wim hof returns to a simple premise: voluntary discomfort can change the way the body relates to stress. In this conversation from Doug Bopst, the strongest thread is not novelty for its own sake. It is the disciplined question underneath the trend: what actually helps the body become more resilient?
Take me back to the moment when you lost your wife. What was going through your mind? What did you feel in your body and how did that catapult you into what you're doing now? Yeah. When some and we are not schooled to take on grief from the secondary school or or universities or college or whatever school we go through. We are not equipped to go through uh grief and how to deal with grief because our society makes us able to fit in a system. But is that life? And when then somebody takes his life, in my case that was my wife, she had a a yeah schizophrenia, a mental disorder, a decreasing mental faculty to function with the four kids. I was with her. I loved her. and suddenly she takes her life. It's too horrible. We are not equipped to deal with emotions, depressions, with grief, all that. And so I had to find a way back then. I had to absolutely find a way to deal with the grief, with the loss, with the
with the grief, with the loss, with the pain. But as you have four kids, there's only a little time that you get for yourself. The rest you need to serve the kids. You need to create warmth in the nest so much that they don't need to grief that they are feeling kind of okay. And of course they miss mama. Of course they do. But when life keeps on going and it's going great and it's going good energetically. So the thing is in 95 I lost my wife and I could not find a way to heal within of the pain of the nagging of the nuisance of a mind like the the beeping of a dishwasher keeping on going. You can't concentrate anymore. You get you are distracted. Distracted of what? Of the duty and the care I needed to have for my kids back then. No money, just take care of your kids. And there it was all in one. And the only way I could er get my peace, my inner healing, my opening up to simply being was going into the ice.
simply being was going into the ice. I see water make shut down. This emotional nagging sound, the agony that goes paired with it. and a heart uh really suffers neurologically of the loss of your loved one. It's real. It's all real. But what is more real is cold water is icy water. It ma it uh activates the the survival brain the brain stem which is all about opioids to calm down the pain and it's all about the canabonoids to get into euphoria ephoria being simply unconditional being that's that's what I found to be effective in the moment I had no answer to the loss of my wife in 95. So that's the way it all started with taking cult to another level of emotional despair and bringing that emotional despair down. Well, Whim, thanks for sharing. I can't imagine all the pain you and your family were going through at that time. And I got to imagine it had to be even tougher
got to imagine it had to be even tougher to know that you had to also process the loss of your wife and at the same time take care of your kids. I'm curious like you mentioned the cold and the ice. How did you discover the benefits of it? Was it just something you read about? Was it just something you randomly tried? Like what was your origin story into the ice? And then talk about like your journey with the ice and how you were able to swim underwater and all the crazy things you've been able to do. Yeah. Uh I started when I was 17. I was already quite philosophical and uh a lot turning in my head thinking about what is esoterism, what is God? What is the purpose? Why are we here? What what is this? And and that made me turn around like crazy in my head. And one day I felt the urge to go into cold water. I never done that before. I went in and and felt directly this connection deeply within passing through this continuous uh hamstering of thoughts going turning around making me crazy kind of. It shut it down. It just goes past and then now I know how it neurologically works but back then I was begging for it
works but back then I was begging for it but I just did not know what what to do about it. So here there was an intuitive gut feeling coming to me to get into the cold water which back then a freezing water which back back then was something nobody did and it was something that that is crazy to do it. Cold is negative. Cold is is dangerous. And all these thoughts about that. No, I followed my gut feeling. And I went in and there I found myself in a different consciousness, a different awareness. And that awareness was my energetic body suddenly being fired up by this cold water in a deeper level of my physiology which made me feel crazy good the whole day after. So then the other day I went back to see if I was able to reproduce the same feeling, the same euphoria and it did it. And since then I have been hooked and that is 50 years ago. Since then, I of course I got went in longer and I learned how to
longer and I learned how to breathe in order to stay longer at ease in control. Not hyperventilating. Absolutely not. Just easy breathing made me able to stay longer and longer in the cold. So the cold is a power and if you are doing a breathing pattern that makes you able to go longer in the cold then you are dealing with a breathing pattern that makes you stronger that makes you able to stay longer in the icy water. So at a certain moment I started to separate that kind of breathing and did it at home that breathing which normally I did within the cold and then I saw all the beautiful lights the chakras the esoteric uh real rounds of ourselves. It was crazy amazing what I found with that. And from there in the cold uh yeah you learn to go swim, you got learn to go sit and then television came in and they they started to challenge me so
