Breathwork, Addiction Recovery, and Finding Purpose After Rock Bottom | Jon Paul Crimi

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Sometimes the biggest battle isn't

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addiction,

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anxiety, or trauma. It's believing you're

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worth saving.

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John Paul Crimy spent years running for

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pain through alcohol,

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drugs, and self-destruction. But after

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hitting rock bottom,

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he discovered a path that would not only

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change his own life,

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it would help thousands of others change

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theirs.

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Today he teaches breath work to help

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people navigate trauma,

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stress, grief, and emotional pain.

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This is a conversation about healing,

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purpose, and finding your way back to

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yourself.

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Welcome to Overcome with Travis White.

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John Paul, why don't you go ahead and

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start us off by taking us on your journey?

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Sure. well, thanks for having me,

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Travis. I'm excited to speak with you

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today.

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Yeah, my journey's interesting.

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I come from a small town in ~

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Massachusetts,

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in Bal you know, south of Boston,

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about 25 minutes south of the city.

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It's ~ called Pembroke, Massachusetts,

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and it's the fifth most Irish town in

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America,

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surrounded by the 13 most Irish towns in

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America.

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So they call it the Irish Riviera.

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And I didn't know that growing up.

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I didn't know that's where

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I was growing up, you just knew that I

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thought everybody had 17 brothers

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and sisters and liked to get drunk and

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punch each other in the face.

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Yeah.

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So that was normal. And so with a name

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like Jean Paul,

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people are like, ~ Jean Paul, are you

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French?

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Ooh, Palais vous Francais. And I'm like,

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I am not French. I'm actually I'm Irish,

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I'm Scottish, and Italian, which means I

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like to drink a lot.

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I don't want to pay for it. And then I

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want to start a fight.

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Yeah.

1:36

And then being from that area in Boston,

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that means the same things also.

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So

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You know, I just grew up in an area that

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was all about sports and being tough

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and being a tough guy. And I I realized,

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I don't know if I realized it then,

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but I was very overly sensitive.

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And I was I was told I was overly

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sensitive.

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I was told, you know, that's your that's

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you.

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You know, if I said something bothered me,

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it's like, that's you, you're just too

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sensitive.

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And it's like, so I unconsciously got the

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message really young that like there's

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something wrong with me. I'm too

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sensitive.

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And that environment just didn't allow for

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that kind of sensitivity.

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And you know, I felt different and I felt

2:11

out of place until I started drinking.

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And then that made me feel like I was a

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part of things and a part of life more so.

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So I think it really my my life kind of

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took off when I started drinking at 13.

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And I got into some trouble as a some kids

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do.

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And

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You know, things got progressively worse.

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I got arrested when I was sixteen in a

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cranberry bog ~ with a bunch of friends

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in my car drunk. And I I managed to wiggle

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my way out of the cop car.

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The cop was searching my car and I managed

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to like slide the handcuffs down

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in front of me and roll down the window

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and bed them bend the metal forward that

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and like reach out and open the door from

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the inside of the car and then

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run with the handcuffs on. And I looked

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back and there's this redheaded Irish cop,

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Officer Hurley.

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I didn't know this guy used to be a high

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school track star.

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And this guy ran me down like Usain Bolt.

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I was like, wow, this guy's fast.

3:04

Yeah.

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And I knew I couldn't outrun him.

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So there, like, there was like this

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awkward moment,

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like, my God, he's gonna catch up to me.

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I was like, I was just kidding.

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And he tackled me and arrested me.

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And that was like the story for the next

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bunch of years.

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I got stabbed when I was 19 in a blackout

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and ~ almost died,

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lost half the blood in my body.

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And the next night I was.

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Out at a party with my whole head bandaged

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up,

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drinking. And someone was like,

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Didn't you get stabbed last night?

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And I was like, Yeah, what's going on with

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you?

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Like, you got any drugs? And so I just

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kept partying and doing drugs.

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And then I moved to California when I was

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23 and I wanted to pursue becoming

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an actor. And ~ I started to do that.

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I went, I put myself through acting

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school,

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and ~ and then I got this weird thing

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where I started to get patches on

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my head and on my body, bald patches.

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And I I I came down with

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What they call alopecia. And so it's

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sudden hair loss.

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And I didn't know what to do about it.

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I went to the doctors. They put me on

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prednisone,

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which is a catabolic steroid, right?

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It's the opposite of what bodybuilders

4:06

take.

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Bodybuilders take anabolic steroids,

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right? I was taking catabolic steroids,

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which makes you kind of fat and bloated.

4:14

And I was working at Gold's Gym in Venice

4:14

at the time,

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the Mecca of bodybuilding. So everyone

4:18

around me is on anabolic steroids,

4:22

and I'm on catabolic steroids,

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I'm on fat steroids.

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Yeah.

4:25

And I'm like, it was really, you know,

4:27

difficult. And I didn't have the tools at

4:27

the time to deal with what

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was happening to me. You know,

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I didn't have you know, I I was losing my

4:33

looks essentially.

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And I was twenty four years old.

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And my whole self esteem and self worth

4:39

had been wrapped up in my looks.

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I had spent years, you know, getting

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ripped and getting this body,

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and I was a fitness model and trying to be

4:46

an actor,

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and that was being stripped away.

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And ~

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I started drinking and using drugs way

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like it escalated from that point on.

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And then I went and saw a therapist

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because I thought she'd prescribed

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me some Prozac or something. And she

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actually told me I should look into

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recovery, you know, ~ like 12-step AA

5:04

programs.

