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Dean Hall

@deanhallofficial

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Twice diagnosed.
Twice recovered.
Through wild nature.
Licensed clinician. 36 years.
BioWild Psychology™
Nervous System Reset
The way back⬇️
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They said chasing my dream would kill me. I said the c@ncer already was… 10–12 miles a day. 22 days straight. 187 miles of 40° river water. I wasn’t just swimming the Willamette River. I was swimming for my daughter’s future. For the promise I made to at least try to live. Every stroke was agony. Every breath was fire in my lungs. My 79-year-old father paddled beside me in a kayak, serving as my support team. “You’re hypothermic,” he’d warn as I climbed out, blue-lipped and shaking. “Great adventures include impossible challenges,” I’d whisper back. What my doctors and I didn’t know in 2014 was that Cold immersion is biology. It starves diseased cells of sugar. Forces the body to run on ketones. Spikes norepinephrine 530% and awakens the immune system. Every violent shiver was my body remembering how to heal itself. 22 days later, I dragged myself out of that river feeling exhausted, but stronger than ever.. My first blood test afterward? Leukemia gone without a trace. What looks like suffering is sometimes the beginning of freedom. Comment COLD and I’ll send you my Wild Cure Way Cold Immersion Protocol. Source: Kox et al. (2014), inflammatory response modulation by @deanhallofficial
14k
a year ago
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HOW I HEALED MY LYMPHOMA! After my 22 day swim of the entire length Willamette River shockingly threw my leukemia into spontaneous remission, my oncologist and I hoped my lymphoma would simply lose its steam and go away. The opposite happened. My lymphoma got aggressive.  BECAUSE NATURE HEALED MY LEUKEMIA I HAD THE COURAGE TO LOOK FOR WAYS IT COULD HEAL MY LYMPHOMA, TOO. I found Dr. Qing Li’s research on Forest Bathing. He found that 1 hour out in the forest, walking and breathing in phytoncides emitted from the trees, had the power to boost your body’s NK cells (Natural Killer- cells that kill cancer) by 200x for 2 weeks! I DECIDED TO TEST HIS THEORY! I made the commitment to go deep into the Mt. Hood wilderness and find a restful spot among big trees way off the path. I would pack in every Thursday night and stay all day Friday. I STARTED THIS IN MAY OF 2015 AND BY MARCH OF 2016 MY LYMPHOMA WAS GONE! Everyone’s recovery is a personal journey. I hope this gives you hope and the courage to make good decisions for yourself…and maybe even think outside of the box by adding the power of nature to your healing regimen! #griefjourney #outdoors #lifehack #happiness #natureheals #thewildcure #motivation #overcoming #cancerjourney #forestbathing #lymphoma #advice #inspiration #outdoorwonderland #getoutside #cancersurvivor #mindset #naturelovers #coldwater #shinrinyoku by @deanhallofficial
3k
3 years ago
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Cold water has become one of the most misunderstood forms of nervous system regulation. Many people assume they need to jump into an icy river or endure an extreme cold plunge before anything meaningful happens. Human biology is far more adaptable than that. Your body contains cold-sensitive receptors that constantly monitor changes in temperature. When cool, flowing water touches your skin, those receptors immediately begin communicating with your brain. Heart rate, breathing, attention, and the autonomic nervous system all begin adjusting to the new environment. Over time, thoughtful exposure can help strengthen your ability to recover from everyday stress. That is why I encourage people to begin gently. Stand in a shallow creek. Finish your shower with a brief period of cold water. Splash cool water across your face after a difficult day. You are not training yourself to tolerate discomfort. You are teaching your nervous system that it can encounter challenge, adapt, and return to regulation. That lesson extends far beyond cold water. My own journey began while fighting cancer in the rivers of Oregon. Today I teach these same biological principles because they are available to almost everyone, regardless of where they live or where they are starting. That was today’s BioWild Hidden Biological Ally. One of the many ways nature has been quietly regulating human biology for thousands of generations. DM RETURN if you’d like me to coach you 1-on-1 personally online to discover the natural conditions your own nervous system has been designed to respond to. #BioWildPsychology #ColdWaterTherapy #NervousSystemRegulation #NatureConnection #StressRecovery Research: Cold-water immersion and cold exposure have been associated with improvements in mood, stress resilience, and autonomic adaptation (Harper et al., 2022; Tipton et al.). Facial cooling may stimulate the mammalian dive response and increase parasympathetic activity (Gooden, 1994). Exposure to natural water environments has also been associated with improved psychological well-being (White et al., BlueHealth Project). by @deanhallofficial
