Wim Hof describes his son Noony freezing on a tree after learning to ride a bike, using it to argue that parents should stay calm and present while kids confront fear through play. He connects this to his ice-bath practice: both require trust and surrender to handle challenges beyond what you think you can do.
Chapters
Oh, there he is! Haha! Hi guys! Lately I was with my son, Noony, nickname of Eden. I like to ride my bicycle. Bye! It's amazing bike riding. So I did that last time with my little son. I bought him a bike and then the same day he was riding the bike. They upran so fast. What is this now here? What is this? When he sees a tree or something to climb in, he goes off the bike into the tree. He becomes a monkey. Tree climbing is a great way to lose your fears, to go past your inhibitions, to get skills, motorical skills, and just feel it.
Look at this, I'm really high.
Yeah, you are high. Hi! And then suddenly he is up there and I think, oh shit, if he falls there, he's going to break something. He lost a little bit of his control and it's slippery on a tree like that and it's difficult then. And then he is like locked up, frozen.
I can't. But you've just done a try, Sammy.
Climbing and all is great, but when the thinking starts to get in is when you lose the grip. At that moment I begin to fear and that creates a paralyzing situation. That moment I think, okay, be here, be caring, and that's it. And then go to the situation.
Just stand up so you can hold his leg together.
Yeah, sure.
You don't have to bend down. Put your foot back on your puppy's head.
It's okay. Now you can do it.
Put your foot back.
You can do it. Hold it. See it? Hey, Tommy.
It's okay to be scared.
It's okay. I'm also scared. Show them that you are there and they will do the rest.
Nice.
Okay, I will try. We have to learn to be there. If we are there, then they know you are there, and next time he will be fearless. Less Fear. Less fear. And that's the way he begins to understand his own mind. Because in the end, we are humans with a monkey body. Oh, we look like chimps, man. Yeah.
Whoa! Thank you, sweetie.
Thank you that you showed me. Where do you want to go? Monkeys. We are like monkeys. The magic happens when we let go. It's like the ice bath. Let go and the body is able, capable of dealing with the situation more than you're thinking.
Then you just follow the other leg, other leg down to the other branch.
As a parent, You cannot lock up a child to have it secured of the dangers of life. They have to test themselves, their limits, they go past. We have to be there.
How did you do that? That's it, and then turn around, other foot. Yep, there we are.
Yeah, you just got to take a minute to get Don't lock their development into, "I don't do this, don't do that, don't do that." No, that's no good because situations in life will come where you need the skills you had time for and space when they are young, wherein they go past perceived limits of themselves. So be there, please, for your kid so he's able to face later these bigger problems coming. He's got these motorical skills to go past. Look at you! We should not interfere too much with the neurological developments, motorical nerves coming in, cycling, climbing, going further. The more you always do that. Clementine, olives, pizza. That's walking big, papi. 4 years old. They are amazing what they can do. So let your children play. Let the children play. Let the children climb in trees, being free, being okay. Tree climbing.
