Ed Harrold and Tim Vandervliet discuss a simple breathing approach for moving from a state of panic toward greater calm and presence.
Ed Harrold with Tim Vandervliet. Originally published on YouTube December 9, 2021. Watch the original conversation on YouTube.
Ed Harrold and Tim Vandervliet discuss a simple breathing approach for moving from a state of panic toward greater calm and presence.
00:02.5 Hello again, friends. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. We've got a super exciting podcast for you this week. I can't wait to share our guest with you. You're gonna learn a lot about how you can take care of yourself in the next hour of your life. So buckle up, everyone. Welcome, everyone. My name's Ed Herald. Welcome to our Life With Breath Expert Series. Today, we have the most amazing perps- person with us. We have the Mr. Tim van de Ligt from Europe, and he's gonna enlighten us with all the skills that he's using with people across the world so they live a more vibrant, a more purpose-filled,
00:53.2 a more loving existence in these challenging times of 2021. So before I bring Tim in, could we just take a minute and hit the brakes on our life? Just maybe close our eyes, connect with our breath. You know, press your feet firmly down into this amazing planet that hosts all of the experiences for us, and just sense how you're connected to something bigger than yourself as soon as you press your feet down into Mother Earth and you take command over her oxygen and carbon dioxide. Let your eyes rest back in the sockets. There's nothing to see outside right now. Separate your teeth a fraction of an inch and let go of any tension in the low jaw or around your tongue.
01:42.5 And notice the sensations associated with relaxing these two sense organs while you slow your breath down and eavesdrop on the conversation that's in your mind. And as you begin to breathe slower, relax into whatever's there for you, whether it's pleasure or non-pleasure. And as the body releases tension and the spine lengthens, notice how the brain enjoys that. And as you inhale, stabilize the spine and your mind. And as you exhale, release and to relax into whatever is in the intelligence of your belly at this moment. Inhale. Stable the spine and the mind. Exhale. Relax this beautiful body of yours, every single molecule. One more round.
03:19.3 Straight spine, open mind. Exhale. Just let it all go. The good, the not so good, the successes, and the non-successes. Let them all go. The next time you inhale, hold the breath in several seconds and drop your mind behind and below your navel. Release the pressure slowly. Deflate the lungs fully. Hold the breath out several seconds and sense yourself doing more with less, becoming more efficient. And then inhale again. Hold the breath in a little bit longer this time. And the idea here is while you're holding in, try to relax and expand on every level that you have access to. On that first call to exhale, that's usually ego-based.
04:35.6 Let that go. On that second call to exhale, that's body-based. Respect that for now and let the pressure go. Completely deflate your lungs. Hold the breath out several seconds and just be in that gap, that beautiful gap in our minds. And just let your body breathe on its own for a couple breaths. Settle in. Open up every pore so it can listen to this conversation, and in your own way, you can learn skills. Take a deep breath in through your nose. Exhale out through your mouth. Oh, man. I am so excited to be with everyone here today. Mr. Tim. Yes. Where are you on Earth right now?
05:30.6 I'm in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I've heard of it. Which is between Germany and England. You're keeping the peace between those two? Exactly, yeah. And I noti- I noticed you had a bit of a problem with pronouncing my last name, which is normally- I'm sorry about that. It's normally, uh, English people or American people say Tim van der Vliet, but it's Tim van der Vliet. But Vliet is good, good enough. I listen to Hey You! Or whatever. So Tim van der Vliet is good, but it's officially Tim van der Vliet Vliet, I love that, and it's so clean the way you say it. It kind of rolls off your tongue.
06:17.7 Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. Kind of suits, right, if it's your own name. So we connected a few months back, and you're a detailed teacher of breathwork to teachers l- and lay persons. You are a, a master of the ice bath and, and the benefits of the ice bath. And you teach this all over the globe. Yes. I, you know, I was so excited to, to meet with you 'cause I totally believe in what you're doing as one of the major keys to stalling aging, keeping us healthy, keeping us light, getting those dopamine hits where we really feel good about- Mm ... ourselves. But, you know, what I like to ask a lot of folks getting started with, when, when you were a young boy, obviously you had no idea that you would be this master teacher who you are today.
07:05.8 What was it like being a kid growing up? Uh, well, it was actually quite okay. I remember the first one I used my breath was in the cold. You know, uh, Amsterdam, it was a lot colder, uh, like 40 years ago. But I forgot my winter jacket and I was wearing a summer jacket, and it was bloody cold. You know, like cold, cold, cold. And I was shivering, and I didn't know what to do. And then I took deep belly breath, three of them, and I was okay. Mm-hmm. And this is actually my first experience, uh, with breathwork. And the funny thing now is that I'm a Wim Hof Method instructor.
