El Método Wim Hof: Laura Hof Explica Cómo el Frío y la Respiración Cambian Vidas

Esta semana en Yo Pude, Tú Puedes, Sophie tuvo el privilegio de entrevistar a Laura Hoff, la hija del mismísimo hombre de hielo Wim Hof. Being exposed to the cold was very normal to me. There were moments that I was very afraid to lose my father. I lost my mother already when I was 8. What are we doing here? We bring down the inflammation with this method.

Welcome to another episode of Jopude Tu Puedes podcast. Today we have an amazing, amazing guest, Laura Hoff, the Ice Woman. She is the daughter to Wim Hof, the Iceman. She is a biohacker, a nutritionist, a holistic therapist, and she has an amazing community of women, um, called the Ice Woman Community, right? Welcome, Laura. Thank you, thank you so much. I'm so excited to talk to you. So tell me how it is to be Wim Hof's daughter. Talk to me about your childhood.

This is so funny because it's a question that I get asked a lot, but I have no idea what it is. Something else. No, it might, you know, he has been my father my whole life. So yeah, I don't know any better. I only found out later that he's a little bit different than other fathers.

Right, right.

But my childhood has been amazing. I really have a dad I always was playing around. Um, very much in tune with nature, very much following his own path, his own inner truth, so to speak. And that means that, yeah, he also taught me, I think, very beautiful values, just really listening to your essence, listening to yourself, following your own path. And that has served me quite amazing. Yeah.

How so?

Um, well, anything, anything in life, there's always choices to be made, right? The choices you make in life decide which life you have. And I think my father really instilled in me the power just to be able to decide for myself, to block out any noise. If it is society, your school teacher, your friends, what— anything that tells you which path you should go towards because you will be more successful, have more money, da da da da da. My father always taught me, no, no, no, you think for yourself. That's the most important thing to do.

From the heart.

From the heart. And if you're happy, that's all that matters. And this really has served me so well so many times in life.

Yeah, and I can tell you're like such a genuine, happy person.

Oh yeah, thank you.

Yeah, like literally I was telling my parents, I picked her up from the airport yesterday and we talked all the way through, like from the airport all the way to the hotel. Just laughing and talking. Such a genuine, like, happy person.

You too.

Thank you.

Yeah, you too.

So you were exposed to cold, the cold showers or dipping into the cold rivers since you were young, right?

Yeah. I mean, we always went into nature. In Holland, it's cold most of the time and we have very cold winters. Super, yeah, snowy. So it's just all white and anytime every day pretty much. We went out into nature and just playing, playing outside. My father went doing his yoga poses in his shorts, of course. And you as a child, you follow. Sometimes I also just went dipping with him. Yeah, not always, but sometimes I did. And so just being exposed to the cold was very normal to me. I remember that I had no idea when a season began and a season ended. And so we never listened in my home. We never listened to the weatherman.

Oh, okay.

We just listened to whatever you feel. So whenever you felt the cold, that was the moment you asked for a jacket.

Yeah.

You know, and I still remember two times that a teacher told my father, listen, your daughter needs a jacket. Again. But I was just not feeling cold. Yeah, yeah, you were fine. I was fine.

Yeah. So you don't need a jacket.

Really?

Yeah.

I still remember 14 years old. I wore a tank top all the way through winter.

Oh my God. Yeah.

And it was like a girl, she was a little, but she told me, why are you, with an attitude, why are you wearing a tank top? Why are you not wearing a jacket? It's like, I thought it was so funny. Why is she asking me this? Yeah.

Why does she care?

Why does she care? But also I just don't feel the cold.

But that was the moment I felt, okay, that you felt like my dad is, um, different in a good way.

I still remember the moment that I was like 8, uh, super winter, everything was white. And I was at the schoolyard waiting with my friends for our parents to pick us up from school. And of course all these parents wore winter boots and big jackets and wands. And then comes my father in his shorts, Hawaiian shirts, and his flip-flops. And then doing some yoga.

That's so funny.

Yeah, but this is, this is just my childhood. Literally. So I, I just don't know any better. This is just really my father. And everybody, sometimes they, they told him he was crazy.

Yeah.

Yeah. It was a lovely personality. Everybody loved him, but they thought he was a little bit of a peculiar guy.

Well, yeah. For those of you who don't know, Wim Hof has ran a half marathon across the Arctic Circle barefoot wearing only shorts.

Yeah. Yeah.

He swam underneath ice for 6 66 meters.

Yeah, 66 meters. 1 meter thick of ice. Oh my God, it's crazy. It's crazy.

He ran a full marathon in a desert as well without drinking any water.

Without drinking any water. Has 20 Guinness World Records. He says 26 World Records. We fact-check them. I said, okay, Dad, you have 21 Guinness World Records. 21, Dad, not 26.

21.

