219-1-22 Inspire Potential-Lifelong Learning

Stimulate potential

Section 1 Frightening makes people sick, and cold resistance makes people stronger

Keeping healthy also means not getting sick. Then how can we effectively prevent diseases? I have always been very concerned about this aspect, and I often talk about this topic with several Stanford University alumni who study medicine. They told me that now more and more doctors are beginning to realize that the meaning of treating a disease is not only to think about how to treat it after the body has a pathological reaction, but more importantly, how to prevent the disease in advance, which is what China people often say.

I was very afraid of the cold since I was a child. When I was a child, I lived in Shanghai, because I was in the marginal area of the mainland, which was significantly affected by the ocean. The cold of my hometown in winter made me remember deeply. Later, my family immigrated to the United States and lived in California, which made me very happy, because California has four seasons like spring and warm winters.

also because I am afraid of the cold, I even included the weather in my selection of universities. I remember that at that time, I received formal admission notices from California Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Yale University. At that time, I still remember that a video introducing Yale University was shown at the welcome meeting of Yale University: It was about April, when all the students rushed out of the campus to ski, and the "snow trail" was on the road next to the campus, and a large group of students cried happily and rolled in the snow. When I saw this, my first thought was: it's already April, and it's actually skiing here. How cold it is! So I decided to give up Yale at that time. Although it is naive to recall this idea now, my fear of the cold can be seen from this.

in 23, after working in Intel for three years, I was admitted to Harvard business school. When I first arrived in Boston, I was dumbfounded at once, because when I got off the plane, the chill on my face made me a little overwhelmed. In the same season, California on the west coast is already very warm. In the coldest morning, you can wear a thin coat at most, and you only need to wear T-shirts, slippers and shorts during the day. I didn't expect Boston on the east coast to be surprisingly cold! And the thickest clothes in my box are only a thin coat. I had no choice but to go to the school store and buy some thickest clothes.

So in the first semester of entering Harvard Business School, I wore the uniform of Harvard University inside and outside, and people who didn't know thought I was particularly fond of showing off or had a special sense of identity with Harvard. In retrospect, it is quite funny, which also makes me deeply impressed by the cold in Boston. It is winter for nearly six months every year. From the end of October to April, there are opportunities to see snowflakes floating in the sky. Sometimes the Harvard campus is covered with a thin layer of snow in early April. Therefore, I often joke with my classmates and say, "I like winter very much, but I only like winter when it snows on TV."

I don't get sick very often. Even if I get sick every year, I have a cold, and colds are mostly caused by catching cold, so I am particularly afraid of cold. On the other hand, if I catch a cold twice a year, the efficient time will increase by two to three weeks, and I can do more things. So I thought, is that if I should have a deeper understanding of "cold" and have better prevention or adaptation?

"cold" is actually a good means of disease prevention. We should know that most diseases in human body are caused by inflammatory reaction in the body, and cold has a good effect on suppressing and eliminating inflammation. For the simplest example, if an athlete has a sprain, the doctor will always suggest that ice should be applied first.

In the podcast of Tim Ferris, a famous American writer, he talked about spending a lot of time visiting strange people all over the world, one of whom was the famous Dutch "Iceman"-Wim Hof.

who is Wim Hof? He is recognized as the strongest "Iceman" in the world, with unique cold resistance, and still holds more than 2 Guinness World Records, such as the world record for the longest stay in ice water, which is 1 hour, 52 minutes and 42 seconds. He also ran a complete marathon in the Arctic Circle of Finland in 5 hours and 25 minutes, wearing only shorts.

Why can Wim Hoff repeatedly challenge the cold resistance limit of human beings? Is it because of talent? I looked up a lot of reports about him on the Internet, and later found that Wim Hof has two characteristics: first, he said that his cold tolerance is not innate, but is cultivated by a series of self-created breathing and breathing methods, and he also said that anyone can learn this method and is very willing to teach it to others. Secondly, he very much hopes that scientists can study his own practice, so he is willing to let scientists conduct a series of inspections and studies on him.

after knowing this, I am more interested in Wim Hof, but I am also very ambivalent. On the one hand, I really want to learn from Wim Hof's unique cold-resistant methods and overcome my fear of cold; On the other hand, I'm a little scared, because I'm likely to face more severe cold than usual, and if I fail, I'll lose more. I believe many people will have this idea, because our understanding of "cold" is similar.

