Breathing with no force, Wim Hof method.

A training field, for anxiety.

Okay here is a small experience with, well small. An experience with Wim Hof breathing method.

I was going back to it, today. And had a harder time, because of my thoughts getting into: “Hey, do you really want to.” There were some past moments, when I overshoot it one way or another. Basically pushed it a bit further. And I surprisingly remember it.

Now the strangeness of Wim Hof method is, my simple seeing, it raises adrenalin. But you are laying on the ground and breathing. Everything is fine. You can stop it whenever you want.

When you have some experience with anxiety, you know that it can be pretty uncontrollable. And in a strange way, this method is bringing you anxiety, and feeling of adrenalin up, but you have the hold on it. (Well, you can get there. At least you know who did it.)

Back to today’s session. I was seeing how the flavour of my mind, or state of consciousness is changing with each breath. When the adrenalin was rising, I could notice, worries ramping up. So I cut it.

I rather stopped after the first round. Didn’t march to second.

But then, my brain was like: “Wait, a minute. This helps. Do it! Do it!” and exactly the opposite force was happening. And in a usual manner, I fought back. Nobody would say me, what to do!

But I kept being bombarded, so I went back. One caveat here. When you do it, don’t force it. The one way I can see the difference is when I feel, okay this would sound strange. I feel like my lungs are being expanded by the air itself, and not by my trying to expand the lungs by force. Also shoulders if they are rising too much is a good noticing point.

Back to the point. I did a really short round of 5 breaths, and shorter hold, and squeeze. All really simply and with not forcing. I felt anxious to do the whole round.

I did another 10 breaths. It’s not totally Wim Hof, but yeah. I played with it.

The interesting part, I started this article on, was the changing nature of my mind. It almost was like controllable weather change. Where I can see how does my mind look like in different weathers. A playing field to see all the different, states.

Needless to say, I practice this method for a quite a lot. One year plus. I don’t advice anything here. Be careful. Don’t push. Rather today a bit, tomorrow a bit more. I think this point is highlighted too little, when Wim Hof speaks. Or rather, I overheard it quite a lot when plunging into it right away.