07:48.2 You know, Wim is also a friend of mine. So I travel around the world teaching people how to breathe and put them in an ice bath. So, you know, in other words, I sell them thin air and a lot of cold. But that first experience was with the cold, and I noticed that, hey, if I breathe through my belly, I actually don't get cold. Mm-hmm. And, you know, it's funny you ask, you ask about it because I didn't think of this for... Actually, I don't remember the last time I thought about it. But that was my first experience, and now I'm doing that, and no, I didn't expect that to happen.
08:28.2 Definitely not. Yeah. So you've got great passion, and you communicate that passion with deep skills, 'cause obviously you're extremely successful in what you do. When, when you meet your clients- Mm-hmm ... how does, how does that look like? How does that feel? What, what is the process of the initial step of creating context, then the transformational work, and then the integration piece? Yeah. So I teach groups mostly. Uh, basically because I, uh, I'm a bit, uh, expensive. I do one-on-ones, uh, too, but it's mostly with, um, how, how you call it, high-wealth people, um, that are, you know, like, uh, I ask a lot per hour basically.
09:13.0 Mm. So I teach groups mostly. And it's different online. I do online group coaching, for example, where you really get to know people- Mm ... because you see them, say, six weeks every week or half a year every week. And I teach, you know, more like weekends. Mm-hmm. Go to- I, I was last weekend in London, two weeks before in Estonia, two weeks before in Norway, and so on and on. Um, so what I think is very important as a, as an instructor, and I kind of like to see that myself, is to not take myself all too serious. Mm-hmm. You know, I'm, I'm the opposite.
09:52.0 I call myself the know nothing in- instructor, and I start often with, you know, let's say that I'm a charlatan. Mm-hmm. That I, you know, like, I'm just telling you you don't know what I'm telling you, whatever I say, because I talk about science. I'm a friend of Wim. You know, there's a lot of science, uh, based information about cold training and about breathing exercises. Let's say I'm a charlatan because I want people to question what I say- Mm-hmm ... and to test it for themselves, and that is kind of maybe one of the, the selling points is that I can show people within, like, a few minutes
10:32.7 that this is just, I don't know, can we swear or, uh- You can go. Freaking awesome. It's just fucking awesome. It's just amazing. So what I, I, I think it's, it's very important that I'm the opposite of the guru that is on his podium with his, the, the picture of his guru there. No, I'm on the same level. We all learn from each other, and I'm a total breathwork nerd. So probably, and you bought a ticket for my training, you know. Mm-hmm. But, uh, that doesn't mean that I know everything, and then even if I don't know a question, I just say, "Hmm, good question.
11:08.3 I don't know. You know, give me your phone number. We'll find it out and we'll text you later." So- Mm-hmm ... not taking myself all too serious. I think that's, that's important. Well, I think students and patients and clients really like authenticity and- Yes ... the effect, and the effect that we can say, you know, "That's a great question. I don't know the answer, and I will find out and follow back up with you." I think people love that rather than- Yeah ... kind of like the doctor-patient kind of hierarchy- Yes ... of like, you know, I'm, I'm this and you're that, and we're gonna see how we can get through these numbers and try to, you know, bring your chart back into balance.
11:46.9 I th- I think this is a big problem with, with humans is that they give away authority- Yeah ... to the doctor, to politicians. You know, like, I think this is one of my values, actually, I have, to question authority, to think for yourself, and to test things. Mm-hmm. So this is why I tell people, "Don't trust what I say. You want to test it for yourself." Because, you know, like, if you're just gonna believe me, you're not gonna take away anything. Well, if you test for yourself if this stuff is working or not, who knows? But it works, like, for- Mm-hmm ... actually al- always.
12:21.7 Mm-hmm. And then you've proven yourself, and often, you know, like, people that come to a weekend course, they tend to follow, like, a longer path with me and become breathwork nerds, and eventually the best instructor in the world, you know? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know, one of the things that, that, that I really appreciate about working with the breath is that no matter what technique or style that you're doing, is that it brings you into the truth. It, it brings you smack dab with your reality. It brings you into the present, like the ice bath. It brings you present. Yeah. You have to be in the moment, in that reality.
13:03.5 Yes. And, like, you can't fix any emotional dysfunction or psychological dysfunction when you're not in the present moment. Mm-hmm. So whether you're working with the breath or working with the tub or working both together, you're in the present moment. You're facing the music, and the goodness of the universe is bringing us all back into a better version of ourself, i.e. the truth. Exactly. Um, you know, like, you cannot bullshit the ice. Mm-hmm. You can bullshit yourself and maybe your friends, you know, or try to. Mm-hmm. But if you're in the ice bath, it's like God, you know? Like Mm-hmm ... it's not, it's not always your best friend.