In the second section, I dived in the icy water with the Iceman, so I'm not afraid of the cold.

The courses offered in Wim Hof have two periods, one is in Spain every summer (July); The other is autumn and winter (December) in Eastern Europe, and each course lasts for 5 days. After careful consideration, I finally decided to give it a try and see if I can subvert my view of "cold". However, I think that if I choose autumn and winter, there is no doubt that the challenge will be more severe. Since I'm so afraid of the cold and it's my first attempt, I'd better choose the summer course first.

I am very interested in what he mentioned, but I also feel that it is a bit ridiculous.

So, before I went to Spain, I specifically discussed this matter with several doctors and friends. Their point of view is that "cold" as a medical treatment, the clinical effect is definitely there. However, Wim Hof's personal experience and his idea of controlling adrenaline with his mind can't be explained from the medical point of view at present. Of course, they encouraged me to experience it and then come back to communicate with them.

So with some doubts, contradictions and longings, I embarked on the "Iceman Tour".

Wim Hof's summer courses are located in Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park near Barcelona. His first wife was Spanish and later died in middle age. When his wife was alive, the couple always liked to spend their holidays here, so Wim Hof was very familiar with this national park and had feelings for it.

there are 2 participants in this course, from all over the world. For example, there is an "addict" therapist from Saudi Arabia. His job is to treat all kinds of "addicts", such as smoking addiction, alcohol addiction and even drug addiction. Generally speaking, the traditional practice of abstinence is to use different drugs for treatment, but often it can't completely solve the problem in the end, so this therapist wants to experience Wim Hof's special practice and see if it can help his work.

The reason why another student attended is also very interesting. She is a deep-sea diver from Japan, and she is as afraid of cold as I am, but she has to go into the deep sea when she works, which is very cold, so she wants to learn how to resist the cold.

to my surprise, nearly half of the trainees are women. I remember that one of the relatively young girls is applying to join the circus, and she wants to exercise herself better through this experience. Another woman is a stay-at-home mother with two children at home. On her 4th birthday, her husband asked her what kind of birthday present she wanted. She said that she really wanted to experience the courses in Wim Hof, so her husband gave her this special birthday present.

soon, the course will officially begin. On the first day, I mainly practiced deep breathing. As we all know, the brain is one of the human organs that need the most oxygen. But we usually breathe shallowly, so there is relatively little oxygen distributed to the brain. Wim Hof's breathing method can make the brain get more oxygen, which can make people's attention more concentrated. His theory is that humans can control their own body systems as long as they are focused enough.

Wim Hof's specific instruction is: hold your head slightly up, inhale as much as you can, feel the oxygen being sent to your brain, and then exhale slowly, but not completely, and then continue to inhale deeply and exhale half-exhale. After this cycle for 25 times, take five complete deep breaths to complete the first group of exhalation.

The way of breathing and inhaling in the second group is somewhat different: inhale deeply first and feel the oxygen enter the brain; Then hold your breath and feel the oxygen in your brain slowly pushed to every part of your body, especially your limbs; Then exhale slowly, and so on.

The place where we practice deep breathing is near a very big lake in the national park, and the scenery is very beautiful. When the two groups of breathing in and out are completed, I feel that the oxygen in my brain is much more abundant than in the past, and I can concentrate more.

After finishing the breathing exercises, Wim Hof stood up and greeted us and said, Let's go down to the lake together! Then he jumped into the lake first, and then many people rushed into the water, and I jumped in at that time. The water source of this lake comes from nearby mountain springs, so although it is summer, the lake is still cold. As soon as I went in, my mind was paralyzed, and I had an impulse to escape.

At this moment, Wim Hof said to us in the water, "You can try to do another group of breathing in the water." So I tightened my body, calmed down and began to inhale and exhale slowly. I gradually feel that my body and brain are a little out of touch: my body still feels very cold, but my brain gradually focuses on the special feeling brought by oxygen.

