My name is Petra Trudell.
Ten years ago I moved from Czech Republic to Canada
and I left my entire family behind, my friends, job and everything.
And I just took my luggage and moved over to Canada and I didn’t even speak any English, I had no job, no friends, nothing.
Everything was exciting at first because everything was new for me.
Until I got a job, and learned English and met new friends
that’s when the excitement wore off for me,
and I started questioning myself:
‘’Why are you even here, if your family is across the ocean?’’
‘’What if something happened to your family and you will not have the chance to say them goodbye?’’
‘’What if something happened to you, and they will never have a chance to say goodbye?’’
And those questions started creeping in.
And that really affected my mental health,
and I felt like I was in a deep black hole,
and it continued and continued on.
Until I was not able to preform basic tasks anymore.
I locked myself in an apartment, and just looking at the door and going outside scared me.
I was living in fear for so many years that I was so afraid of dying that I couldn't even leave my apartment anymore.
And I was starting to question myself: ‘’What's going to happen when you die?’’
You can’t die, you don’t want to die, so don’t go anywhere where you could possibly die.
Which was everywhere, you could die literally anywhere, right?
So that's why I was just locked up in my apartment and couldn’t leave because I was so afraid.
When my brain was thinking clearly at one point, I realized I needed help.
So I went to see a therapist, and got therapy
they gave me the tools, but I never felt happy inside.
I was diagnosed with separation, anxiety and fear of dying.
So and then everything was kind of okay until I had my first baby,
and that was when my symptoms came back.
And even worse, I had postpartum depression, which is the worst feeling for a mother to have.
I had insomnia, I didn't sleep for months
and all this was just too much to handle for my mental health.
But I was so busy with my depression that I didn't even realize I needed help,
but at that time I discovered the Wim Hof Method and I wanted to do but,
I saw that it consisted of breathing, mindset and also the cold and I immediately shut it down.
I'm was like: ‘’No, cold no.’’
And then when I said to myself that I will start looking into this method
was when I was in labor with my second child.
This labor was completely natural with no painkillers, nothing.
And for a woman, it's a lot of pain.
You need to just accept the pain and breathe.
After this happened and I gave birth,
I realized, okay, this is the time I have to look into this method.
So I came home and the first thing I did, I started doing the breathing.
I downloaded the app and I started following whatever Wim says.
I felt something.
I felt high.
I was completely high, and I woke up from that
and for the first time in six years,
I felt happiness inside,
and I started laughing from the bottom of my heart and I couldn't stop.
So for a person who doesn't even know the feeling of laughter,
how it is to laugh hard, it was something incredible.
It was completely life changing.
And from that moment I said: ‘’You know what? [....] the cold. I am going into the cold and I’m gonna love it!’’
Because I want to feel like this all the time.
For somebody who is experiencing postpartum depression, anxiety and insomnia,
It was something, it felt like a miracle.
But it wasn't a miracle, it was the Wim Hof Method what made me happy.
The Wim Hof Method saved my life,
saved my marriage, saved my life.
And I'm finally happy,
from a person who was in a corner of an apartment, couldn't even leave the apartment afraid of dying.
I couldn't even look into other people's eyes because I was so afraid.
And now I'm standing here.
It's amazing.
So the Wim Hof Method changed my life, saved my life.
And that's why I'm here on this journey
too many people out there having the same issues as I had.
And I know that there is a way to get out of this dark black hole.
It's it started slowly.
I didn't realize that I am afraid of death,
but because of those questions and the feeling of that,
my parents are really like 10,000 kilometers far away from me.
That's how it started messing up with my brain, with my mind,
and that's how it started.
And then it wasn't
only on the parents side that like, I was afraid of dying my family.
But then it came also on me.