – 22:25

    Why don't we believe in ourselves?

    1. WHWim Hof19:54

       used to.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett19:55

       Why don't we b- know that? Why don't we believe that? Why don't we live our lives with the, you know, the-

    3. WHWim Hof20:02

       Sure.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett20:02

       ... the, the, the opinion that we can climb the mountain?

    5. WHWim Hof20:05

       Sure. Because we are led to believe we have to serve and to systems that are not necessarily serving our soul. And, uh, they're so massively, psychologically overwhelming the system, the schooling system, et cetera, uh, uh, it's so overwhelming that we have no way to escape from this narrowing consciousness where we got in. We think careers make us happy, cars make us happy, money makes us happy, fame and name and all makes us happy. I was the happiest guy when I was in the squat having nothing.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett20:42

       You were, you were effectively homeless living just outside.

    7. WHWim Hof20:45

       Yeah, yeah. Yeah, uh, uh, uh, a squat is a place where you have, uh, uh, y- you have, uh, electricity-

    8. SBSteven Bartlett20:52

       Yeah.

    9. WHWim Hof20:52

       ... and that's it. Uh, uh, and you gotta pay for, uh, uh, the, the heater, so you had to find ways to, uh, uh, pay, say, um, what is it? 70 pounds a month.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett21:05

        And you were living with lots of people in that-

    11. WHWim Hof21:06

        Yeah, yeah, hundreds.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett21:07

        ... when you were, when you were squatting?

    13. WHWim Hof21:08

        Yeah.

    14. SBSteven Bartlett21:08

        Wow.

    15. WHWim Hof21:09

        Was an amazing... I mean, we don't need so much, but it has been propagated that we need a house, uh, uh, everybody needs a mortgage, uh, uh, and you gotta, uh, serve that mortgage. You gotta go to 9:00 to 5:00 and, uh, we become slaves. Uh, uh, uh, slaves of a system that is, uh, uh, uh, in the end creating quite some stress and we are only able to survive, not to express ourselves creatively as who we are and what we are for real.

    16. SBSteven Bartlett21:40

        What's a realistic alternative, Wim?

    17. WHWim Hof21:42

        I lived in that society. First, I lived outside, uh, through living in a squat. That was enough for me to have my own identity, connected, uh, in my thinking, my mind. And, uh, uh, then I went into society. It was horrible time, because suddenly I, I had to live in a flat with the kids. And my wife deteriorated mentally and she took her own life in '95, and she jumped from eight stories down. That, that, that was the, uh, uh, uh, the, the life I was in and the, and society just go- keeps on going like a train. It ha- uh, uh, it has no emotion. It has

12. 22:25 – 27:25

    Falling in love

    1. WHWim Hof22:25

       no feeling.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett22:26

       Wim, on that, you're 22 years old, you're, you fall in love-

    3. WHWim Hof22:32

       Yes.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett22:32

       ... with a, with a woman you describe as the love of your life.

    5. WHWim Hof22:35

       Oh, that's her, yes. Olaya. Oh, look at this. Oh, yeah, sweetheart. Amazing soul. Very expressive, very talkative to everybody, uh, very open, and, uh, and then it got, uh, uh, into the shadows of her own mind and dysfunctioning of brain functioning, and, uh, uh, that led to, uh, her depression and then becoming manic and then schizophrenia, and then, uh, uh, uh, uh, worse, got worse and worse and worse. We were 15 years together.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett23:10

       You met her in that squat house?

    7. WHWim Hof23:11

       In the squat house, yes. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah, so innocent, all very innocent, and, uh, uh, I called her a butterfly, mariposa in Spanish, an, uh, a butterfly because she was everywhere, uh, and a very light being. Uh, uh, did I fell in love or ri- rose in love? I think the last one. Uh, uh, uh, only the, the way, uh, uh, her mind got disturbed through this, uh, uh, yeah, i- is it society, is it the pressure, is it the career, is it... what is it, the demand? Because this was a light, uh, uh, a being of light.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett23:58

       You, you met her in that squatter house. You had two children together.

    9. WHWim Hof24:01

       Yes, in the squat and perfectly okay, and cr- uh, uh, and great. We lo- uh, yeah, beautiful. The, uh, uh, those children are right now working with me. We got an international worldwide company. Yeah.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett24:15

        When did you realize that her mental health was deteriorating?

    11. WHWim Hof24:21

        Whoo. Yeah, uh, probably too late. Uh, uh, uh, it was a, a, a decreasing kind of, uh, uh, process in her where she was losing the control and, uh, uh, I had no...... real means to take care of that. She went back, uh, to, uh, uh, Pamplona. She was Spanish from origin, and, uh, uh, she was there with her family. She would have been, uh, uh, for months on end, with her family and then come back, and being mother for two days, and then suddenly collapse and being bad and being very down again. And, uh, yeah, uh, like a burde- burdensome. But we loved her, of course. Uh, uh, uh, we are vi- trying to survive. We're, uh, uh, uh, only, only after the, uh, the, the fourth child she wanted another child, but I said, "No, you have to become better. You have to become healthy." And then she, she said, "You're a bastard." That was one month before she took her own life. See, uh, she, uh, uh, kissed her... I was working as a mountain guide in the Pyrenees to get some, uh, some money. And I also loved it. I love nature. But then, uh, uh, yeah, she kissed her, uh, the kids goodbye, uh, uh, before, uh, jumping down or letting go from eighth, uh, story.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett26:00

        She jumped off an eight-story building?

    13. WHWim Hof26:01

        Yes. I mean, it almost takes a lot of courage to do that, too. You must be very des- desperate if you do a thing like that, and that i- is something unovercomable. The part of me, when I was 12, the world is sick, depressed. The darkness, the wars, the pollution, et cetera, all that I'm gonna do something about it, at that moment, I could no- uh, uh, uh, I was not able to do anything. So it, it turned into a defeat. It turned into being me, hopeless. It turned me into being depressed. But I had no time to be depressed. I had to take care of four children.

    14. SBSteven Bartlett26:45

        On your own?

    15. WHWim Hof26:46

        On my own with almost no money. So, uh, th- that's, that's a- a- actually where the cold came in, not like a negative power. It, uh, the cold is stronger than your mind, it- uh, than your thinking. It makes your- the depth of your brain at work, and the depth of your brain is the place, the pharmacy. It's the pharmacy, the healer of our, uh, being, which we disconnected from so much because we go, uh, we go for pills, medicines. We go to doctor if something happens

13. 27:25 – 30:36

    Dealing with the grief of losing loved ones

    1. WHWim Hof27:25

       to us. We don't go to ourselves.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett27:27

       I can't imagine the pain. I can't imagine the pain of, you know, having the love of my life, um, A, deteriorate, um, have four kids with me-

    3. WHWim Hof27:38

       Yeah.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett27:38

       ... but then take her own life.

    5. WHWim Hof27:40

       Mm-Hmm.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett27:42

       Grief.

    7. WHWim Hof27:43

       Oh, yes. Uh, the, uh, grief had no space. Yes. The agonizing thinking all day long has its way to, uh, to burden a person, uh, me. And, uh, uh, uh, yeah, the only way to break that was going into, uh, icy water. Uh, th- at that was, yeah, I mean, at that moment, you are just surviving, and that gives you a little, little opening of this agonizing thinking, this... uh, it- it's painful. It's a- a- and at that moment, you are so overwhelmed by all that, that you... uh, now I can talk about it, but back then I was in the middle of it.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett28:33

       Do you remember where you were, where you were when you got that phone call?

