All language subtitles for Operation.Arctic.Cure.2024.720p.DSNP.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-FLUX

Ooh.

Now, that is wind, that is wind.

Right now, the danger
is more intense

as we go north
into the very tightening valley. -Yeah.

Right, and of course,
just how far can we go.

I've come to the Arctic

with a team
of US combat veterans.

Decorated, dedicated
and desperate for hope

because there is one last
battle they're still fighting.

The one they brought
home with them.

My second time in Iraq, it really hit me.

We were losing people,

and I still live
with stuff today.

I just get so frustrated with it

that I don't, I don't...

you know, I don't, I just don't
wanna continue. It's hard.

I wanna be happy again.

And I think that
this is one of the ways

that I can get myself there.

For almost as long as human history,

soldiers have been
searching for a way to heal

the invisible wounds of war.

I've been looking for that
for 20 years.

Could it be
that the cure is out here...

in the last place on Earth

you'd ever expect to find it?

For me, this journey
started back in 2006.

We're on patrol with
the Iraqi's ninth division.

there is only one
mechanized division

in the entire Iraqi army.

I was a network news anchor
reporting from Iraq.

We have some breaking news
to report,

our co-anchor of
World News Tonight,

Bob Woodruff,
and his cameraman, Doug Vogt,

were injured in an improvised
explosive device attack.

The left part of my skull was,
was shattered.

I should be dead for sure
if there was not

military medical teams
there to save me.

Hi, how are you? I'm Bob.

I've got to know
so many fellow wounded.

How are you, bro? Look at you.

After more than 20 years of war

in Iraq and Afghanistan,

so many American veterans

are struggling
with psychological trauma.

These kinds of wounds
are ongoing

and they don't go away
unless something is figured out

to make those lives improve.

It's just very hard to do.

You do this every flight?

I-I actually do,
I take it off every flight.

It's way more comfortable.

So, it's not the visible wounds
of war that bring us here,

it's the wounds you don't see.

For your information,

we will be de-planing the aircraft
by the doors at the back.

It is apparently cold out there.

My name's Jesus Sanchez.

I was a medic for the Marines.

And I feel like a piece of me

is still in Afghanistan
every day.

- Oh, good, it's my legs.
- Your legs.

My legs made it.

My name is Elana Duffy.

I served in the Army
for ten years.

Being hit by a roadside bomb

really messed up my brain

and I have
severe traumatic brain injury.

My name is Chanda Mofu,

twenty years of service
in our United States Army.

I do carry trauma from my
combat experiences absolutely,

but most of
the combat veterans

don't talk about
their experiences

and I've fallen
into this trap as well.

We're gonna start out doing
eight miles and set up our base camp.

You know, so, we have to be, like,

prepared for weather and things like that

as the conditions just change
really quickly, right?

So we're gonna go by snowmobile?

No, we're gonna
start skiing from here.

We're gonna go
straight from here?

Straight from here, yep.

- Yeah.
- Oof.

Looking good.

Alright, let's roll.

We're headed into
the heart of Baffin Island,

at the edge
of the Arctic Circle.

It's one of the most pristine
and wild places on the planet.

It is a prehistoric landscape
where granite mountains

are some
3.5 billion years old.

At this time of year
it's one of the best places

to see skiesthat are illuminated by
the northern lights.

How do you even run with these?

When the left one goes forward,

your right hand
goes forward.

Okay.

I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona.

Seeing snow a handful of times.

I have never gone
cross-country skiing.

I am terrified.

We got the idea to do this

because a growing number
of scientific studies

make the case
that immersion in nature

may be a great treatment
for PTSD.

Getting out in nature

and the radical outdoors

is really good
for trauma and stress.

Dacher Keltner,

who runs something
called the "Happiness Lab" at Berkeley,

is one of the pioneers
in this field.

Nature immersion,

we know that
it has direct effects

on your cardiovascular system,
your brain,

how you think about yourself,

how you think about your life,
the purpose in life.

