#6 AnnaLynne McCord

And you, you know, you look like a Viking. You kind of sound like what I think a Viking would sound like. And you are.

Yes.

But you're preaching love. You're preaching love. You're preaching openness and sharing and curiosity and acceptance. And these are masculine traits. And masculinity is getting shit on right now.

He holds 26 world records for achievements that for most people seem impossible and dangerous. Nicole was my teacher. To me, it's like God. He might well be one of the most unique humans currently alive. Wim Hof is changing scientists' understanding of how the body works. I created a method. The components are breathing, mindset, and cold. Wim Hof, the Iceman. Hi guys, I'm Wim, Wim Hof, and every time I go into the unknown, through my podcasts, exploring, exploring life into the depth, breaking the ice to go where nobody has gone before.

You're listening to the Wim Hof Podcast, a Monk Studios original.

And on my side, my son Einar. He's here to keep me on track, which he's not able to do, by the way, but He will try it and together we got a great chemistry. And we got Anne, our producer. She makes things really work.

On this episode, Wim talks to American actress, activist and founder of the Love Storm, Annalyn McCourt. Her mission is to end slavery from the inside out and to storm the world with love. She's been fighting child sex trafficking for the past 13 years and started using the Wim Hof Method to heal her personal trauma.

Hi, Wim.

Hi.

So it's just you and me today because Enam is doing some troubleshooting at the office, so he couldn't be here.

Yeah, he's not here, so I'm very happy about that. Don't tell nobody. But the thing is, we're going to hit it off anyway because we got a great message and we got a great guest today.

Yeah, Anna-Lynn McCord is coming.

Anna-Lynn. Anna-Lynn. And she She's got a great, great story. So Annemarie is not here, but Anna-Lynn is here, and I love it.

Oh my gosh. Yay, yay, yay. I am so excited. I am fangirling. I am so happy to meet you, Wim. Oh my gosh.

I love you already. You look great. And your enthusiasm is really contagious. So thank you for being— thank you for having me. And I saw that Instagram, you know, some time before. And that story, yeah, it strikes me. It strikes me. Of course it strikes me. But most of all, the way you got out and the way you are dealing with this, because I'm into mental health care. But we will shoot. We will shoot right straight in, change the world because, you know, I'm reaching about 100 million people already, but it's going to be billions. And when we reach billions of people inside, from the inside, in their heart, feeling autonomy, we will change the world.

100%. I— the first breath, the first Wim Hof breathwork I ever did. I was at a Lululemon event. They were doing a wellness day, and I was like, I'm very grateful for my role as an actress. It's created a platform for me, but my passion has become not unlike you, fighting the mental slavery, the chains on the brain. And that's what I lived in because of my trauma. I literally did the breathwork that you have so many practitioners now around the world I was crying my eyes out. I got up, I ran, like I literally ran out of the room. Left my friend. She's like, where are you going? I was like, goodbye, I gotta go. I ran out of the room, I found a private place, I contacted the person who sexually abused me as a child and forgave him.

Wow, yeah. That gravity.

15-minute breathwork. 15-minute breathwork changed my life, changed my life.

See, Anna and Alene, That story coming out, that story coming out from a person like you who's got all the looks of the world and the universe and being a star coming out that way, so vulnerable. That is so powerful for so many who are suppressed within their lives, locked in their mental cage constructed by involuntary actions. And no way to get them released. This is an absolute trigger to bring something that is very effective, very powerful, very accessible. And we are doing the science. I'm doing the science on this now with top researchers on depression, bipolar, on how to influence into the deepest where there is the fear, where trauma is being captured in the hippocampus and the amygdala. We go even deeper just by breathing. Imagine what you can do, you know?

It's free. It's literally free. You can do it anywhere. I do it every single day.

I never saw, yes, I never saw this breath cost a dime and this one $1. And this is a special, there's $100.

It's $100 breath.

For free. Freedom is for free. That is amazing. Now we got this too.

