Most Replayed Moment: Wim Hof's Simple Breathing Technique For Focus, Tranquility and Resilience

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett | Episode: Most Replayed Moment: Wim Hof's Simple Breathing Technique For Focus, Tranquility and Resilience

Release Date: June 27, 2025

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of "The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett," host Steven Bartlett delves deep into the transformative world of Wim Hof, renowned for his groundbreaking breathing techniques that enhance focus, tranquility, and resilience. The conversation navigates through the science behind these methods, their practical applications, and the profound impact they can have on both mental and physical well-being.

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Understanding the Wim Hof Method

Wim Hof, often dubbed "The Iceman," introduces the core components of his method, emphasizing the synergy between conscious breathing, cold exposure, and the power of the mind. The discussion primarily focuses on the first pillar: conscious breathing, unraveling its scientific underpinnings and practical benefits.

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Scientific Foundations of Breathing Techniques

Wim Hof (B) articulates the scientific validation of his breathing exercises:

• Autonomic Nervous System & Immune Response: Hof references studies from 2014 demonstrating that deliberate breathing can influence the autonomic nervous system and the innate immune system, a feat previously deemed impossible by science. "The depth which we entered with these breathing exercises in this competitive study showed that we were able to tap into the autonomic nervous system and innate immune system," Hof explains ([00:53]).

• Blood Chemistry Alterations: By manipulating breathing patterns, individuals can significantly alter their blood's pH levels. Hof details how rapid breathing reduces CO₂ levels, leading to increased blood alkalinity. "We change our blood's chemistry, bring up the PH levels way up by which the breathing trigger is not happening because it's depending on the CO2 level in our blood," he notes ([02:44]).

• Increased Blood Flow: A notable study mentioned showcases that holding the breath for 90 seconds post-exhalation can quintuple blood flow to the brain and heart. "If you stop breathing after exhalation for one and a half minute, five times more blood flows into the brain and your heart," Hof states ([02:44]).

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Breaking Conditioned Breathing Patterns

Steven Bartlett (A) probes the accessibility of these breathing techniques for newcomers:

"If I have never breathed in my life, I've never done it, I've never heard about it, I'm skeptical to it. I think breathing is just something we don't think about. What you mean by breathing and what kind of breathing and can you explain to me like I'm an idiot what it's doing," Bartlett queries ([01:48]).

Hof responds by differentiating between shallow, automatic breathing and the deep, conscious breathing his method advocates. He emphasizes the necessity of conscious control to unlock deeper emotional and physiological responses:

"The shallow breathing we do, we say that is breathing. That's not breathing. That is automatic reflex of your body doing something." ([03:52])

He underscores that modern lifestyles have led to conditioning that suppresses natural deep breathing, thereby weakening our immune responses and emotional sensitivity.

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Emotional and Physical Benefits

Hof connects the dots between controlled breathing and emotional resilience:

• Trauma Processing: By accessing deeper tissues, individuals can release stored trauma. "Your deeper mechanisms...are able to solve what is deeply stored up in our tissue which could not be processed in the moment when it happened. Trauma." ([01:48])

• Enhanced Sensitivity and Purpose: Hof laments societal insensitivity and attributes it to the lack of emotional depth fostered by shallow breathing. He posits that deep breathing can reignite emotional connections and purpose:

"We are built to receive it, to express it. And with that comes alive the deeper mechanisms in our body. And among that is not only the emotion, it's also the immune system." ([04:00])

• Stress Resilience: A study involving 540 participants in Australia revealed that the Wim Hof Method outperforms traditional meditation and mindfulness in reducing stress and enhancing cognitive awareness. "This method works a whole lot better," Hof asserts ([16:21]).

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Practical Guidance: Performing the Breathing Technique

Steven Bartlett seeks a step-by-step explanation for listeners:

"If I want to be able to just do this at home, if I'm listening now and I'm in my car or I'm walking the dog or whatever, I'm on a plane. What is the sort of key parts of doing the breathing technique correctly?" ([07:43]).