One study of Keltner's
that really got our attention

involved whitewater rafting
with veterans.

Keltner collaborated
on the study

with his grad student
at the time, Craig Anderson.

Craig, thanks for doing this.

It's my pleasure.

So what was some of the results

of, uh, the veterans studies
that you've done?

I found that compared
to before the rafting trips,

at least two weeks
after the trips,

veterans were reporting
21% less PTSD symptoms.

Nature takes us out
of the everyday context

that we're used to.

It turns out the daily hassles

and the daily grind
that we experience,

those things also seem smaller.

We are hoping this trip
will have an impact on us

as profound as
the whitewater rafting study.

Camp one, you guys. Woo-hoo!

- Yeah, man.
- Oh, yeah, here we are.

That is called progress.

So far so good
but it's only one day.

Our plan is to camp
on a frozen river,

the Pangnirtung Fjord

and explore the area on skis.

And then, hike
into the mountains to a hidden valley

to stand in the shadow
of Thor Peak,

it's the highest vertical cliff
in the world.

We'll be collecting data
on ourselves

while we're out here
for Craig Anderson

so he can analyze it
after we're back.

Alright.

After a fine day of skiing.

I'm going to be asking you
to be doing a daily diary.

Hello, hello.

This is star date
or video diary.

Every night after dinner...

Alrighty.

...there would be five questions

that we would
have to answer.

My goodness. Um...

So I'm gonna
take that video data...

One, two, three, okay, it's on.

...and I actually have software

that will analyze
the facial expressions

that people are making.

We'll also be
gathering saliva samples

to monitor our stress levels,

measuring a hormone
called cortisol.

Can't feel my fingers.

When we wake up in the morning

a healthy cortisol profile

is getting a big spike
in cortisol.

It's like your body is like

manufacturing its own
cup of coffee for you.

That nice high spike
kind of sharply declines

throughout the day,

so that cortisol is low
at the end of the day,

and you're nice and relaxed
and ready to go to bed.

Oh, yeah,
hang on to your vials

'cause we're gonna
submit them for...

Science.

Craig will also be tracking
our sleep quality

and our heart rate variability,

ways of monitoring whether PTSD

is really releasing
its grip on us.

My therapist called it "monkey brain."

Uh, he said that you put yourself in
that survivalist mindset,

and it's a, it's like
an evolutionary flaw.

- Yeah.
- Where it's like "I need to survive."

And it doesn't turn off
sometimes because you're just,

you relate to certain things,

and it traumatizes you
essentially.

- Yeah. Yeah.
- Mm-hmm.

Alright, today we were able to
talk a little bit

about some, some of the things
that bother us.

Um, I just don't sleep.

Like our inability to sleep
and, you know, those stressors

that really get in the way
of our just normal function.

A little bit is like, you know,

seeing all those
casualties too that kinda just

replay a little bit in my head
when I close my eyes.

Hopefully as I continue to immerse myself

in this experience

that I can unpack
a lot of the, uh...

the incredible...

and incredibly sad experiences
that I went through,

um, during my combat tours.

I want this data to actually do something

and make people
understand things and contribute.

Because...

it's like one of those,
"It's too late for me.

Save yourself."

Um, "Help me, Obi-Wan.
You're my only hope."

I'm gonna tape some stuff,

it helps to insulate
a little bit

or it gets really uncomfortable
really fast.

One of the things I learned
after I was injured

is that modern medicine
has made it possible

to save the lives
of more soldiers than ever in history.

Yeah, I didn't know
what layering was

until I came out here so...

Ooh, it's cold.

But even modern medicine
hasn't been able to address

something that playwrights
and poets have been describing

since ancient
Greece and Babylon...

the psychological
wounds of war.

Alright.

So day two, ready? Let's go.

One more
beautiful spot on Earth.

As we head out there
is skepticism

but there's also hope
that Baffin Island

will work its magic on us

as it has for those who have

braved the ice and cold
before us.