and they they started to challenge me so I could swim 50 m or 60 yards under the ice. Then they wanted more and more. Then they wanted me to climb the the Mount Everest, to do marathons beyond the polar circle, to stay for hours on end in icy water and all that. That's television. You think you might think I'm crazy, but television is really crazy. And so they challenged me in all these disciplines. And what happened is that uh physiologists doctors they are also looking at television. So I came with the do documentaries Discovery Channel, National Geographic, I don't know all kinds of documentaries and they saw it and they started to question themselves what this man is doing physiologically me being a physiologist and the physiologist or doctor that is humanly written down documented as not possible. So let's test him. And that was me in 2000 2010 that I started to be tested by the university hospital. And then they saw me doing things they had never seen
me doing things they had never seen before. And they now they could measure it. They could see it on monotopes. They could see it in blood. uh Marcus, they could see it all. They had all these apparatus connected to me, wired up completely. They got thousands of data of a person who went in nature, exposed himself and showed we can do more than we think. Breathing doesn't cost anything. The cold doesn't cost anything. but your motivation getting out of the comfort zone behavior and take it on. And so I am challenging science all the time and I get these studies lined up one after the other and showing it. We are able to tackle modernday problems so much better naturally through what? through deep effective breathing exercises. Doc, you remember how I talked about in the beginning when I felt I could stay longer in the icy water like 10 times longer because of a certain pattern of breathing then you know that that breathing internally is making me
breathing internally is making me stronger. From the beginning I was thinking what is life all about? What is the purpose etc. And the call brought me in connection with a deeper activation of my inner power my physiology and then I did it on my own just following my feeling for decades on my own. And then I started to do it in front of TV. Then the science came in and when I met the science I showed uh to be able to do more than medically medically was stated possible by humans. That's the story. What a story. And I I think that a lot of people they get in the cold and they they assume that they're going to panic or hyperventilate or you know whatever the fears are like how can how were you able to like what was the breath work process like for you to be able to control your physiology and how how does like what happens in the body that helps the co being in the cold help you with stress management and stuff for the rest of the day. We are built, Doug. We are built to defy much more stress than we take on voluntarily. I say if you don't go to the cold, the cold will come to you. If you don't go
cold will come to you. If you don't go to the stress, the stress will come to you. We are built to defy stress. We are built with a strong mechanism inside our brain, the central nervous system connected with our will which is trainable. H you can exercise this by hey I'm going into the cold. I want to be strong. Just before you go you do some breathing but the most important thing is mindset. So you learn to set your mind. There is a danger coming. But I am strong. I'm ready. I go and I'll be poised and tranquil. When the stress comes to me, the pain comes to me. I stay poised, tranquil. Why? Because I want so. And that I want is sending a neuros signal to the central nervous system that ignites the adrenal axis by which we really become so strong. I get 80 year old people never been in the cold and just in one day they go like 10 minutes in the cold icy water
like 10 minutes in the cold icy water 80 years. So it is a natural it's a deep natural power we have to adapt to stress but we never exercise it because we live in a cultural comfort zone behavior and we they say hey the cold is no good and we got to change the mentality. We got to learn to adopt autonomy over our physiology in the depth and wanted motivated. So our will is able to connect with deeper systems inside. And the exercises by going into the cold and you can start with a cold shower but very soon you can go into icy water for say two minutes until you're completely adapted. What happens when you go into the cold in the beginning? You lot do this and I say no. Before you go in, you say to yourself, I will long do long out breaths. When I go in, I go in one foot, one leg, the other leg. And while I do that, I said,
Stay with the long out breath. Then you stay in control. And then it takes 30 to 40 seconds that the adrenal axis inside will be activated. And suddenly hormones flush in makes your body really strong. So strong that you don't almost don't feel the cold anymore. And cold is power. But we have inner power and they meet but we need to let it because we have been conditioned to longer in comfort zone behavior. We are alienated from our own inner power. And I say it is very exercisable. Uh by using the cold and breathing, you will get back into that innate inner power very soon. And it works. You get all the energy of it. You get a cardiovascular system that is working great. And you learn to regulate your mood because what happens when you go into the cold that you're like anxiety and now you learn bring it down, You learn to regulate your mood and this will have