10
2 days ago
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You’re looking at the softest therapist in the forest. Not me! The moss! Moss-covered forests combine soft light, natural humidity, fractal patterns, and quiet acoustics…all signals associated with environmental safety and restoration. Some of the deepest moments of healing during my weekly wilderness times of Forest bathing happened sitting beside moss-covered logs exactly like these. The healthiest forests don’t shout. They whisper. How can you use this for optimizing your health? • Find one patch of moss and sit beside it for five quiet minutes. • Lean against a moss-covered tree if appropriate. • Let your eyes rest instead of searching. • Don’t have any moss available in your area? Go to a greenhouse or buy some online and create what is known as a “living wall” in your house. Your mind and body will thank you for it. Research- Ulrich (1984); Kaplan & Kaplan (1989) That was today’s BioWild Hidden Biological Ally... One of the many ways nature has been quietly regulating human biology for thousands of generations. You are built for the wild. You belong to the earth.☘️ Want to work with me 1-on-1 online and change your life and lifestyle forever in happy healthy ways? DM “RETURN” and I’ll connect with you personally. #natureheals #forestbathing #getoutside #thewildcure #moss by @deanhallofficial
28
4 days ago
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My cancer healed in the wild. I share that story because it happened. I also share it carefully because I don’t believe healing belongs only to people facing a life-threatening illness. Most of us simply want to feel like ourselves again. We want to wake up with more energy. We want our minds to quiet down. We want to sleep better, feel less anxious, and reconnect with the people we love. For thousands of generations, the natural world helped regulate the human nervous system. Sunlight, forests, rivers, fresh air, changing temperatures, and the rhythms of the Earth were never luxuries. They were part of the environment that shaped human biology. Modern life has changed much faster than our biology has. That is why I encourage people to begin with simple practices. 1. Watch the sunrise. 2. Spend time with a tree. 3. Step into cold water. You do not need to do them exactly as I do. You simply need to begin discovering the ways your own nervous system responds to the living world. That is the heart of BioWild Psychology. You are built for the wild. You belong to the earth.☘️ DM “RETURN” if you’d like me to personally guide you through your own Wild Return. #BioWildPsychology #NervousSystemRegulation #NatureConnection #ForestBathing #ColdWaterTherapy Research: Morning sunlight supports circadian rhythm, sleep, and emotional well-being (Czeisler et al.; Huberman et al.). Forest bathing has been associated with reduced stress hormones and enhanced immune function (Qing Li, 2010). Time in nature supports psychological well-being (Ulrich, 1984; Bratman et al., 2015). Cold-water immersion may improve mood and increase stress resilience (Harper et al., 2022). by @deanhallofficial
14
9 days ago
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Most people think the calming power of water comes from its beauty or its temperature. There’s another reason. It’s called hydrostatic pressure, and it may be one of nature’s most overlooked biological allies. When you’re immersed chest deep in water, that gentle, constant pressure surrounds your body from every direction. Combined with slow breathing, it provides rich sensory input that can help your nervous system settle into a calmer, more regulated state. My favorite place to experience it is standing in an ice-cold glacial stream beneath Mt. Hood. No mountain wilderness nearby? That’s okay. Try standing chest deep in a calm lake, a community pool, or even the shallow end of your local recreation center for five slow minutes. Notice what changes when you stop trying to hold yourself together and allow the water to support you instead. This is the first of many BioWild Hidden Biological Allies I’ll be sharing with you. These are the often-overlooked ways nature has been quietly supporting human biology for thousands of generations, and how you can experience them whether you live beside a wilderness river or in the middle of a busy city. That was today’s BioWild Hidden Biological Ally. One of the many ways nature has been quietly regulating human biology for thousands of generations. You are built for the wild. You belong to the earth.☘️ #BioWildPsychology #NervousSystemRegulation #ColdWaterTherapy #NatureConnection #HydrostaticPressure by @deanhallofficial
524
15 days ago