It's, it's honestly— so recently I started talking about, I was diagnosed with what's called dissociative identity disorder. So due to my trauma, my wonderful brain decided to protect me, and it put all my memories into a bubble, and it split me off into different little identities so that I could cope, because this happened when I was really, really young. And then I had to get out and survive and do all the things that we do as animals, as human animals. And what happened for me and what a lot of people experience without realizing it is that I had cut off access to my body. I didn't understand. I couldn't— I held my breath and I held my breath when I would do like I would run or sports, anything that was strenuous. I would hold my breath because anything traumatic made me hold my breath. So I was just trapping all this energy in my body for so long. So the first time I ever did any kind of deep inhalation, I was with— someone sent me to— I thought it was a chiropractor. He was a, he was a body, like an energy worker. And I had no idea what this was. I was filming on a movie in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the directors— I was like, I really need to see a chiropractor. We were doing a lot of stunts and I felt like my neck, my back were a little out of whack. And he's like, you got to go see my guy. He does everything. He's like trained in Chinese Traditional Chinese medicine, and I love, I've always loved homeopathic and Eastern medicines and stuff, so I was like, okay, I'll try that or whatever. I go and he stands across the room from me and he looks in my irises and I'm like 19, 20 years old, I don't know what this guy's doing, but it's really weird and tripping me out. And he's like, okay, you don't sleep well, you got a shoulder issue, you got a hip issue, and I was like, how do you know all this stuff about me? And then he said, you don't breathe. And he said, "Lay on the table." And he put his hands right here on my rib cage. And he said, "When I lift my hands up, I want you to gasp for air." So he would go, and I would— it literally, the motion actually made me gasp for air. Then all of a sudden, my eyes are getting blurry. I'm like, "Why are my eyes getting blurry? Why am I— what is happening?" I literally run from— this is a thing with me. I run. I run from my problems. Fly off the table and start running out of the office. He's like, lady, lady, come back, you're okay. And I was like, I was like, I don't know what's happening, I'm crying. And like, because I just came to get my back cracked and I was having an emotional release. It was like, we people don't realize that we get, you know, we cut off our body from the breath and we kill ourselves slowly from the inside out. And that's not having the life force in there. So this has just been a long journey, but I'm so grateful. In October, when your book, The Iceman Speaks, I'm like, yes, I had the second— I was on like pre-order for that. I got your book. I listened to it because I'm sorry, like, you guys can go read that book if you want. I do not recommend that. Listen to it on audiobook because that is where you get the real power. But I started I started doing ice baths while reading your book, and I've been doing them. It's completely changed my vascular system. I also feel— I'm a little thing. I'm like 5'7" and about 112 pounds, but I feel so powerful. Like, I feel like I can feel the spirit of Anna Lynn inside me, and I feel like a little warrior.

Wow, that is a great— Just beautiful the way you express yourself, your soul right now is very beautiful. The deep trauma, as you say, and making it accessible for so many people who are locked up, that deep trauma now is accessible. Imagine the gravity of this, bringing a tool like this to so many who are locked up What an energy, what an emotional release will happen once they get to hear this. And yeah, I love it. I do not only love it, it needs to get out of here, out of there to those people who are in despair, who are in despair. And for that, I'm very grateful for what you do in general. And this podcast, yes, I'm looking at a beautiful person, but also a person who found a way to express her deeper spirit being released. And that makes me, yeah, man, I'm just happy. You know, within 2 years, we're gonna reach billions of people. That means people will learn to tap into their deeper physiology and gain control, gain connection, gain connection with themselves. Which was probably locked up from childhood off. And imagine those people learning to fully enter into the experience of their sensitivity, the child inside, and being able to regulate that sensitivity of not being blurred by confusions, by aggressive thoughts or traumatic experiences. No, just freed. And that inner child, that sensitivity we can bring to the people like this. This is more than I can understand right now, but it is here. So that's the gravity of what we are talking about. So you are doing so much. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm also enthusiastic about your presence, about what you do. And about what I do and where it comes together, it's already there, right? The spiritual marriage of our journeys is coming together here in this podcast. And guys, anybody who is listening, look at what is happening. Look at the testimonial of just two people. If we can change the world with two people, what can you do? You can do even more. Just look inside of yourself and feel that potential to release yourself because it's here. It's nowhere else. Anna, when I, in '95, I lost my wife. And that was deep traumatic. It was the mother of my 4 children. She jumped from 8 stories down. That is emotionally being captured into the darkness and the daily life goes as a train and just passes by. It's impersonal. You got to deal with your own, captivity inside with this agonizing emotional pain. The cold brought me there where the whole of psychiatry could not help me. They could not help her. They could not help me. But the cold brought me to stillness. It brought me into surviving, just being, not to be in this emotional agonizing pain. And I learned to gain control therein through the breath and through the cold. Over my emotion to be just here in the ability to serve my children who I had no money. I had no money, I had 4 children. So the only option was get a lot of energy. I got a lot of enthusiasm and freedom and do it every day. That's what the cold and the breathing has brought me. And then now I'm doing the studies with the best of psychiatrists of the world. The top researchers of the world, and they say we found a way to tap into the deeper potential of the brain, being able to modulate our own mood in stressful situations. Hey man, we found the tools. We got the keys. Yeah, man. And we bring it out. Simple people like me and you.

We do it. Because you're doing it and you're also, you're going after the science part. You know, I've been posting videos about my ice baths and I beat my own record. I got up to 20 minutes in the cold. Whoa!

How did that feel? Yeah. Whoa, that's a warrior.

