Pod Insights The School of Greatness 799 Wim Hof: Master Your Body and Heal the Mind About this episode RELAX. How often do you say, “I’m just going to get through the day.” You’re running on adrenaline. But it’s not sustainable. If you’re not relaxed, you’re not breathing. If you’re not breathing, you’re not getting oxygen. It’s a loop. You’re going to be exhausted all the time. On today’s episode of The School of Greatness, I talk about the power of breathing to heal our mind and body with a man known as “The Iceman:” Wim Hof. Wim Hof got his nickname “The Iceman” by breaking a number of records related to cold exposure. His feats include climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in shorts, running a half marathon above the Arctic Circle on his bare feet, and standing in a container while covered with ice cubes for more than 112 minutes. He developed the Wim Hof Method: a natural path to an optimal state of body and mind. He says that our brains have the power to guarantee us happiness, strength, and health. We can actually regulate our mind and the autonomous nervous system by breathing and being present. Shut Up. Go in. Feel. Be. Connect. So get ready to learn how to harness the power of the mind on Episode 799. Some Questions I Ask: How does creating stress on the body prevent disease? (4:00) What do you think about right before you get in the cold water? (8:30) Why did you get into the ice and breathing business? (16:30) Where do you feel the most loved in your life? (29:00) Who was more influential? Your mom or your dad? (38:00) In This Episode You Will Learn: How control of the autonomic nervous system in the brain can help depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders (10:00) How cold helps you still the emotion on your mind (25:00) About your sixth, seventh, and eighth senses (32:00) About the science behind the benefit of putting stress on your body (3:00) Follow me on: Instagram @LewisHowes Twitter @LewisHowes Facebook @LewisHowes Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 This is episode number 799 with the Iceman, Wim Hof.
0:07 Lewis Howes? Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.
0:32 Speaker 00 Nelson Mandela said, "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." Welcome to this episode. Super excited. We had Wim Hof on a few years ago, and it blew up. It blew up on video, on audio, and we decided to bring him back on. For those that don't know who he is, Wim Hof got his nickname, the Iceman, by breaking a number of records for his ability to withstand extreme cold. He has set Guinness World Records, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in shorts, and ran a half marathon above the Arctic Circle
1:13 Speaker 00 barefoot. He believes humans have an inner power, which is the ability to adapt to extreme temperatures and survive within our natural environment. On this principle, he developed the Wim Hofed Method, a natural path to an optimal state of body and mind. And in this interview, we talk about how to prevent illness when creating stress on our body. Also, Wim's life story and how he got into ice and breathing training, our sixth sense and how tapping into what makes us feel fearless, and the greatest lesson the cold has taught him, and so much more. Super excited about this one. It's a powerful one. Make sure to share this
1:57 Speaker 00 with your friends, lewishowes.com/799. This can transform your life if you apply some of these principles. I've done these principles over the last few years, whenever I feel stressed or overwhelmed. Some of my team has done this and I've seen complete life changes in them. And so many of our listeners who have gone through this have seen huge transformations. So make sure to share this with a friend, be a hero to someone today by just texting a friend this link. LewisHowes.com/799 and spread the message of greatness moving forward. Alright guys, I'm excited about this one. This will be powerful. Make sure to share with your friends. Without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only Wim Hof.
2:45 Wim Hof? This bomb is being heard that they see what kind of hole we have created in the in the ignorance, in the dependency of ours.
2:56 Speaker 00 Okay.
2:57 Wim Hof? And that we should change and see past these walls of not knowing now how much you could know.
3:05 Speaker 00 Okay.
3:06 Wim Hof? Within yourself and that it is there scientifically endorsed, yet it is not to the interest of the establishment to be so self-aware with so much more power within in such a short time being able to set off.
3:24 Speaker 00 Right.
3:25 Wim Hof? And so six years ago, we showed as the first ones in medical history that the autonomic nervous system can deeply be influenced. After sixteen thousand hundred and thirty-four test subjects of endotoxemia bacteria injected, all became sick, very sick, because it's inflammation causing this bacteria, E. coli bacteria. It's a controlled experiment and it's to find out if we have a natural way, means of our mind, maybe breath, maybe this, maybe that, in hospitals, in a controlled environment,
4:06 Wim Hof? how to beat inflammation, which is the cause and effect of any disease in the end.
4:13 Speaker 00 Inflammation.
4:14 Wim Hof? So they created this endotoxemia model that is injecting a bacteria and it works for three to six hours. People become really sick.
4:26 Lewis Howes? Have you done the injection?
4:28 Wim Hof? Yes, yes. I've done the injection and then I was the first one to show a completely different chart than all the sixteen thousand people. And then they said, but that's because you are the Iceman, you are in a freak of near nature and you do these crazy, extreme things and that's why you are able where others are not able to do that. And then I said to them, no, what I can do, anybody can do. Then they took me on in the end and I took eighteen people to the mountains for days.
5:11 Wim Hof? I learned them to cope with extreme cold in their shorts. I learned breathing techniques and I learned the mindset. Mindset is a neurological muscle inside. We have. Yeah, it's not placebo, it's a real muscle, neural activity. When that unites, it's called willpower. You can really connect with that into any part of the brain and with that into parts thought of inaccessible.
5:44 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
5:45 Wim Hof? And this is the latest study I've shown in Detroit, Michigan, in the Wayne State University in brain scans. Cold water is stress. In the end, anything outdated, stress, negative stress coming to us, creating cell biological stress.
6:06 Lewis Howes? So when we create stress on the body, how does that help us kill inflammation or disease or sickness?
6:12 Wim Hof? Sickness. How? By going from your consciousness, your will.