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And I was like, Really? Like I'm pretty,

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you know, I'm running this gym and I've

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got this scholarship to this school.

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And she's Yeah, but you're

5:14

self-medicating.

5:15

You're taking all this Vicodin and you're

5:15

drinking and so she kind

5:20

of planted the seed and

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Eventually I did check out twelve step

5:21

recovery and got sober.

5:25

And that was a life-changing experience

5:25

for me.

5:27

And pretty young, you know. ~ and I

5:27

decided to get off the catabolic steroids.

5:33

I decided to stop taking the cortisone

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shots and the doctor's like,

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You're gonna lose all your hair.

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And I said, Fine, if that's what it's

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supposed to be.

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But the the drugs that they were giving me

5:40

was giving were giving me ulcers

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and I was just miserable. And so at that

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time I went completely hairless.

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And so I went through this huge

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metamorphosis, this change, this

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transformation,

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if you will, where I didn't look the same.

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I didn't recognize myself in the mirror.

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There was literally a moment where I was

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talking to a client who was

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on a treadmill and I was like,

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who's that weird looking guy? And I went,

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Wait, that's me. Like I I honestly didn't

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recognize myself,

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which was wild. and I was judging myself.

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And so I really started to do the work,

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You know, I started to dive in and do some

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of the spiritual work that

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I needed to do. And I started to do the

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therapy and all the work on myself.

6:23

And I I I just dove into the 12 step

6:23

recovery and it changed my life.

6:27

And there part of that is helping other

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people,

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right? Sponsoring other people,

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passing it on. And you can't make someone

6:31

be your sponsee.

6:35

So I decided to do Big Brothers of

6:35

America,

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which is like a mentorship program.

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And I mentored this kid who was a young

6:40

kid.

6:43

12 years old who had some issues.

6:44

And that was massive. It was like the

6:44

first thing I did for somebody else

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getting something in return. And I got so

6:48

much in return helping this kid.

6:53

And then I started, you know, helping guys

6:53

get sober and sponsoring guys

6:56

and helping guys. And and then I got

6:56

pulled into the world of what they call

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companion or sober coaching, where I

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started helping celebrities and rock

7:06

I got went on tour with a bunch of bands

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and worked with a bunch

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of famous actors and all that kind of

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stuff.

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And that was wild because I got to see,

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you know, firsthand that like fame and

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money is not gonna fix me.

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Like everybody thinks it will.

7:21

Everybody they know money's not gonna fix

7:21

them,

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but they want to find out for themselves,

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right? So and they hear it, you hear it,

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Mm-hmm.

7:29

but everyone thinks like, no, that person

7:29

can't handle it.

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So and so, they can't handle the fame and

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the money.

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If I had it, then all my problems would be

7:35

fine.

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And

7:39

I saw it up close. Like it doesn't fix it.

7:41

anyways, I became good friends with

7:41

Matthew Perry ~ from the show Friends.

7:46

And Matthew was an amazing person and very

7:46

close friend of mine.

7:50

And we were following Los Can Los Angeles

7:50

Kings around one season.

7:53

And in that process, it's the final games,

7:57

game six in the Staples Center,

7:59

and the Kings are about to win the cup,

8:00

and all these celebrities are in this

8:00

little VIP room under the Staples Center,

8:04

and in walked Tony Robbins.

8:06

Go turn to Matthew and I Holy shit,

8:08

it's Tony Robbins. And he goes,

8:09

Really? We've been following the Kings all

8:09

season,

8:12

flying around to playoff games.

8:12

Just

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They're about to win the cup. Every

8:14

celebrity in LA is in here right now.

8:16

You're excited about this gigantic man?

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And I said, Yeah, he's amazing.

8:20

He changes he changes lives. Like I had

8:20

his book in high school.

8:23

I had his tape cassettes. That's how old I

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am in high school.

8:26

And he goes, Well, go tell him.

8:27

And I said, No, I don't want to be that

8:27

guy that bugs him like people bug you.

8:30

And I was walking back through the tunnel.

8:33

And Tony looked up from his phone and he

8:33

goes,

8:35

Hey man, how's it going? And I go,

8:36

man, I never do this. I know everybody

8:36

says that,

8:38

but I never do. I I'm a huge fan.

8:41

I've been following you since I was in

8:41

high school.

8:42

And he goes, What's your name?

8:43

What do you do? We start talking.

8:44

And he goes, Have you ever been to my

8:44

seminar?

8:46

And I go, No. He goes, I only do three

8:46

domestically a year,

8:49

but I'd love it if you'd come next month

8:49

as my personal VIP guest.

8:53

And I go, Really? He goes, Yeah,

8:54

here's my secretary's information.

8:56

She'll take care of everything.

8:57

And Tony was so gracious, so amazing.

9:01

I I went to his seminar.

9:02

And I had some epiphanies there.

9:04

And one of those epiphanies was like,

9:06

I'm done with Hollywood. I had come really

9:06

close on some screenplays that

9:09

I had written and a bunch of other things.

9:11

I was in development with some big,

9:13

you know, production studios. And I was

9:13

just like,

9:16

I'm done. I'm just gonna help people.

9:18

I don't know what that looks like.

9:19

I don't know what that's gonna be,

9:20

but I'm really good at helping people and

9:20

whatever that ~ at least my life will

9:25

be worthwhile at the end. And so I walked

9:25

away from the Hollywood dream.