13:47.6 Right. Uh, but you cannot fool God, basically. And then it's exactly as you say, like, how do you handle an ice bath and even become comfortable in it, is to be in the present moment. And then this is taught by many spiritual teachers, you know? Mm-hmm. But then what I like to talk about is, so how do you actually do that? You know, like, it's nice, present moment. You know, like- Mm-hmm ... and but how do you do that? Mm-hmm. And exactly as you already said, it's by breathing. And by what kind of breathing? By slowing down your breath to the max. I know you, I just feel you say exactly the same.
14:30.0 I don't, we don't know each other that well, people. We don't know each other that well. But by slowing down your breathing, you get to be in an, in, in a very short time in an extreme deep meditative moment. Mm-hmm. Even if you do this one minute. Right. And I have a few tips and tricks and also for, uh, for people to test this, you know? So you don't believe, don't believe what I say. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Test it for yourself. It's funny when you talk about the tub and get into the tub, and it's God or what, you know, it's ... You know, the funny thing is, is, like, when folks don't like the infor- like, if they don't like the message, they go after the messenger rather than deal with the message.
15:13.1 You know, the bottom line is, is when you get in that tub, that's both the message and the messenger. Yeah. I never got smacked in the face because, uh, you know, somebody didn't like the ice bath, but maybe that, that is still to come. It's all your fault. It, you know, isn't it amazing, I mean, a big thing to be successful in anything is preparation, and I'm sure a lot of what you do is you get folks prepared to be in the water so that when they get in the water they can control their nervous systems, or they can control their heart rate or, you know, whatever, or burn fat, whatever it may be.
15:48.1 Yeah. But I think preparation is, is one of the things that we see being omitted from so many human platforms of, of skill that we see today. Everybody just wants to be great right off the bat, and we forget that, you know, you had to start out in kindergarten. Like, you have to be in beginner's mind. You have to prepare this nervous system so that when the issues come up, your body and mind are ready to deal with it. Yeah. What are some of the things that, that, that you like to do with folks physically and mentally before you put them in? Well, it's a, it's a whole training, but first of all I want to sh- I want people to show themselves that this stuff is working.
16:29.8 I would like to do this with your crowd as well. So we do one minute of ... But because I, I should introduce this a little bit. Okay, go ahead. Like what happens if we have stress? And then we have two kinds of stress. Like real stress, you know, like walking in England, being from Amsterdam, continuously you look at the different, at the, at, at the wrong way, and this Tesla pulls up and you just in time can step backwards. And that's real stress. But most of ... And it's serious. I come there six times a year and, and it's so confusing, you know. I wa- I walk the streetlights like this.
17:09.3 You know, like left, right, because I'm completely confused. Um, the second way we have stress is that we make it up in our minds, you know. You look in a certain way that makes me insecure. It goes back to this moment in my whatever. Some trauma comes up. Now, for our body and mind, it really doesn't matter if we make up the stress or if it's real stress. Mm-hmm. We start activating the sympathetic or fight or flight. Mm-hmm. You know, adrenaline is released. Uh, blood pressure goes up, heart beat goes up, you know. And, um, what happens to our breath? Mm-hmm. A little bit we don't notice it, but in an extreme way we start to - Mm-hmm ...
17:53.6 hyperventilate. At the higher end of your lungs, you breathe mouth in, mouth out, like that. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Now that is, if you understand, that's why I find the science or maybe the physiology, the physiology is how our breath works. Mm-hmm. The science is like we have this paper that shows this and this and this. I love both, but this is more physiology. Mm-hmm. So if you know that that happens, you know, then you know that if you are able to slow down your breathing in a stressful moment, you might get out of that stress, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So that's the, like the, the basic physiology.
18:32.7 S- my, my, the two words that I say in the beginning and I keep on repeating over a full weekend- Mm-hmm ... is breathe slowly. Mm-hmm. Know that breathing slowly is calming you down. Mm-hmm. And you can get from stress to calmness in the meantime. Mm-hmm. Now, having said that, don't trust what I say. Let's test this. Mm-hmm. You are of course a professional breath worker, but, you know, like, I'm sure there's some people also watching this. What we're going to do, we do one minute of slow breathing, and I mean, like, really slow down your breathing. So I'm gonna time one minute, and you and everybody else are going to slow down their breathing.
19:16.2 Thank you. Then you, you wanna notice already how that makes you feel. And then we're gonna do five minutes of breathing, and I call this simplified Tummo breathing. It's derived from the very complicated Tibetan Tummo that the Tibetan monks use to reach enlightenment and to heat up their body. Mm-hmm. You know that story of the Tibetan monks? Yeah. You put them in the freezer with a piece of cloth around their, around their, uh, shoulders, and half an hour later that piece of cloth is dry. You know? Mm-hmm. They heat ... And they use this breathing technique, but I simplified it because, um, way too many breathing techniques are too complicated- Mm-hmm ...