6:18 Wim Hof? We thought of will is somewhere there. It's not over there, it's right over here, it's a muscle. And you are able to, to go with that will. Power is the center in the brain, prefrontal cortex. Going into the brain stem. The brain stem is about survival. But because we live every day in a very controlled environment, like the world where we live in with the heat, the cold, sedentary lifestyles, going into the car, we got it all controlled by our thinking. Not by our feeling anymore. Not the nature is coming to us anymore. Does the deeper parts, the old brain, the reptilian brain,
7:00 Wim Hof? brain stem and the limbic system, the mammalian brain, the animal. It's not being lived anymore. We are not living like zebras and giraffes and, and know the danger and flee and fight and food and it's all there, the food is in the supermarket, you don't need to find it. Uh, you don't need to flee, fight, but the dangers are still there. And when the dangers come like inflammation, causing inflammation, then we don't know how to tap into those deeper parts of the brain. Because we were thinking all the time. Thus, twenty-five percent of our blood flow goes into this thinking brain.
7:43 Wim Hof? And the rest is like on standby, surviving.
7:47 Lewis Howes? Yeah, do you think it's possible for someone to, if they're getting a cold or a flu-like symptoms, to, without breathing techniques or without cold therapy, can they just use their mind?
7:58 Wim Hof? Yes.
7:58 Lewis Howes? To change?
8:00 Wim Hof? Exactly.
8:01 Lewis Howes? That flu-like sickness? Is that possible? Or do they need breathing and cold?
8:05 Wim Hof? No, no, they don't need it. This is the, we are different than zebras and giraffes. That is true. And that is because we, a part of us is animal. But here comes in the human consciousness. The human power of the mind. And the seat of that is our brain. And our brain, we have learned only to go into the surface, the thinking, thinking, thinking, and controlling the world around us. With that, we have no way of accessing into these neurological pathways into the depth of our brain. We didn't exercise that.
8:45 Wim Hof? For that, the cold is great. For that, the breathing is great. But once you have done that, then suddenly, these neurological pathways are existent. And you know what? This is what I did in Michigan. Showed as the first one in the world in brain scans, how to get cold water, a stressor, on the body and make it go away, just in my core, my skin. Temperature did not go down just by using the mind.
9:15 Lewis Howes? Really?
9:16 Wim Hof? That could be a circus act, whatever, you know, it's not a matter. It's about how to deal with stress on your body, just by using your mind. And stress on your body could be caused by biological stress, physical stress, emotional stress, any stress, but in the end, it is cell biological stress. And we have a possible connection between our will and a part of our brain which is dealing internally, just through the mind, using the mind with stress, with the result of stress.
9:51 Lewis Howes? When you're about to enter into thirty or forty degrees ice cold water, and what is the thing that you think of thirty seconds before? Obviously, you're doing your breathing techniques and other stuff, but what's the thing you think about when you're getting in and then sitting in there so that your temperature does not change? Or maybe it changes a little bit, but not drastically?
10:13 Wim Hof? No, you know, if you stay for two hours in and the core body, the temperature, the core is not changing.
10:22 Wim Hof? And even in New York, I was with Dr. Ken Kamler. In after one hour fifteen minutes in the up till here with the ice. My core body temperature went down to a point where normally physically or physiologically by mathematics are stated. This is here, we have no power over our core body temperature anymore. It goes spirally down from here and you're you're gonna die. Hypothermia or? Hypothermia, getting into coma, body parts shut down and then you die. We have no way to get down and I was dangerously past this level. You were there? Yes, I was there. I was at Regis and Kelly.
11:07 Wim Hof? Wow. And and the one of the Serena Williams was there. We just won the US Open. And she was there and I was looking there. So I was not busy with my controlling my body. I went dangerously down and then where normally you cannot go up anymore. I just used my mind and. What are you? What are you thinking? Ah, now comes thirty seconds before I go in. I just say, shut up, shut up, go in, feel, be, connect. And this connection they saw now is the connection with the periaqueductal gray hemisphere.
11:51 Wim Hof? And what they say, we now have the compelling evidence of the key components of the autonomous processes in the brain related to mood regulation. Where normally we get into depression or anxiety and fear, trauma, PTSD, psychosis, all those things. Because we don't have a hold on those key components of those autonomous processes. Autonomous is outside of the will, now it's inside of the will, shown in the brain scan. And that to regulate your mood or the emotion itself. This is what they said, the professors, you can look it up and it's all been published, by the way.
12:35 Wim Hof? And I'm waiting for the next study on people with bipolar status. Because I think it takes four days to get people out of their bipolar state of mind. And get them back into this sense of control and have balance within themselves. The way nature meant it to be. Because being bipolar in nature, the mammal i- i- it would not survive. It's bipolar. There comes life, yeah.
13:00 Wim Hof? I'm gonna eat you, you look like a steak.
13:02 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
13:02 Wim Hof? So, we are equipped after millions of years. How to deal with all those states of mind to become the best in the moment again and regulator.
13:13 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
13:14 Wim Hof? But we lost it through the thinking brain. Too much, we have indulged too much into the thinking brain. So, when we get this now back, we are able, and there's the importance of your work, my work. To bring people to the awareness that they are in control over their beautiful emotions through their beautiful mind.
13:37 Lewis Howes? Absolutely. When you see someone that comes to you that says, I'm overworked, I'm overstressed, I'm depressed, I have no purpose. I'm constantly in a prison in my mind and I have no way to get out. What would be the path that you would recommend in the next twenty-four hours for them? To start moving towards that balance?
13:57 Wim Hof? Yeah.
13:58 Lewis Howes? If they're overworked, stressed, you know?
14:00 Wim Hof? First I would do, uh, relax. Do you want coffee, do you want tea? Bulletproof or non-bulletproof, it doesn't matter. Whatever you feel, what do you feel? Relax the person, bring it away from the anxiety, worry is in.
14:16 Lewis Howes? Yeah, okay.
14:17 Wim Hof? We have the tendency, we have the power as humans to share love, to share a deeper feeling. And one is in anxiety, you say, oh, there.