9:30

And right after that, I found breath work

9:30

because some woman had taken Matthew Perry

9:34

to do this session with a guy.

9:35

And he was telling me all the weird things

9:35

about this session.

9:38

And then he was telling me about this

9:38

breathing thing.

9:40

And I said, That sounds crazy.

9:42

And he goes, Well, you're my only friend

9:42

that's open-minded enough to try it.

9:46

So I bought you a session with this guy.

9:48

And I was like, Really? All right,

9:49

I'll try it. So I went and I had some

9:49

experiences.

9:52

And this guy did this breathing technique.

9:54

It's not the technique that I teach today.

9:56

I teach a very different technique.

9:58

But what it did was it opened my mind up

9:58

and I had an experience from this

10:02

guy that was pretty profound. And I

10:02

started looking at all these different

10:06

techniques out there. And I was like,

10:07

why doesn't everybody know about this?

10:08

Why doesn't everybody realize that there's

10:08

these things out there,

10:12

these techniques that are life-changing?

10:13

And the technique that I teach today,

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which is circular breath work,

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it's really incredible. You know,

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there's a lot of I think I should say

10:19

this,

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you know, breath work is an umbrella term.

10:22

It's like saying fitness, right?

10:24

~ if I said fitness.

10:24

Mm-hmm.

10:27

You would go, what do you mean?

10:28

You do CrossFit? Do you do soul cycle?

10:30

What do you what do you do? What kind of

10:30

fitness do you do?

10:32

And so there's so many different types of

10:32

breath work.

10:36

Cause I'll meet someone and they'll go,

10:37

~ I've tried breath work. And I'll go,

10:39

well, what kind? And they'll go,

10:40

box breathing. And I well, okay,

10:41

that's not what I teach. That's not what I

10:41

do,

10:44

right? It's very different. People have

10:44

this idea in their head that it's gonna

10:50

be this relaxing meditation.

10:52

And some breathworks are like that,

10:53

but it this style that I do is more like a

10:53

workout.

10:56

It's intense. It's more like a psychedelic

10:56

journey,

10:59

you know? And so it's very intense and I

10:59

push it very intensely.

11:04

And I had this epiphany, I had this

11:04

realization,

11:06

like, why doesn't everybody know about

11:06

this?

11:08

This was 15 years ago. I mean,

11:10

breath work has become more popular in the

11:10

last 10 years,

11:12

right? But this was 15 years ago.

11:14

Nobody knew about it. Nobody was talking

11:14

about it.

11:16

I was kind of begging friends to come to

11:16

my classes.

11:19

Actually,

11:20

This woman talked me into doing a class at

11:20

her studio.

11:22

And Matthew was one of the first people to

11:22

come to one of my first classes.

11:25

And he's like, This is your gift.

11:26

This is what you're supposed to do.

11:28

And I'm like, Really? And he's like,

11:29

Yeah. And ~ I just decided that if I was

11:29

going to teach breath work,

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I would teach it in a way that made sense

11:33

for me because it had been kept

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Mm-hmm.

11:37

in these new age kind of woo-woo circles

11:37

and with people.

11:40

And there's nothing wrong with that,

11:42

but like, I know people like to do things

11:42

with people they can relate to,

11:45

people they identify with.

11:47

And so I thought I'm gonna teach this in a

11:47

way that's kind of Tony Robin style with

11:51

my trainer background put into it and play

11:51

cool music and have a big massive yell

11:56

at the end and and then have people pull

11:56

moments of gratitude,

12:00

moments of love in their heart after the

12:00

breathing is over,

12:03

because I want people to leave filled with

12:03

gratitude and love because that's what's

12:06

really important. So I created this very

12:06

specific style of class.

12:11

I took this ancient technique and then I

12:11

modernized it.

12:14

I sort of modernized the package around

12:14

it.

12:17

And sure enough, within a you know,

12:18

a good year or two, I had hundreds of

12:18

people in my classes and it was like sold

12:23

and the celebrities were having their

12:23

assistance call to get in my classes,

12:26

and it was this credible experience.

12:29

And then I was in, you know, Los Angeles

12:29

Reporter and the Times and

12:34

on Good Morning America. It took kind of

12:34

took off.

12:36

And ~ I was the first guy to really put

12:36

this thing online,

12:41

because I knew like

12:42

The first 10 minutes I'm doing a

12:42

presentation,

12:45

I'm showing you, I'm doing a

12:45

demonstration,

12:47

I'm telling you all the things that are

12:47

gonna happen.

12:48

Then you gotta watch me breathe,

12:50

you gotta watch the technique.

12:51

But then after that, you lay down flat on

12:51

your back and you close your eyes.

12:55

So I'm like, this would work fine online.

12:57

In fact, some people, some guys probably

12:57

would do it better online

13:02

at home where they're not, they don't have

13:02

people around them.

13:04

They can kind of let go more, where they

13:04

they they feel less self conscious.

13:09

And they're in their safe space so they

13:09

could have that big emotional release.

13:13

And they don't have to drive afterwards.

13:15

And so I started doing it online about

13:15

nine years ago.

13:19

And there was some pushback from some old

13:19

time breathwork teachers against it.

13:23

And and sure enough, they all changed

13:23

their tune once COVID happened.

13:26

So I had already been doing it before

13:26

COVID happened.

13:29

And then during COVID, everyone showed up.

13:31

And one of the main things that I've been

13:31

doing for the last nine years is

13:35

Doing teacher training. So I teach other

13:35

people how to teach this.

