135. The Power of the Wim Hof Method with Leah Scott

In June 2022 I had a life-changing experience with the Wim Hof method led by Leah Scott. The Wim Hof method combines breathing, cold exposure and mindfulness to create powerful mental and physical shifts. In this episode Leah shares what led her to become the 'crazy lady' who plunged in icy lakes, why cold exposure can make you a better public speaker, the power of the Wim Hof breathing method and also what Wim is like in real life!

Transcript

Hello and welcome to a very chill episode of That Voice Podcast. Yes, that is a bad pun because we are talking all about the Wim Hof method. Earlier this year, I went on a life changing expedition to the Australian Snowy Mountains region. And if you'd like to hear more about that, check out Episode 122, Why I Climbed a Snow Covered Mountain in my Underwear. As promised, I wanted to get my amazing instructor, Leah Scott, on the podcast, and here it is. It's happening. Leah is an amazing soul and works closely with Wim himself. She spills the secrets on what women's like in real life, explains what led her to plunge in icy lakes, and she shares how this kind of work helps you become a better public speaker.

Yes, ice baths help you become a better public speaker, and you know what else will help you become a better public speaker? But it's a bit of a tongue twister. You know what else will help you become a better public? Tongue twisters, that's one thing. The other thing is my online cause Fear to Fierce.

This course takes you through 12 powerful steps that take 30 minutes each max. Most of them only take about five minutes, and these steps have been carefully ordered to help you clarify who you are, reclaim your powerful voice and break through your speaking fears. You can do this course in your own time. I'll put the link in the show notes. That's Fear to Fierce. And now, we go from fear to fierce to frosty. Enjoy this incredible conversation with Leah Scott.

Sally: Leah Scott, welcome to that voice podcast. I am a lot warmer than the last time I saw you. How are you?

Leah: Wonderful. Thanks for having me, Sally! I'm a little bit chill cuz I just got out of the ice bath.

Sally: So how often do you do an ice bath?

Leah: I like to do them very regularly, so minimum every second, you know, max, third day. Um, but it really depends what's on my schedule for the day. You know, it can be once or twice.

Sally: So as a lot of people listening know, earlier this year I went down to Threadbo, spent five days, bit of a baptism of fire into cold exposure and it is probably the best thing I've ever done.

Leah, like it was, was just really, really transformational for me. And I think about it so much. I am in the world probably where I'm seeing more and more of it on Instagram feeds. Everybody's doing ice baths, it's becoming more and, except there's a thing to do. However, there are still a lot of people going, what are you doing?

Crazy person, putting yourself in ice. So why do you do it?

Leah: Yeah. Well, it's um, definitely getting more popular, which is great to see. It influences our entire body, mind, and spirit. And I tell people, you know, whatever your, whatever you feel you are lacking within that, it'll be a gift to you in that moment in time.

Uh, according to science, you know, we know that we influence our nervous and our immune response, uh, reducing stress, anxiety, and depression. Um, it's a natural anti-inflammatory. Um, you know, we also lower our blood pressure. Um, we improve our focus and performance, exercise performance, so that's really all of the surface level stuff.

What I tell people, you know, if you can come along to a retreat and spend days of doing it, we get down to deeper gifts, like emotional intelligence and learning how to control our nervous system, our sympathetic and our parasympathetic, and becoming very conscious of how our body, um, handles difficult situations.

You know, we create a lot of resilience, especially when it comes, uh, to the ice water, to the cold therapy side. We conquer fear, um, not just conquer it, but we integrate it. So it's a great way to understand how your body, you know, reacts in such a different, a difficult situation, and to take control of, um, these difficult situations throughout life, throughout the day.

What I'm seeing as the years go on is people releasing trauma and really getting to the core of, you know, their spirit or their soul, or who they're meant to be, and it's very transformational.

Sally: It truly is. And what got you on this journey?

Leah: For me, it was, um, my mental health, so extreme anxiety, stress, and depression.

After my divorce, I felt very lost, didn't know who I was. So I started on a seeking journey. And to cut a long story short, I tried many different modalities. Um, but the, once I tried the Wim Hof Method, the breath work and the ice baths, I knew I'd found something that would change my life forever. So, you know, initially I started off with cold showers, but I was drawn to the mountains, to Jindabyne.

Once I moved there, I started to get into the lake and then, you know, it become too warm. So I went down into the river and like a lot of people, you know, struggle with the, the mental side, you know, the thoughts, the monkey mind, Why am I doing this? You know, you would be much better if you just stayed in bed.