14:29 Lewis Howes? Chill out, bro.
14:31 Wim Hof? Chill out, brother, and really pass it on. And some oxytocin coming, it's all there, it's nature.
14:38 Wim Hof? So that would be the first one.
14:40 Lewis Howes? Okay.
14:41 Wim Hof? And then, are you ready for some changes? Yeah, okay. Yes, of course. I'm so tired. Okay, tired, we will increase your energy. We will get you back in the sense of control. You drive your own car. It's your car, it's your wheels, man. And you wanna go from A to B and enjoy the, enjoy the view. Well, go on. So, we will get you there, okay? Is that up? Just relax. Tell them to relax. Because a relaxed body is able to store up oxygen.
15:18 Lewis Howes? Hmm. So if you're not relaxed, if you're not breathing, you're not getting oxygen.
15:22 Wim Hof? And logically, the biochemistry will be less quality. And if that is gonna be chronic, it's a loop, then you're gonna be exhausted.
15:32 Lewis Howes? All the time.
15:33 Wim Hof? All the time. That's the burnout and all those things. Shallow breathing, wrong biochemistry, keeping on going. Put some adrenaline on, because you've got some deadlines to go. And in the end, there is no lifeline anymore.
15:47 Lewis Howes? Right.
15:48 Wim Hof? Yeah, so, something like that. So, I, I get these people and within twenty minutes of breathing, deep breathing, we know, and they feel completely restored in their biochemistry. And thus, wow, yeah, that's who you are.
16:08 Lewis Howes? Right, right.
16:09 Wim Hof? And from there, they feel, when, when the biochemistry is right, energy comes. It's mitochondria. Mitochondria, you get aerobic, yeah, aerobic, what is it? It's oxygen. Oxygen in your little energy factories and suddenly you get more ATP. ATP is a molecules, is energy. With the energy, let's work on the transportation system. The blood vessels within your body is at the length, three times the world. It all has its beautiful little muscles and it wants to be awakened. So it is able to run the blood flow better through the body,
16:49 Wim Hof? bring the nutrients, oxygens and, and vitamins, life force itself into the system, to all cells. You know what happens? The heart rate suddenly goes down. Fifteen to thirty beats a minute, twenty-four hours a day. Whereas the stress is gone. Because in the end, everything is self biological stress.
17:11 Lewis Howes? Hmm.
17:12 Wim Hof? But people don't know anymore. And with that, they get this sense of control over their, simply by breathing and going into the cold.
17:22 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
17:23 Wim Hof? Sorry that it is so simple, just do it and it comes along.
17:28 Lewis Howes? And for those that don't know your story.
17:29 Wim Hof? Then we go into the cold.
17:31 Lewis Howes? Yeah, after you relax.
17:32 Wim Hof? Like tomorrow, I've got this Oscar actor actress, Paul Tro.
17:38 Lewis Howes? Uh huh.
17:38 Wim Hof? Uh.
17:38 Lewis Howes? When is it?
17:39 Wim Hof? Yeah, whenever, tomorrow. And within one and a half hour, I will get a half hour in an ice bath, very stressful environment, and you're gonna feel great.
17:50 Lewis Howes? Wow, when is that?
17:51 Wim Hof? Tomorrow.
17:52 Lewis Howes? Twelve o'clock?
17:52 Wim Hof? Well, one o'clock.
17:53 Lewis Howes? Catch, great, cool. For those that don't know your story, why did you get into the ice and breathing training in the first place? This is from like at two years old, you're always in the cold or?
18:03 Wim Hof? Yes, actually, if you go back, way back, I was born dramatically. I was one of the twins, identical twins.
18:13 Lewis Howes? Wow.
18:13 Wim Hof? They never knew there was another one. And I came almost too late, like blue, purple.
18:21 Lewis Howes? Wow.
18:22 Wim Hof? In the cold of a hole way. That's where I came. And my mother was very religious, like naive, religious, strong, as a woman, very strong. She made this invocation and she told me later, oh God, let this child live. Because they were to go to cut her open.
18:41 Lewis Howes? Wow.
18:41 Wim Hof? To get the baby out and she was in fear about that. She was being pushed from the recovery room to the operation room. And in the hall, just before entering the rubber doors of the operation room, she just got me out with the words, oh God, let this child live, I will make him a missionary.
19:05 Wim Hof? Here I am, the missionary. So I got a mission, but at that moment, I was a piece of nothing. Like purple, with that invocation, a mother has power.
19:18 Lewis Howes? Wow.
19:18 Wim Hof? And naive or not, she can change the world there and she can make it hard like a tattoo on your soul. And that's what happened.
19:28 Lewis Howes? Wow.
19:28 Wim Hof? I was always different than my identical twin brother.
19:32 Lewis Howes? He's still alive?
19:33 Wim Hof? Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. He's alive, but he's not able to do what I do. Because I do what I do, because I had different experiences coming there from. Nate imprinted my soul, imprinted my type, my character. It was there, boom. And always being different than him, but hundred percent genetically the same. They did all the studies on us. And then they saw, yeah, it's a genetic, genetically the same, but he is not able to do what he is. And it's because of the training.
20:08 Lewis Howes? Wow. If he did the training, would he be able to do it?
20:11 Wim Hof? Yes, and he's doing it now.
20:12 Lewis Howes? Yeah, yeah, gotcha.
20:13 Wim Hof? And he's healing a lot of people now.
20:16 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
20:16 Wim Hof? And yeah, it's happening. And everybody who's doing this is able to pass it on and get the same results we scientifically have achieved.
20:27 Lewis Howes? Amazing.
20:27 Wim Hof? The autonomic nervous system, endocrine system, the immune system, and the deepest part of the brain are now accessible at will for anybody who does this properly.
20:40 Lewis Howes? And when did you start getting into this? Was this teen years or?