to regulate your mood and this will have a absolute effect in daily life. So that's what we need. That's what we missed out because we were prehistoric. The wolves came, tigers came, the cold came, the the heat came, etc. And we were like victims of that. We had to run, to flee, to fight. But now we have created a world with extensions of technology that makes our houses warm, our cars not makes us not walk. Uh uh everything is comfort and there we don't have this uh activation of the deeper systems no more. And there comes in the cold, there comes in uh the breathing exercises. They are very effective to bring back these deeper systems in our brain. Activate them and bring them within our willful control. I know that being in the cold can really help improve people's mental health and wellness. Is there any types of people that shouldn't get in the cold? Like maybe somebody who's already highly anxious or highly stressed or has certain medical conditions. Have you found that there are certain people that should just avoid it? This episode is brought to you by Waking Up. I've been a yo-yo meditator for years. I've started.
yo-yo meditator for years. I've started. I've stopped. I've downloaded the apps. I've let the streaks die. And here's the most frustrating part. I know it really matters. If you've listened to the show long enough, you've heard expert after expert all land on the same thing. A consistent mindfulness and meditation practice is foundational and crucial for mental health and overall well-being. But knowing that and actually sticking to it, now those are two very different things. So, I'm going all in. I just started the 28-day challenge on Waking Up, which is Sam Harris's app. And if you know me, you know I'm a huge fan of his work. And look, this isn't another generic meditation app. It's created by a neuroscientist, and the teachers are world class. This is the part that matters for people like me. It meets you exactly where you're at. No pressure to be perfect, just small daily wins that compound. If you listen to this show long enough, you know that that's the formula for any real transformation. Small wins stack daily. So, I'll be sharing my progress on social media along the way and would love for you to join with me. If you've been a yo-yo meditator like me, or you're an experienced meditator who wants to get better or try something new, click the link in the description or show notes for your free 14-day trial for waking up. Again, click the link in the show notes or description for your free 14-day trial for waking up. Now, back to the show. Yes. uh there there are people conditioned uh which is uh not enabling them to adapt. They have a condition that blocks at the moment when they are exposed to stress.
moment when they are exposed to stress. In this case, the cold and or breathing. For those I say uh just don't do it. Start or start very slowly. A little cold shower doesn't hurt nobody. with the greatest of anxiety. It doesn't hurt nobody of epileptic epilepsia or being pregnant or have a cardiovascular condition etc. told that if you take a a little cold shower, nobody gets hurt. And what happens? You get the awakening of a deeper physiology. Uh through that, but it starts very slowly and then in going into gradual cold exposure. uh even people with conditions are very able to adopt the cold as a practice in their life and reap the benefits of it very soon. But they have to mind their they have a conditioning a condition and conditioning of mind and body related to their condition. And therefore if they decide I want to do something with the cord and or breathing then do it
cord and or breathing then do it gradually. Your breath work method has helped so many people. I mean I know people that have tried things like therapy. They've tried you know mindfulness. They've tried different types of breath work and for some reason the Wimhof method has been transformational for them. Why do you what why do you think it has been it is so popular for people that have tried everything but can't seem to find something that helps ease their stress and anxiety is a very simple answer the the way I developed the breathing exercises was being shaped up by going into the cold is a power so you have to do and find an effective breathing pattern to defy that hour that cord and it did it and the other breathing exercise they don't do that they cannot they are just invented yeah as breathing breathing exercises box breathing uh this breathing pranayyama breathing kumbaka breathing I don't know what all what they call it but mine was not just invented as a breathing exercise and then finding out what it is good for. No, I went into the cold and learned noticed that my changing my
and learned noticed that my changing my breathing pattern made me able to stay with the same amount of power of my body to stay longer. That is effective breathing exercise that changes the metabolism inside profoundly. And then I separated it from the water. I did it at home. And then I saw all the bloody chakras and lights and all. It was crazy what I all saw. This I'm talking 50 years of practice. This was all in the beginning. This morning I practice. I still practice after a half a century literally because it works because anything that works in the cold works outside in the world of stress as well. That is the difference with other breathing techniques. they are quite say shallow or not apt uh to deal with modern day stress. I found it with the cold and uh combining it with different breathing patterns altogether. That's why this one works and it can be transformational for those who have been seeking something that is really effective.