It's that don't quit mindset, you know.

Plus, it's the, it's easily
the most beautiful place

I've ever been to, by far.

I'll just say this,

this is a lot of time
for reflection,

kinda where you wanna go
forward in your life.

So... lots of, lots of things
going through my mind right now.

Bravo one, bravo, over.

Today the death toll

of American troops in Iraq
reached 3,000.

The year 2006

was the most difficult year
of my life

because of the combat losses

and the people
that I led that died.

December,
now the deadliest month this year

costing the lives of
at least 111 American troops.

When it happens to your own people

and you're picking up teeth
out of a Humvee or bone parts,

you don't wish that on anybody.

And so, I retired,

and I wanted to put those
traumatic events behind me.

We should take
a minute here, you guys.

- Stop?
- Yeah, right here.

Let's take a minute.

Nah, that was...
that was rough.

Oh, my gosh, yeah.

The dream is to be able
to see something higher up

because the clouds
have blocked off

the peaks of the mountains.

In recent years,
melting sea ice

has wrapped the island
in a fog

that is both eerily beautiful
and frustrating.

The clouds can hide the tops of
the legendary mountains here.

There we go!

Hey.

See this cloud with
that little opening right here?

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

You can see the mountains
through the clouds over there.

Oh, yeah,
it's starting to open up.

So when the sun broke through the mist,

it was transformative.

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

That is awesome.

Yeah.

That's so cool.

It's gorgeous, man.

The appreciation
for that kinda stuff,

this is coming back now.

Grateful.

This is what we came here for.

It's insane.

The scientists call it "awe."

We define "awe"
as an emotion you feel,

when you encounter things
that are vast...

uh, most typically,
they're kinda

bigger than what you expect,

and are mysterious.

Religious experiences can elicit awe.

Music and dance...

and arts can elicit awe.

Nature is one of the most
common and powerful ways

that people feel awe.

Awe calms your body down

and then,
awe transforms your mind.

It deactivates
chunks of your cortex here,

and then on the side
of your brain.

So, reduced blood flow
in those regions

involved in too much self-focus

which is a pathway to anxiety,
depression, rumination,

even trauma.

Awe orients you away

from the self to other things,

big things around you.

Look at, blue sky.

There's blue sky. What?

Everything's changing.

What a day, man.
This has been incredible.

With awe, you have these oceanic feelings

of being connected
to humanity or all of Earth.

Um, so it's kind of that,

that piece of being small
but connected.

It's humbling to appreciate

the snow-capped mountains

in a corridor that's been
around for millions of years.

When we feel awe like this,

the scientists
can see it in our faces

The snow-capped mountains.

The eyes widen,

the eyebrows rise,
the mouth opens.

I think somewhere in my deep recesses

I've compartmentalized
my feelings

about those I went
to combat with

and how I-I haven't been
in touch with them.

And, uh, for some reason
today I just realized

that I probably need to bring
those folks back to my life,

uh, because they helped me

just like I hope
I had helped them.

Chanda and I are sharing a tent

and as we got ready to take off
again the next morning,

he told me he felt
that something had changed.

The Chanda that I used to be,
right, kinda woke up.

Think about
the millions of years

that this landscape
has been around

and we're now a part of it

and it's helping us,
that's humbling.

No matter what happened to us
over in the Middle East...

Mm-hmm.

...look what we have here,

...like how blessed are we, man?

Incredible.

The remarkable thing is,

his body was saying
the same thing.

That night,
his sleep performance hit 100%.

Good morning.
Let's go, let's go to work.

I don't think
I've ever reached 100%

of my sleep requirements
in my life.

Something right happened.

That is good news
for these 21st century struggles

of ruminating about myself
leading to depression,

awe gets you out of that.

It makes you look
to the outside world to find meaning.

- Ready?
- Let's do it.

I'm hoping
that in the coming days

Elana and Jesus

can experience something
like what Chanda had.