The next morning, we still practiced breathing first, but by this time, an inflatable plastic pool was placed next to it, which was half full of water, and then someone kept adding bags of ice cubes into it. When the breathing was finished, Wim Hof stood by the ice pool and looked at us and said, "Who wants to come in with me?" Looking at the pool full of ice, I recoiled, but I looked up and saw Wim Hof staring at me. As soon as I gritted my teeth, I thought forget it and throw caution to the wind, so I stood out with four other boys and walked into the ice water with him.

as soon as I sat in it, my body began to tremble unconsciously, and it was surrounded by ice. I felt like I was freezing! My body seems to be protesting to me: why are you so stupid? Come out quickly! At this time, I heard Wim Hof say beside me, "Keep breathing. You can focus on your hands. As I said before, you can breathe by breathing and let the oxygen in your brain push to your limbs, especially your hands."

I saw him talking to us calmly in ice water, and saw several other students sitting there motionless. I thought at that time, if it was humiliating to give up now, I would have to grit my teeth and stick to it, so I continued to breathe. Gradually, I felt that my body's cold feeling seemed to gradually decrease, and 5 minutes passed unconsciously. When I came out of the pool, I found myself as red as a roasted shrimp. I know that this is caused by the rapid contraction of blood vessels, which leads to the acceleration of blood circulation, just like the acceleration of adrenaline secretion mentioned earlier, but I don't feel very tired, just feel very cold and my body is shaking uncontrollably.

Wim Hof came over and looked at me and said, "Try to keep breathing and see if your body can calm down." So I tried to continue breathing, and then I found that my body suddenly calmed down and my uncontrollable trembling disappeared. This kind of experience is a bit shocking to me. For the first time, I found that the cold is not so terrible. The body can stimulate its internal potential through self-regulation and adapt itself to this temperature.

after coming out of the ice water for a period of time, I can obviously feel that my heartbeat is slower than usual, my body can completely calm down, and my brain feels more awake than before. I am very happy to get such a breakthrough. Because just two days ago, I still firmly believed that I hated the cold all my life and tried to stay away from it, but now I am willing to try and accept that there is really a lot of room for the human body to expand its potential.

In the afternoon, Wim Hof arranged for everyone to climb the mountain together. We came to a valley in the national park, which is surrounded by mountains on three sides and has a spring at the bottom. Wim Hof told us that we need to walk down to the spring from a height, and there is no ready-made road. He said: "I know that this distance is not difficult for everyone, but I have a special requirement, that is, we must walk barefoot." The feeling of the foot is the most sensitive, but it is usually wrapped tightly and there is no chance to get in direct contact with nature, so we will try to feel the surrounding natural environment with our feet without shoes this time. " With that, he was the first to take off his shoes and start walking down the hill.

I was really in distress situation. You know, for this course, I specially ordered a pair of powerful hiking shoes, but I didn't expect to have to abandon my shoes and go down the mountain. No way, I can only silently take off my shoes and socks and put them into my backpack like everyone else, and start marching barefoot.

the road to the bottom of the valley is not long, but we walked for four or five hours, which was actually the most painful hours I felt during the five-day course. The road leading to the valley is almost full of stones and weeds, so every step I take, there will be bouts of stabbing pain under my feet. Sometimes I have to walk for ten minutes in just a few meters, and sometimes my feet hurt so much that I can only stop and rest for a while. Along the way, we also constantly used breathing to help us adjust our state, and finally the last group of people finally reached the finish line smoothly.

at dinner in the evening, everyone talked about the experience of the day. Wim Hof told us that man is like a closely-structured machine. Under normal circumstances, it will react differently to various external stimuli. This time, going down the mountain barefoot is to let our feet directly contact with nature, so that our body can make the most accurate sense of the surrounding environment, which will be quickly transmitted to our brains. The role of breathing is to help the body isolate from the brain to a certain extent and let the body adjust itself.

on the third day, everyone still did a complete set of breathing exercises in the morning, and then tried ice water training again, but this time the time spent in ice water was extended from 5 minutes to 1 minutes.

with the previous day's experience, when I got into the water again this time, I had no idea of fear and escape. When my body was completely immersed in ice water, I continued to inhale and exhale, trying not to think about how cold it was, and began to try to observe my body's reaction. Not long after, I was surprised to find that there was a warmth flowing in my body and gradually spreading to all parts of my body. When I was immersed in it and wanted to continue to explore, it was time for 1 minutes.

after coming out of the ice water this time, I still feel a little cold, but my body doesn't tremble any more. I shared my experience with other students around me, and I found that many people, like me, also felt a warmth flowing all over my body. I never realized that the original body was unexpectedly