Well, it was really funny because I did a, I was doing, you know, I'm trying to share this because people go to me a lot for trauma care because of what I've been through and I'm very open about it. So I'm always online trying to say what I'm trying out and what's helping me. What's working for me and what's not and la la la. Well, I was doing the whole video. So I go in and I'm trying to explain what I'm feeling and then you just see me kind of just like drop off 'cause I was like in the stars. And then I tried to do a video after and I could not talk. I was like, I just turned the video off. I was like, I gotta turn the video off because I'm so in peace and bliss right now that I can't even make any sense. Like I just have to stop. But it was— people started telling me like, this is so dangerous, you shouldn't be doing this, this could— you could, you know, like you could go into cardiac arrest and all these. And I'm like, so maybe try it before you tell me that what I'm doing is wrong. And also I'm reading the science, I'm following all of the stuff that you are obviously putting out there and I've done my own research because I, you know, I don't just leave it up to, you know, whomever. I make sure that I know what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. And what's really toxic in our world is that people speak with authority on things they do not know or understand. And when you speak with authority, authority that you don't actually have because you haven't actually done the research and you haven't lived it and you haven't experienced it, you close the minds of the people around you, especially if you speak in a powerful way, in the same way that our energy can open people and share, because love opens, fear closes and, and locks things down. And that's why we have stigmatization. That's what I'm working against with this disorder, of talking about this disorder. Like, stop stigmatizing people. Stop telling them they're, they're crazy when you don't even know what you're talking about. Like, you haven't lived it. You, you watched a movie about it, and, and I'm sorry, I work in the movies, it's not real. Like, like, learn, like experience it. And I'm inviting people, I'm inviting people in on the journey with me. And I'm like, look, this is my experience. This is what it does for me. If you think it's bad, don't do it for you, but don't tell me not to do something that's making me feel amazing. I will tell you, so I'm, I, um, so I started this when I was working on a show in New York. I had gotten a house out in East Long Island. It was in October, so it was getting colder and colder. And I'd gotten just like a Rubbermaid tub and I filled it with water and every night it would freeze over at night. So I'd have to like put my foot through the ice and then I'd go in and I'm like, you know, do my breath. And then it was gradually getting more and more, my energy field was getting more and more powerful. So then I was like, I was just instinctively doing the dance, like pushing the blood out.

Yeah.

I was literally at one point, I don't know where it came from, but it was like I was doing some kind of indigenous sounds and it just felt natural. And I was like, my neighbors, here is this naked lady, this naked lady, like doing this crazy warrior dance with these like, whoa, they were like, who is this crazy person? But it, I literally like I just, I mean, I'm a different person. I've shed a lot of skins, but from even just from October to now, October of last year, I'm a different person in my, like the sense of like, I feel like this grounded where I always kind of felt like I was never fully in my body. I am in my body because when you are in the cold, it is like, wow, I can feel my energy field in the cold water all around me heating up the water. And it's just—

And I can see you expressing right now. You are like a flower, a wildflower right now, but not only from the outer look, yeah, from the inside out. That's what I see. And to see a sensuous woman doing a primordial dance somewhere in New York, Long Island, in midwinter, that is not only crazy, it is beautiful. It is beautiful. And it should be more out there where all the people feel instead of think. Think out of this authority, which is narrowing down them and narrowing down each other. Like a virus it goes. They should become here, back in the moment and follow. When you are loving somebody, You don't ask yourself, hey, can I do this, love? What is love? Should I do this tomorrow or today? Maybe I have to— No, you fly. You fly. That is love. Yes.

Yes.

Because the love is stronger. The love is stronger than the mind. So don't mind. Learn to love life like you love love. And it is as simple as it is. And love, they say, you know, the primordial survival mechanisms in the brain, they are about food, flee, freeze, fuck, and fight. That is simple truth.

Yeah, that's it.

It's a simple truth. Yeah. So once you get a hold of that, once you get a hold of that, You learn to activate those powers. You learn to be better than the food. You learn to create energy. You learn to be stronger in the fight. You learn to not freeze, but to express yourself. You learn that the creative power, the celebrating the love with your person, your sexual partner, to have children or to experience love. You can do that with life itself. And this is what happens. You learn to tap into the feeling, pure feeling without label. And we have lost this.

No words to it. No words. Like, stop putting it in boxes. Just actually experience it.

Exactly. The way you say it, it's like poetry. You dance. And it is this big. And there it is. No, that is the passion. It's not just words. It's not an ABC. The words come, but the feeling is the driving force. And it's inside. It's spirituality with two feet on the ground, giving testimonial of the beauty of life itself in all its unlimitedness. The brain itself the mind, the seed of the mind, and the unlimited power of the mind. It all gets to us. We become like children again. Like, you don't mind. A child doesn't mind. It just goes because it's got this driving force. And I'm 62, but I am a child of God. I'm a child of being here right now. And I love it. And I'm strong. I'm motherfucking strong. Because I love life. I challenge it every day. I have no boundaries and I'm going to change the world. We are going to bring love to this world.

Yes, yes, yes.

And we are on the way.

We are. And you know what I love too, Wim? I really, really appreciate what you represent. Just when someone looks at you, because there's, There's a loss of the divine masculine, of sacred masculinity in our world. And you, you know, you look like a Viking. You kind of sound like what I think a Viking would sound like. And you are. Yes, but you're preaching love. You're preaching love. You're preaching openness and sharing and curiosity and acceptance. And these are masculine traits. And masculinity is getting shit on right now. Because there's a little bit of our population that are toxic, and that's for real. I've experienced it obviously with my story. But so many wonderful men are getting pushed down because just men are being attacked right now because we're trying to do that thing that we always do where we swing the pendulum too far. And we do, we do, we need to acknowledge the plight of women and support women. But we need to realize that men are part of the solution.