19:57.2 and it's about starting it off. So we do five minutes of Tummo breathing, and then one minute of slow breathing again. So I hope that everybody who joins shows themselves what you can reach, apart from how it feels- Mm-hmm ... what you can reach in terms of measurable being able to slow down your breathing more. Mm-hmm. Exciting. Yeah. Right? Let's go for it. Okay. Cool. So let me explain shortly what this very simplified Tummo is like. You sit straight. It's a sitting exercise, either crossed legs or feet on the ground, as you say very beautifully. Um, we take five deep belly breath, nose in, mouth out.
20:42.6 And then breath number six, we breathe in, we just hold while we concentrate on our lower belly. Mm-hmm. For 10 seconds, and I will guide everybody so you don't have to remember or write it down. For 10 seconds we hold our breath, and then we breathe out slowly, say for 10 to 20 seconds. Mm-hmm. That's one round. Takes one minute. We do five rounds. That's five minutes. Great. Good? Exciting. I'm excited. Okay. Cool. Let's start this off. Thank you. So slow down your breathing. Sorry. Thank you. This is great. You don't know yet. Maybe this is all, maybe this is all ... Uh, maybe I'm a charlatan, let's be honest.
21:27.6 Dude, we're ... This is research. We're doing research on ourselves. We're doing research. And I love people to, to afterwards share in the chat from, to. And if you want, make a selfie of yourself. Make a selfie seven minutes from now and see if you shine more. Yes. All right. So for now, please slow down your breathing, and I mean really. So close your eyes, or at least it works for me. If you want to keep them open, that's fine. And you fill up as slow as you can. Like, really do your best. As slow as you can you breathe in, and make your breath out longer than your breath in.
22:08.6 Now keep on slowing down your breathing. I will count to three and time one minute while you slow down your breathing. Here we go. One, two, three. Timing. So slow it down. No breath hold. Not becoming out of breath. Then you're trying too hard. If you try too hard, you screw it for sure. Slow it down as much as you can and make your breath out longer. Make sure you count the number of times that you're breathing so you can show yourself afterwards if this stuff that I share with you is actually working. Slow down even more. Maybe you feel your skin or some parts of your body that you forgot existed.
23:11.8 It's all normal. Heartbeat goes down. Adrenaline levels drop. And this is one minute. Now let's do five rounds of Tummo breathing. How many times did you have, by the way? Just to, for my own research. I took four breaths. Four breaths. Nice. Now let's take ... We'll do five rounds. I will just guide you through the process. Great. Nose in, mouth out. As much to the belly as you can. Mm-hmm. If not, just breathe deep in. Here we go. Deep in. Bit dizzy is normal. Number four is coming. Number five. Extra deep in. Breathe fully out. Now breathe in and hold. Hold it here. Concentrate on your lower belly.
24:27.6 Maybe you feel dizzy, tingling sensations. We hold it for five seconds more. Doing great. And breathe out long and slow. Again. Five deep breath in and out. Number five, extra deep. Empty your lung. Fully out, out, out. Take a deep breath in and hold again. Again, focus on your lower belly. Keep your shoulders low, your tongue against the palate. Five seconds more. Dizzy is normal. Don't worry about it. It's all good. And breathe out long and slow. Round number three. If you become too dizzy, you may wanna breathe a bit slower, but it's okay. Just three more round. Breathe in. Number five. Breathe in, fully out.
26:10.4 Breathe everything out, out, out. Take a deep breath in, and hold. Again, focus on your lower belly or just think of your lower belly. Five seconds more. And now let's breathe out extra slow. Two more rounds. A fourth deep breath. Number five. Fully out. In deep and hold. Think of your lower belly. If you want, touch your lower belly. Put your focus in your lower belly. Five seconds more. And breathe out long and slow. Okay. Take a moment to swallow. One more round. Nice and slow. Number five. Extra deep and fully out. Then breathe in and hold. Hold. Shoulders low, jaws relaxed. Think of your lower belly.
28:30.2 Five seconds more. Three, two, one, and let go. Breathe out. Now a bit dizzy is normal. Let's slow our breath again. Dizziness will very likely disappear. You want to say something, Ed? Feels great. So slow down your breathing again, like to the max. Like really slow in, fill up your belly, maybe your lower back. Breathe through your butt, and then slowly into the diaphragm, and all the way up to the top of your chest, and breathe out like you're breathing out through a straw, like really slowly. Like . Now again, I'm gonna time one minute. I will count to three and time. Here we go.
29:30.5 One, two, three. Timing. Slow it down. Breathe as slow in as you can. And make your breath out longer than your breath in, like two, three times longer. And three, two, one. This is one minute. How are you doing, Ed? So I took one full breath and a half an inhale. Yeah. Nice. So- So it works. It works. Amazing. I would love to know if there's, there's people in the chat who want to share, like from, to. You know, like I, I've tested this with more than 10,000 people, and it's on average in five minutes divided by two and a half. Yeah, so five goes to two, 10 goes to four.