You know, this is crazy stuff. And I would drive down there every morning, you know, and this is as the sun's coming up, and it's either snowing or foggy and, um, having to step away from my thoughts and putting my awareness on my breath. It's a great tip for everybody. Um, but awareness on the breath and as I would go in, you know, I then have to deal with emotions and pain and, um, what I started to do was keep bringing my awareness to my breath constantly over these few days that I was getting in. And what I found is I, um, just completely you know, let go of my mind and body this one morning and just felt like I become the, the river and you know, the trees and I was you and you were me.

And it was this incredible feeling of, of oneness that changed my life. And it's how I pass on the method in my retreats and everything is really centering ourselves and focusing on that long exhales and becoming the breath

Sally: Because the Wim Hof method isn't just getting in the like, it's, there's three parts to it, isn't there?

Leah: There is. There is. So we have the breath work and we have the gradual cold exposure.

Sally: The gradual cold exposure. On the second day we went for a walk, and Leah, you're so relaxed, and we get there and you go, oh, I'm just not gonna wear any shoes. I'm gonna take my shoes off. You don't, you don't have to. To you. I just prefer to take my shoes off. And then of course I'm thinking, well, I'm not doing that. But then looking around, everyone started taking their shoes up and I sort of like, I'll be the only one who's not going to do this. And then I did get that. We did go straight in the water on the first day, by the way, as well.

However, after that, that gradual exposure of just having bare feet and then stepping in, it's really interesting to see that journey along the way.

Yeah, that's

Leah: right. And that's, um, in regards to the retreats, it's what I wanna pass on. It's like this is a whole body and holistic experience, you know, and you just need to walk barefoot for a few days to feel the resilience that we get from that.

And also, you know, apart from the benefits that we know about the grounding and inflammation, reducing inflammation side, it's, it's firing neurons in the brain, which is keeping us aware and really present. Um, it's just another massive benefit. I tell people, give it a go. And in regards to the cold, um, I do that or I, I suggest to do that, um, for my groups because it is making your future

Sally: A smiling, assassin. You kind of have to do it.

Leah: Yeah, I have my ways. I tell people I'm very persuasive.

Sally: Yeah. Oh, I love that. So the gradual cold exposure is one element of Wim Hof, and then we've got the breathing?

Leah: That's right, the breathing and meditation. Um, and also the mindset and focus, which as you know, is linked throughout, you know, all three pillars are linked.

Sally: Yeah. And you've recently got back from Spain where you ran a retreat with Wim. What's he like?

Leah: Oh, look, what you see is what you get. Like he is, um, he's one of a kind. Um, he is such a character. He's very genuine. Um, he. Really wants the world to be, you know, happy, healthy, and strong, just like he says. And, um, he's very motivating and inspiring as well.

You know, I suggest that if anyone gets the chance to go and jump on one of his expeditions for a few days, and the transformations are just huge.

Sally: I've been looking at the website and everything is just sold out, sold out, sold out. I bet it sells as soon as it goes on offer because so many people around the world myself included us, uh, seeing the amazing benefits that you get from this kind of work.

Leah: Uh, when I was over there, there was a, um, woman who she didn't let us know, but on the fourth day she said, I've got breast cancer. Um, and she's been going through the Western, um, medical, uh, ways, um, to help get over that. Five days after the retreat, she messaged us and said that, um, her doctor said, what have you been doing? Because it's shrunk.

Sally: Wow.

Leah: So within this, yeah, and she's got the scans on both sides to prove it, which has just, you know, good on her. Incredible. So this is the depth, and that's, she's one story. I mean, there's countless, there's countless stories just like that in, in regards, not just cancers, but chronic diseases, you know, things that people that are trying to deal with and live with every single day that they can doing, be doing these natural tools and getting rid of those symptoms.

Sally: And this is the thing. This is not just like a woo woo, crazy challenger mindset type of thing. The science is becoming stronger and stronger behind how this actually works.

Leah: That's right. The method itself has, I think they're up to about 10 published papers now, uh, which is incredible. You know, a method having its own scientific backing. Um, but the whole world is getting involved, you know, over the last few years. And there's countless papers coming out on cold exposure, breath work and, and meditation. Um, cause like I said, it, it influences our entire physiology the whole lot. And there's no come down.

Sally: Yeah. It's, uh, so good. And in terms of the voice, the voice being this great channel which we can release energy through, I saw this firsthand. When people get in the water, you either find complete silence or screaming, or I suppose everything in between. But in, in your experience, how have you found the role of the voice in all of this?