Yes, absolutely.

Men are part of the solution. They are going to be the ones that— it's the 90% of the men that are actually good men here supporting and standing by the feminine, by women. There's 10% going around and creating all the problems. We need our men. We need our good men to stand up and be a voice with us and bridge that gap. And women have a responsibility. The feminine has a responsibility to stop suppressing the positive side of masculinity and throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We've got to look at the issue, cut out the cancer, you know, bring, bring life force to the cancer and enliven it or cut it out, whatever has to be done to remove it so that we can, we can unite the feminine and masculine in our world and have the proper balance. And the swinging from one side to the— it doesn't do anything. It's revolution. And what we need is evolution. And I just am thankful. I'm thankful that you represent just even on a superficial level, aesthetically, you look like a real man, you know, the concept of man. And it's like, yes. But it's like that needs to be, we need that visual. We need that understanding of that model. So that, because I'm a brand new auntie, I have a little 1-year-old nephew. And my sister's like, she's brought the first grandbaby, great-grandbaby, and, you know, nephew, everything into the family. And he's a little boy growing up in a world where it's a little uncertain times for how to raise a boy. Like, what do you teach them? What are the themes? What are they allowed to do? What are they not allowed to do?

We will change that together now, Annalynne. Exactly what you say right now as a beautiful woman being able to show the masculinity as being a flower as well, a flower that is able to talk from the heart, not from the fear, not from the mind, not from a narrow consciousness, from the heart. We are able to— I got a little son myself. My oldest is 38. My youngest is 3 and a half. What? Yeah. I'm still thinking to have another one, but don't tell nobody.

Okay, I won't tell anyone.

I love them. I love it. They are so ridiculously cute, these little beings. And now I got this boy. And so I don't want to have him go into the same narrowing consciousness So this patriarchal or matriarchal, it's all the mind. People have lost touch with their heart. In the heart, there is much more power going from the heart to the brain than vice versa. And what do we do? We block the heart, our openness, our sensitivity, and we begin to talk in regulations and rules. In certain patterns. And then we find ourselves with a helmet of all kinds of things that restricts us in the moment. We live accordingly, but it is like half living. It's not living. You got to live without fear. You got to express yourself in the moment. And you know, when you go into the cold, you live in the moment. You got to let go. The greatest of people, the greatest of masculine men who got an image of, oh, I'm so masculine and that's why I talk like this all the time. If they go into the cult, they cannot hold their attitude anymore.

It's so true.

They gotta let go.

It's so true. I was, I went into, so I was up at California, Lake Tahoe, And I was sitting there, everybody was all talking and everything. It was like, it was still very much freezing water and everybody was kind of— this was actually before I knew— I obviously had been listening to your breaths and stuff like that, but I hadn't done the cold yet and I hadn't started the ice baths that I would later start in October of last year. But I knew your breath and I'd seen you on Goop where you took the women into Tahoe actually and like when it was snow, like cold, cold. So then we were— we were— it had stopped snowing, so it was— it wasn't, you know, it wasn't that cold. It was cold. Um, and I was like— everybody's talking and they're all do— like, you know, having drinks on the beach and whatever. And I was like staring at the water. I was like, I am gonna go in there. I am gonna go in that water. I'm gonna do this. And I was getting more and more intense. And I'm like, I'm over there going like, like trying to quietly not, you know, like bring attention to myself, but like get the air so that I get the breath in my body. And then I was like, ah, fuck it. And I just like took off running and just was like, I have to run because I might stop and I need to not stop. And I went all the way, dove in, and I was coming back out and I just, I had been so in my head for the last 5, 10 minutes preparing myself that I didn't realize I had completely shut out, you know, the people I was with. And they were all like, What the hell? Like, you just went in that water? It's like 43 degrees Fahrenheit. Like, what is wrong with you? And then there was a guy, there was a guy who was like, I, I can't let a chick just go in the water. He's like all like, what you smoke?

I see.

Yeah, he goes in the water, but he was like That's exactly it.

It's physical. Our narrowed consciousness is physical. And you know, like children, my child, when he was 1 year old and he could barely walk, but every time in the morning, every morning in the wintertime when the grass is snowing over and I would go out barefoot just to walk 10 minutes or something, like nice, I love that. He would come with me because he is not minding. He's not minding. He wouldn't go all the 10 minutes. He would ask for me to lift him up finally. But still he was like naked. And then we were together. It's like a mammalian. And we forgot this mammalian love of being together instead of being individualistic through the mind. In an attitude and closed in. And then you get repressed memories, repressed energy, and then you get twisted ways of how it gets out in the end. This is what our society is doing. Our society makes it, represses our deep nature to release in the moment, to be natural. We have to be part of a system that is actually sodomizing the planet. And we have to follow all kinds of regulations. And you know, there's sexual anomalies happening all over the world and the child trafficking and organ trafficking and the animal cruelties. This is insensitivity. And insensitivity you get only if you are blocked from your own heartfelt being.