20:43 Wim Hof? This is like a subcurrent. When I was twelve, I was reading on psychology and Buddhism and I was always a little bit strange, looking for things out there.
20:54 Lewis Howes? Right.
20:55 Wim Hof? And wherever I go to get my hands upon, I was into. And when I was seventeen, I already read so many books, so many religions, traditions, cultures, esoteric disciplines, yoga, kung fu, karate, anything I could do, you know? I had done. And there I found the cold water.
21:17 Lewis Howes? Really?
21:17 Wim Hof? In a morning, a Sunday morning, a thin layer on the ice, underwater. Looking around, I just undressed myself, went in, and I knew from the inside, this is it.
21:30 Lewis Howes? Wow.
21:31 Wim Hof? It connects you. And this is what.
21:34 Lewis Howes? You can't think about anything else.
21:35 Wim Hof? Exactly.
21:36 Lewis Howes? You have to think about that moment.
21:38 Wim Hof? Oh, yes.
21:38 Lewis Howes? Present.
21:38 Wim Hof? Yes, and but it matched my birth trauma. And this is what I later figured out, I was born in the cold of the hole, almost suffocated. Too long in in there, suffocate you, you get less oxygen. So what the first thing you do when you go into the cold, what is this?
22:00 Wim Hof? You begin to breathe deep. What do you do when you get born, when you?
22:05 Lewis Howes? Take a deep breath.
22:06 Wim Hof? You come with an inhale, you go with an exhale. That's it. So the cold does the same. The cold brings you right there. As like rebirthing. And I felt, you know, beyond or deeper than thinking, you feel, oh, this is it. I felt power. I felt this connection, which I had experienced at my birth. And at that time, I was absolutely not aware of anything, but now I was aware that I had touched on something I was always looking for.
22:47 Wim Hof? And that made me feel.
22:48 Lewis Howes? What were you looking for?
22:50 Wim Hof? That that that trauma to get to get a hold. That what was imprinted inside. And that made me, the other day, come back.
23:01 Lewis Howes? And do it again.
23:02 Wim Hof? And and four months later, I was able to stay. And this is not for nobody. This is me for five to seven minutes under the water.
23:13 Lewis Howes? Holding your breath.
23:14 Wim Hof? Holding the breath after twenty five of these deep breaths. Then because that all worked and it was great, you feel a great stillness while doing it. It's like in a fetus fetus position, I'm under the water, just on my own. And and nobody around. I had it always, just for my own. The trees were there, no leaves, but you know, it was my little place. Nobody could see it. And there I always trained, every day, every winter. And at a certain moment, I began to separate the breathing and I brought it home.
23:54 Wim Hof? And then I saw all the lights and all the chakras and whatever they call in all these books, I saw it. And this time, not because of reading, but because of doing it.
24:06 Lewis Howes? Experiencing it, being in it.
24:07 Wim Hof? Yes.
24:08 Lewis Howes? And didn't you have an experience later in your life with, where someone died in your life and you came back?
24:13 Wim Hof? Oh, yes, that, my wife, when I was thirty-five, with whom I had four children, and still have. And I work with them, you saw just two of them.
24:27 Lewis Howes? They're great.
24:28 Wim Hof? She jumped from an eight-story down because of mental disorder.
24:33 Lewis Howes? Really?
24:34 Wim Hof? So severe, I mean, like here, go, just kissing the kids goodbye first. Love was there, but the terror was also there. And she decided to jump and go. That can be life, that can be terror of life, in life. And a lot of people are suffering in this world. I, at that moment, was earning very little, having four children. I was in the mountains at that present moment because making money through mountaineering and being a mountain guide and all.
25:15 Wim Hof? My kids were with the family in Spain, Basque country, and she did that.
25:20 Lewis Howes? Wow.
25:21 Wim Hof? And that had, of course, such a great impact. It broke not only my heart, I was just shocked. You're shocked, you cannot think about it, you cannot, you don't know what happened. But you have four children, so you take care of the children and you go on. But deeply, you are broken.
25:45 Wim Hof? Now, there I began very consciously going into the cold water. Because at that moment, from there on, I had to deal with my own terror in my mind. My own worries, my own broken heart, and it all influences your thinking brain every day, every day. The cold makes your mind still. Yeah. You cannot picnic, you cannot think about your worries, or about your mortgage, or anything. You're just. Can't breathe, you have to focus. Yeah, and so you are surviving, and surviving is the same part as the emotion. The deep emotion. So that was the only way to still the influence the emotion.
26:30 Wim Hof? Creating all these bubbles in my head of the. And that's, so my children made me survive. The cold healed me. And now. How long did it take until you started to heal? Oh, that took, I don't know, five to 10 years. Really, to heal the process? Yeah, to get it consciously to my mind. I think it took me like a month to get a halt of this anxiety inside. Something like that. And then from there, I just kept on doing it, of course.
27:09 Wim Hof? And I loved it as I did it before, but now it had this absolute therapeutic power. And a purpose too, yeah. And now look at this, Louis. This happened in 95. It's 2018. It's like 23 years ago. And now I'm a dropout from school. But now I'm teaching the professors and the doctors in all the world that we have an ability to tap into the deepest part of the brain and solve all the matters related to mental disorders and having no control. Wow. And there is no pill, no medicine involved. It's your own awareness, your own power.
27:55 Wim Hof? And then you get into the cold and the breathing. And we skip the breathing and the cold at a certain moment. We get in our innate control by our mind. The way the establishment doesn't like it. But the way we should have to confront ourselves with any stressor happening in the world. To take care of our beloveds.
28:20 Lewis Howes? Yeah, well, the establishment doesn't like it because it's not making them money. If you.