something that is really effective. Yes, that's the answer. So, walk me through just for a short period of time, a few seconds, like how do you properly uh do the Wimhof method? So, if somebody wants to to try it or like I mean I'm just curious like how you there's so many people that tell you how to do it but I would love to hear from you yourself like what is the the proper way to do so? Now I've been uh through a lot of medical challenges and and what do I do at that moment? I just give all I got. I believe I we are able to awaken deeper physiology and with that immune system I start the breathing exercise and I will do only breathing and that is where is my mind. My mind is not I can't stop my mind but I can direct my mind and I'm just going into that feeling of the breathing. That's what I do. So every time when I do a breathing exercise on my own, I just seclude myself and seclude my mental space from the world and go into the breathing and then I start breathing being relaxed on a bed on a sofa very simple and fully in by the belly
very simple and fully in by the belly chest and then into the head because that are all been shown hormonally. It goes also into the head via the spinal fluid. So that's why I say belly, chest, head, it goes into the head. It's logical because oxygen gets into the blood, blood gets into the spinal fluid and there it goes into the brain and it needs to be fat that way. But we can influence that. So belly, chest, and then let it go. Once again, belly, chest, head. Letting go. All in. Letting go. You let it go. Not fully out. Just letting go. But fully in letting go. Fully in it. Letting go. All in. Letting go.
Letting go. All in. letting go. And because your mind is following the breath, the soul is able to appear. The depth is able to appear. And anything between you and your soul will be processed. Could be trauma, could be fears, could be blockages, inhibitions, whatever it is, it's being cleansed. That is a going with the breath together with the mind. And then I see people with a couple of rounds really going into their all things they have never seen before. That's logical because they have never been there in their limited conditioning. We are not schooled like we talked in beginning dog Doug. We are not schooled to deal with grief, to deal with emotion, to deal with trauma. We to deal with purpose. Our they say our purpose is to be part of a system. Look what the system is producing. I go for the soul and the soul I want to cleanse. So sometimes I go on a sofa, on the bed, I seclude myself of the world. I go within and cleanse anything that is
I go within and cleanse anything that is between me and my soul. That's a natural physical entity. It's a it's really there. That's the way we are built to be to cleanse ourselves spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally. all is there. So that is what I'm doing in every session with the breathing. And now it comes to that my soul really uh is in into its purpose in the world. And what is it? I reach out to hundreds and millions of people. Now what is that? I'm a simple soul. I'm just simple. We are simple. Yet we are talking about things that you cannot see but without it we sink in one day. So I want to put my finger on it. I want to say there is a clarity within everybody and through the right breathing sessions you are able to cleanse whatever is between you and your soul. And that's what I'm doing with every session. It's not just physical breathing and changing the alkalinity and pH levels within. [clears throat] It's following the life force
force force and cleansing me inside which is of accumulated stressful chemical residue neuro neurological residue in my body and which is preserving my vision, my purpose in life. my way to work with this vessel, this body, to serve my purpose. And that is to bring up my soul. And that is to cleanse my generational trauma, my ancestry, to honor my ancestry, not only to work out what they could not, but what they passed over genetically. All that is that breathing. And that breathing needs to be very effective and powerful. And the cold was my teacher. So I could stay longer in the cold because the breathing made me strong from within. Not only to stay in the cold but to take on anything that is stressful in my life. And what is one? My purpose. If I live up to my purpose, I get deep peace and that is my goal. That is my guide. That's my teacher. That is my guru. Whatever you call it, doesn't matter. It is there. And I'm
