not-even-the-sky-is-the-limit

I have been practicing Wim Hof Method for years.

It is a spiritual path of sorts.

Embrace being an animal…a nd animals are really hardcore man.

Humans plan, and think and discover how to world works.

The brain is the control hub of our inner physiology, too.

Getting in touch with ones physiology is not mystical, and not reserved for people that subscribe to woo-woo.

It is using the pathways in ones brain that evolved to do just that, controling the body. ¹

And the twist: The inner physiology is another part of the world.

With its mechanics, stories and places that can be discovered. The interface of body and brain is just another interface, a kin to the motoric / muscle interface.

Where can you start exploring that interface?

With the things you already have control over. Hence breathing techniques, stretching and cold exposure.

Emphasize the in-breath over the out-breath and you are pumping adrenaline.

The other way around and you get more relaxed. Cold exposure pumps dopamine, with a long arc. ² It makes the whole day awesome. A cold shower is already an achievement that sets you up for performance.

Wim has mentioned somewhere on the free part of his app something about self-determination and having "the cold as a teacher".

There is a reason we make hello world programs. We learn in the small what will work in the large.

Say Wim Hof is right and self-determination is a mental thing I can 'grab', just like grabbing for my phone.

How do I learn to do so?

Also importantly, how do you even know you are doing it?

Enter cold showers ("The cold is our teacher").

It is hard to kill yourself with a cold shower, yet it takes mental energy to go into one and to stay.

It gives you a chance to be determined in a small, controlled, safe environment.

You manage to endure a wall of physical discomfort, you are doing it. This is what determination is.

just do it

In the lore of Wim-hoffing, you keep a calm mind and observe yourself being able to do it.

You are deploying the mental capacities that you might call determination.

The cold shower is the playground that allows you to see how it is to be determined.

You observe the mentality, the mechanics, the feel, the drive, the just doing it. What you are when you are being determined.

This then, shows you how to be determined elsewhere.

The cold is not an end goal, it is a simple, easy playground where we can test how it is to be determined.

This also means we have a benchmark for whether we are deploying determination, or not.

To learn something you need some way of telling whether you are doing it right.

When learning how to juggle or playing music, it is possible to find little places where training will pay off. These can be mental bumps, even in the way one thinks about throwing a ball and so forth.

The only place where you can grow is at the edge.

Finding such mental bumps, the edges of ones growth, and being interested in them is part of unlocking true skill.

So every musician and expert sort of knows what it means.

The same thing is allowed to happen with mentality, attitute, or determinism.

One needs to allow the edges to be in lowly places. When learning to juggle, throwing a single ball well is hard.

This is how it must be and that is good and well.

Professor Huberman is since recently one of the great science communicators of our time. About physiology, neuroscience and (my words) frankly, the human soul.

Transcript from a recent Q&A event (you can find it on the Huberman lab podcast feed):

If you want to get the most out of the cold exposure then you want to get to that point of "I want to get out of here, but I know I can stay in safely, but I really want to get out of here".

It's a little hard to explain, but there is just so much learning in those short moments about where your mind goes. And this sounds subjective and maybe a little whishy-washy. You can realize great things about yourself in those moments. You can find insight in those moments.

I agree. I call this learning how to be determined.

I can recommend the Wim hof app to get started. There is a diary thing where you start with 10-second cold showers after a warm shower etc.

Tip: if you have a dispatchable shower head, put it in your hand and move it around. Cold exposure is all about control. If you have the shower head in your hand, you gain control.