Hof provides clear, concise instructions:

1. Safety First: "Do it safe. Never outside where you can lose control," Hof advises ([08:04]).

2. Relaxation: Settling into a comfortable position to prepare the body for deep breathing. "Relax. This is also these moments when you... I'm gonna breathe deeper," ([09:01]).

3. Breathing Pattern:

   • Inhale Deeply: Using both belly and chest to fully inhale.
   • Exhale Completely: Letting go of the breath.
   • Repetition: "Pull in, let it go and all in, let it go," Hof guides ([10:06]).

4. Holding Breath: After a series of deep breaths, holding the breath can lead to heightened blood flow and mental clarity. "Hold in. Let it go and stop. After the exhalation," he explains ([15:31]).

Hof emphasizes the transformative experience during and after the breathing sessions, highlighting feelings of peace, focus, and increased control over one's physiological responses.

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Integrating Cold Exposure and Mind Power

While the primary focus is on breathing, the conversation briefly touches upon the other pillars:

• Cold Exposure: Hof shares his personal journey with cold water immersion, noting how it complements breathing techniques by building physical and mental resilience. "I was able to endure the cold much longer... activate deeper mechanisms that make us stronger," he states ([16:38]).

• Power of the Mind: The third pillar revolves around harnessing the mind's potential to override conditioned responses. Hof underscores that this method enhances interoception, allowing individuals to better regulate emotions and physical states. "Through doing this, you learn to override to create a different conditioned mind and body relationship," he explains ([17:53]).

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Cultivating Personal Responsibility and Overcoming Victimhood

Steven Bartlett probes the psychological implications of mastering the Wim Hof Method:

"Is part of the building up the power of the mind becoming, stepping into personal responsibility and stepping away from victimhood." ([21:47]).

Hof concurs, linking the method to a shift from victim mentality to personal empowerment:

"Victimhood is no longer needed. Responsibility is there where we have the ability to respond." ([21:57]).

He illustrates how mastering breathing and cold exposure instills a sense of control that cascades into other life areas, fostering a proactive and resilient mindset.

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Conclusion

This episode of "The Diary Of A CEO" offers an in-depth exploration of the Wim Hof Method, showcasing its scientifically-backed benefits and practical applications. Through conscious breathing, individuals can unlock profound emotional and physiological transformations, fostering resilience, focus, and a deeper connection with themselves. Steven Bartlett and Wim Hof collaboratively present a compelling case for integrating these techniques into daily life, emphasizing personal responsibility and the harnessing of innate human potential.

Notable Quotes:

• "The depth which we entered with these breathing exercises... tap into the autonomic nervous system and innate immune system." — Wim Hof ([00:53])

• "We have forgotten to feel deep emotions... we are more sensitive." — Wim Hof ([04:00])

• "This method works a whole lot better [than meditation and mindfulness]." — Wim Hof ([16:21])

• "Victimhood is no longer needed. Responsibility is there where we have the ability to respond." — Wim Hof ([21:57])

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Connect with Steven Bartlett:

• Book: My New Book
• Instagram: @steven
• LinkedIn: Steven Bartlett

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Transcript

[A]

This is the way it feels to move through summer in Lululemon iconic aligned softness without the front seam for our smoothest look and feel ever. Summer won't know what hit it. Stretch your limits in the non stop flexibility of the new Lululemon Align no line pant in select stores [e-mail] what is that first step to. Because there's so many people that are going through different forms of grief or they have that trauma that you've described that goes back a long way. If they're listening to this now and they've stumbled this far into the conversation and they're thinking, I'm so far away from that whim, I'm so far away, I've got my shirt and tie on, I've got, I'm in the city. I know I'm unhappy, I can feel it in my bones. But I know no other way. What is the first step?