13:38

I've certified over 3,000 people in my

13:38

method of breath work of how to,

13:43

you know, take other people through this

13:43

in this way.

13:45

And it's it's been amazing to watch my

13:45

students come do this with me,

13:50

learn this from me, and then go take other

13:50

people through.

13:53

And then they have these beautiful

13:53

experiences where they're like,

13:57

my God, it's so fulfilling. I have so much

13:57

purpose in my life now that

14:01

I'm helping other people go through this

14:01

work and heal themselves.

14:05

And I'm like, yeah, that's what it's

14:05

about.

14:06

Like, I'm not gonna be happy all the time.

14:08

But if I have some work that gives me

14:08

purpose,

14:11

that gives me fulfillment, that makes me

14:11

feel good,

14:13

that fills me up, then that's gonna carry

14:13

me through the times where I'm down

14:18

or I'm not happy. Right. And so I think

14:18

there's this lie that we've been told that

14:19

Mm-hmm.

14:22

we're supposed to be happy all the time.

14:23

And like we're not. It's an emotion that

14:23

comes and goes,

14:26

right? And so, yeah. So I don't know why

14:26

people are telling themselves that lie,

14:28

Exactly.

14:32

but it's just not it's just not.

14:34

True. But if you have purpose,

14:35

if you have fulfillment, if you're working

14:35

on yourself a little bit every day,

14:38

that's life-changing. That's what you want

14:38

to go for.

14:42

And so that's kind of been my journey.

14:44

And now I'm just out here trying to spread

14:44

the word,

14:47

the gospel of breath work, if you will.

14:49

Like, come try it. Have an open mind.

14:52

I know it's hard for people to understand

14:52

and to believe that something you've been

14:56

doing your whole life since you were born,

14:58

unconsciously, without any effort.

15:00

If you come to a class and somebody's

15:00

going to show you this other way to

15:02

do it that you have to put in some effort.

15:04

And I always say, listen, you've done

15:04

something harder in your life than

15:07

lay on the floor and breathe. It's not

15:07

that hard.

15:10

Don't let your brain trick you,

15:11

right? So I brought the science in too,

15:13

because there's a thing that can happen.

15:15

It's called transient hypofrontality,

15:17

part of the prefrontal cortex of your

15:17

brain can turn off in this incredible

15:21

way when you do this type of breath work.

15:23

And that's the area of your brain where

15:23

the critic lives,

15:26

where the ego lives.

15:27

And it's it's amazing to turn that off and

15:27

to move into your heart,

15:31

which is really beautiful and really

15:31

powerful.

15:34

So I've been doing this now for a long

15:34

time.

15:37

I do it online every Sunday on Zoom,

15:39

and there's a five day replay afterwards.

15:42

A lot of people can't make the live Zoom

15:42

time,

15:44

which I understand, but it's 9 a.m.

15:46

Pacific time, 12 PM Eastern time,

15:48

or whatever time zone you're in.

15:50

I have a lot of people that come from all

15:50

over the world and they can't make that

15:52

time. So I have a five day replay

15:52

afterwards.

15:55

And I, you know, and I have my teacher

15:55

trainings online and courses that you can

15:59

I do them in person twice a year as well.

16:02

And those sell out pretty quick because I

16:02

keep them pretty small.

16:05

I'm doing one in September in Calabasas,

16:07

California. And I do them in person,

16:10

but I also have them online. And so I I've

16:10

certified over 3,000 people with this

16:15

style of breath work. And so that's kind

16:15

of everything in a nutshell.

16:18

And we can pull it apart and look deeper

16:18

into certain areas,

16:21

whatever, you know, you're interested in.

16:22

Yeah.

16:24

Yeah, let's do it. I have I have so many

16:24

questions.

16:26

I could go so many different routes with

16:26

it,

16:28

like different ways with this.

16:28

Yeah.

16:29

~ but I think it's really cool that you

16:29

took breath work and you do your own

16:34

Because I I'm totally that person that I

16:34

think you need to find what works for you.

16:39

And ~ so I think it's really cool and

16:39

incredible story.

16:42

Yeah, thank you.

16:44

So my first question is kind of goes back

16:44

to your sobriety.

16:48

How did getting sober change your view

16:52

Of yourself and your future.

16:55

Well, you know, I didn't realize it till I

16:55

got sober,

16:58

but I had low self esteem when I got sober

16:58

because I had done some shitty things

17:02

and some some terrible things that

17:02

happened to me along the way.

17:05

And I realize now that's human condition,

17:08

but back then I didn't, you know.

17:09

And so I was taught in sobriety that if

17:09

you have low self esteem,

17:14

then you need to do esteemable acts.

17:16

And I didn't know what ste esteemable acts

17:16

were,

17:19

but I I started to figure it out for

17:19

myself.

17:21

And the first one was doing that volunteer

17:21

program,

17:24

big

17:24

Brothers of America. And then I started

17:24

helping guys and helping people.

17:29

And that really filled up my self-esteem

17:29

bucket,

17:32

you know? And so that changed my viewpoint

17:32

of myself.

17:36

And, you know, it doesn't happen right

17:36

away.

17:38

It takes time. And there was some times,

17:39

Mm-hmm.

17:41

you know, I remember in early days of

17:41

teaching Breathwork,

17:44

people would come up to me after class and

17:44

be like,

17:45

that was life changing. You've changed my

17:45

life.