28:24 Wim Hof? That is the disease. That is the big disease, though, withholding. And I think making money, very nice, great. But I don't want pills. I don't want medicine. I want happiness, strength and health. If you are happy, how much money do you need? You see? How much cars do you need? How much of this? If you're happy, you're happy. So if you are able to regulate your own mood. And we found the compelling evidence of the key components. Of the autonomous processes in the brain related to emotion itself. I want it out there. I want professors and doctors. Prove me wrong, guys.
29:07 Wim Hof? Because we got approved already in the science. But now we are with the establishment. So the establishment is there, it's very nice. You can make bridges and big buildings and all that and shoot people to the moon. Let's begin and start guaranteeing happiness, strength and health. Because it's there. Boom.
29:28 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
29:29 Wim Hof? There, your work and my work collide positively.
29:33 Lewis Howes? Absolutely, man. It's amazing.
29:36 Lewis Howes? Where do you feel the most loved in your life?
29:41 Wim Hof? I just loved your walk.
29:44 Lewis Howes? Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
29:46 Wim Hof? I think you're a very lovable person. You're a big bear. I get to meet people like you.
29:52 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
29:52 Wim Hof? And that's amazing.
29:53 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
29:54 Wim Hof? And that's very lovable, but also very powerful. Because in the end, love is the greatest power in the universe.
30:01 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
30:02 Wim Hof? If you are in love with somebody. Then you fly.
30:06 Lewis Howes? Fly.
30:07 Wim Hof? There is no thinking anymore. You're just, yeah, nobody can stop you.
30:11 Lewis Howes? Fly.
30:11 Wim Hof? So that love is the biggest one. And that love you got, not only for your woman, you got it also for your children.
30:18 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
30:18 Wim Hof? You got it for, a- a- and we should have it for nature.
30:22 Lewis Howes? Hmm.
30:22 Wim Hof? Because then you don't nee- even need to respect. You love it, you're not gonna damage it.
30:28 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
30:29 Wim Hof? You see? And we lost that because we lost the connection. We are wrongly schooled in the, from the beginning of. And so the school, like the school of greatness. It starts in the primordial, uh, in the primary school, primordial, primary, uh, the primal, uh. Let's not have them just, uh, uh, uh, being taught in history, language and, and mathematics.
30:54 Lewis Howes? Teach them love.
30:55 Wim Hof? Teach them love, composed by scientific endorsed a reality wherein data are able to tap into the immune system and the green system to guarantee happiness, strength, health. Happiness is e- e- endorphins and, uh, dopamines and all that. The health is the control over the tapping in into the immune system in all the levels. We have showed, we have showed, we have showed, and the, and the strength is the adrenaline at your service, like the adrenal axis, uh, to, i- in your conscious will. Uh, that it is all there. And with that comes the rest too. We should not be individualized through schooling to become a tough motherfucker,
31:39 Wim Hof? uh, hitting with the elbows to the others because you gotta compete and you become strong there. That's not strength, that is aggression.
31:47 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
31:48 Wim Hof? Strength is where we help each other to become the best of ourselves.
31:52 Lewis Howes? That's true.
31:52 Wim Hof? And it's all there now.
31:54 Lewis Howes? That's true.
31:55 Wim Hof? There we are.
31:56 Lewis Howes? What's your greatest fear?
31:58 Wim Hof? Greatest fear?
31:59 Lewis Howes? For you personally?
32:02 Wim Hof? It's always a different question. It it it looks like the same. But you know, a fearless state, I I can explain it like this. A fearless state of being is a being that is able to go with its conscious will into any part of the brain. What is that? That is the sixth sense, the sixth sense. We have shown the sixth sense, seventh sense and eighth sense now. Through scientific mechanisms, we are able to detect different neurological networks in the in the brain related to the body.
32:39 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
32:39 Wim Hof? It's rooted in the body, it's of course commanded by the brain. We call it subconscious. And there you got the sixth sense, the seventh sense and the eighth sense. Sixth sense is the, I make a shortcut, is the ability at will to enter into any part of our brain. We thought there was only sixteen percent being able to be controlled by our will in our brain. And now we have shown in brain scans in Germany with one of the two best brain scans of the world
33:11 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
33:11 Wim Hof? to create hundred percent neural activity. That means we are able to create at will consciously a hundred percent neural activity within the brain. And thus, suddenly, the willpower is able to enter into the right neural active parts of any part of that brain. That means we are able to go past the space, time-space barrier of our thinking. And that is the sixth sense. The sixth sense knows in the future. Sixth sense knows what happened. All with mathematical precision, beyond Einstein, anything. This is, it's going to be the future, I will tell you.
33:55 Wim Hof? There is the fearless state of being because your brain and your body are connected to. Be able to interact and confront with anything that is going to happen in the future. Fear only exists because we are too much into our time-space little area, narrowed consciousness. And when there is narrowed consciousness, in the future, things will happen wherein you will have to go to another part of the brain to solve the matter at that moment. Those are the life lessons, but it is too narrowed. So that's why the fear comes in, and the fear says only one thing. Go to me and find out why I'm here. It's a signal, like pain is a signal.
34:41 Wim Hof? Psychologically, fear is there. So that that is number, number six, the sixth sense, and you can feel it as confidence. If you are confident, then that is because you are able to go past the time-space barrier, past the narrowed consciousness, because that's the narrowed consciousness all about. All this enlightenment, and all that, so far away, it's right over here, right now. Feel confident. Number six. Number seven is the immune system, proprioception. Neurological network thought of inaccessible, now we have shown to make it accessible for people. It's the immune system. So what is the immune system?
35:22 Wim Hof? It's a detection system to get the wrong intruders out, like in a moment. Not waiting five to seven days, and then the flu comes in, and the fever, and this. And it needs five to seven days to get into the specific answer and get a a molecule on the membrane of the intruder, and then suddenly you have no flu anymore. No, you can do that in five minutes. Wow. With your will, which was able to go past the time-space. So that's number seven. We got that, and we have shown in science, I'm only bringing things together. And then number eight, we lately, I lately showed
36:05 Wim Hof? brain scans in Detroit, how to tackle top-down a stressor out of your body.