31:10.8 And this is also why you want to do a breathwork exercise in the morning because if you do, even if it's five minutes, you know, if you have one hour time, go ahead, but even if it's five minutes or you're on a train and you do five minutes, or you're waiting for the, for the bus and you do five minutes, or you're waiting for your coffee because your friend is too late and you do five minutes of breathing, you become more breath aware, and you will be breathing slower the whole day, and you become more like, like Bruce Willis in Die Hard 16, or I don't know how many Die Hards there have been made.
31:49.9 But like, you know, the whole wo- world is burning, but Bruce stays calm because Bruce knows how to slow down his breathing. Mm-hmm. By choice, going through life in a calm way. So when we get to this point where what I like to call, even though I never did that technique before, one of the awarenesses that I have that I notice that when I'm in a really good space is that my inhale is completely unlocked. Unblocked. It's not uninhibited. It's not bumpy. I'm not stuck in my intercostals. It's completely smooth. And when I was able-- when I'm able to be really smooth on my inhale, it seems like I'm a lot
32:47.8 more efficient as an organism- Mm. As a human being. I'm able to serve myself and others more. That unblocked inhale, there's something to that. Mm. I agree. Now to me, how do you get to that unblocked inhale doing the least amount of damage as possible to parts of the body that age? In other words, if you go to the gym- True ... you work out, you build your muscles, you do all this frequency and wear and tear. When you leave that gym, you'll notice your inhale's unblocked. But what effort did you have to undertake to get yourself to that space? You had to do a lot of work, and you had to move the body.
33:38.4 And, you know, the body's great, but the body ages over time. When you look at what you just taught, there was absolutely zero wear and tear to any energy expenditure to get us to a place where we feel pretty good about ourselves. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. Wendy was able to get her breath down from six to two. Nice. Very nice. Very, very nice. You know, if you believe in this kind of Hindu lore or ancient lore that comes from the Himalayas, you know, there's a lot of texts that say something about that the length of your life and the quality of your life will be based on the length and the amount of breaths you take.
34:29.0 Yes ... it's re- remarkable. Yes. I think that that is, um, that is kind of well-known. It's the same with the number of heartbeats. Mm-hmm. And your number of heartbeats are directly related to the number of breath you take, so. Mm. Um, now then of course the question is, because there's, within the, the breath world there's different schools. There's the left side and the right side of the spectrum, simply said. And sometimes breathwork instructors throw mud at each other, and I, I don't think that's true. Nothing is always true. Like, if you look at Buteyko- Mm-hmm ... um, shut your mouth and breathe. Nose in, nose out, and breathe as little as you can.
35:14.3 But some people that practice Buteyko, they come in my training and they say like, "Oh, no deep breathing. That's, that's bad." You know, because the Bohr effect kicks in. Mm-hmm. And that is overdone. Mm-hmm. You know? While on the other hand, you have the transformational breath instructor, or maybe the Wim Hof Method instructor for all that matters, that has like, as a solution to everything, "Oh, do that thing that I learned." You know? I think as a breathwork instructor you want to be knowledgeable and experienced- Mm-hmm ... in your own breathwork so you can speak from authenticity. Ooh, that's a difficult word. With my, with my eh.
35:53.7 So, um, if you look at it from a... Let's, let's take an analogy. Let's look at running. Mm. Yeah, somebody that has a running practice has a lower heartbeat than somebody else. Mm-hmm. While the actual act of running is one where your heartbeat goes up to what? 120, 140. More than that actually. Now, does that mean that running is healthy because a high heartbeat is healthy? No, of course not. Mm-hmm. And the same with deep breathing breath hold techniques. I think, you know, in my everyday life, I breathe as slow as I can. The two words that I want everybody to take away, breathe slowly, is totally to Buteyko style.
36:36.6 Mm-hmm. While I'm a fan of deep breathing breath hold, like the simplified Tummo, like Wim Hof Method, like my own technique, TT breathing. Mm-hmm. You know, those are extremely effective tools to become better in breathing slowly. You understand what I mean? I, I understand exactly what you mean. I think the role of all of us is to first and foremost do no harm. Mm. And- Yes, yes ... you know, the more knowledge you have of your subject matter, the more skillful you'll be to interact with a d- a diverse group of, of clients. Mm. You know, this, this, this breathwork thing does not want to be pigeonholed into, you know, white papers and research and- ...
37:23.2 you know, it's in a huge unfolding thing that's never been exposed really to the masses the way it is right now. Mm-hmm. Yes. And I, you know, I think it's because we've tried everything else and it didn't work. So, um- Funny, you know, like we're, we're, you know, like why are people s- Yeah, we're kind of screwed over as a, the average human being. Maybe that is because we lost our breath into this hectic environment that we live in, and we can take it back. And the funny thing is- You know, we, we stop breathing properly around the age of seven. Mm-hmm. So, you know, like, if this is the first time you're, like, introduced to breathing exercise, you may think like, "Oh my God, I do it wrong," or, "I don't know," or, "I feel this.
