Page 27 - WOM August 2018_FINAL_SPREADS_Neat

I C E M A N Breathing is the single most important

thing you can do for your body.

FROM PERSONAL TRAGEDY TO CHANGING LIVES.
with them for 4 days, taking them clarity to his method. He has sought an icy river in his hometown in the
By Shaun Scully through the breathing technique and the backing of the medical community Netherlands. No one else was around
cold exposure. We then climbed a to legitimise what he can do and to and he says “I saw this thin layer of
im Hof, better known 52 minutes and 42 seconds. What Wim decided to take the medical mountain on the Polish/Czech border teach others to achieve the same. As ice on the water and it called to me, it
globally as the Ice Man makes these achievements more studies further, “I wanted to show at minus 17 degrees Celsius in just our he says in his own words, “what I am invited me in.” He still doesn’t know why
W currently holds 26 world incredible, is that he is able to that my breathing and meditation shoes and shorts. We danced at the capable of, anyone can learn”. to this day, but he made the decision to
records, ranging from swimming regulate his body temperature, by techniques could influence the top of the mountain like crazy people. I Wim’s journey began many years disrobe and step into the water, “and
under an ice sheet for 66 metres, utilising a simple breathing and sympathetic nervous system and the knew then that they were ready for the ago, “I was the black sheep of my at that moment, spending 1 minute in
in only his shorts. Climbing to meditation technique that he has immune system. In 2012, I undertook final test. 4 days later, they participated family. I always thought differently, the water I knew that I was really going
6,700 metres altitude on Mount developed and mastered over many a study with Radboud University in the same study. They were all searching for answers to life’s big deep within myself and was responding
Everest in nothing but shorts and years of practice. In 2008, scientists Medical Centre in the Netherlands. injected with the same endotoxin. They questions. I was often ridiculed for my to the soul searching I had done for
shoes. Reaching the top of Mount at the University of Minnesota rigged I was injected with an bacterial all had the same results. Within 15 beliefs growing up. I found peace in many years”. As he emerged from the
Kilimanjaro only wearing shorts. endotoxin and within 15 minutes all minutes, all their symptoms were under yoga, meditation, martial arts and the water he felt alive and it changed the
Running a half marathon above my symptoms were under control as control.” This was part of an additional belief that if you could learn to control trajectory of his life forever.
the arctic circle in Finland, in I do not only endure the I was able to influence my autonomic study undertaken by Radboud Medical your mind and your emotions, you The exhilaration and the excitement
nothing but shorts. Can you see a cold, I love the cold. nervous system.” The study is titled: Centre, in 2014. could achieve almost anything you set he felt from the water, brought him
theme occurring? The Influence of Concentration/ We live in a world where there your mind to.” back to the river the next day, the
In addition to this, he has run a meditation on Autonomic Nervous are many snake oil merchants, from In 1995, his life was turned on its next and the next. He repeated this
marathon in the Namibian desert, Hof up to temperature and heart System Activity and the Innate Dr Oz, promoting the latest weight head. His wife and soulmate, the mother process and refined and developed
without food or water. He has hung rate monitors while submerging him Immune Response: A Case Study. loss pill on Oprah’s channel, to Uri of his 4 children committed suicide. “The his breathing technique until he was
from 1 finger for 30 seconds, on a in a tank of ice cold water. “What Authors: M. Kox, M. Hopman, P. Geller bending spoons. So, it is rare, love of my life left me. I was left to raise able to first manage, then master the
rope between 2 hot air balloons at you’re seeing basically is a situation Pickkers. et al. - Radboud University when someone comes along with 4 beautiful beings, without my partner, cold. “I found that by breathing deeper
2,000 metres altitude, and the list of in which the usual response to Medical Centre. extraordinary claims, backs it up with without my best friend.” and more consciously, I was able to
crazy achievements goes on and on. a shock or cold was completely He later proved this further, hard science and shows the world “Sadness for me, was a deep stay in the cold water longer. I found
He also holds the world record obliterated,” Dr Larry Wittmers, one by replicating the study with 12 how they can do the same. This is trigger, not for decline, for resolution”. that I no longer even had a sense of
for sitting in an ice bath, in 2011 of the scientists observing Hof, told participants who had no previous where Wim has separated himself Searching for answers, on a cold the cold.”
he recorded a time of 1 hour and America’s ABC News. understanding of his method. “I worked from the charlatans and has given Sunday morning, he was walking by Wim learnt to befriend his fears

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