May 19, 2020

Strengthening Your Immune System | Wim Hof on Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu

Check out the Impact Theory Episode Page & Show Notes

Key Takeaways

• Two methods to control your physiological responses:
  1. Deep Breathing Techniques
     • With proper breathing, you can alter the chemistry of your body and produce intentional physiological responses
  2. Mental Willpower
     • By focusing your intentions you can control your body with thoughts alone
• Exposing your body to cold temperatures induces a stress response which forces your mind and body to adapt and grow stronger
  • The cardiovascular system adapts to perform all of its life-giving functions better through the greater thermogenesis forced onto your body by the cold
  • By repeatedly going through the pain and euphoria of cold temperatures your mind learns how to process stress for all future endeavors
• Enjoy the beauty of life spontaneously as a child would and stimulate yourself with many different intellectual and physical pursuits
  • These stimulations, which include cold showers and weightlifting, act on our lives to create greater realities and possibilities
  • Without stimulation, we stagnate into nothingness according to entropy

Products Mentioned

• The Wim Hof Method App is free for iOS and Android and will teach you to how to properly utilize breathing techniques as well as many other healthy pursuits

Intro

• Wim Hof (@Iceman_Hof) is a Dutch extreme athlete able to withstand freezing temperatures for hours naked due to his Wim Hof Method of breathing
• Host: Tom Bilyeu (@TomBilyeu)

Mind Over Matter

• There are two ways to control your physiological responses:
  1. Deep Breathing Techniques
     • Breathing is a direct link between your mind and your body
     • With proper breathing, you can alter the chemistry of your body and produce intentional physiological responses
  1. Mental Willpower
     • The mind is capable of feats deemed impossible by common consensus if only you unlock the potential within
     • By focusing your intentions you can control your body with thoughts alone
       • Wim Hof underwent brain scans which didn’t allow movement, even simple muscle contractions, in freezing water and was able to maintain a constant skin temperature with just his thoughts

How Cold Showers Help

• Exposing your body to cold temperatures induces a stress response which forces your mind and body to adapt and grow stronger
  • Like how the stress of lifting heavy weights forces your muscle to grow stronger
• The cardiovascular system is particularly strengthened because it is forced to pump blood and body chemicals more quickly in order to maintain a stable internal temperature
  • As a result of this stress, your cardiovascular system will be able to perform all other life-giving functions better, not only thermogenesis – the heat production process
• Cold temperatures also force you into the survival state of mind found in your brainstem, something rarely accessed in our comfortable modern lives
  • By repeatedly going through the pain and euphoria of surviving the experience you improve mental strength
  • “If you go into the cold you learn about stress, then when stress comes your body is ready to deal with the stress” – Wim Hof
• “A cold shower a day keeps the doctor away” – Wim Hof
  • Cold showers eventually become addicting if you manage to get over the hump because of how invigorating they make you feel

Enjoying Life

• Wim views children as the greatest teachers in enjoying the beauty and spontaneity of life
  • Even in quarantine, Wim is never bored because he is constantly playing with his two-year old
• Waterfowl will often dance in rainbows formed by waterfalls for no apparent practical reason; it is merely a spontaneous act of life
  • Humans have a higher capacity to enjoy life. We should therefore savor every moment and be childlike in our delight of the world.
• The spontaneity of life is stimulation. The modern lifestyle has taken the stimulation out of our lives because of our increasing reliance on technology and other comforts.
  • These stimulations, which include cold showers and weightlifting, act on our lives to create greater realities and possibilities
  • In technical terms it is the Second Law of Thermodynamics; without outside stimulation we will eventually stagnate into nothingness