Leah: Yeah, a great question. So when we go into the water, we're activating the sympathetic nervous system, which is our fight to flight response. Like you said, screening at shortness of breath. You know, our heart is beating fast. Um, our thoughts are running wild. We actually sweat and the blood goes out to our hands and our knees preparing us, you know, we wanna run away.

This is scary. This is, um, fear and I suppose like relating it to the breath, this is where it's such a beautiful technique to learn and engage in, is that, um, Before going into public speaking, what do we go through? It's, it's scary. You know, we have our thoughts are in overdrive and this exact same response.

This sympathetic nervous system is happening, um, before we're public speaking. You know, it's, um, you can replace public speaking with any type of perceived threat. That's all a, um, it's a physiological, normal response, and there is actually no difference between ice water and public speaking. The body doesn't know that there is a difference.

It just produces the same response. And so the more we keep going into the cold water, the more we understand about, again, how this sympathetic nervous system works and how we can get on to these feelings within the body when it's happening in that point in time. And we can take control. So it's, there's this where, uh, the resilience side really comes in and, um, we learn to use our breath, which we know stimulates the vagus nerve, which is the longest nerve in the body, starts in the cranial, and comes down throughout our organs and is in control of our heartbeat.

And we use this to calm down in the cold water. So this will help people with their public speaking because beforehand they can be using their breath, like I know that you've talked about, um, to calm down, to calm their heartbeat down, to bring their awareness out of their mind and into their body and prepare themselves before they go on stage.

Sally: So powerful and, and not just public speaking, as you say, it's that situation where we are feeling that fear. And so that's why training the body through ice it enables us to be ready in any situation of stress that we face in our life. And in terms of actually being in the water, I know there cause there was a couple of plunges that we did throughout the five days, more than a couple.

And there were times when, as I said, I didn't, I felt like I. Was just concentrating on my breathing. I couldn't even talk. Then there was another time, which was the one, the last one, which was the snow. It was actually snowing. Do you remember that? And I fell in the hole and Jamie like beat me out the hole.

Oh my gosh. Bless him. And I remember like screaming, like, and then you were like, Breathe. Breathe. Do you find with all of the groups that you've taken through, what reactions do you get? Is it, is it anything or everything? Is it more screaming, more silence, more, I don't know. Like what? What's the common thing that happens?

Have you ever had somebody like jump out and try to hit you or something like that?

Leah: Oh, I love that. Look, I've had everything. So normally how it works is the first day or two. Cause as you know, I have a process and I say trust my process of the week. It's overwhelming initially. So it is, it's screaming.

It may be crying, it can be people just staring at me, you know, their eyes are huge. It's that sympathetic nervous system. Like, what am I doing here? Why am I doing this? But as the days go on, that sympathetic reaction. And even the screaming, it depends on the weather as well, like how cold it is, um, and how different, like you said it was snowing for you.

Like this, this is the diamond standard. That was a gift. You were just smiling from e going.

Sally: It's snowing. It's actually snowing. I was there in cozy, going, oh my gosh.

Leah: Welcome to the crazy club!

Sally: Oh, I think I've been in that club for a long while, so I'm happy to, you know, confirm my membership.

Leah: Love it.

Sally: Oh, Leah, so how can people come to one of your amazing retreats? What have you got coming up?

Leah: Okay, so I've released my retreats and expeditions for next year, Sally. They can find that at leahscott.net. That's my website. Otherwise they can find me on Instagram @leahscotty

Sally: Amazing. And is there anything else you wanted to add?

Leah: If people can engage and keep trying the cold exposure simply with turning the shower cold, that's where they can start, um, every night or in the morning for 15 seconds.

Then what they will receive just from doing that is clarity, presence, and attention for the day.

Sally: Absolutely. And it's so interesting. Before I came to the retreat, as you know, I was struggling with the cold showers. And now, I'm here in Brisbane going, Our water is not cold enough for this. Cause I'm in an apartment so I can't really get a ice bath where I am. So I have just been doing the cold showers and going from not being able to turn cold to be standing there going, Oh my gosh, this is, this is basically a normal shower, is extraordinary. So I would recommend to anyone, even if in the beginning you're like, no, I can't do this. You, you can. I've, I've been there. You absolutely can do it.

And it is such a great experience, and Leah, I'm so glad to have you on the podcast and I'm excited to see you at another retreat very soon.

Leah: Thanks for having me, Sal. I'd love to see you there as well.