21. But he's, uh, he's an amazing guy, really.

And the one that is really, really crazy to me is the one where he climbs the Kilimanjaro shirtless, right?

Well, actually what he did is climbed the Kilimanjaro, and usually it takes about 5 days, and about 70% reach the summit. Okay. And it has to do with acute mountain sickness, so high altitude. And he said, you know what, I wanna do it in record time. I wanted to do it in 3 days. And they, the doctors and this, this Masai, they were like, no, no, no, we cannot do it. That is too irresponsible. Yeah. And actually what he did, he brought 26 other people.

Oh my God.

All with different conditions. They had cancer. We had people with 67 years old and almost couldn't walk anymore. I mean, crazy, crazy. And every person that said, I want to join you, my father was like, come join.

Wow. Wow. Wow. What a story.

Crazy. 26 people.

So with cancer and like different All 26 different heavy conditions.

Yeah. Wow, wow, wow. Completely untrained. And he said, you do have to train for it. So they trained.

Okay.

And then they said 3 days and no doctor wanted to join him because they all thought he was super irresponsible. People are going to die.

Yeah. Like, how dare you? Yes.

And so he brought them up and they did it in 2 days, actually climbed the summit, Kilimanjaro, in 2 days.

All 26 of them?

26 of them.

Wow. The power of the mind.

That is the power of the mind. This is what my father really has. He has belief. And when you have belief, you just make a decision and that decision is going to come true. That's just it. There is no what or what-ifs or whatever what it is. No, you believe. And if that belief is very strong, you will conquer anything in life that you want. This is really what he does. He does the impossible. And he has done that many, many, many, many times, many different things. My craziest feat actually of him, I think, sitting in a bucket of ice for 2 hours. Okay, that's a crazy one. Nobody was doing that at that time.

Forever.

Who does that, right? 2 hours? Nobody. But he was just breaking his own record every time. Such control. But my favorite one is really the Mount Everest.

Tell us.

Climbing the Mount Everest. In his shorts without any oxygen up until the death zone, 7,200 meters. And for me, that is the one that nobody's going to do that anymore, you know? So that to me is the craziest.

How do you feel about like your dad doing all these extreme things? Like, were you ever scared or?

Yes, absolutely. I mean, really. And You have to understand, in my household, my father was sort of the kid, you know? So we talked to him like, you know, like equals. It was like, yeah, you don't do it. One time he climbed a very big steep rock about 200 meters and he did it without any rope and he wanted to do it again. And I said to my father, no, you're not. And I was like maybe 10, maybe 11, like super young. You're not gonna do it. I was super scared. Super scared. But he just did it anyway. He did it anyway and only told us after. So there were moments that I was very afraid to lose my father. And it's logical because I lost my mother already when I was 8. And I think that was really the moment that my father began into those extreme feats just to get his mind off the death of my mother. So I think without the death of my mother, really, everything what is happening now, I wouldn't sit here. It has been such an impactful event in my life, but it also meant that I was extra careful about my dad. Very protective. I love my dad. I love him to death, really.

Yeah, it makes so much sense. So what advice would you give to people listening that have lost a loved one and how do you feel like you will overcome?

Yeah, to be honest, I think with this method, what it really does is it makes it easier to handle with grief, right? Because you come to a more balanced point of yourself. You begin to understand what life is all about. And that also means that grief is part of life. So suffering is part of life. And of course, you don't want to lose a loved one. But if it happens, it's much easier to do it. We have people with depression, people that also have been going through the most craziest times. And it is a method, I believe, that makes sure that you have the tools to handle anything, any stress, anything in life with just much more ease. And you do that. Feeling is understanding, really. You do these breathing exercises, you come to much more alignment of yourself. The conditioning just falls away and you, you just align with the core of yourself, even on a soul level. And from the soul level, everything is actually, yeah, it, it, there is a purpose to everything.

I love it. Okay. So you have a community of women. Talk to me about that a little bit.

But I, I wanted to do, um, and also just create a community for more women that they feel comfortable enough because if you think about the method, I always think about my father.

Right. Yeah, yeah. And they're just these men, right?

And so it can be a little bit intimidating for women.

Yeah.

I think this hormone is an amazing tool. We have these different cycles that we work, that we're in, especially the hormonal cycle, right? The menstrual cycle. And really, women have much more stressors actually to deal with. So I'm doing more research into else this, this woman, understanding myself as a woman, never saw myself as that, you know, being raised by a man. But women have so much benefit of doing these techniques just by regulating their hormones already. That's just resetting these, your hormonal cycle. Making sure again, going to that balance point, and that is nervous system, hormonal system. And that is one of the biggest and most important things for women.

Yeah, that's— I mean, I have so many friends that are into the hormonal balancing because it really is horrible when your hormones are out of whack. What have you learned about, like you said, you were doing some research about how it affects women?

