Wim Hof Explains How to Be Happy In Three Sentences

“If you want strength and success, just do it!” — Wim Hof

“Make it simple for yourself,” Wim Hof said before sharing how to live a happy life.

“Calm your mind from anger.

Understand what makes you sad.

And replicate the experiences that make you happy.”

That’s it.

It’s so simple. It’s beautiful.

It reminds me of something Confucius said many years before:

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

Ever since Wim Hof’s wife (and the mother of his four children) jumped to her death when they were all much young, his life became about survival. Then after many years of grief, it became about peace. Then once he had found peace, all he wanted was to experience joy.

Ever since then he’s been sharing his wisdom with the world and helping millions of people find peace and joy in theirs.

“In some ways, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.” — Victor Frankl

With all that being said, how do we calm the mind from anger, understand what makes us sad, and replicate those experiences that make us happy?

It’s easier said than done, that’s for sure, so for the remainder of this blog, I’ll break down each one, adding some anecdotes from my own life and some tools I’ve learned along the way.

How to Calm Your Mind From Anger

Every emotion needs fuel to keep it running, otherwise it naturally softens or changes.

I experienced this first-hand with the anger I felt toward my dad. He was a bullish drunk growing up and the pain he caused generated such deep anger that I suppressed it because it was too overwhelming.

However, that suppressed anger had to go somewhere, so it manifested as anxiety.

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” — Buddha

I had been burning myself for 20 years but I didn’t know the extent of it until much later.

Luckily, I learned certain tools such as shaking, breathing exercises, and humming to feel much better whenever anger or anxiety arose.

I also began submerging myself in cold water and that also helped.

“When you go into the cold, you cannot think. You have to be. You learn to be, to be the best version of yourself.” — Wim Hof

Slowly but surely I learned to forgive my dad and myself. Once all the blame had stopped, we could finally reconnect from a more loving place.

That’s when anger alchemised into wisdom and I finally stopped burning myself.

How to Understand What Makes You Sad

The path to happiness isn’t always smooth or without pain.

Apart from taking physical space from my dad, I remember I also had to cut certain people from my life in my early 20’s. This was after many years of friendship but in the end, we were holding each other back so the alternative — an unauthentic, people-pleasing life — would have been so much more painful and confusing down the road.

In the space that was left behind, I was pleasantly surprised to find lots of things I never even knew made me happy.

Once I identified them, the next step was to replicate them.

How to Replicate the Experiences That Make You Happy

Not long after identifying all the things that made me happy, it became clear that I loved spending time in nature, hiking in the mountains, growing vegetables, dancing, chanting, scuba diving, meditating, practicing yoga, doing my daily breathwork routine, taking plant medicines, playing music, writing online, and playing with my little ginger cat.

What I quickly realised is that life is a series of moments in a row. If enough moments are filled with joy and peace a beautiful life is possible

When I used to think about how to create a joyful and peaceful life it often felt too big. It was overwhelming.

When I began thinking about how to create joyful moments instead, it was far more manageable.

I’ve been doing that ever since.

“Make it simple for yourself.” Wim Hof said.

“Calm your mind from anger.

Understand what makes you sad.

And replicate the experiences that make you happy.”

I’m lucky now that many of my days are filled with things that bring me happiness. But whenever I lose my way or forget, I return to Wim Hof’s advice and begin the search all over again.