Okay, onward.

Let's ride.

That nature would
carry them across a threshold.

But wounds this deep
don't vanish easily.

What about you?

- Tell me about this bear.
- This bear of mine?

- ...yeah.
- Paddington?

Um, Paddington is a,

it was a gift from my father

before I was actually born.

And he was in my pocket
when I was hit by an IED,

uh, was with me
for my brain surgery,

for my leg amputation.

Elana has gone through a lot

and she told me multiple times

the last thing that she wants
out of this trip is pity.

Alright.

Let's do this.

Whoo!

I'm gonna make it,

which is kind of
surprising to me.

Yeah.

Though we are
all reporting stress,

cortisol samples
we collected before the trip

showed Elana
was struggling.

With Elana, her cortisol pattern
didn't look great.

Remember, we wanna see
a nice big spike

but the spike
wasn't so big for Elana.

And we see that in people

with post-traumatic stress

or maybe suffering
from depression.

I wanna be happy again.

You know,
it is a problem for me

to keep regrets out of my life
and out of my head.

US officials
tracking roadside bomb attacks

against Americans in Iraq

say they had become
much more deadly.

I was an investigator
and an interrogator

trying to find the bombs
before the bombs went off.

It's not just
the dead people on the streets.

It's not just rolling out
in a truck every day

wondering if you're
gonna come home.

It's, what did I have to say
to a five-year-old

to get him to tell me
where his dad was,

and how do you live with that?

Hey, turn around!

The panic attacks and the anger.

It's such a departure
from who I know I used to be.

And...

now when I think about it
I'm just tired.

Tired a lot.

Hold on. [bleep].

I don't know
how I'm gonna do this.

We were making progress

and then Elana couldn't, um,
cross-country ski anymore.

I'm in a lot
of [bleep] pain.

I feel really bad.

Elana, she had
some developing pain

where her prosthetic
was connected

to her, to her bones.

I'm sorry about this.

No, it's all good, we gotcha.

Hold on.

Oh, my God,
that feels better.

- Does it feel better?

Let's not let it get cold.

Hey, Bob, can you
pull her skis as well?

Yeah, yeah.

Are you gonna
take the weight of her? -[Mofu] Yep, yep.

Chanda's gonna pull her.

Absolutely, man.

I wanted to help

and, um, it was a good feeling.

We're gonna fit this in
like a tray underneath.

I felt relevant
for the first time in a long time

helping somebody out.

I felt like we were working
together as, like, a good team

and I feel like everyone
was just a lot closer

because of that experience.

And it just made
everyone feel good.

Give her that one too.

You guys are awesome,
and thank you,

and I will fix this
for tomorrow.

One of
the strong elicitors of awe

is teams working together

and-and in particular
selflessly for other people.

So we-we still have
quite a distance to go.

- About five miles to go.
- Yeah, yeah.

Alright, let's go.

And we lose sight of that,

that, you know,
our better angels come out

in these really
hard situation.

And people rise to the occasion
and bring awe to us.

Let's get you in.

- Ah!
- Woo-hoo-hoo!

These are sterile.

- We'll just dry it up a bit.
- Yeah, yeah.

- Is it painful?
- A little, yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

Okay, I got you.
Your backpack's right outside.

Thank you.

I have troubled them
enough today.

Oh Christ.

It was the team
that got me through,

and I greatly admire them.

So I'm very grateful for that

and for the, um...

the things that, um...

the things
that everyone has done,

um, and I'm gonna be better.

- Okay.
- It looks normal?

Hmm.

I know that I'll just,

obviously I gotta pack it
differently tomorrow,

because I intend
to keep doing this.

So you're a pioneer?

Right, yes.

We see in Elana,

even though her own life
is frustrating

and she has this amputation
that's reminding of her past

and the difficulties
of doing the trip,

it's the people around her
who bring her awe.

- Cheers, everyone.
- Cheers.

