Stress is the killer in our Western society – all that thinking, going into overdrive, making deadlines. They really are dead lines! Stress deregulates our system. You can tell if you are stressed by counting how many times you breathe in a minute. Try it now with a timer. If you are breathing between fifteen to twenty times a minute you are stressed.

What the “Ice Man” AKA Wim Hof recommends for stress control is one minute of humming and breathing. This can work wonders for you. It taps into your parasympathetic nervous system – where the peace is inside – and calms down your hectic sympathetic nervous system. And it’s like a massage for your spine from within – all the way up to your brain stem and to the corner of your head. It brings you directly inside your body.

Wim Hof Breathing Method 🌬

1. Set a timer for one minute
2. Settle yourself somewhere comfortable
3. Breathe in deeply
4. Breathe out with a sound like “Hum”, “Ah” or “Om.” Make whatever sounds make you happy.
5. When you run out of air, breathe in deeply and let it out with another “Hum.”
6. Continue until the timer stops.

How many times did you breathe in a minute of humming? Maybe four, five, six times? Nice.

Now reset the timer and see how many times you breathe normally, the theory is it should be significantly less if you were breathing 15 or more times initially.