36:13 Wim Hof? And that, that is the power of the mind. And I tell you, I'm just at the beginning.
36:20 Wim Hof? Yeah, man.
36:21 Lewis Howes? What is your personal fear, though? For you?
36:23 Wim Hof? I got a family with six. I'm in fear all day long.
36:27 Lewis Howes? Really?
36:27 Wim Hof? With a one and a half.
36:29 Lewis Howes? Running the rat?
36:29 Wim Hof? He doesn't think. He does. We think. And so he goes so fast. Out of your sight, I'm there. I'm there.
36:38 Lewis Howes? Yeah. So you're afraid of something happening to your family or?
36:42 Wim Hof? Oh, yes. Yes. And that makes me very attentive. I'm learning of him right now. Because once again, I'm just at the threshold of the power of our mind.
36:54 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
36:55 Wim Hof? And to dive deeper and explore more. In the end, it is to guarantee love composed by happiness, strength, and health, guaranteed to our children, and then getting into the power of the mind. This is the new dimension where I got in. They saw me in Germany activating, not even me, I'm just giving the protocol.
37:19 Lewis Howes? Right.
37:20 Wim Hof? Then they have these people in brain scans and they suddenly see at will make it a disco. All the neural activity everywhere. Creating the right neural biochemical environment for the willpower, which is in the end neural activity, to enter into any part of the brain, which is not possible if we are too much, the way we are schooled is narrowed down. Then the 25% less of blood flow goes to the other part. That's, there's not a life. We make it alive. And suddenly, the power of the mind is able to naturally go where it needs to go, into the so-called subconscious.
38:05 Lewis Howes? Hmm.
38:06 Wim Hof? Submarine. You are a submarine to go in and adventure and to find out what there is going on in there.
38:13 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
38:14 Wim Hof? In the end, it's for the soul to be able to flourish and to be. And there is all the power of the love.
38:21 Lewis Howes? Hmm. Who was more influential in your life growing up? Your mom or your dad? And what was the greatest lesson they taught you?
38:30 Wim Hof? Hmm. My dad was like a gypsy. A gypsy, free, no rules, no this, no that, let it go, indulging into life. And my mother was very strict.
38:43 Lewis Howes? Really?
38:43 Wim Hof? Yeah, naive, very Catholic, every Sunday to the and you have to do it so and so and so and so. Yeah, I loved my mother as if I have a guru, a teacher, it was her.
38:56 Lewis Howes? Wow.
38:57 Wim Hof? And now it's my dog.
38:58 Lewis Howes? Your dog?
38:59 Wim Hof? Yeah, because my mother is, she's ruling, she is still there and she's great. We, we love our mothers. And my, my dog, when I go into the mountains in freezing temperatures, the Iceman and go, go Mount Everest and all that. My dog is three times faster.
39:20 Wim Hof? In the mountains, she is playing around, it's minus twenty, minus twenty-five in Celsius, which is freezing, freezing cold, and she's just playing around.
39:30 Lewis Howes? Wow.
39:31 Wim Hof? So I'm learning of, of, yeah, if there is, if there is a teacher, it's her. But in the end, it's the cold itself. The cold is my teacher.
39:42 Lewis Howes? What is the greatest lesson the cold has taught you?
39:45 Wim Hof? The cold is merciless but righteous.
39:49 Wim Hof? So that's, and it's always there. You can always depend and always you are able to tap into the depth of yourself by going through the initial reflexes of the cold coming up on you. And then suddenly you get a deep peace and deep power. I think it is a noble force.
40:09 Lewis Howes? Wow. Can we do a three-minute breathing exercise?
40:13 Wim Hof? Yeah, yeah.
40:13 Lewis Howes? Together where you just work with me, guide me and
40:16 Wim Hof? Sure.
40:17 Lewis Howes? and tell me what to do and if someone's watching and if they only have three minutes a day to do some type of breathing exercise or a mindset.
40:25 Wim Hof? We could do, you know, in four minutes.
40:27 Lewis Howes? Four minutes, okay.
40:28 Wim Hof? You got a push-up exercise. This is what we do. And the push-up exercise, vacuums.
40:37 Wim Hof? The oxygen out of you, but first we're going to oxygenize. We're gonna alkalize the muscle tissue. And thus, when the muscle tissue is alkalized, it is the right chemical environment for the neuro performance neurotransmitter to keep on going. Just to show it to yourself. Besides of that, you get deeply into the autonomic nervous system within four minutes. Do it. Can we try? Yes. Let's do it. Let's do it. Good. Very soon, I'm gonna ask you to do pushups. Okay. Without air in the lungs. Without air in the lungs? Yes. And that is because before, we are going to alkalize the blood.
41:22 Wim Hof? And that goes into the muscle tissue, and that will create the right chemical environment for the neurotrans performance to keep on going. And what's the matter? I'm not breathing, get no air myself, and I keep on going. What is that? That is the alchemist. That's you. Within four minutes thus, you get so fast in your biochemistry, and you hold your breath, which is consciousness. And thus, the consciousness goes into the nervous system, into the depth thought of by science. It's not possible. It's the autonomic nervous system. Within four minutes. Okay. I think you have four minutes every day. And you know what?
42:05 Wim Hof? You're gonna feel great, great, nice. So what do I do? Do we breathe first? Do we do pushups first? Do we? No. You know how many pushups you normally do. Okay. Keep that, and now that is your baseline. Okay. And now we're gonna do more pushups without breathing? Is that possible? Hey, be the alchemist. He's gonna show. And you're gonna feel. Okay. Relax. A relaxed body is able to store up oxygen. Four minutes. Eh? Four minutes. Do we sit or stand for this? Does it matter? If you stand, you know, you can go directly into pushup exercise. As you wish.
