For Christmas this year, I asked for the book ‘Immune’ by Philipp Dettmer (the genius behind the wildly popular YouTube Channel, Kurzgesagt). Their beautifully produced and super informative short films break down some of the most complex topics known to man and they do a great job of making science simple (or as simple as it can be). But I wanted to dive deeper and, above all, make sure I could hold my own should an Immunologist ever attend one of my Wim Hof Method Workshops in Brighton.

I also wanted to improve the “immune boosting” advice I can offer to my Personal Training clients in Hove and hopefully give myself a better chance of fending off current and future evil critters.

Whilst portions of the book are fairly dry and understandably complex to grasp, Philipp does a brilliant job of making the science interesting, imaginative and entertaining. Also, thankfully my training to become a Certified Wim Hof Method Instructor has given me a great foundation to build upon.

My key takeaway:

“Damage or danger – real or perceived – causes inflammation.”

That’s right. According to Philipp, even if the danger is imagined and only exists in your mind, the body still ramps up inflammation in anticipation of what might come.

Why does stress create inflammation?

Now... this makes sense from an evolutionary perspective as the body naturally prepares itself for getting cut/damaged where pathogens may then enter. Just like when we use the cold as a temporary stressor (in the Wim Hof Method) it causes our body to increase our white blood cell count temporarily in anticipation of what dangers that may lay ahead. But these days we are not preparing to battle invading tribes or a raging snow storm. We are sat down in a temperature controlled environment, imagining all the future challenges we may face (creating a fight-or-flight stress response in our minds and bodies) as we watch Gordon Ramsay scream abuse at another helpless chef for a sunken soufflé on our TV.

Why is chronic inflammation bad?

Being in this fight or flight state too often leads to chronic inflammation which ultimately has a negative impact on the body* and is involved in more than half of all deaths each year!

It is an underlying cause of a wide variety of diseases - from various cancers to strokes or liver failure.

*It’s important to note here that “regular” inflammation is indispensable for your immune defence and is a very good thing when it’s acute and in the right circumstance. What we are talking about here is chronic (long-term) inflammation.

What really causes chronic stress?

One might think that chronic stress is just an unfortunate part of life and that one simply needs to learn how to “deal with it” and find a way to struggle through. Well sadly, as common as that viewpoint is, it only seems to prolong people’s suffering until they reach a burnout point or develop a debilitating disease.

You see, stress is generally created by resistance or in other words, by apposing forces. This is true both in the physical world (i.e. using weights to create resistance for your muscles as they appose movement) and in the emotional world, where one’s reality apposes what was ‘supposed’ to happen or what they want to happen. A simpler way of looking at it might be, that one is resisting what is. And as the saying goes ‘what you resist, persists’.

But if we look deeper we can see that the level of resistance (or stress) created by an event is often directly related to how attached one has become to the outcome of that event. Which is a strong indication of how aware or present one is and what their relationship with their true self (i.e. conscious awareness without any conceptual future/past mind activity) is like. Another way to describe one’s relationship to their conceptual mind is simply as ‘ego’.

How does my ego cause stress?

Imagine this scenario for a moment. You really want your manager at work to give you a good appraisal (which means a good chance of a pay rise too) and the week before your appraisal is due, you make a big mistake on a project - costing the company time and money. Your stress levels sky rocket as you see your chances of a good appraisal (and your pay rise) ebb away. You spend the week working overtime to try and correct your mistake, which means you’re sat in a sedentary position for even longer and have to get fast food on the way home each night because you simply don’t have the time or energy to cook when you get back. Then, to make things worse you toss and turn all night long lamenting yourself for the error whilst trying to come up with clever ways to either correct it or make it seem like it wasn’t your fault in the first place.

