A remarkable announcement on the website of the Student Chaplaincy: an ice bath will be added to its premises. The ice bath is part of the Wim Hof Method course for students. ‘It is about learning to be comfortable with discomfort.’

Picturing this might feel a little crazy: students walking through the Student Chaplaincy in their bathing suits. However, a bit more nuance is required. The ice bath that the church has mentioned on its website will not be installed inside, but behind the premises. Students, who are planning to take the bath will need to pass through the building in their bathing suits, but only once and not during service hours.

Stress

‘The ice bath concludes the course on the Wim Hof Method’, Katja Teunissen explains. She is a keen ice bath taker and a cold water swimmer herself, in addition to her work as a student advisor at FNWI. ‘It takes five sessions of two hours before you first set foot in the bath.’

This is the first time that the course will be taught. Teunissen, who is also a mindfulness instructor, came up with the idea herself. ‘This course is about learning to be comfortable with discomfort.’

‘You’ll have to step out of your comfort zone and surrender to the ice’

When stepping into an ice bath, it is normal to experience a lot of stress. The brain wants to shout: get out, you’re in danger! However, dealing with these thoughts is matter of training, says Teunissen. And if you manage to control your fear of cold, you can also control the fear of other things, such as exams. ‘With this method, students can learn to improve their resilience and experience that they, themselves are more than their anxious thoughts.’

Freezing cold

Students who participate in the course, start by taking cold showers at home. In addition to that, they learn how to perform intense breathing exercises and meditate during the course.

Teunissen followed a training at the Wim Hof Method Academy. As an instructor-to-be, she travelled to the top of the Spanish Pyrenees, amongst others. She may now call herself a certified instructor.

‘Safety has top priority’

‘The special thing about practising the Wim Hof Method is that participants will get to feel very connected with each other in a short period of time. You are being vulnerable, stepping out of your comfort zone, and you need to surrender to the ice and then focus on getting into the bath. You support each other during that moment.’

Last month, the ‘ice man’ Wim Hof appeared in the news because he is being sued in the United States for the death of a girl who performed breathing exercises she had found online. The American lawsuit doesn’t prevent the ice bath from getting into the Student Chaplaincy, says Teunissen. ‘This once again illustrates that intense breathing exercises should not be performed in a place where fainting is dangerous, such as in the water. That specific rule is repeated over and over again, but unfortunately and sadly, there are still people who don’t comply with the precautions. Safety has the top priority during the learning process of the method.’

What the ice bath will look like in Nijmegen, is still unknown to Teunissen. It will probably be an inflatable bath.

The course (21 September – 17 October) has a maximum of twelve spots for students and is free of charge. If successful, the course might get repeated. Enrolment starts at the end of August.