doesn't matter. It is there. And I'm driven by that soul. And in that way, I do the breathing. In that way, I go into the cold. In that way, I exercise my consciousness. right now. Some people when they I I know for me when I've done um breath work, you know, I get like anxious because of the physical symptoms that will come up and I'll start to worry about like feeling a little dizzy or my heart rate elevating or whatever. How do you overcome the physical how can people how can somebody overcome the physical sensations they feel and begin to calm their nervous system down? Yeah. So you start slowly. You start slow deep going slowly and deeply. You have a pace you can control. A pace that emotionally doesn't get you out of line. Anybody has his own pace. Find that pace and you will find your peace. And with that you are able to go into the depth of yourself in control in peace through your pace. Everybody has a unique pace and you just got to tune in. Your feeling will say you got your pace. Does it? It's not complicated and there
Does it? It's not complicated and there is no uh to-do book possible about what is your pace because you are the book. You are the open book. You got to read for yourself the signs within. If you go and you have anxiety or anxious uh reactions or tingling too much or stiffening up and all then you have gone too fast too rigorous. Stay within the control within your pace and you will remain in control and with that control you are very able to step into the depths. If you go too fast then anxiety will come. Uh all kinds of side effects will come. They are just messengers saying to you or signals, hey man, don't do it this way. Go back to the drawing boat. Go back to your pace because you are built to go with this deep breathing into the depths in full control. Anybody can do that. When I did the study with 12 people, 12 different people, they all had a different pace, but the results were all the same. And
but the results were all the same. And so for somebody who's looking to get started with the cold, challenging themselves, like embracing discomfort, breath work, like what's a simple protocol or routine they could try to get started so that they can build momentum off of that? Cuz I see a lot of people, they try to do everything at once and then they end up overwhelming themselves and not being able to maintain it because they've never done it before. The biggest step is uh being motivated to start. Don't do everything in a moment because yes, you are not conditioned to take it on fully. But very soon you will be if you go gradually. Start with a warm shower, then take a 30 seconds a cold shower or even 15 seconds. You can do that easily and you will reap the benefits from 15 seconds already. That will keep you motivated because you will get more energy. But if you go fully at once, you deplete yourself of energy. You have to go by which you get energy of it more than normal. That is your guide. That is your motiv. That will be the drive of your motivation because you will feel more energy coming, more
will feel more energy coming, more dopamine coming if you do it the right way gradually. You will reap the benefits from day one. You've been able to transfer transform pain into a lot of purpose. I've got my own backstory where I've done the same. But there's a lot of people where pain destroys them. Like what do you think is the difference between somebody who allows pain to destroy them and somebody who allows it to motivate them um to inspire other people? Yes. uh pain pain is a signal that something is off in the body and uh when it becomes conditioned long-term pain chronic pain then it's a then it's like a platform it's a level it's somewhere out there and it's strong and it's self uh supporting even it goes in circles we got to break those patterns I say [clears throat] if you don't go to the cult then the cold will come to you. If you don't go to distress the stress will come to you. If you don't go to the pain will come to you. For those who are suffering from pain I say go gradually consciously willfully in a shortterm
consciously willfully in a shortterm painful exercise. That is the cult. And when you do it shortterm and you are the one who is doing it, you create a channel, a pathway toward the pain center in the brain, which is the that doesn't Yeah. The periacqueductal gray hemisphere is the one of the opioids and euphoria the canabonoids. It's the canabonoid system that is where the pain is. That is where the pain goes. And so if we go to the p something painful like going into the cold, it's painful. We create a pathway cuz we are doing it. We don't wait until the pain comes to us. No, we create a moment a pathway to work the pain center by going consciously into a painful situation like icy water. And once that happens, you learn to create a pathway and with together with your will to control the pain to bring it down. For those who are in pain and or have suffered pain like emotional pain is