    9. WHWim Hof28:37

       Yes. Uh, uh, exactly, and, uh, uh, I was doing, uh, groups of people, uh, in the, in the mountains. So back then you had these phone booths.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett28:49

        Yeah.

    11. WHWim Hof28:49

        In the- on the camping, on the camping where we, uh, uh, slept and, uh, with the group, and, um, there I got, uh, this phone call, uh, the- of her brother calling me and, uh, yeah. So i- i- it is, uh, not only shocking, you don't know what to say.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett29:11

        Mm-Hmm.

    13. WHWim Hof29:12

        You cannot even cry. The grief comes later. The thinking about it, the being able to contemplate about it and have feelings about it comes only later. I cried when I was with her father, with, with her father over her dead body. Then we cried together. The- then you can relate. You can let go. We- it happens. You're not thinking about it. It happens. So that's the way it evolves, and then- but in the back of my head wa- was, of course, my four children. It took a burden on us. It took a burden on- an, an inexplicable burden. It changed us. It traumatized us in the depth and that made us, uh, uh, uh, separate at a certain moment, uh, uh, uh, later on in life. Now we are all together and it's amazing. The chemistry is better than ever before. And, uh, she, her- uh, the mother, she is like an, uh, a- a- an angel now. She's looking over our shoulders, and we talk about it. We say she, uh, yeah, she, uh, that it is going so well with us is because she is back. She, she is

14. 30:36 – 32:11

    Telling your children their mother has passed

    1. WHWim Hof30:36

       with us. We feel it.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett30:38

       When you had that conversation with your four children that their mother was gone they were-... between 7 and 12 years old?

    3. WHWim Hof30:46

       Yes.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett30:47

       How, how do, how do you have a conversation with a 7-year-old or a 12-year-old about their mother not being here anymore? Wh- w- you-

    5. WHWim Hof30:56

       Exactly, tha- that way. I, I said, uh, "She is, she's gone. Her body is gone." She, she, uh, I didn't te- say she was dead. I said, "She is no, no longer with us." That's what I said. And they got it. "We are here, we are together, and we're gonna, we're gonna find life with us. Mommy is gone, yet also she's here." It w- (sighs) it worked. Uh, uh, uh, it, it, it worked. I mean, we went on.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett31:32

       Did they ask questions?

    7. WHWim Hof31:35

       (sighs) Of course, of course, many questions. But, uh, in the end, uh, the, uh, uh, the, the questions, uh, uh, were not as strong as our being during, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, in life being together. Uh, it's, uh, there where I found the call to give me all the energy to create a good atmosphere at, at home, the nest, warmth, playfulness,

15. 32:11 – 39:29

    The power of breathing exercises

    1. WHWim Hof32:11

       being there, light, not heavy.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett32:15

       What is that first step to... 'Cause there's so many people that are going through different forms of grief, or they have that trauma that you've described that goes back a long way. If they're listening to this now and they've stumbled this far into the conversation and they're thinking, "I'm so far away from that, Wim. I'm so far away. I've got my shirt and tie on. I've g- I'm in the city. I, I know I'm unhappy, I can feel it in my bones, but I know no other way." What is the first step?

    3. WHWim Hof32:40

       Absolutely the breathing exercises.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett32:43

       (laughs)

    5. WHWim Hof32:43

       These breathing exercises in 2014 were capable to show just, like, scientifically, uh, hormonally, uh, looking at the nervous system the depth, uh, which we entered with these breathing exercises in this comparative study showed that we were able to tap into the autonomic nervous system and innate immune system, which was considered to be impossible in science. And now it is there. It's not only the autonomic nervous system and the innate immune system. It's also the ability naturally to solve what is deeply stored up in our tissue, which could not be processed in the moment when it happened. Trauma.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett33:35

       Wim, I've got some of those studies in front of me. I, I read through all of them, um, ahead of our conversation, and they are quite frankly, um, remarkable. They're quite frankly remarkable. They are, uh, peer-reviewed studies that have been published, um, went through very sort of scientifically rigorous processes to make sure that they were valid. And in these studies, we see breakthroughs that I think in the past people thought were impossible. But if we just focus in then on that breathing, 'cause you, you described that as the first step. If I have never breathed in my life, I've never done it, I've never heard about it, I'm a s- I'm skeptical to it, I think breathing is just something we don't think about, um, what do you mean by breathing, and what kind of breathing? And can you explain to me like I'm an idiot what it's doing? (breathing)

    7. WHWim Hof34:31

       Yeah. What it is doing? For example, I'm, uh, uh, now busy with cardiologists and they saw in heart films that if you stop breathing after exhalation for one and a half minutes, five times more blood flows into the brain and to the heart. This wa- has never been shown, and now it has been shown through these breathing techniques. I mean, this really goes so deep, we are able to make, uh, uh, these, uh, through these breathing techniques, uh, uh, change our blood chemistry, uh, bring up the pH levels way up by which the breathing trigger is not happening, because it's depending on the CO₂ level in our blood. If we breathe (breathes deeply) like 30 times like this, you become a little bit woozy, a little bit dizzy. Why? Because the CO₂ levels go way down. You blow it off, carbon dioxide.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett35:39

       Have we forgotten how to, to breathe like that? Is that, is that-

    9. WHWim Hof35:42

       Oh, yes.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett35:42

        Is that the natural way of breathing?

    11. WHWim Hof35:44

        Uh, no, not exactly.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett35:46

        Okay.

    13. WHWim Hof35:46

        What, what, uh, what is exactly is that we, uh, have forgotten to feel deep emotions, uh, to be, uh, in connection with danger. Uh, danger is a deep m- emotion. (gasps) Or the cold. (gasps) I- it's, it's deep. We are- avoid these emotions, but they are... we are built to receive it, to express it. And, uh, uh, with that c- comes alive the deeper mechanisms in our body. And b- uh, uh, if that long term is not exercised, those deeper mechanisms, and among that is not only the emotion, it's also the immune system, it becomes weaker. We become more flaccid. We become insensitive. Look at the insensitivity in our society. Gaza is happening, "Uh, uh."Yeah, well, protests here. So, we should stop that shit. We should stop those wars 'cause kids, little kids are here jeopardized and we cannot even feel it anymore. You know that this insensitivity in us is a, is a plague. It's a plague because we serve a system that w- runs well on people being obedient and being flaccid. Not really sensitive. Because if, if you are really sensitive, you don't go to a, a, to a slave job every, e- e- every day and come back stressed, and the other day you do it again and then again and again and again. What we should, uh, uh, do within ourselves is learning how to connect into the depth, and this is what I give through the cold. We bring these deeper emotions alive and then you will not abide to that what makes you weak, w- to that what, uh, uh, uh, uh, kills your purpose. We gotta stand up as humanity and more, more now than ever. And here we are. And, uh, "Wim, how do you do that?" Very simple. Do these breathing techniques. Do it o- o- on your bed. Uh, uh, uh, on a sofa or... Very controlled, because you will go past your conditioned mind and body. The, the shallow breathing we do, we say that is breathing. That's not breathing. That is a automatic, uh, reflex of your body, uh, d- doing something. Uh, uh, uh, there it is. Now you take over consciously. You start to breathe deeper. You go past these patterns, uh, depicted by a conditioned body, and that conditioning is only serving the system, but not necessarily you. I want you to take over the steer wheel. I want you to be conscious and then, uh, go with that consciousness into deeper breathing, break the patterns of your conditioning, and suddenly, uh, your, uh, deeper traumas, your deeper feelings are able to come to the surface. Being stored up, being stashed away forever. And, uh, uh, uh, and that is what is happening in the first, uh, uh, session we do. I, uh, I, I can promise any, any person, uh, who is doing it will encounter a, a, such a tremendous experience of himself from the depth coming to the surface. And that's only the depth coming to the surface. That's all.

