I’m Linda Hochstenbach.
I first heard of Wim about two years ago.
I attended a workshop in Amsterdam, and became incredibly inspired.
What really got me was that he supposedly had control over his Autonomic Nervous System.
I’m a physiotherapist by trade—I’m thinking “that’s impossible”.
I dug a little deeper, and experienced what it’s like to be able to influence your immune system,
what extreme cold does to you, and what you’re capable of.
We’re physically capable of much more than we think.
I’ve gained a really ugly, but at the same time really beautiful experience.
A waitress accidentally spilled a cup of hot water on my back.
I sustained serious burns.
Both first- and deep second-degree burns.
I can tell you that this is incredibly painful, and I knew right away that it was really bad.
Six percent of my back had been burned.
That’s a significant chunk— to put it into perspective,
if a child comes into the ER with six percent, they end up in ICU, so that’s pretty serious.
It was really serious, it’s frustrating, and the only thing I could do was breathing exercises.
And that seemed to have effect.
Because after a week the dressing was changed,
and the surgeon said “I have never seen this before”.
So by this time the blisters had all but disappeared;
there was already all this new skin underneath.
Once I could go back to taking cold showers —so that was after a week— it went even faster, really.
That did take some getting used to—
having that skin under that cold shower, and lying in a bath tub, but it did work.
It was a really weird sensation, it felt like all that energy moved to that area.
But it worked like a charm, so I was like— cold showers it is!
They figured there would have to be some kind of skin graft,
because what happens with burns is it really contracts.
There was none of that.
You can barely see it anymore;
sure, you see a new patch of pale skin that’s never gotten any sun, but that’s it.
And we now know that inflammatory markers are greatly reduced through the use of those breathing exercises.
That’s what happened with me;
has to be, because that’s what the reality literally demonstrates.
And that was actually a beautiful experience in that it just passed so quickly,
that it made me go “this can't be happening”.
But it did happen, and that’s really beautiful.
I’m a physiotherapist; to me movement is the solution to everything.
And that’s why I chose the Wim Hof Method,
because it’s a way to get in tune with your body.
A physical way.
That made it easier for me.
I’m not someone to go and meditate on a mat for four hours; I can’t do it.
But this is a physical way to still attain that balance.
We simply need that in today’s society.
All that stress, all those social engagements; social media.
I’m just as bad as everyone else, but it’s nice sometimes to be able to get away from all of that,
and experience nature as intended.
It’s wonderful to experience that.
I want to use that to be able to coach people who have an autoimmune disease.
But it’s not just rheumatism, it’s also Crohn’s disease;
all autoimmune diseases can be at least optimized.
I hesitate to say "cure"...
...but I mean, I’m helped by it, let alone if you have an autoimmune disease,
and you see those burns; those inflammation markers must have been so low,
or it wouldn’t have healed this quickly.
It gives your immune system a big boost when you’re healthy.
No multivitamin can beat that.