- Yes, yes, yes.
- L'chaim.

There you go, buddy.
There you are.

- To life.
- What about tomorrow?

What do you think?

I haven't tried
standing up yet

'cause my foot's
in my pocket.

But, I'll be good.

I'll figure it out.

Elana, like a lot of people
who suffer PTSD,

had trouble feeling valued
by her community.

I think that changed today.

Yeah.

But Jesus may be the toughest case.

His trauma is fresh.

He's only been home from
Afghanistan for a few months.

I do find it a bit scary.

What if I go on this trip
and nothing changes?

Which is
a very possible outcome.

I am... a little tired.

Yeah.

I have
difficulty sleeping...

and when I do, I wake up

and I'm just like, well,
today's gonna be a [bleep] day,

and I don't want to do anything.

Jesus is the youngest of us by far,

as in the age of my children.

But a guy who, you know,
grew up instantly witnessing

what he did
at the airport in Kabul

when the US finally withdrew.

I know you talked about this before

but you remember
that moment?

Yeah, that just...

My job as a corpsman
was to help people, right?

And, um, there is
nothing you can do.

I wish I just...
could've done everything

to bring everyone back.

You said you have nightmares,
is it about this?

Yeah. Yeah.

A suicide bomber
struck an airport gate

just yards from US forces

who were processing Afghans
for evacuation flights.

Throughout
the last year and a half,

I had difficulty sleeping...

damn near every night.

I actually had
this terrible dream.

I-I hear the explosion

and I feel the waves
of the explosion hit me

and...

I feel hands on my chest,
bringing me down into the earth

like deeper and deeper
and deeper.

I just get so frustrated
with it that I don't, I don't,

you know, I don't,
I just don't want to continue.

It's hard.

Re-experiencing those traumatic events

is a symptom
of post-traumatic stress.

Feeling like you always
have to be on edge

and looking for
potential threats,

obviously that's going to
impact your sleep as well.

Nights are usually hard
for people with PTSD,

but we're hoping
the deep Arctic night

might eventually
offer us some healing.

Look, look, look.

Oh, wow.

Ooh!
Oh, that's good, yeah.

That's a flare.

Mm-hmm.

We went out, and this

green, blue, white,
stunning light,

the northern lights,
came out.

- Now that's--
- Look at that one.

- That one's like...
- Now the bands are...

- Yeah.
- Oh, yeah.

And now it starts to emerge.

I think the happiest day
of this trip has been the northern lights.

- It's pretty sweet.
- Yeah.

That's insane.

It felt like, when I was
looking at the lights,

that everything just stopped.

Like it was just
in a different place.

None of the veterans

had ever seen
a northern light before.

This was the first time
they had.

And that certainly
was a moment of awe.

Uh...

Honestly, truly was.

Now it's really
starting to look good

just with the naked eye.

It hit me pretty hard.

I teared up, for sure.

Tears is a common bodily response of awe.

Released through activation

of the parasympathetic
autonomic nervous system.

The parasympathetic system,

when people are
experiencing awe

it's kind of slowing the body
down a little bit.

- Damn good day.
- Damn good day.

- Damn good day.
- Yeah.

And when the nervous system

slows the body down,

guess what happens?

Good morning.

Hey, camper.

Hi, camper.

We have northern lights to go.

Yo, how did you sleep?

Um, well, this...

This, this says
I slept pretty good.

- That's great.
- Yeah.

Great sleep, probably,
some of the best sleep

I've had since I got out,

or even longer,
since probably deployment.

It was so good.

After four days on the ice,

I went back to
the nearest town, Pangnirtung,

to meet a late addition
to our team.

There he is.

Nick has arrived.

Nick Henry actually served
four tours in Iraq

and came home with
a severe traumatic brain injury.

He missed the first
four days of the trip

because of
a debilitating TBI migraine.

Welcome.

Ready for
the coldest part of your life?

Yeah, actually I am.