17:47

Thank you so much. And hug me and like say

17:47

all these amazing things about me.

17:51

And I was like, you know, I couldn't hear

17:51

it.

17:53

couldn't I couldn't let it in.

17:54

It was hard for me to let it in at first.

17:56

And I and then I was like, and I'm still

17:56

kind of like this like,

17:59

it's the breath work. It's not me.

18:01

I think I'm really good at teaching breath

18:01

work because I've spent the last

18:04

15 years like honing it and making it the

18:04

best I can possibly make it.

18:08

And I want to be awesome at it.

18:09

And I open my heart and I get really

18:09

vulnerable in class.

18:12

And I because I believe what comes from

18:12

the heart goes to the heart.

18:15

And that gives other people get permission

18:15

to get v vulnerable in class.

18:18

So I think that makes me unique.

18:20

But the breath work is the thing.

18:21

So I try not to make

18:23

me the thing because I want to keep my ego

18:23

right sized.

18:27

But I also know now that I've helped a lot

18:27

of people and I've done a real

18:30

a lot of really good work on the planet.

18:34

Yeah, and it's it's like you've you've

18:34

found this purpose in life

18:38

and you're just pushing forward with it.

18:39

I think that's what all of us need to try

18:39

to do is find our purpose.

18:44

Yeah. And if you don't know what your

18:44

purpose is,

18:47

you know, breath work is one of the ways

18:47

to get clear on it.

18:51

I've had a lot of people come and they're

18:51

because they're because they're

18:54

in their head so much, right? You know,

18:56

your head is like it's like telling you

18:56

all these stories.

18:59

And it's I'll give you a good example.

19:01

You know, I used to, I don't do one-on-one

19:01

sessions really anymore,

19:04

but I used to do a lot of them when I

19:04

started out.

19:06

And women would come to me and they'd be

19:06

like,

19:09

There's this guy, and I'm like,

19:10

okay, tell me about the guy, right?

19:11

And they're like, I go two minutes to tell

19:11

me about the guy.

19:14

And they're like a lawyer arguing both

19:14

sides of the case for the guy.

19:17

Well, he's really good and he does this

19:17

and he does that,

19:19

but he doesn't do this and he doesn't do

19:19

that.

19:21

And I go, okay, let's just let the breath

19:21

work get some clarity on it for us,

19:25

right? And what it does is it turns off

19:25

all the lawyers arguing the sides

19:30

of the case of for this guy, and it moves

19:30

them into their heart,

19:33

and their heart is really clear about what

19:33

it wants.

19:35

And oftentimes they would sit up and be

19:35

like,

19:38

he's not the one.

19:39

They're crystal clear. And then two days

19:39

later,

19:42

three days later, they're like,

19:44

maybe I shouldn't break up with them.

19:45

Because what happens is they turned off

19:45

the brain and they moved into their heart,

19:50

and the heart knows what it wants.

19:51

The heart isn't confused. The heart isn't

19:51

arguing two sides of the case.

19:55

The brain is what is job is to protect you

19:55

and keep you safe.

19:59

And sometimes it thinks it's protecting

19:59

you by going,

20:02

I don't want to get back out there on the

20:02

dating market.

20:04

I don't want to be alone. So it creates

20:04

fear and it pushes that fear

20:09

out to you because it thinks it's keeping

20:09

you safe that way.

20:12

But when you get in, when you turn off

20:12

that fear,

20:15

you know exactly what you want,

20:17

that you'd be better off alone than with

20:17

someone you're not meant to be with.

20:21

Mm-hmm.

20:21

And so that same thing works for finding

20:21

your purpose.

20:25

Whatever you're, if you're not sure about

20:25

what your purpose is.

20:28

Then you lay down and you breathe and you

20:28

get that clarity.

20:31

That clarity will come to you through the

20:31

breath work.

20:34

Yeah. And you explained something to to me

20:34

that it's that we ki I kind

20:39

of mentioned this in the past that the

20:39

mind,

20:42

body and emotions are all connected in

20:42

some way.

20:45

And I think too often we're explained to

20:45

them we're they're explained to

20:49

us as like so separate, but I I feel like

20:49

there's a connection once

20:53

you like dig down deep enough.

20:55

you don't even have to dig down that deep.

20:57

I mean, listen, I lost my hair and my

20:57

eyebrows from alopecia,

21:02

which is caused by stress or trauma,

21:05

right? They're not 100% sure, but it's

21:05

brought on by a stressful event

21:09

or a traumatic event or a bunch of stress,

21:11

right? So that's my emotions affecting my

21:11

physical health.

21:15

Right? Nobody doubts at this point that

21:15

like you can stress yourself

21:20

out right into a heart attack,

21:22

right?

21:23

But if that's true, isn't the opposite

21:23

true as well?

21:23

Mm-hmm.

21:27

That you can you can heal your body,

21:28

yes, for sure.

21:29

you can you can start to send your body

21:29

good signals instead of

21:33

the stress signals and start to heal your

21:33

body.

21:35

There's a thing, it's called takosubo.

21:38

It's Japanese, it's the Japanese word,

21:40

it means brokenhearted syndrome.

21:42

They've actually studied that people can

21:42

be so brokenhearted that

21:46

can affect your shape, the shape of their

21:46

heart.

21:48

It can change the shape of your heart from

21:48

from being

21:52

emotionally brokenhearted over,

21:54

you know, the loss of someone or the loss

21:54

of a relationship,

21:57

but you can also heal it. You can heal it

21:57

too.

