Stress is something that’s chasing us all. Everyone experiences stress from time to time, but what if it lasts longer, is severe, or you experience stress symptoms? Severe stress symptoms contribute to the development of burnout, depression, or anxiety disorder. You want to be ahead of that. Are you worried about your stress level, and do you want to know how to reduce stress?
When you are under a lot of stress, you have the feeling that you cannot meet the demands placed on you by your environment.
Until you realize you are stressed, your body continues to deteriorate, and you can feel sick or have severe pains. I realized it just in time.
I was stressed a lot, which caused a lot of physical pain. In that way, my body told me to slow down a bit. This pain usually resulted in headaches, stomachaches, and pain in my shoulder, back, and neck.
And you should not make a mistake by thinking that It will just go away because it won’t. You have to work for it, like everything you want to train.
Determine what causes the stress in your life.
First and foremost, you need to have an understanding of what causes stress. In my case, this is social pressure and financial instability. For as long as I can remember, I know I’m autistic, and later on, in my life, I converted that to being really introverted and communicational unable. I have improved my communication skills over the past couple of years, but it still causes a lot of stress.
Secondly, I’m a student, so I don’t have a big paycheck coming in every month, so that’s something that causes a lot of uncertainty and stress every day again.
But luckily, I started freelancing here and there to make my financial situation a little bit better, but that doesn’t take all the stress in my life away.
Stress is also a physical issue, and your body defends itself against bad things. In the early days, this was against predators and starving to death. In the medieval days, this was perhaps dying of the plague, and nowadays, we get stressed by social pressure or educational results.
But this stress reflex still exists in our brains, and it still works the same. The purpose just changed, and because we don’t have that actual thread of dying every day anymore, we need to suppress this as much as we can because getting stressed every day will eventually kill you.
Using the Wim Hof Method to Reduce Stress
To fight your stress-related problems, you could visit a therapist and talk about it to clear the mind. That’s one possibility. Another one, developed by The Ice Man — Wim Hof from The Netherlands, is called the ‘The Wim Hof Method.’
“The Wim Hof Method can be defined by its simple, easy-to-apply approach and its strong scientific foundation. It’s a practical way to become happier, healthier, and stronger.”
As he describes in this video, he wants to get everything out of his life, and that’s why he invests in learning about himself and his body. This is something we could all apply and is universal.
Now, what is this method? There are few things we need to take into account, for example, a couple of rules you need to follow:
- Always listen to your body.
- It would help if you always did these exercises in a safe environment, for example, on your bed, on a couch, or maybe even in your backyard on the grass but never in a place where it’s dangerous to faint.
According to Hof, you need to start these exercises on an empty stomach, so always eat afterward and get yourself in a comfortable position and situation. Your body is the most effective in storing oxygen when you are feeling comfortable.
You start by breathing in by your mouth and then breathing out again but harder than usual, now. You focus on your breath and stay focused on what you’re doing because the amount of air in your lungs will decrease until there’s almost nothing left which will trigger a reflex in our brains that inject a shot of adrenaline (a primary function of adrenaline is to survive) and this will ‘reset’ your body. You will feel a little bit dizzy, and afterward, you should feel great and awake.
This feeling of dizziness is something we call a natural high.
Another essential aspect of being able to succeed in applying this method is to endure cold temperatures. Try to do it outside wearing not many clothes. Or try taking a cold shower. At first, you will hate it, and it won’t be fun for a while, but the effects will make you feel amazing.
As you take cold showers, your body will drop in average temperature and do this for a while, decreases your average heartbeat, and if that happens every day, it will take away your stress.
He claims that we can get into the autoimmune system by applying this method and improve our immune system to prevent and fight diseases with just our own willpower.
When he applied this method, he also got himself checked up by a couple of doctors and scientists to verify his claims are valid, which they are. It’s a natural and effective method that makes you control your own body.
Bottom Line and Personal Results
I started applying this method a month ago, and I already see some results. I wear an Apple Watch, which tracks my heartbeat 24/7, and I made a graph with my average heartbeat over the past month.
As you can see, my heartbeat dropped a little during this month compared to February. Of course, this varies for every person who tries the method but seeing these results have given me enough motivation and reason to continue applying this method.
Taking cold showers also increased my energy levels over the course of this month, I’m much more active and love to get outside.
I would definitely recommend trying out this great method, and let me know your experiences with breathing exercises and cold showers.