38:09.3 This is not right." But remember that since seven you probably have not been breathing right. Mm-hmm. And within no time you can learn to breathe properly again. Right. And the energy and the focus and the resilience is the best word. Mm-hmm. It's just amazing. And it's more than breathwork. For me, there is a holy trinity of light exercise, breathing, and cold training, like ending your shower cold every day. Mm-hmm. You know? And before you know it, this, this doesn't have to take like 20 minutes or an hour, like less than 10 minutes exercise and breathing together, and then before you know it, you are just, you know, like, um, releasing the right neurotransmitters.
38:56.2 There's this whole science, let's not get too deep into that, but, like, you're just happier and healthier, and that is amazing. But what's amazing is that, that all of what you just said runs off of breath. It runs off that one sense of the breath- Mm ... whether it comes in and out through the nose, and everything is connected that to the breath to some way it's going to affect it one way or the other, whether you're trying to work with maybe more positive psychological states of yourself or create a little better relationship with the world that you interact with. Maybe you're trying to be a little bit more, uh, balanced with your emotions and, and more loving to yourself rather than always, you know, tell- putting yourself down or thinking
39:45.6 you can't do it or, you know, you don't have any talent and your life's never gonna work. You know, whatever it may be, there's something here that science has affirmed, but we also know through experience that connects it all for us if we wish to connect the dots in our life. Exactly. And you're right there on the forefront. 'Cause the breath itself is really one size fits all. I mean, you know, it, it's really gonna help everyone 'cause everybody's basically working with the same... They, they come to this practice with pretty much either inferiority issues or superiority issues. They're either better than everybody else, or they're worse than everybody else.
40:30.5 And they just chase this all around. And then we start to control our breath, and we begin to notice there's a middle line there. There's a, there's a place in between that spot that where we can be comfortable, where we don't need to be the best, and when we don't need to be the best, then of course we don't, we're not the worst. And then we start to find this- Where we don't give a shit. Right. Right, right, right. Because we feel good. And- And then to put it all into place, then you put people in an ice bath. And- Yeah, it's- ... obviously it's a massive shock to our ego because our ego at a young age, you know, resists, you know, being in ice as a therapeutic
41:08.9 approach to body mind medicine. How's that work? Hmm. So you said something before about when that breath is not fluent. I don't know how you called it. Right. You had a beautiful English word for that. Um, so although people are prepared, they know they slow, have to slow down the breathing. That ice bath is pretty shocking, you know? Mm-hmm. So what happens is either that hyperventilate, Mm-hmm ... or stuck or breathing like you know, like not fluently- Mm-hmm ... simply said. I'm trying to make the sound of breathing not fluently, but, um, well, didn't work out. I get it. You get it. It was great.
41:49.5 So then within what... Because that's, that's the promise we made, I believe, in the title of this, of this, uh, podcast, is a technique to calm you down. You know, because if somebody is stressing out, if somebody is panicking, you cannot tell them like, "Hey, man, relax." Mm-hmm. "Hey, man, just slow down your breathing." Mm-hmm. Never gonna work. Right. Right. You know? So if somebody's freaking out in an ice bath, I, uh, I c- I got to this technique, I call it four to eight breathing. Mm-hmm. And it's really very simple. And again, I want to explain first why we are hyperventilating. Our body, our mind sees something dangerous, whether it's real or not.
42:34.2 The ice bath is real danger, by the way. And starts to, you know, "I need more oxygen. I'm not good. I need more oxygen to fight or flight." So how do you trick your brain back? Is by taking a deep breath in, say for four counts, but if you're hyperventilating Mm-hmm. And hold. Mm-hmm. So four counts in or ratio four to eight or two one four, whatever. Four counts in, hold for two counts, and then make your breath out longer. Now, where do we calm down on the breath out? And we need to take that short breath hold to trick our brain back. Our brain is like, "Not enough oxygen.
43:18.0 Yee-ha, yee-ha. Not enough oxygen." And then you breathe in and you hold and it's like, "I'm okay." Mm-hmm. And then you can make your breath out longer. Mm-hmm. And this is where you calm down. Yeah, so this is always the, the tool that I use f- when people need my help in an ice bath. Because if they don't, you know, like, uh, I, I like to step away. If I see somebody is good, I literally take a step back. I'm always watching, but, you know, like, I don't want to be that teacher that, you know, like, without me you're nowhere. No, it's the other way around.