16. 39:29 – 50:01

    Breathing exercises unlock trauma

    1. WHWim Hof39:29

       And it's beautiful.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett39:30

       I'm so intrigued as to, as to how that happens. So, 'cause I've had lots of friends that are very, um, focused on breathing, using your techniques. Obviously, I told you before we started recording, my partner runs a breathwork studio called Bali Breathwork where she has committed her life to using the breath to heal people. But I, I'd like someone to explain to me, you know, how... If I take hold of the steering wheel and I go past those sort of unconscious breathing, um, patterns, why does that unlock trauma? 'Cause when I go to my, when I, um, have been to my partner's breathwork sessions when they end, people are talking about very deep forms of trauma that they've suddenly encountered. And I'm wondering, how is the breath doing that? How is the breath unlocking that stuff? What is... Where is it hidden? You know? I don't understand the breath's connection to our trauma.

    3. WHWim Hof40:19

       So, traumas, uh, are a stored up chemistry. It's, uh, unprocessed. It's when a experience happens and you cannot deal with it, you can't process it, you don't understand. It's being stashed away and it becomes biochemical stored up, uh, uh, uh, uh, stored up capacity of the body is simply there in our deeper tissue. But our conditioned mind and body is not able to get into that depth.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett40:49

       Just by thinking.

    5. WHWim Hof40:50

       Yes. By that, we are thinking too much. And, uh, we know something is wrong inside, but we cannot connect with that. Now, if we change the patterns we normally go into with our breathing and thinking, which goes paired, which controls our heart, uh, uh, uh, it's conditioning. Uh, if we are into that conditioning and we start simply, and that m- makes it so beautiful that it is so simple. And, uh, uh, h- how it, uh, um, then, uh, suddenly is able to get into this store to regulate our mood in the depth, uh, is by ca- cannabinoid receptors. The last study we did is a landmark study. Landmark study done by Professor Vaibhav Diwakar in Detroit, and it shows that the cannabinoid receptors are part of the salient network. The salient network is that what makes all the networks in the brain work together. And, uh, with that, we get a hold of, uh, uh, areas we normally don't have connection to. So, what the breathing does, uh, in the depth is activating the connectors in the body called cannabinoid receptors by which, uh, deeper, uh, realities of our, uh, physiology, uh, open up. And that is a natural thing to happen when we are in peace, no longer in the trauma, in the accident. No, now we are in peace. Now we should be able to work out what has been stored up. That is a natural capacity of ours to do that, but we have never learned in our society, in our schooling how to do it. And not even in psychiatry. They give you pills and they give you medicines, and that's makes a lot of money, but it doesn't solve the problem. People become catatonic. People go...... my wife, too. After treatment in psychiatry, the first wife, she became, her eyes like...

    6. SBSteven Bartlett43:11

       A zombie.

    7. WHWim Hof43:12

       Yeah, a zombie. This is a blasphemy. This is scandalous in psychiatry that they keep on doing that. Now, I get a lot of psychiatrists, uh, uh, cognitive, uh, uh, psychologists, uh, about cognitive, uh, uh, therapies and they say, "When the cognitive therapies have no, uh, solution a- anymore, we do breathing."

    8. SBSteven Bartlett43:33

       Mm.

    9. WHWim Hof43:34

       And it ho- and it just brings solution. So, it is simple, so effective, but it doesn't make money. It makes people understand, "I feel so much better, how is that possible?" And tha- uh, that simply that, how it works, we, uh, uh, we just did a landmark study with the compelling findings that we actually found interoception, interoceptive focus suddenly being able to regulate our mood, emotion much better. So, we are able to listen if we listen to our body. And we feel bad, we can change that. We, uh, we found now the key how to do that. First of all, you do the breathing. Cold, uh, of course, cold training. Not too much. Never too much. Just relax. We are very capable to, uh, uh, even take like Patrice Evra, uh, who was, uh, uh, completely, uh, hating it because of his, uh, uh, uh, when he was young, uh, he got it as a punishment. You have to take it nice and good. And, uh, uh, open up to the natural capacity to take it on. He was the best, absolute best, taking on, uh, icy water for 16 minutes he was in, and he wanted to stay there in. A- a- and the BBC was, uh, like, uh, "Oh, no, this is too dangerous. Please, come out. Y- yeah, you have, no, you have to come out, Patrice." "Well, okay. Okay." And he was just walking out. And you know what? I felt his skin, he was not even cold.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett45:23

        So, just for context-

    11. WHWim Hof45:24

        Is that power? That's that power. It's so simple.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett45:28

        For people that don't know, Patrice is a good friend of mine, Patrice Evra. He's been on this podcast before and, um, he- he told me that Wim's techniques have really changed his life, especially his relationship with cold water. He was like me. He told himself that because of his, I don't know, his race, where he came from, his DNA, he wasn't able to spend time in cold water. But I think what he discovered through Wim was that, that was actually a trauma because when he was younger, his father used cold water as a punishment. So, he had this trauma with cold water. And after doing your, uh, program and spending time with you, he was the very, very best at staying in cold water. And when I was with him recently-

    13. WHWim Hof46:03

        He was amazing.

    14. SBSteven Bartlett46:04

        ... he- he jumped in that cold water without flinching. You know, and he told me that throughout his entire Manchester United playing career, he was always the one that never got into the, um, the- the cold, uh, recovery plunge pools at Manchester United after the game. He always avoided it. And he just wishes, he wishes that he knew what he knows now about the power of cold water because then he would've been able to recover better as a- as a player. That's what he told me. I have the, I have the study here in front of me that you described there. I think it's the, um, the Michigan brain over body study.

    15. WHWim Hof46:34

        That was the first study, and then came a second study. Uh, uh, the first study I was compared to 74 test subjects, pe- people. And they were all going into the, uh, uh, having, uh, uh, uh, perfusion vest. What is being used o- uh, in when firefighters go into the work. They have, uh, uh, cold water going through a perfusion vest full of tubes.

    16. SBSteven Bartlett47:03

        So, it's a vest where they pump cold water in?

    17. WHWim Hof47:05

        Yes.

    18. SBSteven Bartlett47:05

        Okay.

    19. WHWim Hof47:06

        To, so they are able to endure the heat of the fire better-

    20. SBSteven Bartlett47:10

        Okay.

    21. WHWim Hof47:10

        ... to fight the fire. So, they took that into, uh, b- bo- body scans, FMRI scans, and, uh, uh, pumped cold water into these vests while the people were motionless in these FMRIs. And so, uh, every time when the cold water was pumped in, uh, the body's, uh, uh, skin temperature would go down. And, uh, and then warmed up again, uh, uh, skin temperature going up. And that correlates in the brain with stress. And, uh, uh, uh, uh, and those stress mechanisms then when the cold is being pumped in is very clearly seen on the monitor of these people who connected to people with electrodes. You could see it on the monitor the way the brain was being activated.

    22. SBSteven Bartlett48:08

        Mm-hmm.

    23. WHWim Hof48:08

        Oh, these are the stress mechanisms, and now is the warmth, oh, now is the, uh, the areas of wellbeing of the brain, uh, activated insula and the- and the- and the, uh, periaqueductal gray. Uh, uh, what- whatever the names. Uh, I call it a, uh, the positive and the negative registration of, uh, o- of stress and/or wellbeing. Yeah, those parts. And they, nobody could change that. What if we could make the, uh, feeling well part of the brain at work when the stress comes in?

