Wim Hof Method: how cold water therapy and breathing exercises help a widow control her grief, build resilience and give her ‘a massive high’

After the sudden death of her husband, Heather Ashley found healing through immersion in ice-cold seas, and breathwork, as advocated by the Wim Hof Method

Cold water therapy is proven to lower cortisol, which causes inflammation, one of the Western world’s biggest killers, while also triggering feel-good chemicals

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Heather Ashley during training in Poland to become a Wim Hof instructor. She says that cold water therapy, breathing exercises and meditation helped her build resistance after the sudden death of her husband. Photo: Courtesy of Heather Ashley

Published: 4:15pm, 9 Jul 2023Updated: 4:34pm, 9 Jul 2023

Heather and David Ashley moved to a seaside town in Dorset, southwest England, from Doha, Qatar, in 2019. It was a new start, as David, a fighter pilot, had hurt his back and needed time to recover. At the time, Heather was splitting her time between working as a health coach and looking after her two teenage sons.

The British couple could not have foreseen the tragedy that would take David’s life three years later, nor the healing method that would carry Heather through her journey of grief.

That method was discovered by David while he was out walking on the beach one day, when he met someone who extolled the benefits of cold water for healing. So he began dipping in the sea regularly to help speed his recovery from his back injury. He was amazed at the benefits, and suggested Heather try it.

“I always said, you’re not going to get me in the sea in the summer so there is no chance I’m going in in winter!” Heather recalls.

Heather Ashley’s last picture with her husband David before he died in Italy in March 2022. Photo: Courtesy of Heather Ashley

She came to eat her words. During a lockdown in March 2020 because of the pandemic, she was persuaded by a friend to start sea dipping.