I did the WHM for 1000 days a few years ago. I can definitely say my cold tolerance has increased, even after stopping the breathing, cold showers, etc...

I look at it like how a boxer reprograms themselves not to flinch when a punch is thrown at their face through repeated conditioning. Instead of instantly regretting the cold, you learn to accept it and not pre-program your reactions to it. Since most people live in 70 degree temps all the time, walking out into sub-freezing weather with minimal clothes is an instant shock to them.

I am just some weirdo that walks around in the cold barefooted and in shorts all year around, and no expert in reprogramming their parasympathetic nervous system or commanding my white blood cells to attack things. The WHM method just allows me to do it longer and in colder weather. YMMV and all that.

> Deep breathing. Not slow, but full and continuous inhaling and exhaling to the boundaries of lung capacity.

In is full, out is normal.

Disclaimer: I've trained 4 days with Wim for one of his landmark experiments. I was one of the guinea pigs.

Has this experience and things you learned along the way helped you in your life?

Yep, whenever I do not want to feel cold, I can. Note: I wouldn't describe it as feeling warm. In fact, I'd describe it as a pretty adrenaline-like state [1]. That adrenaline-like state is much more comfortable than feeling cold. It's super practical to have this when you think about it, the weather's got nothing on me! It's really tough for me to feel unhappy about the weather, because whenever I do, I can use my superpower and go from a chilly/shivery person to a person that can suddenly handle -5 degrees celsius in their shorts (with shoes on though).

The only thing that still annoys me is rain and hail at times. But as a chilly/shivery person the issue was always cold temperatures for me. That issue is gone. I say it with surprise because I still think it sounds crazy. Before 2014 it had such an impact on my life and suddenly all that misery just drops to zero.

Spiritually though, I didn't notice a lot, I'd rather stick to meditation for that. And whatever people may say, IMO, the Wim Hof Method is not a meditation. It's a combination of two breathing techniques + an optimistic trained/taught mentality about the cold being your friend.

Oh, I also sometimes use it as a natural painkiller when I don't have one on me and start to get a headhache. You know since the adrenaline-like state includes some actual adrenaline [1] :)

One "issue" with the WHM is that you need to keep doing it to stay in the state. It otherwise wains after 5 minutes or so. Because of this, it's impossible for me to be social in a normal sense, since breathing in a very specific way + talking at the same time is about as tough as beatboxing while singing (which I know how to do as well :P). Which means: it requires a lot of practice and trickery.

[1] Research shows you get a lot of adrenaline in. It's in the publication I was a guinea pig for: https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/111/20/7379.full.pdf

Just off the top of my head...

I'm more likely to go swimming, even when the water is cold.

I'm more likely to take a cold shower, which has many benefits.

Just generally being uncomfortably cold less often, as others have mentioned.

And that general good feeling of "I didn't think I could do that, but I did!"

Thank you

This is really interesting, I had never heard of this type of meditation until now and I have been using those techniques since I was a child waiting for the bus in the early morning with what I felt was success at the time.

I similarly remember willfully altering my heart beat at the doctor's office on several occasions as a practical joke. I wonder if the two situations are linked in a significant way?

I also have the amazing paranormal ability to "alter my heartbeat", it's called jumping jacks.

It wouldn't have been much of a prank if I was so obvious about it, would it? I did it while the doctor was actively in the process of taking my heart rate by concentrating and taking either shallow or deep breaths as sneakily as I could manage. I was simply wondering about the connection to this type of meditation as meditation is often concentration and breathe based, there's nothing paranormal about it.

Ha, that's interesting. In what way did you alter your heartbeat?

That is to say, I would imagine my heart rate speeding up or slowing down and either take shallow or a deeper breaths at different speeds. I remember that I figured it out once when the doctor commented on how high my heart rate was and I slowed it quickly enough that they actually mentioned it. After that I started doing it as a game, which I eventually got bored of as children do.

I do wonder how effective I actually was, as it isn't really something I have thought about for literal years.

Hof is only mentioned in passing in this particular essay.

"Not slow, but full and continuous inhaling and exhaling to the boundaries of lung capacity."

Sounds like some serious hyperventilation - I wouldn't recommend doing that as it can lead to cerebral hypoxia

I've passed out doing this kind of thing during systema training. I wouldn't like to try it tramping through the snow.