Hi,

This week, I'm going to talk something weird that I do most days.

But before that, I just want to announce that I've finally split my two newsletters' mailing lists properly and they are now hosted on separate platforms.

This means you can finally unsubscribe to one without unsubscribing to the other, which some people have been asking for (I know it's hard to believe, but not everybody who wants to know about self-development & online tech is that interested in Polish-UK arts & language).

That's why you'll also notice that the Procrastilearning newsletter has a slightly new look this week. I hope you like it.

Remember how awful the beginning of the pandemic was?

In March 2020, air travel was shutting down, everybody was told to stay at home, and there were videos of people in China lying dead in the street.

Like many people, and probably like you, I needed to do something to calm down.

My normal go-to would have been a stiff drink, but in the face of a global virus, I felt I needed to avoid anything that might weaken my immune system.

(In fact, I didn't touch alcohol for the next 4 months.)

So instead of getting drunk on 15th March 2020, I tried out Wim Hof Method (WHM) breathing to help me relax and go to sleep.

And I've been doing it almost every night since.

Breathwork: the cheapest mood-lifter available

"What is a Wim Hof?" I hear you ask.

Wim Hof is the name of a Dutch guy who used to do random superhuman stunts for Dutch TV. He was the Dutch David Blaine, essentially. But he wasn't known outside of the Netherlands until about 11 years ago.

I first heard about Wim Hof from a viral BBC video where he goes swimming around some icebergs. You may have seen that too. But I'd also heard about him from a couple of self-improvement podcasts and Tim Ferriss' reference book Tools of Titans.

One technique Wim uses to survive long dips in terrifyingly cold water is to keep his breath quiet and under control.

To be able to do this in the ice, he practices a daily breathing exercise based on something called Tumo breathing.

I decided to try it out. It sounded better than drinking a litre of whiskey.

I downloaded the WHM app and started using the timer. After a few minutes, I could feel just how calming it was.

I was soon sleeping better and my anxiety softened.

Looking back, I really think WHM breathing saved my sanity in those dark anxiety-filled early days of the pandemic.

How to get started

Below you'll find a guided YouTube video from the WHM channel. It lasts 11 minutes and is the perfect thing if you’re curious and just want to try it out, as well as hear the man himself saying off-putting nonsense:

I can't guarantee you'll want to do the technique daily, but I do guarantee you will feel different after trying it out.

I started experimenting with it as the months went by and learned a few things about making it even more calming and relaxing.

3 methods for intensifying WHM that I wish I knew when I first started 💪

1. Keep your tongue against the roof of your mouth.

It's healthier to breath through your nose, but using the mouth is more intense.

You can make mouth breathing a bit more filtered and stop your throat from getting dry by keeping your tongue against the roof of your mouth.

2. Try doing WHM breathing straight after exercise.

Before you take a shower after a run or weight training or whatever physical exercise or sport you enjoy, lie down and do 4 rounds.

I promise you will feel high as a kite.

3. In the retention phase, try tense up every muscle in your body.

During those 15 seconds, lift your legs, screw up your face, anything you can.

When you let it all go along with your breath, the sense of relief you get immediately after is much more intense and pronounced.

Yes, Wim is a weirdo

In the three years since I started doing WHM, Wim has become a lot more famous, even hosting his own celebrity challenge show on BBC One.

(I watched 15 minutes of the first episode. I wouldn't recommend it.)

The show does at least give you sense of the rambling oddness of Wim himself.

Either way, I massively recommend giving the WHM breathing method a try. If it's good enough for Queue-jumping Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby to try out on This Morning, then hey it's good enough for us all.

p.s. There are a lot of other aspects to WHM I haven't gone into here as I think the breathing stuff is the best part. But if you'd like me to talk about the cold exposure stuff, the most famous aspect of WHM, I can do that in a different edition of the newsletter - just hit reply and let me know.

Podcast recommendation of the week

There are way too many streaming services out there but it turns out you can’t always find your favourite show on them anyway.

This fascinating episode of Planet Money breaks down the economics of how the streaming world works. Especially why they suddenly cancel shows and remove them completely.

Even if you don’t listen, do take this one takeaway with you: the peak for the streaming ecosystem was 2021, and it’s all downhill from here…

That’s all for this week. Many thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this or got some value out of it, let me know.

Best,

Adam

Adam Zulawski
TranslatingMarek.com / Procrastilearning.com / More stuff

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