22:00

So our emotions can literally change the

22:00

shape of our heart.

22:07

I d I totally believe it. I and I I I just

22:07

think for some reason it just reminds

22:12

me of my grandparents. My my grandpa

22:12

passed away and then my grandma passed

22:18

it was like a year and a half later and I

22:18

I totally think it's because

22:23

the broken heart. Like she

22:24

there's tons

22:25

of studies out there that show that that

22:25

like a lot of spouses that have been

22:28

together for a long period of time,

22:30

the other spouse passes fairly quickly

22:30

afterwards.

22:35

Yeah. Crazy.

22:37

Yeah.

22:38

Yeah. So it's like, you know, I I joke,

22:40

I say, if you don't think your emotions

22:40

can affect your health,

22:42

then go find my eyebrows because they're

22:42

gone.

22:44

Right. So I'm like, come do the breath

22:44

work and clear.

22:45

He's

22:47

Because what a lot of people discover when

22:47

they come to my classes is I hear this.

22:52

This is one of the things I hear the most.

22:54

you know, I done all the work,

22:55

I did therapy, I did Tony Robbins,

22:58

I did, you know, Joe Dispens, I did all

22:58

these things,

23:00

and then

23:01

I thought I did all the work on myself.

23:02

And then I came to your class and I had

23:02

all this stuff come up during

23:05

the breath work and you know released all

23:05

this stuff that I didn't even realize

23:09

was there. I go, yeah, because all that

23:09

work you did,

23:12

you thought was in your head. It was the

23:12

thoughts in your head that

23:16

you were working on. This stuff is in your

23:16

nervous system,

23:19

in your heart, in your body. And so you

23:19

didn't do that work.

23:25

You didn't clear it out of the nervous

23:25

system.

23:26

You didn't clear it out of the body

23:26

because you didn't.

23:29

There's a d you know, you need a specific

23:29

technique for that.

23:32

There's a specific way to do that.

23:34

And so a lot of people are shocked when

23:34

they come and they feel all this stuff

23:38

up for them and release all this stuff.

23:41

The most common statement after the class

23:41

is,

23:43

holy shit, that felt like 20 years of

23:43

therapy without saying a word.

23:46

And I started putting that on all my ~

23:46

stuff,

23:49

all my, you know, my website and my ads,

23:51

all the different things. And I thought

23:51

therapists were gonna get pissed at that.

23:55

But ironically, they're the ones who send

23:55

me the most people.

24:00

And I've said this before too,

24:01

and I I'm a I go to therapy, I think it's

24:01

helpful for me,

24:05

but I'll be the first one to say I don't

24:05

think therapy is for every everybody.

24:09

I think you need to find what works for

24:09

you.

24:11

If it's breath work, like great.

24:14

If it's something else, like great.

24:15

Like I think you need to actually take the

24:15

time though to figure it out.

24:20

Don't just say you've tried it all.

24:21

Yeah, I

24:22

If something doesn't work, go try

24:22

something else.

24:24

Yeah. And I think therapy and breathwork

24:24

work really well together.

24:27

That's why a lot of therapists send their

24:27

people to me because

24:28

Uh-huh.

24:30

the the breathwork brings up all the

24:30

stuff,

24:32

all the trauma, and then they go process

24:32

it and talk to their therapist about it.

24:36

And so it creates some big shifts.

24:38

So I think they work really well together.

24:40

yeah, and you know, listen, if you want

24:40

something different,

24:43

if you want to change in your life,

24:44

then you have to do something different.

24:46

You know, otherwise you keep doing the

24:46

same things.

24:49

Nothing's gonna change.

24:51

That's the definition of insanity is doing

24:51

the same thing over

24:53

and over and expecting a different result.

24:55

but I I can't make people come.

24:58

You have to be willing to have an open

24:58

mind and try something new.

25:02

And oftentimes, unfortunately,

25:04

people have to wait till they're in a lot

25:04

of pain.

25:06

Pain is the touchstone to growth.

25:09

So, cause I'll tell people what I do and

25:09

they'll go,

25:13

yeah, yeah, that sounds fine. And then

25:15

I'll see them six months later or a year

25:15

later when they lose someone close

25:19

to them or they go through a breakup or

25:19

just a bunch of shit falls apart

25:23

in their life. And then they're like,

25:24

all right, I'll try that breathwork thing.

25:26

Like, okay. You're ready to you're ready

25:26

to try it.

25:28

You're ready.

25:29

I'm here. I'm here whenever you're ready

25:29

to try it.

25:32

Yeah.

25:32

It's it's like their life just has to fall

25:32

apart just enough to to come do it.

25:36

So

25:36

Yeah, I

25:37

I don't know why people have to wait for

25:37

that.

25:39

I don't anymore. I just I as soon as I

25:39

start to things feel things unravel,

25:44

I'm like, okay, let me go dive into some

25:44

work.

25:47

Let me go do some breath work on myself.

25:48

Let me see what else I can find.

25:50

Let me see what the universe is sending me

25:50

right now.

25:52

I did, you know, something like a year and

25:52

a half ago called

25:56

the Hoffman process that was life-changing

25:56

for me.

25:58

And I done all the things again,

26:01

but I found that and it was so powerful.

26:03

And and it was around pre parental.

26:06

patterns that you inherit from your

26:06

parents.

26:08

And it changed my relationship to my

26:08

parents in a profound way.

26:15

That's super cool. We've talked a lot

26:15

about stress.