    24. SBSteven Bartlett48:48

        So, what if we could feel, choose to feel good when stress comes?

    25. WHWim Hof48:52

        Ah. This was never been shown in psychiatry. So, they had this experimental, uh, module there, and then, uh, nobody could-... make a different brain scan possible, uh, when stress comes in through the cold being pumped into the skin, then stress, uh, part, uh, of the brain is, uh, activated. Nobody could make that not go, uh, uh, activated, not go away.

    26. SBSteven Bartlett49:24

        Mm-hmm.

    27. WHWim Hof49:25

        And I could. Uh, I didn't feel the cold when it came in because I warmed up my body willfully.

    28. SBSteven Bartlett49:33

        Nobody believed that was possible, um, until-

    29. WHWim Hof49:35

        Exactly.

    30. SBSteven Bartlett49:36

        ... until you did it. I, I wanna just recount the, the, the first study which was done, uh, and published in 2018. It was carried out at Wayne State University in Michigan and scientists looked at the way that the body and the brain reacted to changes in temperature. Whenever anyone feels the cold, um, they typically have a automa- automatic bodily response, um, but also you can see that, that response in the brain, the narrowing of blood vessels to protect organs, uh,

17. 50:01 – 54:48

    Controlling stress through breathing

    1. SBSteven Bartlett50:01

       increased energy and, and pain signals. So to test whether you could control that, um, those responses to the cold, scientists created a full body suit in which they would pump cold or warm water into your, into your body. On normal test subjects, their skin temperature would rise and fall with the change in water temperature, which is what you'd expect. When Wim underwent the experiment, without his breathing techniques, his skin temperature changes were very similar to the normal people. However, when he used the breathing and meditation techniques, he kept a sustained skin temperature of 34 degrees over 25 minutes, which was never thought to be humanly possible. When he was put in a PET scan to see what was happening inside his body, scientists saw that the intercostal muscles, which is the muscles between your ribs, were burning a lot of glucose and releasing heat into your body, which was keeping your body warm. When looking at Wim's brain, scientists saw that it didn't have the same unconscious reaction to the cold as normal people's brains did. His breathing technique engaged the sympathetic nervous system, releasing adrenaline and triggered the area of the brainstem, which is that, um, area you, you were describing befo- before.

    2. WHWim Hof51:13

       Periaqueductal gray hemisphere.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett51:15

       That perceives pain. The triggering of the brainstem released cannabinoids and opioids, and these chemicals gave a sense of wellbeing and reduced anxiety. And this study showed that Wim had control over the autonomous nerv- um, autonomous systems of the brain and the brain's automatic responses to the cold. The results of this study have been, uh, tremendous and they have proven the massive potential implications for the im- immune system disorders like diabetes, MS, and arthritis in psychiatry. So it, the TLDR of that is the study really proved that the stress we encounter throughout our lives, we do have control over it. We have control over the, the impact it has on our physiological, uh, systems, but also, you know, our brain and how we experience it, 'cause you were able to not experience cold.

    4. WHWim Hof52:03

       Yes.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett52:03

       The pain of cold, the stress of cold.

    6. WHWim Hof52:04

       And, and it was not about the cold. It was about how to deal with stress. Stress can come in many ways, emotionally, physically, spiritually. It can come in many ways. In the end, it is biochemical stress. It, it turns into biochemistry. Neurotoxins, et cetera, it accumulates, it gets in the body, uh, uh, creates blockages, it, it drains and you don't know what to do with it, and, uh, uh, and then medicines come in and pills and it only deteriorates. It, uh, uh, gets worse. And, uh, uh, and that besides of the side effects. Thing is, I used the cold back whe- when I was with my wife who died to get my emotional agony out of the way. And th- uh, uh, it was the doorway to open up my healing, my spiritual healing of me as a papi, uh, uh, of my children, just to be happy with them and to provide energy and wellbeing without this traumatizing darkness around us. So I found it through the cold, yet it is not about the cold. It's about that I regained mastery over my, to bring back my emotion uninterrupted, 'cause we should be able to guide our emotional state of being anytime when we feel bad.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett53:37

       Naturally.

    8. WHWim Hof53:38

       Naturally. And that, that, that is what this shows. And now upon this study, they did another study, and then they saw even without me, now people can do this.

    9. SBSteven Bartlett53:51

       Mm-hmm.

    10. WHWim Hof53:52

        And th- that's what I wanted. That is the study, uh, landmark study being done, uh, last January published. So that's twe- 24, and, uh, six years pa- past the COVID and all. Uh, uh, and now they see compelling evidence to keep on and to make these studies much bigger because their potential is that we found the key, called interoceptive... Interoception, to be so strong that we are able to control our emotional wellbeing throughout whatever stress there is.

    11. SBSteven Bartlett54:37

        It's not just our emotional wellbeing, it's also our immune system.

    12. WHWim Hof54:40

        Of course. That goes also with it. I- isn't a, a healthy person a happy person, kind of, you know?

18. 54:48 – 57:39

    Fighting off a virus with your mind

    1. WHWim Hof54:48

       Isn't it interrelated?

    2. SBSteven Bartlett54:50

       I wanna just highlight this 'cause this, for me, when I heard this many years ago, I thought this was, uh, I thought this couldn't possibly be true. But in 2010, um, when you were 51 years old, you took part in a study at Randbound University Medical Center in the Netherlands.... where you were injected with a, uh, uh, a bacterial toxin, a, a dead strain of-

    3. WHWim Hof55:10

       E. coli.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett55:11

       ... of E. coli. In previous studies of hundred healthy people, they responded to that, uh, injection with a f- a flu-like response, which is what you'd expect. You'd get the flu if you were injected with that. However, when, when you were injected with that, uh, bacterial toxin, uh, you had no negative immune response, apart from a minor headache. Your b- blood results also showed the release of cortisol, adrenaline, and the messenger, messenger chemical IL-10, which is an antiinflammatory pro- protein, all of which helped you to fight off that bacteria. Uh, however, to prove that this wasn't just you being some superhuman, scientists gathered 30 male volunteers. 12 were put into a control group, which meant that they were just normal, and 18 were trained by you. Uh, you took 18 of them to Poland for four days to train them on meditation, cold exposure, and your breathing techniques. And when they were injected with the, um, bacterial toxin, uh, the e- e- dead strain of E. coli, the trained group had a significantly less immune response, recovered quicker, and their bodily responses were similar to your own. This was a major scientific breakthrough, and it showed people could voluntarily control their automatic nervous system and immune response-

    5. WHWim Hof56:29

       Mm-hmm.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett56:30

       ... which was previously thought to be impossible.

    7. WHWim Hof56:32

       And that's the viewer. The viewers looking at this now, that's you. And, uh, a- and that's where we want to reach out to. You have the, uh, uh, absolute capacity to rule so much better within your own body. And I'm, I'm, I, I'm doing the science, I'm following the science, and I think it is scandalous of the, the scientific community not to have dove upon this.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett57:00

       Why don't we? Is it because it's difficult?