suffered pain like emotional pain is also physical pain in the end or people with physical pain I mean I'm doing even studies we did four studies with paralyzed people how much pain is that emotionally maybe they don't feel physically the pain anymore and that is also not group. They got a lot of phantom pains and all, but how about dealing with grief like that or emotional e annoyance or deep irritation or uh lack and loss of your own life in your legs and the rest of the body. All that is pain. And we are able to learn to control pain and turn it in the same area of the pain center in the brain is the euphoria. So what do you choose pain or euphoria? For that you need to create a pathway toward that brain center brain department. That is the brain's uh stem and part of it is the piaqueductal gray hemisphere which is the part of the opioids and the afororic canabonoids and we are able to connect with that to
and we are able to connect with that to learn to connect with that and with that have a willful control over pain and mood. You've mastered some of the hardest things in the world. Pe things that people couldn't even imagine doing even in their wildest dreams. Like what what about life? Is there anything about life that's still kind of hard for you? Anything you're working on as we're speaking to challenge yourself and grow as a person? You know, the world is uh is a lot of industry going on. There's a lot of greed going on. And as long as there are wars, there is no civilization. That is part of my vision. I want to stop that. I want to give people autonomy. And until that is not happening, I just keep on going. So there is no day that I'm not on that mission. There is no day that I am even when I wake up groggy for whatever reason, it doesn't matter. Very soon I'm the best of myself. Every day I make sure to my daughters I say, "Uh, dad, oh, you got to do the a retreat there. Oh, it's going to be successful. The keynote is going to be successful." I always tell them, listen, it's never forgiven. But learn to give your best then probably the best will come out. And up
probably the best will come out. And up till now always the best comes out. But never think you are you've done it or you know it because it is not knowing. It is not knowledge. It is to be in the moment alive organic. Being able to teach is being able to learn every day. every day being excited about life because there is more awaiting because the river of wisdom is alive. It's not book knowledge. It's not static. It's like a river and I flow with that river and I'm alive. Well, Whim, thank you so much for your time and for coming on the podcast. I love this conversation. I'm glad that we could make this happen. If people want to learn more about the Wimhof method and what you have going on, where's the best place for people to do that? I I got to tell you a secret. I've never been on my own website. [laughter] But I heard many people saying, "Hey, the website, just look it up, you know, YouTube films. I see 114 million downloads at the breathing exercises and in 40
at the breathing exercises and in 40 languages. It it's so many millions and something must be good about this. So just get in there and find yourself. You got your own peace. I wish you your peace and to get you yourself into your internal power. It's all there. It's all for free. Freedom is for free. Well, thank you, Whim, and for coming on the show. Yeah, people just Google Wimhof method and you'll find everything you need to know. So, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Really appreciate it. Thank you, Doug. You're doing great work and we are doing the same together. We bring common sense, beautiful common sense to the world. where the the wrong media and the wrong systems are at work trying to get a hold over our minds. We just talk as humans and bring enlightenment and freedom. Thank you very much for
Transcript auto-generated by YouTube. Verbatim — duplicates intentionally preserved.
Cold water is honest. It does not negotiate with the story in your head. It asks the nervous system to adapt, and it reveals whether attention can stay present when sensation becomes loud.
That is why the practice can feel clarifying. The win is not toughness. The win is discovering that the first wave of panic does not have to make the decision.
Breathing gives the mind an anchor and the body a signal. Slow, deliberate breathing can soften the stress response enough to stay inside the experience. Over time, this builds familiarity with discomfort rather than avoidance of it.
In everyday life, that familiarity becomes useful. Difficult conversations, grief, pressure, and uncertainty all arrive through the body. Training the body matters.
The most sustainable approach is modest. A cold shower finish, a few calm breaths, and a clear exit point can be enough. The point is consistent exposure paired with regulation.
Resilience compounds when the practice is repeatable. You do not need a dramatic ritual to build a steadier system.
Resilience is built when the signal is strong enough to adapt to, and measured enough to return from.
Use brief cold exposure as a regulation practice, not a test of identity.
Let the breath set the pace before increasing time or intensity.
Stop before form breaks. Consistency matters more than proving capacity.