26:17

What what are some signs that people are

26:17

carrying stress that they have

26:20

not fully acknowledged?

26:23

Whoo, that's a good question. I mean,

26:25

if you're not sleeping well, you're

26:25

stressed.

26:28

You know, if it like I I think stress

26:28

itself is not fully acknowledged because

26:34

stress is just a fancy word for fear,

26:37

right? I it's a it's a it's a word it's a

26:37

more acceptable word for fear because what

26:43

what am I stressed about? I'm stressed

26:43

about money.

26:46

Okay, well, let's dig underneath that.

26:48

What about it?

26:49

Well, I'm afraid that my business is n you

26:49

know not working out right now.

26:52

And well, what happens if that doesn't

26:52

work out?

26:54

Well, then I won't be able to pay the

26:54

bills and support my family.

26:56

Okay, so I'm in fear that I'm not gonna be

26:56

able to take care of the people I love.

27:00

But I'm calling it stress because stress

27:00

is more acceptable in society,

27:06

not like fear around financial insecurity

27:06

or financial whatever is going

27:11

on with my finances. And so we we have to

27:11

be willing to dig deeper

27:17

and get underneath things.

27:20

and really like look at the truth of it.

27:22

A lot of people don't want to do that.

27:24

They don't want to look at the truth of

27:24

the situation.

27:26

We all have stuff. Nobody, nobody out

27:26

there doesn't have I I mean,

27:31

I've worked with the most successful

27:31

people on the planet.

27:33

They still have things. They still have

27:33

stuff.

27:35

And some of your stuff isn't even your

27:35

stuff.

27:38

Trauma is passed on to the DNA.

27:40

Science has proven that trauma is passed

27:40

on to the DNA.

27:43

So you thought you were screwed up because

27:43

of your parents,

27:45

and you were right. It is their fault.

27:46

Call them and let them know. No,

27:48

don't do that. I'm kidding.

27:49

I joke about that in my class.

27:51

I'm going to call them and let them know.

27:52

No, I'm like, but now that you're aware

27:52

that that's a thing,

27:55

because some people don't know.

27:56

Some people don't know why they have

27:56

depression,

27:58

anxiety, whatever. And it could just be

27:58

passed on.

28:00

Could be passed on to them. They're like,

28:03

I don't know why I have these things.

28:04

You don't, you know, it's your

28:04

responsibility to figure it out

28:07

and do something about it.

28:10

Yeah, I totally agree. So what so why is

28:10

it that you why do you think that

28:14

so many people s stay stuck when they

28:14

actually want to change?

28:19

Because the fear of the unknown is more

28:19

comfortable.

28:22

They'd rather be miserable and and sit in

28:22

the known than than

28:28

travel into the unknown, the fear of the

28:28

unknown.

28:31

That's the truth. Is that like just not

28:31

knowing what's on the other side

28:36

if they quit drinking or if they go to a

28:36

breathwork class or like people just don't

28:41

like they don't they don't want to move

28:41

out of their comfort zone.

28:43

But if you can strengthen that moving out

28:43

of your comfort zone muscle.

28:48

If you're willing to do what's some get a

28:48

little uncomfortable,

28:51

you can change everything in your life.

28:54

And there's this ~ Les Brown used to say,

28:57

if you do what's easy all the time,

28:58

then life gets hard. But if you do what's

28:58

hard,

29:01

life gets easy. And it's not that hard

29:01

showing up to a breathwork class online

29:06

and laying on the floor and breathing.

29:07

Like, come on, it's ridiculous.

29:09

It's so easy. But

29:11

It gets uncomfortable in the beginning and

29:11

you want to quit because there's a,

29:14

you know, your mind is kind of battling

29:14

you.

29:16

Your mind will shut off during this breath

29:16

work.

29:19

And it's a it's beautiful when your mind

29:19

shuts off.

29:21

It's what I was looking for when I was

29:21

doing drugs and alcohol.

29:23

I wanted to shut my brain off.

29:25

But your brain doesn't want you to shut it

29:25

down.

29:28

So it fights you and it's like,

29:29

I don't like it. It's weird. I'm dizzy,

29:31

I'm uncomfortable. This is stupid.

29:33

This song, I don't like this song he's

29:33

playing.

29:35

Like, so your mind kind of talks all this

29:35

trash to you for the first time.

29:38

10 minutes of the breathing and then it

29:38

kind of gives up and the breath takes over

29:42

and breathes you. So I always tell people,

29:44

like, be willing to be uncomfortable for

29:44

the first,

29:46

you know, 10, 15 minutes of this and have

29:46

some skin in the game.

29:49

Like I would give it away for free just to

29:49

get people to do it,

29:52

but people don't, they don't respect

29:52

what's free.

29:55

You know, if they don't pay, they don't

29:55

pay attention,

29:56

Mm-hmm.

29:57

Tony Robbins likes to say, right?

29:59

And so they have to have some skin in the

29:59

game.

30:01

I've gone to classes of my students that

30:01

I've taught and they go,

30:04

You don't have to pay. I go, No,

30:05

no, I have to pay. Cause if I don't pay,

30:07

I'm not gonna work as hard. And so I need

30:07

to pay so that I work hard,

30:12

so that I have the experience that I need.

30:15

Yeah, exactly. So I wanna touch on one

30:15

thing just because I had this

30:20

it just reminded me of something when you

30:20

said use the word uncomfortable.