Well, a lot. I mean, we have these stressors. Of course, this is mental stress, emotional stress. This is also just these expectations that women have to live with. We have much more stressors in our life. Second thing is all of these toxins that we're exposed to. So, so women just have many more different triggers for them to be off balance, huh? These hormonal being off balance, they have more. Yeah. With this method, I, we know we're regulating it and we do it in a very profound, effective, quick manner. So for, yeah, it's amazing. We have so many, uh, women with different stories. Endometriosis, for example, is a very specific woman issue. Uh-huh. And it has to do with inflammation outside of the uterus. Now we bring down the inflammation with this method very quickly. Yeah. Then this hormonal balancing, it just makes sure that women's, yeah, stay in this, this, yeah.

That's amazing. For any women listening. Like, just so you know, your hormones can be regulated by ice.

Yeah, it's amazing.

By ice.

By ice. Also, there's a breathing exercise.

And breathing.

Yeah, absolutely. And then, of course, the mindset is very important.

Right.

Woman has a different brain.

It's the three pillars. Yeah, you're right. It's really.

And women have a different brain. So what you see is that we actually have a great entry point, very quick connection with our amygdala. It's our fear center. Yes. So we're more anxious most of the time. They are a little bit more anxious. Yeah. But when they're in, it flushes away.

Amazing.

Yeah. So there are differences that are just nice to know.

Right.

And this method really touches upon a lot of different issues for women.

Yes.

So I'm writing a book now together with my sister. And it will come out next year, but I'm so excited for it because it's gonna help so many.

What's the name? You don't have it yet.

You'll have to—

You don't wanna announce it yet, but you'll have to wait and you'll see it. Laura's Instagram, I'm assuming?

Well, it's gonna be, it's gonna be, it's gonna be a big announcement.

Release.

Yeah, it will, yes. Awesome. It's gonna be a big release.

Gotta let me know so I can post it on my socials as well. Looking forward to reading it. I wish I could already give you, uh, when do you think it's going to be ready?

Um, well, at the moment it's going to be May 2025.

Oh my gosh, in 2 months?

No, no, no, no, May 25th. So next year, next year.

Oh, May of 2025. Got it. Okay. Okay. In a year, in a year.

Now I really have to write very quickly.

Okay. Um, So just one last question, Laura. What is your mission in life?

My mission? I think my mission really is to just be a channel for, yeah, for God. That's how I see it. I want to give as much as I can, what I can in my way. And for me, it's very important that people just really are themselves because that's when they are the most beautiful. Every time when I have a retreat and I have people going through these whole techniques and I find them so beautiful, each and every unique person. And you can see that they are loving themselves more. And that makes them give more also to the group. And for me, that's the most important. Be your authentic self.

That's a great answer. Great answer.

Thank you.

And you are your authentic self. Thank you. It's amazing how you can just tell when someone's authentic. He sounds like an amazing father.

I love him. Really, I love him to death. I mean, he's so pure. His being is so pure. That's what I love about him. He's not perfect.

Well, no one is.

No, no one is. But he's also beyond perfect. But what he really is, is pure. And that purity is important. It's important. Yeah. And I love that about him.

I've been told that he's super down to earth. He's not like, oh, I'm Wim Hof, like, don't talk to me. You know, like, no, he's like, no, he's, he's a normal person. Right.

He's a normal person. And he has nothing of that. He doesn't have any security or this or that. And sometimes people say that he should, but it's just not his kind of spiel. You know, he had like a beautiful, this was so funny and very typical of my father. He had the most fanciest of, uh, events, and of course he was sort of a guest of honor, but all he wanted to do is just going back and eat a cup of noodles, right? Like this instant noodles. I was like, that's a funny one again.

Yeah, yeah, he's not into the whole like bougie, like, he doesn't care at all, you know.

For him it's like, I take my guitar, just play around.

His mission is very pure.

Yes, I mean, for him it's very important What are we doing here on this earth? We're helping people.

I love it.

We're helping people, making sure that we can go and grow to the next leap of consciousness. And when we can do that, we all grow together. That's really what we're doing here.

Yeah.

So, so that's, I love that about him. And in that, I support him however I can.

Yeah.

Love him. And yeah, that's also my mission in some way.

Yeah. He, he, I can tell he really influenced you in many ways.

Thank you. I think I influenced him as well.

I'm sure you did. Yeah, I love it. Um, where can people find you, um, and Wim on socials or website, whatever you—

Go to wimhofmethod.com. We have an amazing app as well, online courses, great app.

What's the name of the app?

Also Wim Hof Method.

Also Wim Hof Method.

Very easy. Yeah, and you can find me on Instagram. Laura Hoff Alchemy.

There you go. Wow, I had it memorized. And then Wim Hof is just Wim Hof, right?

Yeah, I think Instagram is Iceman Hoff.

Thank you so much, Laura. This was amazing.

Thank you.

It's going to impact so many Latinos. We're going to put some subtitles in Spanish. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Bye.