[B]

Absolutely the breathing exercises. These breathing exercises in 2014 were capable to show just like scientifically, hormonally looking at the nervous system. The depth which we entered with these breathing exercises in this competitive study showed that we were able to tap into the autonomic nervous system and innate immune system, which was considered to be impossible in science. And now it is there. It's not only the autonomic nervous system and the innate immune system, it's also the ability naturally to solve what is deeply stored up in our tissue which could not be processed in the moment when it happened. Trauma.

[A]

Wim I've got some of those studies in front of me. I read through all of them ahead of our conversation and they are quite, quite frankly remarkable. They're quite frankly remarkable. They are peer reviewed studies that have been published, went through very sort of scientifically rigorous processes to make sure that they were valid. And in these studies we see breakthroughs that I think in the past people thought were impossible. But if we just focus in then on that breathing, because you described that as the first step. If I have never breathed in my life, I've never done it, I've never heard about it, I'm skeptical to it. I think breathing is just something we don't think about. What you mean by breathing and what kind of breathing and can you explain to me like I'm an idiot what it's doing.

[B]

What it is doing. For example, I'm now busy with cardiologists and they saw in hard films that if you stop breathing after exhalation for one and a half minute, five times more blood flows into the brain. And to the heart. This has never been shown and now it has been shown through these breathing techniques. I mean, this really goes so deep. We are able to make these, through these breathing techniques, change our blood's chemistry, bring up the PH levels way up by which the breathing trigger is not happening because it's depending on the CO2 level in our blood. If we breathe like 30 times like this, you become a little bit woozy, a little bit dizzy. Why? Because the CO2 levels go way down. You blow it off. Carbon dioxide.

[A]

Have we forgotten how to breathe like that?

[B]

Oh, yes.

[A]

Is that the natural way of breathing?

[B]

No, not exactly.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

What is exactly is that we have forgotten to feel deep emotions, to be in connection with danger. Danger is a deep emotion. Or the cold. It's. It's deep. We avoid these emotions, but they are. We are built to receive it, to express it. And with that comes alive the deeper mechanisms in our body. And if that long term is not exercised, those deeper mechanisms. And among that is not only the emotion, it's also the immune system. It becomes weaker, we become more flaccid, we become insensitive. Look at the insensitivity in our society. Gaza is happening. Yeah, Protest here. We should stop that shit. We should stop those wars because kids, little kids are here jeopardized and we cannot even feel it anymore. You know, this insensitivity in us is a plague. Is a plague. Because we serve a system that runs well on people being obedient and being flaccid. Not really sensitive. Because if you are really sensitive, you don't go to, to a slave job every, every day and come back stressed. And the other day you do it again and again and again and again, again. What we should do within ourselves is learning how to connect into the depth. And this is what I give. Through the cold, we bring our emotions alive. And then you will not abide to that. What makes you weak to that? What kills your purpose? We gotta stand up as humanity. And more, more now than ever. And here we are. And Wim, how do you do that? Very simple. Do these breathing techniques. Do it on your bed, on a sofa, or very controlled. Because you will go past your conditioned mind and body. The shallow breathing we do, we say that is breathing. That's not breathing. That is automatic reflex of your body doing something. There it is. Now you take over consciously. You start to breathe deeper. You go past these patterns depicted by a conditioned body. And that conditioning is only serving the system, but not necessarily you. I want you to take over the stairwell I want you to be conscious and then go with that consciousness into deeper breathing. Break the patterns of your conditioning and suddenly your deeper traumas, your deeper feelings are able to come to the surface being stored, stop being stashed away forever. And that is what is happening in the first session we do. I can promise any person who is doing it will encounter such a tremendous experience of himself from the depth coming to the surface. And that's only the depth coming to the surface. That's all. And it's beautiful.

[A]

There's three elements to this WIM HOF method. There's three pillars to the method. The first is that conscious breathing. So let's just make sure we've covered that off. If I want to be able to just do this at home, if I'm listening now and I'm in my car or I'm walking the dog or whatever, I'm on a plane. What is the sort of key parts of doing the breathing technique correctly?