    9. WHWim Hof57:03

       No, it's not difficult. It's n- uh, uh, now, uh, like, uh, I don't know, uh, over 100 million people are doing this. Uh, uh, but, uh, uh, through the scientific world, which is, uh, uh, uh, also in the beginning of this conversation, it's corrupted. They get funding from the pharmaceutical industry, and that's all good, et cetera. I'm not, uh, messing with them. Uh, but natural ways that could equalize the results of medicines without side effects should at least have a thorough examination

19. 57:39 – 1:01:58

    Modern healing does not serve us

    1. WHWim Hof57:39

       by the scientific, uh, elite world.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett57:42

       Can I just... I wanna make sure I'm super clear on what's going on here and what's achieved these p- phenomenal results. Um, by can- by having a- sort of doing some of these techniques that help us to unlock this- this stress and the trauma that's deep in our body, and that enable us to create a better response with stress, we're able to guard off the stress, which means we're able to protect our well-being, which may- means that we're able to fend off disease. Because we all know that when we're highly stressed, our immune system falls and we get sick. I know in my own life, whenever I'm really stressed is the only time that I'll ever get a cold or a- or anything like that. Is that- is that the simple way of describing what's going on here?

    3. WHWim Hof58:26

       Yes. Yes.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett58:27

       Okay.

    5. WHWim Hof58:27

       Uh, we have this innate capacity to heighten our buffer zone, uh, toward, uh, stress by which stress is not able to do its damage.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett58:38

       And is part of the problem with the modern way of living that we've chosen medication as the answer too often, and we've also made our lives as stress-free as we possibly can?

    7. WHWim Hof58:49

       Absolutely. Absolutely.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett58:50

       Okay.

    9. WHWim Hof58:51

       There is no doubt about it, and it is a dead-end street, by the way. And the whole, uh, healthcare system i- is b- burdened by the, the finances and all. It's going to collapse anyway if it keeps on going, but i- i- because it is a money-making, uh, uh, way, uh, uh, that's why, uh, they will keep on going until it collapses. Uh, uh, I had Professor Friedrich in Magdeburg on the line, uh, talking about... Uh, uh, uh, he said to me, "Wim, the democracy, the democracy as we know it actually is, uh, at peril, in danger." Why? "Because people are, uh, uh, becoming so weak, and we- the democracy is only, uh, composed by the strength of the people. Once we get all weaker, and, uh, a system which is corrupt just to, uh, make money, a healthy economy on sick people, that wants to stay that way, makes the people weaker and weaker, by which the democracy will know its end, will collapse." And I said, "Hey, that weakness in the democracy, in people, I can make it go away in one week." Uh, th- s- simply sense talking to this professor, and he's, uh, uh, uh, he agreed because he saw it. He saw it in the people. He knew it. He, he knew it from anecdotal evidence. He knew it from his family, taking up these crazy Wim Hof techniques, going into Wim Hof, whatever. It's a brand name. I'm a simple guy. I know what it is to have nothing at all, to be a nobody. And now I got a name, and fame, and all that. I don't care. It's okay. If I gotta stand up, I will, and I will say, "Hey, here I am, Wim Hof, The Iceman, and I will change the world." How? Through making you better than who you think you could be.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:01:06

        And that is through the Wim Hof method.

    11. WHWim Hof1:01:08

        And, uh, uh, fasting is good too. Uh, uh, to deprive yourself in different ways hormatically. That is self-inflicted acute stressful exercise, but do it consciously. If you don't go to the cold, the cold will come to you. If you don't go through the stress, the stress will come to you. 'Cause we are built to endure. We are built. We got these capacities. So if we go into the cold, you will see that, uh, uh, your whole body is able to handle stress so much better. And when you know you are going into a stressful, uh, event of any kind, you know willfully to connect yourself, make your body from the inside so strong that the stress

20. 1:01:58 – 1:10:53

    Teaching Steven the method

    1. WHWim Hof1:01:58

       out there is no problem.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:02:00

       There's three elements to this Wim Hof method. There's three pillars to the method. The first is that conscious breathing. So let's just make sure we've covered that off. If I wanna be able to just do this at home. If I'm listening now and I'm in my car or I'm wor- walking the dog or whatever, I'm on a plane, what is, what is f- the sort of key parts of doing the breathing technique correctly?

    3. WHWim Hof1:02:21

       Yes. Do it, uh, safe.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:02:24

       Yeah.

    5. WHWim Hof1:02:24

       (inhales deeply) So never outside to where you can lose control.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:02:28

       Okay.

    7. WHWim Hof1:02:28

       Uh, uh, you know, when you drive and you lose control-

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:02:31

       Yeah.

    9. WHWim Hof1:02:31

       ... that's no good. When you are in a swimming pool, you lose control, uh, that's no good. Uh, when you are at an abyss and you lose control, no good. You know, wherever your motorical, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, power is needed to be in control, don't do it there. So, uh, therefore, we say strictly, this is a powerful medicinal, therapeutical, uh, exercise through breathing, specific breathing, uh, patterns-

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:03:02

        Teach me.

    11. WHWim Hof1:03:02

        ... we take on. If, uh, uh, for example, we are sitting now.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett1:03:06

        Yeah.

    13. WHWim Hof1:03:06

        It's safe to do it here.

    14. SBSteven Bartlett1:03:08

        Yeah.

    15. WHWim Hof1:03:08

        Even if you faint now, then, yeah, you would maybe fall here on the ground. It's a soft, uh, uh, carpet here. It's no problem.

    16. SBSteven Bartlett1:03:18

        Okay.

    17. WHWim Hof1:03:18

        So relax. Hey, hey, so th- th- this is also these moments when you... Okay, relax. I'm, I'm n- now turning myself into myself, because I'm gonna breathe deeper. I'm gonna go past my normal, uh, control mo- normal conditioning, normal thinking. So, okay, am I here? Yes, I'm here. Okay, here we go. We have a belly and we have a chest, and that's those, uh, muscles are connected to the lungs. So use your belly (inhales deeply) and use your, uh, chest to inhale fully. (inhales and exhales deeply) You can go through your mouth, through your nose, as you feel.

    18. SBSteven Bartlett1:04:07

        How do I know if I'm doing it correctly with my belly?

    19. WHWim Hof1:04:09

        Yeah, just... (inhales and exhales deeply)

    20. SBSteven Bartlett1:04:21

        So two breaths in?

