My journey from Chinese Medicine Practitioner trained in the “Shan Han Lun”(which literally means “Treatise of Cold Damage”) – to Wim Hof Method and certified Ice Bath Coach:
I went straight from high school into Chinese medicine at the University of Western Sydney and never looked back. Chinese Medicine is based on the Natural world, which has always made a lot of sense to me, observation of the cycles and rhythms of nature and how they are reflected within us.
Disease is straying from the path of balance (a disruption to homeostasis). “Balance” is not a destination – its not just achieved and then you can stop working at it, it’s more of a journey (#themiddleway), it’s a constant, intricate, dynamic process.
It is, perhaps, more helpful to think of the symptoms we experience as a way the body communicates the degree of balance/imbalance, sometimes hinting something is off path and sometimes its very loud.
Along the way I got into breathwork, through certain body work techniques and it opened my eyes to the connection between emotion and how it is stored in the body and how it can be released with the breath, movement, touch and sound. 10 years down the track I was in Norway and participated in a dare to take a dip in the (frozen) fjord. I was a big wuss when it came to cold but something in me had to do it. I brought myself back to my breath and this little dare set me on a path of cold and later down the track the Wim Hof Method and further down the track, into the Snowy mountains of Australia – exploring my edges – hormesis – deliberate stress – exposing the body to controlled discomfort to move the body out of homeostasis and thus find its way back to a stronger foundation thus expanding your tolerance to stress and improving your ability to find balance. Just like you build muscle and strength by applying load and weights at the gym and creating micro tears in your muscle fibres (deliberate stress exposure).
All this has lead me to what I offer here and now. It was very unusual for a Chinese Medicine practitioner to seek COLD exposure, as we tend to advise against it.
I had to deepen my own personal exploration and understanding of it and find the Middle Way. This lead me to an embodied understanding and realisation of controlled stress exposure, resiliency, hormesis, adaptation and nervous system regulation, as well as growth mindset and the mental emotional and physical benefits of challenge and doing hard things. Central to this is the development of interoception – that is, being in tune with your body and your body responses (Self Awareness), it’s listening to your body and knowing when you need to push but also, when you need to rest (the Middle way).