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Losing my wife was one of the darkest times in my life. I stood above the Columbia River Gorge in the rain, watching the river carve through stone far below the way grief carves through a body. The Gorge doesn’t rush. It has moved at its own pace for thousands of years, and something in me needed that pace too. I stopped trying to think my way out of it. I walked deep into the forest, strung a hammock between two firs, and matched my breath to the rhythm of the trees. My nervous system began to soften before my mind ever caught up. It wasn’t painless. Grief doesn’t get skipped, only carried differently. But the forest held part of the weight with me. For the first time since she died, I didn’t feel like I was doing this alone. This wasn’t a race to finish. It was a return to something old enough and steady enough to hold me. I bring 36 years of clinical practice and my own loss into every session now. I guide my clients through the same process that brought so much healing to my life. DM RETURN if you’re ready to work together and see how nature will change your life. You are built for the wild. You belong to the earth.☘️ * Recent scoping reviews on nature-based bereavement care found natural settings support grief processing through felt safety, ritual, and metaphor, in ways clinical rooms alone often can’t. #BioWildPsychology #grieving #ColumbiaRiverGorge #GriefAndNature lifeafterloss by @deanhallofficial
25
16 days ago
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The river taught me what decades in the clinic never could. This water is glacial melt, moving over my shoulders in the Mount Hood National Forest. Old growth on both banks. Green so thick it hums. No sound but current and breath. Cold water hits the vagus nerve directly. Heart rate drops. The dive reflex switches on, and the whole system downshifts, out of sympathetic overdrive and into something the body remembers on its own. Sixty three thousand clinical hours taught me theory. Ten minutes in this stream taught me truth. This is not a biohack. It is not a discipline you grind through. It is a return to a rhythm your nervous system has known since before language, before diagnosis, before the clinic ever existed. DM WILD MY LIFE if you want help finding your way back to the wild. You are built for the wild. You belong to the earth.☘️ Cold water immersion research links vagal activation to measurable drops in heart rate and cortisol, and forest environment studies tie phytoncide exposure to lowered sympathetic arousal. #BioWildPsychology #NervousSystemRegulation #MountHoodNationalForest #ColdWaterTherapy #VagalTone by @deanhallofficial
20
18 days ago
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When I was dying of leukemia, this river changed my life. In 2014, I walked away from the clinic and into the Willamette River…not because I believed it would cure my cancer, but because I wanted whatever time I had left to matter. My goal was simple: become the first person to swim Oregon’s longest river and encourage other cancer patients to keep living, even in the face of fear. I had no idea that 22 days of swimming 187 miles through cold water, sunrise to sunset, immersed in the natural world, would profoundly change my body as well as my spirit. When the swim was over, my oncologist confirmed that my leukemia was gone. To this day, I speak about that experience with deep humility. I am not against oncology, and I would never encourage anyone to replace medical care with swimming a river. My physicians were an essential part of my journey. This was my story, not a prescription for anyone else. Years later, I began asking a different question: What if returning to the conditions human beings evolved in helps our biology function differently? Today, a growing body of research shows that time in nature, healthy sunlight exposure, physical activity, cold-water immersion, and contact with the Earth can support immune function, reduce chronic stress, improve metabolic health, strengthen nervous system regulation, and decrease inflammation. While no one can say these factors caused my remission, they offer a compelling biological framework that helped shape what I now call BioWild Psychology. Nature didn’t just change my diagnosis. It brought me home. If you’d like to read the full story, it’s in my book- The Wild Cure: From Death to Life on Oregon’s Longest River. You are built for the wild. You belong to the earth.☘️ Research: Forest bathing and NK cell activity (Li, 2010); Nature exposure and health (Twohig-Bennett & Jones, 2018); Nature and psychological well-being (Bratman et al., 2019); Circadian biology and immune regulation (Czeisler & Gooley); Cold exposure and human physiology (Tipton et al.). #BioWildPsychology #CancerSurvivor #NatureConnection #NervousSystemHealing #TheWildCure by @deanhallofficial
25
23 days ago