    21. WHWim Hof1:04:23

        Yeah. And, and, and, and, at a certain moment, it becomes one. (inhales and exhales deeply) Keep on going. Fully in (inhales deeply) as deep as possible, and let it go. Just let it go. And then fully in again (inhales deeply) . As deep as possible and let it go (exhales deeply) . And all in (inhales deeply) . And let it go (exhales deeply) . And all in (inhales deeply) . Let it go (exhales deeply) . The mind goes with the breath. Fully in (inhales deeply) . Let it go (exhales deeply) . And all in (inhales deeply) . Let it go (exhales deeply) . We are blowing, keep on going. Full all in (inhales deeply) . Blowing off the CO2, carbon dioxide. Can become a little bit dizzy, yes, but that's okay. Your body is charging up. It's changing. Your blood chemistry is changing (inhales and exhales deeply) . Your pH levels go up (inhales deeply) in your blood. We do 10 more. Fully in (inhales deeply) . Just follow the breath (exhales deeply) . Whatever feels different (inhales deeply) , breathe into it. Let it go (exhales deeply) . And all in (inhales deeply) . Let it go (exhales deeply) . This morning at five o'clock, I was doing this 'cause I was preparing to be freed in my biochemistry of any shit, and this is cleansing the biochemistry. Trauma, anything, anything that is deeply in is being cle- yeah? Five more (inhales deeply) . Let it go (exhales deeply) . Fully in (inhales deeply) . Let it go (exhales deeply) . All in (inhales deeply) . Let it go (exhales deeply) . All in (inhales deeply) . Let it go (exhales deeply) . Last one, all in (inhales deeply) . Let it go (exhales deeply) . And stop after the exhalation. Close your mouth. No breathing. No need. Your pH levels are way up. There's no need for breathing. What is going to happen is what I was saying, mentioning before.... after one minute, and there is no need for breathing because the breathing trigger depends on CO2. CO2 is blown off. You are biohacking your body. (pauses) You're going deep. You're going past the conditioned mind and body. You're going deeper in the tissue. (pauses) Now you're entering into the deepest part of your brain. It's going to shoot out adrenaline, epinephrine. The adrenal axis is now in activation. Now slowly but surely, five times more blood will flow into your brain and your heart. You feel peaceful. You have it fully in control, yet the deepest of your mechanisms and the deepest of your brain are at work right now. And because you are doing it, you are connecting with those mechanisms. That's the way we learn to gain control over these mechanisms. And you're still without breathing even normally you, you, w- you would die, like, "Uh, breathe in, breathe in." And you're peaceful. You're completely in control over your parasympathetic nervous system, which is deep autonomic nervous system level, and you are in control right now. This is where trauma is starting to release. Five, four, three, two, one. Now you take a full breath in (breathes in deeply) . Hold it and press it to your head. Press it to your head. Press it to your head. This is subliminal, cerebral, spinal fluid to your head. It's flushing in in the whole brain. 100% neural activity. Three, two, one, let it go (breathes out slowly) . Good. If we go into a next round, you will be able to go, say, for two minutes without breathing. Then two and a half minutes, then three minutes. After exhalation-

    22. SBSteven Bartlett1:09:26

        Hm.

    23. WHWim Hof1:09:27

        ... it is, it cannot be something else than, uh, regaining a control deeper than ever before thought possible. And this is what we have shown. This is where the bacteria suddenly had no chance. The virus has no chance. Why is it that the world doesn't know about this? Why is it that, uh, the scientific world is not examining this as a beneficial therapeutical power to battle all the diseases we got? Because aren't we built with an immune system that should halt virus, bacteria, uh, inflammation? It is. But it is never at war because this is deeper than our conditioned body and mind. And this is the way to get a hold of that.

    24. SBSteven Bartlett1:10:17

        It feels so... I feel very different, in every res- in every sense of the word. I feel... And when I came back into the room, it all felt very... It almost felt a little bit like I'd just woken up. But it also, I was a little, you know, it was a little bit of... It was very peaceful.

    25. WHWim Hof1:10:32

        Peaceful.

    26. SBSteven Bartlett1:10:32

        And I was very, um... When I came back into the room, I felt very focused.

    27. WHWim Hof1:10:36

        Hm. Oh, nice. Yeah.

    28. SBSteven Bartlett1:10:37

        I felt like I-

    29. WHWim Hof1:10:38

        This is the last study I did with 540 people in Australia. It shows, uh, that this, uh, um, th- this, uh, method is, compared to meditation and mindfulness,

21. 1:10:53 – 1:11:49

    Where did Wim learn the method

    1. WHWim Hof1:10:53

       works a whole lot better.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:10:55

       How did you learn this? Where did you learn this?

    3. WHWim Hof1:10:58

       By intuition. You, uh, remember the mother who made me, uh, uh, uh, uh, y- become a missionary, be- become a seeker, and then I found the cold water? And what does the cold water do? First time you go into cold water (gasps deeply) . You learn to breathe deep, and that makes all the change. At a certain moment, I became aware that if I was breathing deeper, slowly and deep, slowly and deep, I was able to endure the cold much longer. That means that if we go into deeper breathing, we are able to activate deeper mechanisms that are able to make us a lot stronger. A-

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:11:42

       And that translates to life.

    5. WHWim Hof1:11:44

       Yeah, it translates to everyday life.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:11:46

       I wanna get onto the cold water, which is the sort of second pillar

22. 1:11:49 – 1:16:27

    The power of the mind

    1. SBSteven Bartlett1:11:49

       of the Wim Hof method. But the third pillar I find really interesting as well, which is the power of the mind.

    2. WHWim Hof1:11:57

       Exactly.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett1:11:58

       What do you mean by this, the power of the mind? You're telling me that I can do things to my mind to make my mind stronger and more resilient?

    4. WHWim Hof1:12:07

       Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett1:12:08

       What do you mean by the power of the mind?

    6. WHWim Hof1:12:10

       The, first of all, uh, we just recently did this new study. It's coming out now. Um, it's into submitting, and they did it with 540 people. So, meditation and mindfulness is about the mind, isn't it? To bring anxiety down, to bring stress down. This method works better than mindfulness and meditation, which is in the corporate world, but also in the wellness industry, uh, overall, and also therapeutically in the health, uh, mental healthcare, uh, uh, yeah, systems. Uh, n- uh, being accept- uh, accepted and, uh, implemented and used as a therapaut- uh, uh, uh, a therapeutical means. So this works better. Uh, the stress resilience goes way up. Stress experience goes way down.And, uh, uh, cognitive awareness goes also way up, is what you just said.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett1:13:15

       Mm-hmm.

    8. WHWim Hof1:13:16

       And, uh, uh, this was only one round. Imagine if you do four rounds, you will go so deep, that's, uh, yeah, unprecedented deep where you will go, and things can come to the surface, never been stashed away, you never knew of, or were not aware of and all. This is all blocking our awareness, and now when it's getting out of the way, then suddenly our awareness becomes bigger, brighter, nicer, more flow, more receptive, more sharper, clearer, and all. And, uh, that, uh, that is part of a system that suddenly is able to override our conditioning. So our conditioning is a conditioning wherein deeper mechanisms are not really at work, but we are able to function in this society, system, et cetera, but not necessarily we are connected with the depth of ourselves. And when trauma happens or emotions start to be not nice, we don't know what to do with that. Now, the power of the mind is very simple. Through d- uh, doing this, you learn to override to create a different conditioned mind and body relationship, and suddenly opens up a new terrain, a new capacity in the brain to connect with, and that is interoception.

    9. SBSteven Bartlett1:14:51

       Interoception?

    10. WHWim Hof1:14:52

        Interoception.

    11. SBSteven Bartlett1:14:54

        Interoception.

    12. WHWim Hof1:14:54

        And, and with that, we suddenly learn to control, uh, and to command our body's, a vessel of our emotions, of our sensations, of, of whatever we experience, that's our body. But when it feels bad, we don't know what to do, and now we found a way to go past that conditioned state, and we found a new way in the brain and get ahold of that, which is there naturally to control whatever is going wrong, to re-regulate it, to rebalance it, to reset it, to make our bad feelings, emotions, uh, disease, et cetera, make it go away in our command. That is the power of the mind, which is a natural capacity of ours, which should be revealed past, uh, the system way of thinking and be brought into secondary school or, or, or even when kids are very young that they are able to depict their own happiness, strength, and health.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett1:16:04

        Is part of the building of the power of the mind becoming... stepping into personal responsibility and stepping away from victimhood?

    14. WHWim Hof1:16:14

        Yes, because victimhood is no longer needed. Responsibility is there where we have the ability to respond, and this is, uh, these are the tools. Then suddenly

23. 1:16:27 – 1:18:48

    How do you train someone to stop becoming a victim of their mind?

    1. WHWim Hof1:16:27

       we feel we've got the steer wheel in our hand.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:16:29

       How do you train someone though, to stop being a victim in their own life?

    3. WHWim Hof1:16:32

       In one, uh, in one session.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:16:34

       How?

    5. WHWim Hof1:16:35

       Just do this breathing.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:16:37

       Yeah.