[B]

Yes. Do it safe.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So never outside where you can lose control.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

You know, when you drive and you lose control, that's no good. When you are in a swimming pool, you lose control. That's no good. When you are at an Abbas and you lose control, no good. You know, wherever your motorical power is needed to be in control, don't do it. Therefore, we say strictly, this is a powerful medicinal, therapeutical exercise through breathing, specific breathing patterns we take on. If, for example, we are sitting now, it's safe to do it here. Even if you faint now, then, yeah, you would maybe fall here. On the ground is a soft carpet. Here is no problem.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

So relax. It's a. This is also these moments when you. Okay, relax. I'm. I'm now turning myself into myself because I'm gonna breathe deeper. I'm gonna go past my normal control mode, normal conditioning, normal thinking. So. Okay. Am I here? Yes, I'm here. Okay, here we go. We have a belly, we have a chest that those muscles are connected to the lungs. So use your belly and use your chest to inhale fully. You can go through your mouth, through your nose, as you feel.

[A]

How do I know if I'm doing it correctly with my belly? So two breaths in.

[B]

Yeah. And a certain moment becomes one. Keep on going fully in as deep as possible and let it go. Just let it go. And then fully in again as deep as possible. Let it go all in and let it go. And all in, let it go. The mind goes with the breath. Pull in, let it go and all in, let it go. We are below and keep on going for all in. Blowing off the CO2. Carbon dioxide can become a little bit dizzy, but that's okay. Your body is charging up. It's changing. Your blood chemistry is changing. Your PH levels go up in your blood. We do 10 more fully in. Just follow the breath. Whatever feels different, breathe into it. Let it go. And all in. Let it go. This morning at 5:00, I was doing this because I was preparing to be freed in my biochemistry of any. And this is cleansing. The barrier, chemistry, trauma, anything, anything that is deeply in is being cleansed. Yeah. Five more. Let it go fully in. Let it go all in. Let it go all in. Let it go. Last one, hold in. Let it go and stop. After the exhalation. Close your mouth. No breathing, no need. Your PH levels are way up. There's no need for breathing. What is going to happen is what I was saying, mentioning before, after one minute and there is no need for breathing because the breathing trigger depends on CO2. CO2 is blown off. You are biohacking your body. You're going deep. You're going past the conditioned mind and body. You're going deeper in the tissue. Now you're entering into the deepest part of your brain. It's going to shoot out adrenaline, epinephrine. The adrenal axis is now in activation. Now slowly but surely five times more blood will flow into your brain and your heart. You feel peaceful. You have it fully in control. Yet the deepest of your mechanisms and the deepest of your brain are at work right now. And because you are doing it, you are connecting with those mechanisms. That's the way we learn to gain control over these mechanisms. And you're still without breathing. Even normally. You would die. Like breathing, breathing, you're peaceful. You're completely in control over your parasympathetic nervous system, which is deep autonomic nervous system level. And you are in control right now. This is where trauma is starting to release. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Now you take a full breath in, hold it and press it to your head. Press it to your head. Press it to your head. This is subliminal cerebral spinal fluid to your head. It's flushing in and all brain 100% neural activity. 3, 2, 1. Let it go. Good. If we go into a next round, you will be able to go, say for two minutes without breathing, then two and a half minutes, then three minutes after exhalation. It cannot be something else than regaining a control deeper than ever before thought possible. And this is what we have shown this is where the bacteria suddenly had no chance, the virus has no chance. Why is it that the world doesn't know about this? Why is it that the scientific world is not examining this as a beneficial therapeutical power to batt all the diseases we got? Because aren't we built with an immune system that should hold virus, bacteria, inflammation? It is, but it is never that way because this is deeper than our conditioned body and mind. And this is the way to get a hold of that.

[A]

It feels so. I feel very different in every sense of the word. I feel. And when I came back into the room, it all felt very. It almost felt a little bit like I just woken up. But it also. I was a little, you know, it was a little bit of. It was very peaceful peace. And I was very. When I came back into the room, I felt very focused.

[B]

This is the last study I did with 540 people in Australia. It shows that this, this method is compared to meditation and mindfulness works a whole lot better.