It's so true. That's what— so I've been working fighting child sex trafficking for the last 13 years. That's actually been my amazing work. That's been my heart's passion. It's actually what led me to ultimately getting healing for myself because it was— it ended up— I didn't remember my life, my full story until 2 and a half years ago. I was undergoing PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder treatment,, and I had memories come back only 2 and a half years ago of childhood sexual abuse. And so this process of realizing that I had literally started working with children who had gone through different versions of what I had been through, it was just— this is just so how love works, is that it leads you even when you don't even know. I didn't consciously know my memories, but my body was like, this, go in this direction. It was my heart that opened because of these wonderful children, and they were my heroes, and they were— they loved me, and I didn't feel deserving of love. I didn't understand why they loved me. I couldn't earn their love. They just loved me freely, and it was so confusing. And it was life-changing for me, and it became my work, my life's passion. And, and One of the things that after kind of coming to terms with my own story and everything, I appreciate you saying what you said about this desensitivity that we have, because in nature there are no— adult animals don't do that to baby children. Like, they don't do that to baby animals. This is against nature. It goes against natural order of things.

And people don't understand. People don't understand these things. Anymore. I sat once next in a talk show on television next to a pedophile. He tried to go and fight for the rights of pedophile beings. And I thought, man, you can't make babies with a calf. A bull cannot make babies with a calf. It's not natural. You can't— don't you see this? They don't see it.

They don't see it.

They don't. What I do, what I do is bring sensitivity to all the people. I bring a way and give them tools, non-speculative, through science endorsed, factual, good tools, keys to open up them to their own sensitivity, because that's the only way they will see what they are doing. It's the only way. And then they will get away of this twisted being they, which accumulated throughout the years of suppressing their own being. Because this is what is happening. And society lets it and it has no answers. And the psychiatry doesn't know. We are changing psychiatry as it is with simple tools. And we keep on going until the positive message of what we give, which is love, with the right tools to bring about a control over happiness, strength, and health. And you and me, we are doing this. So be there, be functional therein, sensitive that you are able through positivity to help so many children, because this is what I want. I want to help the innocents to stay innocent.

To stay innocent.

That's what I want.

Yes. Me too.

Me too. We are all in— the soul is innocent. What is happening with the mind and all that, this needs to be in control, learn to be in control through sensitivity, through opening up to the deeper physiology. The deeper physiology, what is it? That's the heart opening up. And now it is in control. You can sense it. I think if you learn people to be happy, a happy man doesn't go to war. A happy man is not into possession. A happy man is just radiating love because he is happy. He doesn't know. He's just happy. There's nothing in his mind because he is happy there. Unconditionally, he is there. And we lost this connection. And now I'm working with the best of psychiatrists, and they say this is a transformational technique that will change mental health care. Yeah, that's what we want because we don't want dependent dependency in people making money through pharmaceutical industries and the whole systems, cognitive therapies and this and that. No, just breathe. Just go in a cold shower and you gain access into your own deeper physiology like you were as a child.

But, but, Bam, this is what you're talking about is a cure. And our world likes to treat the symptoms. That's, that's what's wrong with— that's what's wrong with our world is they're not going to the root of the problem because they don't want a cure because they want your money. They want you to keep— they want to keep paying for their yachts and their nice little summer houses and all the tuition for their preschool. That's the real disease.

They are twisted. They are twisted themselves. But they are on the upper one, and then you got the downer ones. It's the yin and yang, the yin and yang of the bad. And we're going to take away that yin and yang and bring love. Bring love and understanding. Love and understanding. And, and with that, all the tools necessary, and they are very simple, and they are for free.

Freedom. They are free. Yep, here it is, 100%. And it's alchemy. What our body is capable of is, is alchemizing chemicals.