    7. WHWim Hof1:16:38

       And then, uh, w- we go into the ice bath.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:16:40

       Yeah.

    9. WHWim Hof1:16:41

       They suddenly feel power. Uh, sorry that I'm yelling.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:16:45

        You can yell.

    11. WHWim Hof1:16:46

        But, uh, yeah, uh, uh, it's power. People feel, uh, d- being silent in that ice bath, overcoming all that stress and suddenly feel that they are on top of it, and they are suddenly able to go past this concept of this, uh, uh, dangerous cold power energy coming and no control, this anxiety. It's, uh, suddenly, uh, they got a hold, complete hold over that. And with that comes that paradigm that always thought of that to be impossible to control, suddenly it's a piece of cake. That, that is then turning into a, a, a domino effect, a cascade of, uh, uh, feelings of, "Hey, if I can do that, I can do that, I can do that, I can do that." (singing)

    12. SBSteven Bartlett1:17:37

        So you can build personal responsibility by taking control of the cold and not ... Oh, absolutely. In, uh, uh, just one day. Okay. Well, guess what, Wim? Upstairs I have two ice baths. I've always been bad with the cold. Always. Um, it's a story I've told myself-

    13. WHWim Hof1:17:55

        (sighs)

    14. SBSteven Bartlett1:17:55

        ... for my entire life. So seeing as you're here and seeing as I just happen to have two ice baths upstairs, could we go upstairs and get in those ice baths and you can teach me how to master the cold so the cold no longer masters me.

    15. WHWim Hof1:18:09

        Uh, j- follow me on this. I'm, um, just a, uh, brother of another mother in this, yeah? We are like family. Uh, uh, people have the capacity to transmit, uh, their energy.

    16. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:24

        Mm-hmm.

    17. WHWim Hof1:18:24

        It's logical. It's, uh, it's nothing wooha. It's real. And you will feel it's real today here in the ice. Just follow me, uh, therein and very soon you take, uh, the reins over you yourself.

    18. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:41

        Let's do it. Okay. Okay, so, Wim, we've got, uh, two ice baths

24. 1:18:48 – 1:24:13

    The ice bath

    1. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:48

       here. Is there a certain temperature they need to be? Does it matter?

    2. WHWim Hof1:18:51

       No. The, this, uh, this is the right temperature. Very cold.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:56

       I feel. Ooh.

    4. WHWim Hof1:18:59

       Yeah.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:01

       So, so, so, so talk me through what we're gonna do and how we're gonna prepare. Is there a way to-

    6. WHWim Hof1:19:05

       I, I, I want to do one minute horse stance with you.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:08

       I've not done this before, so you need to coach me through.

    8. WHWim Hof1:19:10

       Yeah. Yeah, uh...

    9. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:12

       Your voice. I can-

    10. WHWim Hof1:19:13

        I want to hear you.

    11. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:14

        Ooh.

    12. WHWim Hof1:19:14

        Yeah.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:15

        Ooh. Ah.

    14. WHWim Hof1:19:17

        Huh. Ha.

    15. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:18

        Ooh. Ah.

    16. WHWim Hof1:19:18

        Ah.

    17. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:18

        Ooh. Ah.

    18. WHWim Hof1:19:19

        Deeper.

    19. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:21

        Ooh.

    20. WHWim Hof1:19:21

        Yeah. Ha.

    21. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:21

        Ooh. Ooh.

    22. WHWim Hof1:19:25

        Ah. Oi. Ha.

    23. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:26

        Why are we doing this?

    24. WHWim Hof1:19:28

        Because you're going to go into the ice-

    25. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:30

        Yeah.

    26. WHWim Hof1:19:30

        ... and then you feel why.

    27. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:32

        Okay.

    28. WHWim Hof1:19:33

        Because it's feeling.

    29. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:34

        Yeah.

    30. WHWim Hof1:19:34

        You've got to go into your feeling now.
25. 1:24:13 – 1:27:54

    Back to the studio

    1. WHWim Hof1:24:13

       Well done, man. That was amazing.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:24:15

       (exhales) Thank you so much. It was so interesting. The first, um, the first 20 seconds of that process are so fascinating because I had to confront a lot of things. I had to confront a lot of natural reactions that told me to stop, to get out, to... You know, my body went into this... like, a ph- a phase of panic. And it's funny because as I reflect on that feeling of, like, panic, it was like a wall, and it was a wall that I had to make a decision about going through or going backwards. And I say this because, uh, I think in a lot of our lives, we're surrounded by these walls. And it's in many of our lives actually, the- the walls kind of close in on us. And what I learned in the first sort of 20 seconds of that process was that that wall was something I created myself. It was a figment of my imagination. And as I sat there for five, six minutes, my body almost said to me, it was like, "Sorry, I was lying. I was lying to you."... something was like... C- because five, six minutes in, I'm completely fine.

    3. WHWim Hof1:25:18

       Yeah.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:25:18

       But in that first 20 seconds, some panic signal went off and told me to retreat. And so I just find that so fascinating. It's like, there's something about breaking through a wall-

    5. WHWim Hof1:25:26

       Mm-hmm.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:25:28

       ... that you once really believed was real, that illuminates your mind to the, what other kind of self-limiting beliefs you're currently constrained by in everyday life, you know, when-

    7. WHWim Hof1:25:41

       I could, uh, I couldn't, uh, say it better. Uh, self-limiting, uh, belief, uh, beliefs coming in at a certain moment become blockages, become patterns, become a condition. And that conditioning, uh, withholds us from going through, uh, things when they come to our lives, because they are too stressful. They are, uh, uh, mirroring that what we, uh, through our self-believing, uh, limiting-

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:26:10

       (laughs)

    9. WHWim Hof1:26:10

       ... uh, way of thinking have created. Then we see it outside-

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:26:13

        Mm-hmm.

    11. WHWim Hof1:26:14

        ... and we don't go in it. We don't go through it anymore, and thus we don't find, uh, uh, these things in our lives anymore to, um, as life's, uh, le- uh, lessons. It's no longer there. And, and there we limit ourselves and become narrowed. So, (clears throat) what we have found now through these, uh, practices that we are able to command our bodies so much better to go through the self-limiting, self, uh, uh, uh, this conditioning because in most of the time, it is, uh, that we get schooled, that we, uh, have to follow rules, ethics, and morals, et cetera. At a certain moment, we got a belief system that is not necessarily who we are in the depth. And this is where this society is suffering, uh, big time of having no connection with this invisible purpose of ours, which is there, but, uh, we... It's behind the wall. And, uh, uh, simply through doing this, you see you have the power to go through these walls. You have the power to, uh, become exactly who you are and what you are. That is what the cold is showing. Uh, it, it doesn't show what, what you think. It shows you who you are and what you are. And from there, you will see that the walls in your life, of whatever invisibly what were, uh, stalking you

26. 1:27:54 – 1:30:02

    Seeking discomfort

    1. WHWim Hof1:27:54

       will disappear.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:27:56

       Is this in part why it s- it seems like a lot of people in society right now are choosing discomfort? Because, you know, we've got kind of gone one way as a society. We've gone to comfort, and then you've got this counter movement of people that are now doing ma- ultra-marathon runs, and they're cold plunging, and they're, they're doing things to put themselves in intentional discomfort. It seems like it's... For me, it's, uh, I've, I've observed it like a counter movement.

