Year of Discovery (Week 12: Ice Baths, How We Trigger Ourselves)

This week, I’ve deepened my understanding of WuWei (無爲), which in Daoist philosophy means “inexertion”, “inaction”, or “effortless action”. WuWei is the practice of letting one’s action follow the simple and spontaneous course of nature rather than interfering with the harmonious working of universal law by imposing arbitrary and artificial forms.

WuWei praises people who don’t push themselves (physically, work-wise, etc) beyond 80% of their capacity. This contrasts the Western culture I’ve grown up in that’s pushed me to strive to be at 110% all the time in order to ‘live life fully’ or to ‘work hard, play hard’.

“When you overfill a vessel, things spill everywhere. So trying to overfill your life by putting too many activities, extending yourself in too many different directions, then you end up actually losing energy. Where if you keep to a little more ‘middle way’, you can get things done but you don’t burn out. And people think: if I go longer and longer and do this project better and better…then they collapse when they’re done…So we want to keep a balance: the whole yin-yang.” — Solala Towler

Daoist philosophy and practices (QiGong, meditation, etc) focus on a long life versus short-term gains. WuWei is helping me think more about how I organize my days and weeks during my Year of Discovery to ensure I’m intentionally prioritizing my exploration, allow room for flexibility and to be surprised, and not overloading myself.

This week, I reflect on the limits of our body (through ice baths) and how we trigger ourselves.

Ice Baths and EFT Tapping

Being raised by a Buddhist mother who wholeheartedly believed in Eastern medicine has deeply impacted the way I think about healing and biomedicine. Whenever I’m sick, I consistently opt for natural medicine over drugs and pills from the pharmacy because of a belief in the power of plants and herbs that grow from the ground and a cynicism in the adverse effects of chemical drugs. While biomedicine has made incredible gains, my exploration has always been in figuring out what types of illnesses I would prefer to treat with biomedicine versus with plant-based medicine. My interests continued into university when I minored in global health, where we often discussed the tension between biomedicine versus Traditional Chinese Medicine. In the Western world, the former is presented as ‘science’ while the latter is presented as ‘magic’ and my goal has always been to bridge my understanding of the two worlds.

As I continue my exploration on natural healing processes, I attended a Wim Hof ice bath session led by Walid from NAFAS this week. The session started first with a short shamanic breathwork practice. According to the NAFAS website, shamanic breathwork is a “powerful healing process that allows the breathers to experience deep healing and transformation on a spiritual, mental, emotional and physical level”. After four rounds of the shamanic breathwork technique, we moved into Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Tapping before moving our energy by stretching and shifting different parts of the body. EFT is an alternative treatment for physical pain and emotional distress.

After our bodies were warmed up, we were ready to go into the ice bath. We did three to four rounds (2–3 rounds of 2-minutes each and then a final 5-minute round).

It was very cold in my two-piece swimsuit (saw someone wearing a bodysuit and was thinking they might have had the right idea).

The whole experience was pretty eye-opening for me. While the natural instinct was for my breath to shorten immediately after I plunged into the water, the trick was to practice box breathing (2 seconds of breathing in, hold for 2 seconds, 2 seconds breathing out, hold for 2 seconds and repeat). When I slowed my breath down, I slowed my mind down (and it’s labeling of the cold, what is possible and what’s not for my body).

A phrase that came up a lot in our post-ice bath group reflections was ‘mind over body’ and how when we test our limits, we feel connected to a greater energy or higher power. For me, it was an experience of release and expanding my mind of what I thought was possible for myself.

What’s interesting in my research afterwards is that ice baths are also used by many athletes to facilitate recovery and decrease soreness as it changes the way that blood flows through the body. In ice cold water, blood vessels constrict; when you get out, they dilate (or open back up). This process helps flush away metabolic waste post-workout.

Questions to reflect on:

• In what ways can you (safely) test the limits of your body?
• In what ways have you marveled at the nature of your body? How everything works in the way it does?
• How do you understand the connection between your mind and your body?

I’d also love to know from you what other methods you’ve tried to understand your body and its nature better! Please do share in the comments as I’d love to explore them as well.

How We Trigger Ourselves

A lesson that keeps coming back to me week after week is this: No one triggers me; I trigger myself. When said that way, it sounds a bit silly, but how it manifests in practice is quite understandable.

Take this as an example:

Sarah and Phil are presenting a project proposal to stakeholders. As they wrap up and leave the meeting room, Sarah makes a comment to Phil about what didn’t go so well (which had to do with Phil’s part). Sarah has a belief that giving timely and immediate feedback is important and means it as a way to support Phil’s development. Phil’s face flushes and as he feels flooded and triggered, he immediately retorts by saying that Sarah didn’t do a great job herself.

Phil’s response to Sarah was a result of how he triggered himself. Phil struggles with his own self-worth and fears that his mistakes or negative feedback will define him. This comes from Phil’s childhood when his parents pushed him to become always be better to the point that his own self-worth came into question. He thought, ‘Will my parents love me as much if I don’t succeed? Am I worthy of their love?’ So when Sarah shared feedback with him quickly after their meeting, it triggered the feelings of low self-worth from when his parents would brashly and angrily share negative feedback quickly after he had made a mistake. After taking a step back to:

1. Catch it (know the trigger)
2. Tune in (describe the feeling, where it is in the body, rate it)
3. Zoom in (become curious about it; ‘I am currently experiencing anger’, rate feelings, breathe)

…he was able to go back to Sarah and apologized for his reaction.

When we feel feelings, it nurtures. When we think feelings, it amplifies them. The trick is to separate them out. Try doing that by writing your thoughts about an event, and then your emotions about an event. — Vicki, my coach

Creator: Catherine McQueen | Credit: Getty Images — Feelings Arising in our stomachs, hearts, throats

When the feeling rises in our stomachs, hearts and throats, oftentimes the reaction is to throw it back which might in turn hurt someone else (like a game of hot potato). But when I allow my feelings to be, acknowledge that they are there and normal, and use them to question myself:

• What am I feeling? Is this about me or the way I did something?
• What did this conversation trigger in me? Is that my pattern?
• Is this more about me or about them?

…then it allows me to move from rationalizing my feelings to feeling my feelings. This enables a true separation of feelings from thoughts and to see them each for what they are, instead of one and the same.

Questions to reflect on:

• Can you relate to the story about Sarah and Phil? Why or why not?
• In what ways would you want to practice some of the methods above when you are triggered?
• What was the dominant story you were telling yourself when you were last triggered?

What I listened to this week: Happiness Lessons of the Ancients: Lao Tzu