It's—

it— we have our own laboratory underneath our skin. It's incredible. For me, for example, when I was in the breathe that I would— your breath when I was doing the Wim Hof breath for the first time, and I ended up in that situation where I went out tears, heart open, just ready to forgive this person prior— what was happening, and I'll just explain what kind of came through. When the breath is happening and I was just kind of overwhelmed with the body and the heart and all of the things, and this meditation that I had done before, actually for many years, I had heard this guided meditation and it was actually written in a book and I read it and would listen to my own recording of this and it came into the awareness of my mind while I was doing your breathwork. And there was a line in the meditation and it says, wherever I go, whomever I meet, I see myself in their eyes because I am a part of everything because I love. And this meditation was so beautiful for me for years and years and years. And then I was in the thing, I was doing your breath, I was feeling all this intense emotion and that thing, that meditation came into my mind and I got mad. I got mad because I was like, I don't want to see myself in the eyes of this person that did this to me. Me. I don't want to, I don't want to be, I don't want to be one with that person. I don't, I don't want anything to do with that person. I was, I was feeling the anger and the heartbreak and the hurt of what had happened to me as a child. And the breath kept going. And then we're still, we're, you know, I'm still being guided in the breath. So my body's getting this overflow of energy and I'm fighting with myself of, of, I want to, I want this meditation to be true for me, but it's not right now. And I don't want to see that in that person. And, and I don't want to see me in them. And then all of a sudden I was like, who fucking cares? That comes across my mind, like, who fucking cares? Be free, be free. And I just said, I said, I'm done. And all of a sudden, all of that anger and that angst and that hurt here in my belly, anxiety making me sick, just went through my heart center and completely alchemized into this massive explosion of compassion. And that's what— 2 minutes later, I was running out the door to say, I forgive you. I was— I absolved this. I, like, if you need to lie about me, I forgive you for lying about me to keep yourself safe. I forgive you for all of it. Because honestly, I just want to be free, and I can't be free if I'm holding on to the chains of him. I can't hold on to his chains and let myself be free. It's not possible. I had to let it all go.. And I think that that's the other thing that's been profound for me is alchemy. Like I, that we, so my charity, my organization that I work with is based in Cambodia. And so I go to Cambodia, well, except for COVID last year. Like I've, that's the first year in 10 years that I wasn't with my girls over Christmas and I was, oh, I miss them so much. But we launched a campaign on National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the US. Last January called The Love Storm, 'cause I wanna storm the planet with love. But it also was my storm I was able to turn into love. And that was a part of the reason that we chose that name. And I was talking to my co-founders and I was like, I need a powerful name. I don't want people thinking that this is like hippie shit and they're like write it off because they're like, oh, you know, she hugs trees. Which, mind you, trees are wonderful and they deserve our hugs. But I wanted something that was fierce because my love is fierce. Like, I'm like, I'll stab you with my love. Like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm overflowing love. So, and then I woke up. Yes, I woke up at 3 in the morning and I was like, the love storm. And it was, it, it was just like I had had this storm inside me and turn that into love, and we want to take this to the planet, storm the planet with love. It all— it made sense, the love storm. So the idea is that we're taking a personal stake in the end, in the fight to end slavery. And, and for me, what— from my own personal experience and what I've seen moving through this narrative for the last, you know, decade and a half almost, I've seen that we don't just have 48 million slaves in the world. We have 7.8 billion people who have or will experience slavery in— it's invisible. It's invisible chains on their mind that lock them into this enslaved, you know, situation where they can't be who they truly are because they're not wealthy enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not successful enough. They, they've got all these, these stories in their mind, and they never stop and ask why. Why am I not smart enough? Who told me that I'm not smart enough? And why do I believe what they say over what I feel? What— we don't ask why. I'm the 'but why' kid. I was the most annoying child because I was like, 'But why? But why? But why?' And now I'm the 'but why' adult, and I'm like, 'But why?' Because that's how you unravel it. You unravel the stories and the bullshit when you ask why. Because at a certain point, if you ask enough whys, there's not any more answer. There isn't another answer good enough to keep you attached to that belief. And the second you're not attached to that belief anymore, you, you're free to be whoever you want to be. And, and for me, I'm finally who I truly am. And just like you, I'm a, I'm a big kid. Like, I love to go to the playground and swing the afternoon away on the swing set, and it's me and a bunch of 4-year-olds, and the parents are all looking at me like, is Is this person okay? And I'm like, I'm better than any of you. I'm like, I'm basically the little 4-year-old sitting next to me having the time of her life. That's me. I'm living fully for the first time because I'm actually living. I was a dead person who could walk around. I was a walking dead. I lived in shame. I lived in unworthiness. I didn't believe that anyone would ever truly love me or that I could be loved or that I could let anybody in. I didn't understand how to have intimacy and a connection. So closed off and to the whole world is just the unit, the multiverse is, is so infinite and vast and I can go experience all of it and I literally feel like I, I, if, if I had wings right now I would probably have, I would fly to you but I would definitely take off because I feel like flying all the time.

Yeah. That's what I do. Yeah. Flying is like being light, not heavy. Flying is like being light, not in the dark. And yes, the massive explosion of compassion, that is exactly the alchemy. We are the alchemists. This is what I propagate all the time to the people. And I show them how to, say, to be the master of their mind. And the captain of their soul and to untie ourselves of this arrested hypnosis where we've gotten in, schooled to fit in a system which is only serving a couple of people who think they have the power while they are not even happy or strong or happy. They need all kinds of conditional elements around them before sensing something. Something. It's like desensitized. A whole society that is so desensitized. We have to change that. And so we bring it through this. We bring it through the science. And really, your enthusiasm is incredible. I love it. It's a— you show inner power that is stronger than the mind. And it's sometimes even stronger than your own mind. But that's great because I'm too, me too, I'm still having outbursts of emotional happiness, craziness. I begin to dance in the middle of the road and nobody understands what is this man doing? I'm just dancing, man. I'm feeling, I'm feeling something. You know, so many people are waiting now for being— not being in the darkness, the depression and all. So what you said about the alchemist, we are able to get into this, what you said, the explosive compassion. And it was so powerful with you who've been So captured this beautiful spirit of yours, which is too strong to be held, or if it is, get a little trigger, it's out of there. And then you get this love that is the alchemist. That is the alchemist. And our message is, guys, anybody who's listening to this, pass it on to anybody who is always struggling with mood, trying to be its best and it's not good. Bring it to them. Because feeling is understanding. Go feel. Use the breath. Use the cold. And you will see that your spirit is able to evolve from the heart the way nature meant it to be and the way it should be. Because you're going to feel something that is stronger than your mind ever before thought it is possible. You will feel freedom. And there we are. You do the same already. So my thing, I'm in gratitude for what you do. Your work is great. You look great. But you're from the inside out. Your hair looks like the sunshine. But with that energy, It really looks even brighter. So just keep on dancing in life. As the poet says, every step a dance and every word a song. And then it was Dave Asprey who told me, Wim, what is enlightenment? I never asked this in my podcast, but it seems that you got answers. Please put it in one sentence. I said, all Bibles and Korans are written on this theme, and I got to say it in one sentence? Okay, here it comes. Just be happy, strong, and healthy. The rest is bullshit. So we are not going to take on the bullshit no more. And anything that suppresses us, we have the tools to make it go away. And that is our serious message. And I see it within you. You're powerful, beautiful light warrior. That's what I see. And let's save at least a billion children who are captured against their will and give the innocents an absolute platform of great energy all over the world through the hearts of all people.