43:52.7 Mm-hmm. Without me you're everything. Mm-hmm. But that four to eight breathing I've tested with- Over, well, let's say I put around 5,000 people in an ice bath, and 40% have problems breathing. So over 2,000 people I've tested this live with- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm ... and it works. To breathe in, to hold, and then to breathe out longer. Mm-hmm. And that is something, so for every teacher listening, if you see somebody panicking and somebody is breathing in, out, in, out, you become very sweet. You're not gonna say, "Yo, breathe slower." You know, like- Mm-hmm ... it's not gonna work. So like, "Hey man, keep on breathing. Keep on breathing.
44:33.6 Doing great. Now breathe a little bit deeper." And it goes little bit deeper. "And now breathe in, hold." Mm-hmm. "Hold, and breathe out. And again, breathe in, hold." Mm-hmm. "And breathe out." Mm-hmm. "And breathe in, hold. And now you breathe out longer." Then you can give a command like, boom, do that. Before that, nothing. Breathe out longer, make your breath out longer, and then you slow down the inhale. Another two second long or two counts or whatever, and breathe out even longer. And this is the moment. And, you know, seriously, I get chills and tears in my eyes if I think about it. I've seen so many people going from extreme stress into total surrender, because that's another, you know, key word in the spiritual
45:22.3 world. Oh, surrender. But how do you do that? Mm-hmm. By slowing down your breathing. By making your breath out longer. So they go from total panic- Mm-hmm ... into... And the, you know, and they look at you or at other people like, "This is incredible. I'm okay in an ice bath." And then, and then it's my task to get them out again, which is sometimes like, okay, you know, after two minutes, come on. So, um, sometimes people just don't want to come out because they're, like, so amazed by what they can do themselves, yeah? Mm-hmm. Not what I show them. No, what they show themselves.
45:58.8 And it's, you know, like I'm, I'm just very grateful to be able to do this and to, um, to supply for, for my kids also with this. You know, I have five kids. It's not- Mm-hmm ... not nothing. So, uh, so I know what, what stress is, or being screwed. N- well, uh, first of all, that is so well said. Uh, because I don't e- I don't... It's funny the similarities of what we teach, because I think about if I want to improve someone's exhale, I'll do exactly what you just said- ... by inhaling, hold, create pressure. Where is that pressure gonna go? It's gonna give you a longer exhale.
46:43.1 Exactly. So rather than say to someone, you know, white-knuckle it and stay with your exhale and just try to practice those muscles that you use for exhale, you can actually let the body do that on its own by simply creating pressure at the front end, which is going to improve organically and naturally the back end. Yes. Super cool. Yeah. And if you want to improve someone's inhale, you can go to the back end, exhale, hold out. The recoil of that on the front end will be a longer, deeper, richer inhale. Exactly. So it's so interesting how we can use the body to organically create the pressure on our own with just a little bit of skill to
47:22.5 get to the- hired result. Actually, I see here a, uh, a message from Lithie. Yeah. "This is very informative. Thank you both very much. Will try this technique for- with my next ice bath." Please do so. And, and, you know, like, um, the people that I train, one, one ... A lot of people that I train become friends. Like this is a friend from Brazil, Sylvia, and she's living in Kuwait. So Brazil, temperature 25 degrees. Sorry, I'm in Celsius. I wouldn't know. It's like normal hot. But in Kuwait it's double. Yeah. It's like over 100 Fahrenheit. Mm-hmm. And she uses this four to eight to, um, handle the heat, which makes sense.
48:06.5 If you are calm, your blood vessels widen, you release more, uh, heat- Mm-hmm ... and you're okay in the heat, you know? So yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah. What's in- what ... Another thing that just totally blows my mind about the human body, and this is the way it's been for the folks that I've put in ice baths. We have a ice chest downstairs in the basement. Oh, nice. We just fill it up- Ooh ... with water and we plug it in every few hours, uh, every couple days, and it's cold as hell. But everybody that, you know, we, we bring people over all through the neighborhood, like, you know, we s- like this is the, you gotta try this.
48:42.0 And what I see across the board is there's all this fear, and they get into the water. The first couple breaths are hyperventilation through the upper chest. Mm-hmm. And in less than 30 seconds, with just some skillful coaching, all of a sudden- Yeah ... they're like the first person to realize that they can actually slow their breath, and they're actually doing it. Yeah. It happens like that. Yeah. So I use this four to eight, uh, to, to help people calm down. And, and when the breath is fluent, you know, it still feels like hell sometimes, you know, or probably your first time, but if you
49:20.0 have your breath under control, you have your life under control. Yeah. And what I mean with that is maybe you cannot, you know, like manipulate external events. If, if you can, I wanna, I wanna know that person that was c- responsible for the pandemic, you know? And I wanna meet that person. But you cannot, so you cannot control external events, but you can control your reaction to a event. And this is, you know, whatever in the world you can call it. And how do you do that? By slowing down your breathing. And are you hyperventilating? Use four to eight. It's, it's, it's really not that difficult.