I was one of those people
that kept telling myself, like,

there's other people
that are worse off than me.

And then eventually it got
to the point where I'm like,

, I need help.

Of all the veterans on the trip,

Nick reported the highest level
of post-traumatic stress

and low levels of well-being
and social connection.

I look forward to this expedition

and being part of this process.

It gives you hope.

Right, like, it's an idea that
if you find enough good things,

you can offset the bad
that you feel.

Like, it'll, it'll be better.

We've only got two more days
left out here.

Can awe do something for Nick

in only 48 hours?

- Hey.
- Yeah!

There's a face under there?

- Hello.

How are you?

Welcome to the party.

- What's up, man?

Nice to meet you, man.

We were excited that
Nick had finally caught up with us.

Alright.

Hey, Nick, so you got
prime real estate

- on the end over here.
- Cool.

Here we are.

We've been
waiting for him to make

that final push
to the Arctic and Thor.

- Sweet.
- Is that it?

Yeah.

But hours after Nick arrived,

the winds really blew in.

By the way, this is the winds.

We have not felt this yet...
on this trip. -[Duffy] No.

- It's happening.
- The wind's coming in.

We secured the tents,

so they would not blow off
of us while we were sleeping.

And hoped that things
would be calmer in the morning.

Ooh!

Now that is wind, that is wind.

- Ooh!
- This is [bleep] crazy.

I don't think I've ever been
in the wind like this before.

When it's blowing
that bad, the debris...

just starts picking up
and flying

and it kind of hurts
to get hit by.

As you guys experienced,

it's, it's super windy outside.

Yeah.

This is the kind of weather
and element

that actually can be
really unsafe

that we just need
to take really seriously.

Okay.

We hunkered down hoping

that tomorrow
would be calmer

so that we could try again
to reach the Arctic Circle

and see Thor.

We had one more day out here.

It's crazy how
the wind just changed everything.

But it is cool
to be here, though,

'cause I was really struggling
with a lot of emotional stuff.

When I got the call
to go on this trip,

I was in a pretty good
depressive cycle.

And it's almost every time
that it happens,

my thoughts hit the same,
it's like the same script.

After four deployments,

some of the things
that I was dealing with

just weren't being
processed anymore.

I had become professional
at putting them in a box.

So they just all stayed
in a box until...

until they didn't.

I didn't wanna feel it,

and I didn't wanna
deal with it.

So at that point in time,

I decided I was
gonna end my life.

I took out my Glock
and I put it to my head.

I went and talked
to my team leader

and I was like, "Hey,
I need to go home. Like, now."

The first thing
I noticed waking up

was my tent
was not shaking anymore.

So I was like...

"It must be calm outside!"

You'd think the day of the wild winds

would dampen our spirits.

But their effect
was unexpectedly energizing.

Gotta get the work done.

I shoveled out
everybody's tents and stuff

because the sun was coming up.

It was a pretty day. I was...

Come on in.

...I was ready to move.

What's up, man?

We were all positive

because we knew that the
conditions were in our favor.

So, the Arctic Circle
is right here,

and then the distance
from the Arctic Circle to Thor

is about five miles.

Basically the Arctic Circle
is halfway?

Yeah, exactly.

Alright, let's move.

This is the time now.

Let's get across the circle,

maybe we can just continue

to what our ultimate goal was
and see Thor Peak.

It's gonna start
getting a little bit rocky.

- Ooh, look at that.
- Yeah!

I was blessed to get here today.

That [bleep] is crazy.

To be able to feel the awe

of being in the mountains
and see the rocks and the snow,

just be detached...

from those everyday stressors.

Just a few miles from Thor

we reached a marker saying

we were at the Arctic Circle.

We made it
to the Arctic Circle.

At the Arctic Circle,
I was crying a little bit,

it just hit me, I was here.

One of the things
about depression

is the idea that you
don't deserve good things.

You don't deserve
good things to happen.