And we will get there very soon. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I want all— I want all the children, the children that are trapped in the big people too, because that's, that's where a lot of kids are, is trapped inside big people. And, and if they— if we inspire or share or just give the tools like you're doing to, to adults to let them know, um, it's okay You have my permission to be a child, to be free, to have fun, to play. You know, while you work all the time, you forget to play. Playing is important. We need to play. Yes. Sometimes we need to take a nap. Sometimes we need to take a nap, have an early bedtime and play.

But I feel like we need permission. I think the playfulness will, yes, the playfulness will come about if they just use some natural tools. To release themselves of the inner agony. And if that happens, then naturally they come to themselves. And we are born to be happy, strong, and healthy, and not to be suppressed or repressed in any way. This is our society. Our society— you saw the last 1.5 year, the COVID and all, the way the world got arrested through an invisible enemy. A virus, it killed 1.5 million people. You know what? Every year, 60 to 70 million people die of inflammation. And through the breathing, you are able to bring down the inflammation in a quarter of an hour. All scientific research been done on this, and it showed for the first time in medical history We can suppress inflammation effectively at will through just breathing exercises. So simple. But whole industries are being there on our dependency that we cannot. And 60 to 70 million people every year die of this. And it's an industry. It's the money. It's the power. So repression makes people vulnerable. Makes people go in fear, and then they gonna buy this to compensate, or that, or that, or that, or that.

Wow.

When you are unconditionally happy, what do you need? Nothing. Just be.

You just need to breathe, motherfucker.

Sharing the love. Sharing the love together and be happy together. And fart in the elevator. Because I say always, you know, on Monday morning when people have long faces, they have to go to work and they are serious going up, you should let a fart go because they don't— they keep in their attitude until the fart reaches the nostrils. Then what is this? Hot cross buns and notes of paper. It's hard, guys. Just act normal and say what is upon your heart. It's so difficult. So we make it playful, but it is serious. Where you've gotten through, that is really serious, and you are a powerful light, a powerful inner fire you got, and with that you found your way. That is amazing, but so many, haven't. And we are here now to give live testimonial. Guys, we have been there where you are. And now we just hand over some simple tools that are very effective. And look at us, and we are beings. I'm 62. I'm motherfucking strong. I go on my birthday, I'm 62 minutes in the ice, icy water. And I lift weights. This is crazy. It's not— you can't see it on my muscles, but they should be 4 times stronger. You know what that is? That is no inhibition, no fear. It is unconditional love of being in life. And that makes me able to tap in now consciously and experience fully every moment. And it makes me so much stronger than any mindful, yucky, competitive way. So, uh, just be the Viking. Go into the unknown. Everybody, I say, because they said, but you are the Iceman, you only can do this because you are an extreme athlete. I say, extreme motherfucker, I'm not. I am a human. I'm a soul searcher. I got the right to know what is in my heart What is my feeling? To pass on love to my children and to all living beings where I'm surrounded with. So that's what I do. And because it was not there, I had to fight for my right. And I did and will not stop until the soul is back to everybody, to in everybody's heart and accessible to be experienced. And people like you are with me. I'm with you, you are with me, we are with love. We are with the grace of God and the divine moment. There we are, and we give testimonial.

