How Doing Difficult Things Rewires Your Brain

Our latest labor of love - an exploration of how the discipline of doing difficult things comes to rewire your brain, helps you control your emotions, and may even decrease depression and anxiety.

This is the introduction to a longer conversation with Vaibhav Diwadkar, neuropsychiatrist researcher at Wayne State University who normally studies BPD and Schizophrenia - but took a detour to study the brain changes that were happening in Wim Hof as he huffed and puffed his way into a stable body temperature when in an ice suit.

For those who aren't familiar with Wim, he's an extreme sports guy who is into doing all kinds of feats of strength - climbed Kilimanjaro in his shorts, held the world record for sitting in an ice bath, and is able to control his immune system - all through a technique that involves meditation, deep breathing, breath holds, and exposure to cold.

Wim isn't doing anything new - monks have been practicing tummo mediation for centuries (if not millenia), and there are stories of saintly travellers walking serenely through cold climates, as if protected by a divine force. What's unique about him is the eagerness with which he approaches scientists. Rather than being afraid of ending up a guinea pig, Wim embraces it. Come at me, bro. I'll show you the magic!

Amazingly, it seems like he's the real deal - not only because there are distinct changes in the basal parts of his brain that are responsible for emotional reactions and pain processing, and not only because he doesn't have any changes to his skin surface temperature when practicing the method:

But because Wim can teach other people to do it, too. Vaibhav Diwadkar, the scientist who did the research above, thinks that this sort of self-control has a lot more benefits to it than just being able to climb tall mountains in shorts. His theory? Learning to overcome your emotional aversion to difficult things - even if that's holding your breath and taking a cold shower - is the first step to getting over depression and anxiety.

And once you're done with those, who knows what awaits?
As always, tell us what you think, animals - the good, bad, and the ugly of it - and who we should talk to next!