Now, in a very literal sense, what has actually happened? Have you become any worse off? No. Has any permanent damage been done to you or the people you love? No. But your mind thinks this is a complete disaster and you experience it as a severe emotional loss to what was originally only a reality in your conceptual mind (future/past). Not to mention your mind then continues the narrative long after the appraisal has happened, reminding you how stupid you were as you repeat the scenario in your head over and over again.

This is a great example of how the ego works to create a huge amount of stress and unnecessary suffering in a situation that was most likely unavoidable and inevitable. And not only has the stress created days worth of unnecessary inflammation but the long hours sat down, fast food and poor sleep have further contributed to any damage already caused by the week-long inflammation spike.

How do I get rid of the ego and alleviate chronic stress?

Well… the good news is that if you’ve read this far then it’s likely some of this is resonating with you and simply by having an awareness of what the ego is (i.e. being able to ‘hear’ or ‘see’ the voice in your head) is enough to start the process of its demise.

Now, the second stage is being able to recognise the ego before it influences your behaviour or reaction to what happens. In order to do this, one must create space between themselves (i.e. their own conscious awareness) and the ego (i.e. their conceptual future/past mind activity). And this takes time and practice.

If we take the example above and see how an ego-free person might approach it then firstly, they wouldn’t hold on to any hopes or expectations with regards to how their appraisal might go and what outcomes might lead from it (such as any pay rises). Instead, they would maintain their primary focus of being present (in the here and now) and giving everything they do their fullest attention (which ironically would dramatically reduce the chances of any mistakes happening in the first place). But, even if the same mistake was made, they would immediately accept how they feel about it, take full responsibility for the error and try to return to any task at hand as quickly as possible without any further narrative being created in their mind over the scenario.

Why is the ego always at the root of stress and disease?

Ultimately, the ego is the root cause of all self-created suffering whether it’s directly or indirectly.

Let’s take the example of a mental health disorder that is (usually) directly caused by the ego. Addiction. Most addictions are triggered by a desire to use pleasure in order to cover up emotional pain. Whether it’s loneliness, shame, trauma or sadness.

Now, what if that person was able to fully accept both their situation and unpleasant feelings without trying to suppress their feelings in anyway? What if they knew there was another way that didn’t involved a ‘battle’ in the mind? What would it mean to have severely reduced levels of conceptual future/past mind activity that meant one could actually ‘step out’ of repetitive negative thinking? What if they were internally aware of the voices and forces at play that caused them to react to a negative situation by suppressing their emotions through pleasure of some kind? In time, by simply becoming aware of their ego they would begin to have a choice and the weight of the ‘pull’ into the conceptual mind will (hopefully) diminish. They will have a choice between whether they lean into the immediate discomfort, accept how they feel right now and try to avoid creating new stories (and new pain) through their conceptual mind.

I’m not saying any of this is simple or easy by the way, I’m simply trying to point out the structures at play that lead to poor decision making and ultimately, suffering and disease.

We can’t take people any further than than leading them to a choice. Which is why in my Wim Hof Method Workshops the ice bath is always optional and all I ask is that people become aware of the voice that says ‘not today’ or ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’. Ultimately, we all have that choice every day of whether we lean into the discomfort (knowing true comfort lies on the other side) or not. And simply by recognising when our thinking is ego-based and when it’s from a deeper place (from ‘the Self’), we can slowly start to break away from old habits and societal conditioning and slowly remove chronic stress from our lives. Yes, there will still be challenges and moments that cause stress but the key difference here is that it will be acute and (assuming it’s within a certain threshold) the body and mind can deal with that.

Want more support with your health and wellbeing?

As a Personal Trainer in Hove and Wim Hof Method Instructor in Brighton, I teach these principles in greater detail to my clients at both workshops and as part of my one-to-one personal training sessions.

Book a free PT taster session today!

Whether you want to get in the best shape of your life by moving the way your body was designed to or learn how to harness the power of the Wim Hof Method to better manage your mood, strengthen your immune system and reset your physiology to its optimum state, you can by booking a taster session or by getting tickets to an upcoming workshop with me today.