49:58.6 And you know, it's amazing you just said that, and I totally agree with this, is that the key to controlling human psychology is to first be able to control your physiology. Yes. Yes. I like that. I like that very much. And if you can control your physiology- Yeah ... in other words, if you can control your heart rate, if you can control your blood pressure, you're gonna have a greater command over what we call mind. Yes, totally. Because, you know, the mind and the body are, are completely connected of course. But I've, I've been in the spiritual world. I was a spiritual instructor, a meditation teacher.
50:38.4 I've a published author with a book about spirituality, a very short one, like a toilet book with quotes. Um, a, a, you know, like the one that you keep on the toilet. And I don't mean to wipe your butt, but to actually read it. Although you could use the other way around, too. But, um, um, I've been in that world and it's, everybody talks about surrender and this and that and all the beautiful keywords, but what I see is stress. I've a very intuitive mi- I see stress. You, you talk about surrender, you know, like Instagram. But I, it's not ... No, you don't. You know?
51:20.0 Yeah. You're, you're, you're using the word, but you don't actually know how, how that works. And, um, I'm, I'm more talking about myself than about other people, you know? Like- Mm-hmm ... I was there too, that, yeah, using and this and that, and think I know about spirituality. But I was actually way more in my mind than I am now while I work on my physiology. And that all those spiritual truth that I garnered back then and I wrote my book about, now I'm actually living them. You know what I mean? Mm. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And that is exactly, I should say, it's like the focus on the physiology.
52:00.1 Like you wanna calm down your mind, think less, slow down your breathing. If you take a group of 100 people- Mm-hmm ... and you put them in a room and you make them slow down their breathing for one minute, within one minute they look like Tibetan monks that have 30,000 hours of meditation practice already in their life. Like complete silence. And that is, that is why I love to do this test. You know, if you have a, a group, it's just beautiful. It's just ping, that moment it drops and, yeah, I get, I get chills. I, it's just very nice. So there's very few magic bullets out there in the world.
52:43.7 Most times when we take shortcuts, we tend to lose quality. When I'm speaking with you, Tim, I get, I get the feeling that there is actually a master switch for health and happiness and a deeper connection, and the ability to get to know ourselves a little bit better in the sense that if you do get to know yourself a little bit better than you knew yesterday, you might like yourself a little bit, a little bit more. Yeah. How can folks get your breath trainings? So, um, you can go to my website, which is timvanderfleet.com. And my, my, uh, my instructor course consists of four levels, but you can, you know, like the four levels is three levels online
53:22.9 group coaching, about half year, and then one-week retreat. But the first level is called Control Your Breath, Control Your Life. You were talking about controlling your breath. My course is called Control Your Breath, Control Your Life. So I think if you Google that, or maybe we can share- sh- can I share a website otherwise? You sure can. That's why we're here. Woo-hoo. That's so nice. I didn't expect that. So this is my ... This is my website, the Control Your Breath, Control Your Life, and then I have the instructor course, which you also can find in my menu, of course, but let me show it here.
54:16.9 And I'm very reachable, you know. In the upper left corner is my telephone number. Please don't call me, but send me a WhatsApp or a message, and then I, um, I can- We have to unmute. Can you unmute yourself, Tim? Yes. There you go. And I'm giving trainings, like, all over the world, like London January, then end of January to Brazil, move on to Argentina for a retreat. Um, going to Spain, Norway. Anyway, you can find that on my website, most of it. I'm always a bit late with putting those things on, but you know how it goes. I have a team now that, uh, is working on that.
55:16.3 Well, Tim, it's been a great hour talking to you. You know, you've got a beautiful way about you. You've got a beautiful soul, a beautiful spirit. You care about humanity, and you know, you're doing your part to try to move humanity along maybe a step or two, and it- I'm grateful to talk with you. Is there anything you want to share with folks before we, before we, uh, go off into our spaces tonight? Well, remember the two words that transform, can transform your life if you practice them. Breathe- Mm-hmm ... slowly. I like that. That's- I like that. You know- That's control that you're seeking or finding.
55:55.9 You know, li- life is an awareness model. You know, you can't interact with anything that you're not aware of, and when you're starting to work with the breath the way you're teaching it, when you're putting yourself in cold exposure, you're raising awareness, whether you're aware of it or not. Sure. And being aware is one of the keys to having that ability to sense what the next great thing is for you in your life. Mm. It's awareness-based. Human life is an awareness-based model, and when you have Tim's ice bath and you have Tim's breathing techniques, you're gonna turn on something inside of you that's been inside of you the
56:33.5 whole ride that you haven't been aware of, and you're gonna love it. Thank you, Tim. Beautiful. Thank you, Ed. Have a merry Christmas. You too. Thank you. Peace to you, brother. Thank you, everyone. God bless you. Peace to all. Thank you.