My journey with the cold started just after I was hit by a car 5 years ago and I was at home recovering from a concussion. The years before, I was living in my head, I wanted to be able to rationalize, analyze, plan, keep control. I worked hard, worked long hours and kept going.
After the car crash I suddenly sat at home for months, in bed had to rest a lot and I felt like a weak little bird. During my recovery I saw the Vice documentary about WimfHof in Poland. And something deep inside me felt that I had to go there. That impulse that I felt, that was a feeling that I had ignored in myself for a long time - my intuition.
I started saving for a trip to Poland and six months later I was there, with 17 other crazy monkey of expedition members we stayed in Wim’s house.
It was so cozy and I felt so welcome, Wim was a happy ball of light, playing his guitar and singing, meditated with us and of course prepared us for the cold.
We did deep breath work every morning, swam in icewater and jumped from waterfalls and climbed a small mountain in our swimwear, did snow yoga and then we were ready for our last journey.
The last day we would climb the mountain Sniezka. A climb from 1250 meters to 2000 meters, a trip of a few hours, in the snow and -30 degrees Celsius on the top, wearing only a bikini.
Wim Hof kept repeating: "trust mother nature, or she will whip your ass."
And mother nature is also in us, I learned to trust myself and my body, trust that I put my feet in the right place on the icy path, so I don't slip. Keep tuning in with my body, whether I wasn't hypothermic.
And not always looking up towards the top of the mountain and working on the end goal.
Because when I looked up to the top of the mountain over which a snowstorm was blowing, my heart sank because it was still so far away. But when I focused on the here and now and was only busy putting one foot in front of the other, it was very easy. I repeated to myself in my head: "step by step I get warmer and warmer, step by step I get further and further, step by step I climb higher and higher,"
I climbed steadily and a few hours later I was on top of Sniezka Mountain in the middle of a snowstorm! The snow was blowing so hard on my face that I could barely keep my eyes open, but I did it! I climbed a freezing mountain in my bathing suit! It felt amazing to reach the top!
This experience gave me a very powerful feeling, I wanted to experience this, that I was not a weak little bird, but that my body was capable of doing extraordinary things! I swam in ice water, made deep contact with my body through deep breathing exercises and had climbed two mountains in the freezing cold wearing only a bikini.
I was so proud of myself and so grateful to my body! What a power there is in my body.
When you are fully present in the experience, even though it feels scary, you are capable of so much!