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My lymphoma didn’t disappear because I expected it to. It disappeared after months of returning, week after week, to something my body had been missing for far too long. The wild. Its rhythm. One of the foundational pillars of BioWild Psychology is BioRhythm. Human beings are rhythmic creatures living in an increasingly rhythm-less world. For most of our history, our nervous systems synchronized with sunrise and sunset, flowing water, changing seasons, fresh air, forests, and the steady pulse of the living Earth. Today, many of us live almost entirely inside artificial environments. Our biology was never designed for that. Healing doesn’t begin by forcing nature to match our schedule. It begins when we slow down long enough for our biology to begin matching hers. That’s what I discovered during my weekly wilderness immersions while battling lymphoma. I wasn’t trying to force a miracle. I simply kept returning. I rested. I listened. I breathed. I let the forest set the pace. Little by little, my nervous system stopped fighting the world around it and started moving with it. When we begin matching nature’s rhythm, nature rewards us by allowing our biology to remember what it was designed to do. I lived it. That’s why BioRhythm is one of the foundational pillars of BioWild Psychology. If you’re exhausted, anxious, grieving, or simply feel disconnected from yourself, perhaps your next breakthrough doesn’t begin by doing more. Perhaps it begins by returning to the rhythm that made you. If you’d like me to personally guide you through this process, send me RETURN. I’d be honored to walk alongside you. — Research: Forest bathing has been associated with increased natural killer (NK) cell activity, reduced cortisol, healthier heart-rate variability, and improved immune and psychological health (Li, 2010; Bratman et al., 2019; Twohig-Bennett & Jones, 2018). #BioWildPsychology #NervousSystemRegulation #ForestBathing #NatureConnection #MentalHealth by @deanhallofficial
34
24 days ago
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My doctors told me I would have leukemia for the rest of my life. Ten years ago, I stopped believing my future was written. Not because I rejected medicine. Because I remembered something medicine alone couldn’t give me. The wild. I began spending time in forests instead of waiting rooms. Beside rivers instead of screens. Under sunlight instead of fluorescent lights. And something extraordinary happened. My stress dropped. My nervous system settled. My body began working with me instead of against me. Today, I’ve been cancer-free for over a decade. The greatest epidemic I see isn’t cancer. It’s disconnection. Disconnection from nature. Disconnection from our bodies. Disconnection from the rhythms that shaped us for thousands of generations. I call it Synthetic Living Syndrome™. And I believe it’s quietly fueling anxiety, burnout, chronic stress, poor sleep, inflammation, and a profound sense that something is missing. What if the thing you’re searching for isn’t another supplement, another podcast, or another productivity hack? What if it’s a trail? A forest. A river. A sunrise. A return to the wild parts of yourself. The wild within you remembers. DM RETURN if you’re ready to work 1-on-1 with me to find your way back. You are built for the wild. You belong to the earth.☘️ Research: Forest bathing increases NK cell activity (Li, 2010). Nature exposure lowers stress and improves mental health (Hansen, 2017). Green space is linked to better overall health outcomes (Twohig-Bennett & Jones, 2018). #natureheals #forestbathing #getoutside #biowildpsychology #thewildcure by @deanhallofficial
9
25 days ago
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My cancer was no match for the power of nature. The diagnosis came from one of the foremost leukemia/lymphoma researchers in the world. It was real, documented, and serious. What happened next was not what medicine predicted. I went to the river. Not as a metaphor. Not as recreation. I went because I didn’t want to die on a couch watching Wheel of Fortune and something in my nervous system knew before my mind did that the power of purpose was the best way to live out my “last days!” I had no idea at the time of the incredible power water and light and current had to accomplish something the clinic could not. The body has ancient intelligence about what restores it. Now…let me be clear YOU don’t have to swim a river! Cold water immersion of any kind activates the vagus nerve and down-regulates the sympathetic threat response. Sunlight on open water drives serotonin and vitamin D synthesis simultaneously. Moving current creates negative ion environments that measurably shift cortisol. This is not hope. This is biology. Swimming a river is not conquering anything. It is remembering what your cells have always known. DM RETURN if you want help finding your way back to the wild. You are built for the wild. You belong to the earth.☘️ Wallace J. Nichols’ Blue Mind research and Suzanne Bartlett Hackenmiller’s work on nature-based medicine support the physiological basis for what I experienced in that water. #BioWildPsychology #BioBelonging #DeschutesRiver #BlueMindScience #NervousSystemReset by @deanhallofficial
15
a month ago
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