This is the most interesting news for us this week.
Wim Hof Method Outperforms Meditation in Landmark Study
A major new study just dropped in Scientific Reports (Nature Portfolio) – followed 404 participants over 29 days comparing the Wim Hof Method with mindfulness meditation.
The findings: WHM participants reported significantly greater improvements in energy, mental clarity, and perceived ability to handle stress. More interesting: those benefits compounded over time. The meditation group’s gains were steadier, while the WHM group’s boosts tended to compound across sessions.
The researchers interpret this through hormesis – the principle that controlled, recoverable stress trains the nervous system’s adaptive capacity rather than just quieting it down.
This aligns with something we’ve explored before: meditation alone often isn’t enough. We can achieve inner peace on the cushion but still collapse under real-world pressure. Why? Because sitting practices don’t build the physical robustness that sustains calm when stakes are high. Breathwork and cold exposure may train a different skill than meditation alone: they train the body to return to baseline after activation, not just avoid activation.
The takeaway isn’t “stop meditating.” It’s that physical stress inoculation might be the missing piece that translates cushion-calm into real-world courage.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa Remembered: The Martial Artist Behind “Chun-Shin”
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa passed away this month at 75. Most will remember him as Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat – the soul-stealing sorcerer. But there’s a deeper legacy worth knowing.
Tagawa trained in the Japan Karate Association lineage under Master Masatoshi Nakayama, then walked away from formal martial arts to pursue something most fighters never explore: energy cultivation without combat application.
He developed his own system called “Chun-Shin” – meaning “to be centred inside your heart and mind.” His description: “a study of energy, completely without a physical fighting concept.”
The system used an eight-foot staff for a third point of balance, breathwork to unblock energy centres, and positioning exercises that some practitioners described as unlike any martial arts training they’d experienced.
What’s striking is his reasoning for leaving competitive karate. When he asked his master about meditation, the response was: “You’re young, you fight now. You meditate when you get old.” That answer wasn’t enough for him.
There’s a lesson here about the courage to follow our own path – even when it means leaving respected traditions behind. Tagawa embodied the martial virtues in a way that had nothing to do with fighting and everything to do with presence.