42:47 Wim Hof? As you feel. Relax. Okay, there you are. Fully in.
42:55 Speaker 03 Let it go.
42:57 Speaker 03 Full it. Let it go. Full it. Let it go.
43:06 Speaker 03 Get them up. Full it. Let it go. Keep on going. Full it. Let it go.
43:15 Speaker 03 Full it.
43:18 Speaker 03 Have one thing in mind. You give the best, you get the best. There we are. Full it.
43:29 Speaker 03 Light headedness, losing the body, tingling. Whatever you feel, make it stronger. Breathe into it. Okay. Nineteen.
43:40 Speaker 03 Eighteen, we are oxidizing the body, alkalizing the body.
43:46 Speaker 03 Muscle tissue is becoming alkaline. It's going good. Fourteen. Full it, go. Full it, go. Full it, go. Get it in, get it in.
44:03 Speaker 03 Go. Ten. Nine.
44:10 Speaker 03 Eight. One thing in your mind.
44:16 Speaker 03 Be a mean machine. You are the alchemist. Four.
44:24 Speaker 03 Three.
44:27 Speaker 03 Two.
44:30 Speaker 03 One.
44:32 Speaker 03 Here comes the last one. Full it. Let it go. Stop. And go. No breathing.
44:43 Speaker 03 Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, go.
44:50 Speaker 03 Forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety. No, and the locks. Twenty, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Whenever you feel the urge to breathe, you can take them in and keep on going.
45:09 Lewis Howes? Oh man.
45:10 Wim Hof? Well done. This is the way you get deeply into the autonomic nervous system. And re-regulate the adrenal axis. It's all happening because he was not breathing and he became vacuum within. Suddenly, you gotta survive. What a thing we never do. And it's good for you. You feel, hey. You tell what you feel. Easy does it. Easy does it. Well done. Well done. Well done. Well done.
45:41 Lewis Howes? Oh man, I wish I didn't do chest this morning, but I did a full like chest this morning.
45:46 Wim Hof? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure.
45:48 Lewis Howes? But it feels good. Yeah.
45:49 Wim Hof? Yeah.
45:49 Lewis Howes? I was feeling like tingly and lightheaded during the breathing. Yeah. But then I felt like I had a lot of energy when I was.
45:57 Wim Hof? Yeah.
45:58 Lewis Howes? When I breathed all the way out. I was pushing. I felt like I had a lot of energy.
46:02 Wim Hof? That's it. That's it. That's it. That's the alkalinity in the muscle tissue. And the performance neurotransmitter acetylcholine is able to go. And normally, when it becomes sore, acetylcholine is not able to go anymore. And this could be altered for football or anything.
46:22 Lewis Howes? Sure. Do you recommend people do that four minute exercise every day?
46:27 Wim Hof? Yes. Yes.
46:28 Lewis Howes? Would they do pushups?
46:29 Wim Hof? Everybody has four minutes. No excuse.
46:31 Lewis Howes? Should they do the exercise with pushups or just the breathing by itself?
46:36 Wim Hof? With pushups, a lot better. Because you get the [BLEEP] out of your system.
46:42 Lewis Howes? Really? Yeah, I'm like sweating.
46:43 Wim Hof? It's a toxin, yeah. And you are, the adrenal axis is on and that resets the body.
46:50 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
46:51 Wim Hof? And that means you get into this natural biochemical state.
46:55 Lewis Howes? Like a high.
46:55 Wim Hof? Right on. Yes.
46:58 Lewis Howes? Need to recover.
47:00 Wim Hof? Yeah, yeah. That's logical, but that's of all. Thing is, if they want the, we got a free app on the website.
47:09 Lewis Howes? How do they get it?
47:09 Wim Hof? And that is, I don't know.
47:11 Lewis Howes? Wim Hof. Wim Hof dot com?
47:13 Wim Hof? Yeah. Wim Hof method dot com.
47:17 Lewis Howes? Wim Hof method dot com.
47:18 Wim Hof? And there is a free app. And there you got all the scientific signs behind it and uh yeah about the call, the way the breathing deeply gets into it and
47:31 Lewis Howes? Video training, video trainings.
47:33 Wim Hof? Video training, yes.
47:34 Lewis Howes? Amazing. You're doing workshops around the world right now too, right? So if people want to do a workshop with you.
47:39 Wim Hof? Yeah.
47:40 Lewis Howes? They can go to wimhoffmethod.com.
47:41 Wim Hof? Like in LA, it's gonna happen in uh November.
47:44 Lewis Howes? Okay.
47:45 Wim Hof? Yeah, and New York, and New Orleans, I thought, things like that. All over the world, Australia, Asia, Europe.
47:54 Lewis Howes? So they can find all the information there. It's great, man.
47:56 Wim Hof? Yeah.
47:57 Lewis Howes? What is your mission? What do you want people, what do you want to do?
47:59 Wim Hof? I want everybody to be happy, strong and healthy, and that it is there. And that you learn to own your own mind, because it's beautiful.
48:08 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
48:09 Wim Hof? Then you sense a power, and you become powerful, you become proud. And you are a protector.
48:16 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
48:17 Wim Hof? And you live in harmony with nature around you, inside, outside, same thing.
48:23 Lewis Howes? Yeah. When you have control, you're not being a, you're not trying to survive and be a victim of life. You're in control of life and you're able to serve other people around you.
48:32 Wim Hof? Yes. Our energy doesn't need so much to survive and to be. We got so much more energy. We naturally give that.
48:41 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
48:41 Wim Hof? But for that, we first have to know who we are. And for that, we need that control. And for that, we are into the science to show everybody has it.
48:51 Lewis Howes? Who are you?
48:53 Wim Hof? I'm uh, I'm here, like a simple dude, changing the world.