[A]

How did you learn this? Where did you learn this?

[B]

By intuition. You remember the mother who made me become a missionary, become a seeker? And then I found the cold water. What does the cold water do? First time you go into cold water, you learn to breathe deep and that makes all the change. At a certain moment, I became aware that if I was breathing deeper, slowly and deep, slowly and deep, I was able to endure the cold much longer. That means that if we go into deeper breathing, we are able to activate deeper mechanisms that are able to make us a lot stronger.

[A]

And that translates to life.

[B]

Yeah, translates to everyday life.

[A]

I want to get onto the cold water, which is the sort of second pillar of the WIM HOF method. But the third pillar I find really interesting as well, which is the power of the mind.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

What do you mean by this? The power of the mind. You're telling me that I can do things to my mind to make my mind stronger and more resilient?

[B]

Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

[A]

What do you mean by the power of the mind?

[B]

First of all, we just recently did this new study. It's coming out now, it's into submitting. And they did it with 540 people. So meditation and mindfulness is about the mind, isn't it? To bring anxiety down, to bring stress down. This method works better than mindfulness and meditation, which is in the corporate world, but also in the wellness industry overall and also therapeutically in the health, mental health care systems being accepted and implemented and used as a therapeutical means. So this works better. The stress resilience goes way up. Stress experience goes way down. And cognitive awareness goes also way up is what you just said. And this was only one round. Imagine if you do four rounds, you will go so deep, that unprecedented deep where you will go and things can come to the surface. Never been stashed way you never knew of or were not aware of. And all this is all blocking our awareness. And now when it's getting out of the way, then suddenly our awareness becomes bigger, brighter, nicer, more flow, more receptive, more sharper, clearer and all. And that is part of a system that suddenly is able to override our conditioning. So our conditioning is a conditioning wherein deeper mechanisms are not really at work. But we are able to function in this society, system, etc. But not necessarily we are connected with the depth of ourselves. And when trauma happens or emotions start to be not nice, we don't know what to do with that. Now, the power of the mind is very simple. Through doing this, you learn to override to create a different conditioned mind and body relationship. And suddenly opens up a new terrain, a new capacity in the brain to connect with. And that is interoception, Interoception, interoception, interoception. And with that we suddenly learn to control and to command our bodies. A vessel of our emotions, of our sensations, of whatever we experience. That's our body. But when it feels bad, we don't know what to do. And now we found a way to go past that conditioned state and we found a new way in the brain and get a hold of that which is there naturally to control whatever is going wrong, to re regulate it, to rebalance it, to reset it, to make our bad feelings, emotions, disease, etc. Make it go away in our command. That is the power of the mind, which is a natural capacity of ours, which should be revealed past the system way of thinking and be brought into secondary school or even when kids are very young, that they are able to depict their own happiness, strength and health.

[A]

Is part of the building up the power of the mind becoming, stepping into personal responsibility and stepping away from victimhood.

[B]

Yes, because victimhood is no longer needed. Responsibility is there where we have the ability to respond. And these are the tools. Then suddenly we feel we got the stairwell in our hand.

[A]

How do you train someone though, to stop being a victim in their own.

[B]

Life in one session?

[A]

How?

[B]

Just do this. Breathing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then we go into the ice bath. They suddenly feel power. Sorry, daddy, I'm yelling.

[A]

You can yell.

[B]

Yeah, it's power people feel being silent in that ice bath, overcoming all that stress and suddenly feel that they are on top of it and they are suddenly able to go past this concept of this dangerous cold power energy coming to no control, this anxiety. It's suddenly they got a hold, complete hold over that. And with that comes that paradigm that always thought of that to be impossible to control. Suddenly it's a piece of cake that that is then turning into a, a, a domino effect, a cascade of feelings of hey, if I can't do that, I can do that, I can do that, I can do that.

[A]

So you can build personal responsibility by taking control of the cold and not.

[B]

Oh, absolutely. And just one day.

[A]

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