I'm so grateful to you. I'm so grateful that you exist. I'm so grateful that you have come through all you've been through and have spent the thousands of hours you've spent in the cold to be able to bring us not just all the science that is coming your way now, but the personal experience of what you can do and how one can transform from those states that send us in search of meaning into a place where you don't even need to question it because every breath you breathe is meaningful now. And I think that for me is— I very much in the cold, one of the most profound things to me was the realization of— and this is talk about going to the gym and not seeing your muscles— like, the muscle that you work out when you go into the cold is the muscle of your spirit. It is the, the strength of your spirit and your will and fortitude to— when your body— because my body, my body will be like, maybe you should have a snack. Maybe you should go shopping. Maybe you should do anything but get in that freezing ice bath downstairs because that's a really dumb idea. I'm gonna freak the fuck out and then I'm gonna— and my mind, I keep coming back in my— I'm like, we're going in the cold. You can have a snack later and we'll go shopping to celebrate, but we're gonna go in the cold, little body lady. But what's happened when this— there were a few profound moments, and one of the most profound, I think, for me was when I got, I think I had done, I beat my, my first record was 5 minutes in the cold, which was a lot, was a lot for me at first. And I got up to 5 minutes and it was because I had gotten very, very physically still. And in the physical stillness, that was when I felt the outline of my electromagnetic field in the water. And if I moved a finger, the cold water would come, I'd feel the cold again.. But if I stayed really still, I could feel the entire outline of my field, my energy field, and it was vibrating. It was getting bigger. It was heating up the water. And suddenly I had this, like, I've, you know, we've always heard spirit, soul, and whatever, but I knew that this was my spirit. This was, this was my soul. I'm this. There's a body that I live in. I live in this body, and I'm grateful for the body and her hair and all the things. But who I am was that field, that powerful field that could heat up not only the body, but the freezing cold water the body was in and the world around her and could bring warmth. And that is, to me, that is how I really, in a, it's hard to use words because it's such an experience and it has to be experienced, but in an experiential way, that was, I'm one. I am one with all things because who I am actually goes outside of my body. It expands and is so expansive.

And that is beautiful. That is beautiful and powerful. This is the message people get to know, to see what you're saying. I tell you more. We found together with the neurologist We found, you know, the symbol of the crown. The kings and the queens. They got a symbol of the crown, like the corona, coronavirus. There is also something positive about it. The spiritual corona is the crown. And the crown actually is the corona radiata. Corona radiata is a nerve, a neural pathway. And through going into the cold, And through going into these breathing techniques, you learn to activate the corona radiata, which was the original— yes, the original motivation for in the Roman Empire to— it was called the corona radiata then. And now they have seen inside the brain that the corona radiata is the symbol which they took on for people like kings and queens. And now the functionality therefrom is to radiate that same electromagnetic energy out of here. And who is ruling? This is top-down regulated now. Because you go into the cold, you learn to deal with the stress. And when you learn to deal with the stress mechanisms, It is in the deepest of the brain. And in the deepest of the brain, we find the neural pathway, which is the corona radiata, which is the kingship, the queen. You look like a motherfucking queen, beautiful. And I am a king, I tell you. This is about love and we bring the neurology. We bring that what in psychiatry is what they say Wim Hof has found secret of placebo. That is the healing power without the, uh, a suggestion or sugar pill. We found the healing power, and you give testimonial to the healing power of this aggression, aggressive suppression which you had to deal with. And society doesn't, and it doesn't know, and so many people are captivated. But we will make them all queens and kings. Yes.

And as they should feel inside.

Radiate from their crown. Yes. Yes. And we got this Kirlian, Kirlian photography people coming to my workshops and they did photography with these people to see about their electromagnetic field, the emotional, physical and mental electromagnetic field. It takes a quarter of each person. And then a quarter after, and they saw after doing this workshop with just breathing and going into the cold was completely healed in one afternoon. And wow, yes. And then the thing is, the thing is, Anna, to maintain it, to make people understand that the power of the mind, which has been shown in science, in neurological science, in the department, psychological department, psychiatry in Detroit, Wayne State University, brain over body, psychology over physiology. They saw me able just by thinking of it, making cold water on the skin, my skin temperature did not go down because I wanted to be so. That is the innate capacity of our mind in everybody. It's not only me, it's everybody. I just found something and I want to share it. It's the love I want to share, because when people get control within themselves, what would they choose? 10 cars or happiness?

What do you think? Happiness.

Happiness.

It's obvious.

Happiness. It's obvious. And you are a happy being like this, giving testimonial in such a beautiful way. I thank you for that. I got a lot of gratitude. Your beautiful face is tattooed in me for the coming days. She was so beautiful. It's like a goddess I saw. I saw a goddess. I saw a queen. It's amazing. And it is so. It is so. It is the art of life, the creation itself. I see it right here in front of me, and I appreciate it. I bow down to beauty.

As live is. Thank you. Well, I was— I would love to have you take this goddess for a hike sometime on one of your snowy mountains. I think that would be really incredible. I, I'm just so grateful to you. This is amazing. And the, the opportunity and the tools you provided for our whole world to be able to heal themselves should they so desire. I'm just, like I said, eternally grateful to the King and the God I see in you.

So thank you, thank you, thank you. Powerful, good work we are doing. We are going to keep on and we will meet again.

You can find short videos of this conversation on the Wim Hof YouTube channel. If you appreciate listening to Wims Conversations, please leave a rating or a review on Apple Podcast. This way you can help us spread the love and reach more listeners. Oh, and don't forget to hit subscribe. Thank you for listening to the Wim Hof Podcast, a Monk Studios original.