And to be at that moment,
to be like good things do happen

was, like,
just so overwhelming.

There's work showing

that certain forms of awe

are involved in activation
in reward circuitry,

people come out
of awe experiences

not only wanting
to be better,

but having the sense
that they can change.

Alright! Okay.

We have a few more miles
left till Thor.

- Sounds good.
- Finally.

Let's go see this mountain

that everyone
keeps talking about.

We've reached the Arctic Circle

but there is one more thing
we wanna do.

If we push a little further,

we can catch sight
of Thor Peak,

the highest vertical cliff
in the world.

We're hoping for
a final dose of awe.

But getting there means
navigating steep slopes

carved by millennia
of glacial movements,

which also left behind fields
of giant boulders.

What do you think?

The only thing
is the-the steepness over there.

I mean, it's-it's rocky waterfall terrain.

The, the water had frozen
in steps in some places,

but the ice was just...

Some of that stuff was so slick.

It was... it was hard.

I don't know
how I'm gonna do this yet.

- You got it, I got you.
- Ohh.

Nick stayed back

to keep a hand on my pack

so that I could move forward.

And, if she needed a lift
he would lift her up.

I got you.

It was really amazing
to see that.

- There we go.
- Ohh...

Yeah! How you doing?

- Let's go!
- Yeah?

Let's go, bro.

- Here comes the wind.
- Alright.

The beauty that encompasses

this place is amazing.

Almost there.

After this nasty terrain
of ice and rocks...

you turn a corner,

and, uh, then you see Thor.

- You made it.
- Hell, yeah.

We walked up and...

and all had
our own moments of,

of, uh, of success

in achieving our goal.

Look at this, you guys.

It's pretty awesome, huh?

That's a little awe.

Yeah, right?

The world's an awesome place

when you're not fighting against
other human beings, isn't it?

- Right?
- So true.

So amazing.

Glad you saw it, dude.

Glad you're here.
Glad you're here.

Yeah, I am glad I made it.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- It's gorgeous.

Just unreal.

What a journey.

Yeah, man.

Whoo!

Group hug,
you guys, group hug.

And here's
the most amazing thing.

It turns out that all the changes we felt
on that mountain,

we brought them home with us.

We would continue to monitor
our heart rate and sleep

for two weeks
after we left the Arctic...

and each took
one more cortisol test at home.

Turns out even Craig
was surprised by the results.

I was really...
a little blown away

by what we found
in the size of the effects.

Every single one
of our participants

showed an improvement
in their cortisol pattern.

Every one of us was sleeping more deeply

and up to 25% longer.

The scientists
told me that all of us,

not just veterans,

should try to get a dose of awe
every two weeks or so.

And you don't have
to go to the Arctic.

Studies show
we experience awe

when we slow down
to pay attention to nature...

...laugh with the people
we love...

spend time with our children.

Awe comes
from noticing all the ways

we are part of a vast,
mysterious, beautiful universe.

I think it worked.

The view is amazing,

people are awesome.

I hope that it lasts.

What is is and you can't
go back and change it.

It's about seeing things
that are bigger than you.

I am really grateful for everything.

Here comes the wind.

I got you.

You got it.

To push all the way through

all the negative feelings
and all the depression.

Like I just feel it
all just oozing out,

and it was like,
"Oh, this is so beautiful."

Look, look, look.

- Oh, wow.
- Oh!

Somewhere
over these last weeks,

I let go of stress.

So, the science doesn't lie.
Numbers don't lie.

And the numbers prove
that I was, uh,

physically better
because of this experience.

Mount Thor is just humongous.

Just looking at it and just
taking it and realizing...

you're tiny.

Those big problems
that you have...

are tiny compared
to that mountain...

and it just goes away.

Exactly what
we've all been hoping for.

- Okay.
- Scoot in, scoot in.

- Yeah, man.

That's it.

Yeah, there you go. Nice!

This could be
the greatest picture ever.

That's just... awesome.