When East meets West
By origin, I am Indian. I was born and raised in a country called Oman, and it would be easy to clump it up and say that I lived for ten years in Oman and the next ten in India. And for the first time in my mid twenties, I travelled West, first stop being the United States.
As of this date, I have about 24 years that I lived in the east, and about 11 years that I have lived in the West.
There is definitely a difference in the way people teach in the East versus the West. There is a lot of emphasis on “feeling” in India, no one actually says it like that - but it is understood. There is almost a taboo associated with asking a guru, or any form of teacher, too many questions. If you are asking too many questions, you probably haven’t figured it out yet. There is also a lot of value in “unsaid” emotions. So if you are in doubt, practice harder - what ever it is that you are practicing , and eventually you will figure it out. Ofcourse there is a lot of merit to this in the sense that when you keep doing the same thing again and again, there is an element of discipline that comes into your being. You also recognize that there will be days when you feel there is almost no growth at all, and then one day it clicks and you jump five steps. The down side is that you could be stuck in the same spot for a number of years and not understand what the methodology would be to progress. I have noticed that there is a lot of importance given to the “chosen ones” as well. I have been qualified as a chosen one, a bunch of time for a variety of things. Of course at the time it made me feel very special, but later on in life I just recognized that I had a much higher level of discipline than everyone around me. Another big down side is that there is so much value given to years of experience, that unless you shine like a diamond, it is understood that a person with more years of experience has a better understanding than you, and unless the teacher felt that you were ready to go to the next step - you were stuck where you were till he or she decided that you had it in you to move forward.
So essentially, in the growth process - a lot wasn’t really in your hands , BUT it did make you a very humble person because you had to really work hard to progress.
In the west, ask questions galore ! understand the technique, you figure out where you are at, and how good you are. You can decide when you want to leap to the next step , get trained in the next level , go for the next instructor course, sometimes with no pre requisites, and you can also teach some one a particular trait because you have done it a couple of times. There is no such thing as “No way can you do that!” - I came to the US and I ran an ironman with no training, decided to run an ultramarathon with almost no road time (my main training was lifting heavy weight - that s content for another blog) - decided I could climb mountains and got training to climb ON the mountain. I gained the confidence to do these things after coming to the US. Had I been in the East, I would have looked around for guidance , I would have asked if I was ready to do these things - and I am sure there would have been coaches who told me that I needed more training, or since I have NEVER climbed a mountain before , I probably should start off with something smaller.
Which one is the right way ? The eastern way or the western way ? I have recognized that it is actually right down the middle that has worked best for me. And this is what I love so much about the Wim Hof Method. You can work down the middle with this method. Let me explain how. Wim says “Feeling is understanding” - in my workshops, I always first go through an exercise to ensure everyone feels the particular experience we are talking about, and then I help the attendees understand why they felt what they did - what happened in their body’s physiology for them to feel that way. Sometimes I get people who ask me a lot of questions before wanting to feel anything, and I always say, “wait ! I would like you to feel it first then we can talk about what you felt and go over it.” Next, since I am Indian, I went ahead and looked for a workshop, because of the teacher student mentality that I have - it worked well for me, because I learned the method right from the get go from a teacher. A lot of the people around me, had to unlearn the wrong way of what they were doing because they had either learned the method through the internet, or from another person who hadn’t actually learned the method and was working off of google as well. So when they come to me, we almost have to go through a Wim Hof unlearning process before I can actually help them understand what they are supposed to do. There hasn’t been a single practicing Hoffer so far that didn’t tell me that they recognized a couple of things they needed to do after attending a class with me.
And lastly, you can continue to learn the method on your own but you do have resources available to you. The Wim Hof method is a very powerful method, and there aren’t many methods that I am aware of , with such power that you are allowed to practice on your own in your house with no teacher around. The Wim Hof method allows you to go as deep as you would like to, whether it is through the ice or the breathing, in a very short time. You can feel the effects of this method after only one session most of the time. This obviously has had its repercussions, with people pushing their limits without understanding their boundaries, and here comes the awareness of the eastern way and the western way. When you take time to understand a method, and go into it methodically, with guidance (either through the e-learning or another instructor) at the start, you have the time to understand your boundaries, your physical and mental limits and you stay within the range. Through joint mobility, I have learned that when you stay within your limits, your limits expand over time. And the eastern way allows for this. When there is a need for you to advance at a rate that is a lot faster than your limits, this is when injuries occur in the physical realm and trauma occurs in the emotional realm. This is why in the method, we always say “don’t force - listen to your body”.
And last but not the least, there is an element of respect that is attained when you do something for a prolonged period of time, versus when you do something to attain results in a quick fashion. People are attracted to this method for a variety of reasons, most of the time, the reason why you got into it, isn’t the reason why you continue to do it - it definitely is the case for me. I got into it to get over my cold hands and feet issue associated with climbing mountains and by the way, I felt cold ALL the time - but the spiritual benefits that I gained from the method, have far surpassed the physical gains that I received, and the only reason I was able to was because I let go of the need to prove my greatness through the method - whether it is climbing a mountain in record time, or pushing my body in ways that I never had, I instead moved inwards and recognized the power associated with self awareness that not only doing the method, but teaching the method, has brought into my life.
So I believe the best approach isn’t the eastern way or the western way - it is right down the middle. Yes, feeling is important, but understanding is too - in a world where there is a new method being thrown at us almost every other day, it is really important to understand our own bodies, our minds and our limitations before indulging in a new method every other day, and we have the power to understand ourselves without having some one else tell us what we need or should do. The Wim Hof method preaches this fact. Following the eastern way helps us build respect and humility towards what ever it is that we are striving to learn while the western way helps us explore our own boundaries set at a pace that we decide. The eastern way also helps us recognize the importance of a “guru” or a teacher. Finding the right guru is important, he or she can help us understand the pace that we should grow at, which in turn helps build our patience , which is definitely an eastern quality, yet the awareness of who we are, and the forthcoming of it , not waiting for twenty years while sitting in a forest some where, I definitely found in the west.