48:59 Lewis Howes? If there are three words to describe you, what would those three words be?
49:05 Wim Hof? Hmm, I'm crazy about life, you know? They said, always said, this man is crazy, he's crazy, he's crazy. You know, negatively content. And I say, I'm still crazy. I'm crazy about my life and my wife. So the family and being, who am I?
49:25 Wim Hof? I'm the savior, but you too, and everybody is.
49:29 Lewis Howes? Wow, yeah, it's amazing. Well, there's a couple of questions I want to ask you to finalize this. One is called the three truths. I don't remember if I asked you this the last time, but I'll ask you now. Imagine it's the last day of your life many years from now, and you've achieved everything you want. The world is healing, you know, people gain their power back. There's less mental stress and disease. Inflammation is leaving people's bodies. They're controlling their minds, everything.
50:00 Wim Hof? Wonderful.
50:01 Lewis Howes? The work you've done is impacting the world, right?
50:03 Wim Hof? Yeah.
50:04 Lewis Howes? Imagine this happening. Your family is healthy, you've got 20 grandkids, whatever you want. Everything you want has happened. But at some point, you gotta leave.
50:15 Wim Hof? Yes.
50:15 Lewis Howes? You gotta leave this earth.
50:16 Wim Hof? Yeah.
50:17 Lewis Howes? And everyone's there, and it's a great celebration. But you've got to, everything you've created, you've got to take it with you. So your work, your message, this podcast, it's all got to go with you. But you get to write down on a piece of paper, three things you know to be true about your whole life and the lessons you've learned in your life. So you can leave behind three lessons for the world. What would you say are those three lessons or three truths that you would share with the world?
50:50 Wim Hof? Have the courage to go through fear.
50:55 Wim Hof? Find out who you really are.
51:00 Wim Hof? And heal as many as you can.
51:03 Lewis Howes? Really?
51:03 Wim Hof? Yes.
51:05 Lewis Howes? Find out who you are and heal.
51:07 Wim Hof? The real power of yourself. Find your real power. It's much more than we thought possible. And once again, I'm a dropout from school. I'm teaching professors and doctors all over the world. I got a holistic view and the holistic view comes from nature. Nature knows more than we have stated in books.
51:29 Lewis Howes? Sure, yeah.
51:30 Wim Hof? And gotten into our minds narrowing us down and thus it is able to be corrupted. The soul cannot be corrupted. That's who we are. That is the power I wish for everybody to find and then to go like a warrior.
51:47 Lewis Howes? Uh, I want to acknowledge you, Wim, for the consistent madman on a mission that you are to help heal and transform lives. I think you've found a, a method that works for you and works for so many people and your passion and commitment, no matter what you look like or what people say about you, you're just a maniac on a mission to change lives. And I acknowledge you for that. I acknowledge you for your huge heart. You're, we sang some songs last time you were here. That was fun guitar. So I acknowledge you for being like a passionate, curious child, even at fifty nine years old, and never letting your childlike spirit leave you. Because I think a lot of people your age, my age, forget who they are as a child and it leaves them.
52:33 Lewis Howes? And you've kept that spirit alive and it's infectious in a positive way with everyone that follows you. So I appreciate you, man.
52:40 Wim Hof? That is nice. That's great.
52:42 Lewis Howes? My final question for you is what's your definition of greatness?
52:46 Wim Hof? Yeah, I'm astonished now every day, every day I'm astonished. I got this, my little baby, I said, I got a baby, I got a beautiful wife. I got, I'm changing the world. Every day I feel great. I'm a man on the mission. Any man, any woman on a mission is gonna feel great.
53:09 Lewis Howes? There you go, Wim Hof, my man. Appreciate it. Thank you, man. Appreciate it, appreciate it.
53:15 Speaker 00 There you have it, my friends. Happiness, strength, optimal state of the body and mind, all through breathing, mindset, and using the cold to our advantage. If you enjoyed this, make sure to tag me, at Lewis Howes, on Instagram and tag Wim Hof. Let me and him know what you thought about this and share this with your friends. Put a link on your story on Instagram with a swipe up. Your friends need to listen to this. I'm telling you, it's going to change the life of so many people if they just apply some of this, some of these strategies, the breathing, the mindset, the cold therapy. It is powerful. Anytime you seek discomfort in your life, you will see certain results.
53:55 Speaker 00 The hard things, done well, create better results for you over time. It's not fun, it's not easy, but I'm telling you, it is worth it. Make sure to share with your friends, LewisHowes.com/799. Or be a champion in someone's life today and just send them a text. Say, "Hey, I thought you would like this. Check it out. It's the new show with Lewis Howes and Wim Hof, and here's the link." You can copy the link from your podcast app. And let me know what you think. If you haven't left a review over on your podcast app, please leave us a review. I think we're almost at 5,000 five-star reviews. So I would love your thoughts, love your feedback. We read them internally to our team every single week and they give us that energy and that excitement to continue to make this better for you every single day.
54:40 Speaker 00 You have the power to change your life in any moment, based on the thoughts that you think and the actions you take. Nelson Mandela said, "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." You must be willing to just lean into those discomforts, those fears, those insecurities. The more you take those on, the more action steps you take towards them, the less they will have power over you, which you must be willing to address it and face yourself. Head on. Face your fears. It's gonna be ugly. It's gonna be scary. It's gonna be messy. You're gonna make mistakes. But that's where the magic is.
55:24 Speaker 00 Face your fears and keep moving forward. I hope this interview helped you, give you tools, strategies, inspiration, that you can do this as well. You can overcome the challenges in your life if you're just willing to go through them. Quit avoiding these things and go through them. I love you so very much. And you know what time it is? It's time to go out there and do something great.
Previous 798 Spend With Joy with Ramit Sethi Next 800 Byron Katie: Enlightenment Is Within You Page updated September 29, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