    3. WHWim Hof1:28:21

       Yes. A- a- a- and it is. And, and it is. But, uh, the, the thing is, uh, now that we are showing in science with the, uh, Professor Vaibhav Divakar, uh, mostly in auto music, uh, that we found a key. And the key is the innate capacity of ours to command our bodies much better in our emotions. Because in the end, it's not about going into the extremes. It's about handling our emotion and to feel that we are on top of it, no matter what, and that being able to pass on to our children. (clears throat) The way reactionary, it, uh, uh, uh, all, uh, uh, that, uh, we go into these extremes and all, that is, uh, that is a reaction of our, uh, uh, m- uh, massive, uh, paradigm encountering too much comfort. Uh, uh, uh, now, "Hey, let's go do that." But, uh, that's reactionary. Humanistic is it that we actually, uh, are here to, uh, learn to have a, uh, hold, absolute hold over our emotion, which is directly connected to our purpose. Because from the beginning or, uh, (clears throat) it, uh, the problem, the conflict is the conflict with our soul, and our soul is about, uh... When we realize our soul and the unlimited power of the, uh, of the mind serving us to find realization of that soul, and that is for every

27. 1:30:02 – 1:36:24

    Wim's routine

    1. WHWim Hof1:30:02

       person unique.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:30:04

       What are the other things that are like staples of your r- daily routine? That-

    3. WHWim Hof1:30:08

       Uh, eat once a day.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:30:10

       You eat once a day?

    5. WHWim Hof1:30:11

       Yeah.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:30:12

       Okay. So you, you wake up. So can you run me through a, a, a perfect Wim Hof day?

    7. WHWim Hof1:30:16

       Yeah. That, uh, in the morning, uh, uh, I wake up, uh, next to my wife and my child there. My youngest is, uh, is six, and, uh, actually there's a new one coming. I'm 65, but hey, man, (laughs) I'm alive. I'm sorry. And (laughs) I got, uh, uh, uh, yeah, I found a younger woman, uh, eight and a half years ago. We are very happy together. And she says, "Don't talk about that." And, uh, I'm sorry. Uh, but, uh, I'm very happy. My oldest son is 42, and my youngest is gonna be zero very soon. So, (clears throat) that's life. Uh, uh, uh, uh, I wake up, and, uh, uh, I look at my beloveds next to me still sleeping and, uh, wow, they're like angels.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:31:08

       What time do you wake up?

    9. WHWim Hof1:31:10

       Five o'clock. Five o'clock, half past 5:00, uh, half past 4:00. Uh, around there.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:31:17

        Why so early?

    11. WHWim Hof1:31:18

        That, that is me now. Sometimes I just sleep until nine o'clock.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett1:31:23

        Okay.

    13. WHWim Hof1:31:23

        It's, uh, uh, I'm not really bound.

    14. SBSteven Bartlett1:31:26

        Okay.

    15. WHWim Hof1:31:27

        But, uh, uh, time is serving me. I'm not serving time. Uh, in the morning, I do my exercising, uh, rituals. And I like my coffee in the morning. It's, uh, I start, uh, no sugar, just coffee, a little bit milk, and nice.

    16. SBSteven Bartlett1:31:44

        What are those exercising routines?

    17. WHWim Hof1:31:47

        You saw me doing the splits.

    18. SBSteven Bartlett1:31:48

        The whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo.

    19. WHWim Hof1:31:49

        The (grunts) I want to do a world record, by the way, in three, uh, 3rd of August in Germany with 4,000 people doing this.

    20. SBSteven Bartlett1:32:00

        And do you weights or anything?

    21. WHWim Hof1:32:01

        Yeah, also. Yeah.

    22. SBSteven Bartlett1:32:02

        You use weights? Okay.

    23. WHWim Hof1:32:03

        Uh, before, not.

    24. SBSteven Bartlett1:32:04

        Okay.

    25. WHWim Hof1:32:05

        I, I did, uh, uh, push-ups. It's like weights.

    26. SBSteven Bartlett1:32:08

        Yeah. Yeah. Body weight.

    27. WHWim Hof1:32:09

        It's your own weight. So you can do that or weights. And, uh, uh, uh, I got a bar, where normally you got put the weight on-

    28. SBSteven Bartlett1:32:18

        Mm-hmm.

    29. WHWim Hof1:32:19

        ... and do this.

    30. SBSteven Bartlett1:32:20

        Yeah.
28. 1:36:24 – 1:40:05

    How do you find your purpose?

    1. SBSteven Bartlett1:36:24

       When you look at our society and th- the, this, these sort of stories we've told ourselves about how we're supposed to live-

    2. WHWim Hof1:36:30

       Yeah.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett1:36:30

       ... what are the other s- is there anything else that's really fundamental that you think people should question? You've talked to me about the breath. You've talked to me about discomfort. Breathing is one of them. You've talked to me today about fasting as well. Is there anything else that, you know, whether it's relationships or our work or our purpose that is just a lie in your opinion?

    4. WHWim Hof1:36:48

       Oh, yes. Our energy is being drained. It's like thieving, uh, and, uh, uh, uh, uh, we should have all the energy to bring happiness, strength, and health to our kids and to feel bright, bright and shiny in life. But we don't because we have to do this, do that, take on stress, and think about this, think about that. Who did this? Whatever did this, this is a massive paradigm going on, taking, uh, uh, our energy, uh, energetic, uh, bodies, and with that, our emotions, and with that, our life force, and, and there it is. The real philosophy serves that paradigm where one becomes happy, strong, and healthy, and is able to pass it on. You're only, uh, uh, good if you are able to be happy, strong, healthy inside and then pass it or radiate that to others.There you go past your ego. And that, that we, we, we don't live that. We survive in this society. We live in a competitive world. We have all kinds of rules and this and that, but do we really feel bright and, uh, uh, uh, and the top, the best of ourselves? Are we able to pa- give love in full conviction that it is good and, uh, uh, uh, to others? Uh, are we there? I don't think so. And, uh, that is what we are going to bring.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett1:38:25

       When you say you need to know, live in your purpose, how do I know what my purpose is? Do I have to go find it somewhere? Do I...

    6. WHWim Hof1:38:32

       You know what? Just be happy, strong, and healthy. Rest is bullshit.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett1:38:39

       Just be happy, strong, and healthy, and purpose will follow.

    8. WHWim Hof1:38:42

       Yes. That is the purpose. The characteristics of purpose is not to be in conflict with your soul.

    9. SBSteven Bartlett1:38:50

       Happy, strong-

    10. WHWim Hof1:38:51

        And healthy.

    11. SBSteven Bartlett1:38:52

        ... and healthy.

    12. WHWim Hof1:38:52

        That, and then you become happy, strong, and healthy. You don't need to work for that so much. A couple of exercises is more than enough. If I do my exercise, and I'm not a whole day, uh, working out, it's, uh, uh, it's 10 minutes, 15 minutes, but I'm ready. Uh, they, this morning, uh, because later I have a keynote speech, and, uh, I gotta go to the record label. I gotta meet somebody who is managing, uh, uh, by the government, uh, med school of the, uh, uh, England. Uh, I gotta meet them and, uh, uh, and something else. Uh, I, I thought, "Okay, today I gotta be ready." So what I'm doing, I breathe like a motherfucker.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett1:39:39

        (laughs)

    14. WHWim Hof1:39:40

        In the morning, in bed (breathes deeply) and cleanse myself so deeply that I'm ready to take on anything that is coming. And in that way, I will absolutely serve, and, uh, especially being with you, which is a pleasure, a great pleasure. We are serving purpose right over here, unmistakably,

29. 1:40:05 – 1:40:06

    Last question

    1. WHWim Hof1:40:05

       straight.

Episode duration: 1:46:04