30:23

I had a boss at one of my previous jobs

30:23

that said

30:29

if you're not uncomfortable in everyday

30:29

situations,

30:32

you're not pushing yourself to learn to

30:32

become better.

30:35

And ever since then I've I totally agree

30:35

with it.

30:38

And I was like, I've never thought of it

30:38

that way 'cause it's like

30:40

Yeah.

30:41

the it otherwise you just become

30:41

complacent.

30:44

Yeah. I've been doing Brazilian jujitsu,

30:47

~ which is the martial art for 18 years.

30:49

And the whole first year is literally you

30:49

just get beat up by everybody.

30:52

There's no you're not you don't know

30:52

anything.

30:54

Everyone in the room is beating you up.

30:55

Mm-hmm.

30:56

I was I remember being beat up like I was

30:56

at the time when I started,

30:59

I think I was 35 and I was beat up by like

30:59

a s like an 18 year old kid

31:04

who was like 120 pounds, who was like

31:04

climbing all over me like a spider monkey.

31:07

I like, this can't be happening.

31:08

Cause I was like a yoked out personal

31:08

trainer,

31:11

you know? And so

31:11

Mm.

31:13

Every time I go, I I'm uncomfortable.

31:16

People put me in uncomfortable positions

31:16

and I have to find my way

31:19

out of that position, that discomfort.

31:22

And so you have to get comfortable with

31:22

being uncomfortable in Brazilian

31:26

And so it's a great like, you know,

31:28

thing for your life, I think. Not

31:28

everybody's gonna want to do that,

31:32

but I worked a lot on the outsides,

31:36

and it wasn't until I got sober that I

31:36

started working on the insides.

31:39

I had spent many, many years.

31:42

focused on my outsides. And we have to

31:42

work on the insides.

31:46

You know, the happiness, fulfillment,

31:48

purpose, that's an inside job.

31:50

And so I've spent the last, you know,

31:53

26 years doing inside things and then

31:53

sharing them with other people.

31:58

Like that's where the journey changes is

31:58

like once you've transformed,

32:03

you've changed your life, can I turn

32:03

around and give it back to somebody else?

32:07

That's kind of like the hero's journey

32:07

where you

32:11

You know, you bring the elixir back and

32:11

you bring it back and you pass

32:14

the torch on and you help somebody else.

32:16

And then to watch them turn around and

32:16

help somebody else,

32:19

it's like, wow, look at this this like

32:19

levels,

32:21

you know, look at this multi-level

32:21

marketing for good.

32:27

Yeah.

32:28

Yeah, for sure. And that's

32:29

There's no multi-level marketing.

32:31

I need to be clear about that.

32:32

Like I I and I tell people I'm like,

32:34

listen, I'm

32:35

not trying to build a cult or anything.

32:36

You can come do my class one time and know

32:36

how to do this breath work and then

32:39

Yeah. On your own.

32:40

do it on your own. Like, yeah,

32:42

you can make a playlist, you can do it on

32:42

your own.

32:44

Some people like to come to my classes

32:44

because they like me to push them

32:47

and they like the community of it,

32:48

whatever. But you don't have to do it all

32:48

the time.

32:51

You can do it with me one or two times and

32:51

you're good and you can do it

32:54

on your own and whenever you want,

32:56

and it'll change your life.

32:58

So during one of your breathwork ~

32:58

sessions,

33:02

what is actually happening to the body?

33:06

There's a lot of things going on.

33:07

And some of it is, you know, there was no

33:07

science when I started this breath work

33:12

15 years ago. Like they sometimes people's

33:12

hands would cramp up like this.

33:15

They called it tetany. And that's the

33:15

medical name for it.

33:18

But I I couldn't get an answer from these

33:18

breathwork teachers.

33:21

Like, what is causing this tetany?

33:22

And they'd give me all these like,

33:24

it's the moon. It's like something you're

33:24

holding on to.

33:27

It's you're detoxing off weed.

33:29

I'm like, I haven't smoked weed in years.

33:30

Like, that can't be true, right?

33:32

And I

33:33

Was doing these classes that were sold

33:33

out,

33:36

it was like 70 people every twice a week.

33:38

And I had some things that I noticed,

33:41

you know. when you like success leaves

33:41

clues,

33:45

right? And so you look for the

33:45

commonalities and things.

33:47

And I saw that people who were getting the

33:47

tetany really bad were pushing

33:51

the exhale more than other people.

33:53

And so I brought in this health and

33:53

science researcher from Harvard,

33:56

and she said, yeah. I said, people are

33:56

pushing the exhale,

34:00

and they're the ones that are getting

34:00

tweaked out.

34:01

And I think that's the key.

34:02

And sure enough, it was because when you

34:02

push the exhale,

34:05

you throw off more CO2. And you we

34:05

actually need CO2.

34:10

People think we don't. CO2 is bad for us,

34:13

but we need CO2. It binds to oxygen.

34:15

And we that's how we absorb the oxygen

34:15

into our body,

34:19

into our blood. And if you breathe

34:19

essentially too fast and push

34:24

the exhale too much, it starts to cause

34:24

this tetanine,

34:27

it starts to cause this cramping in the

34:27

muscles.

34:29

You're fine if that happens. It happens to

34:29

new people in my classes all the time,

34:33

but that's why it's happening.

34:35

And so if you can relax the exhale,

34:36

and what I actually discovered and came up

34:36

with was,

34:39

you know, if I'm going to do this online,

34:41

I need pe need to give people a way to

34:41

back off if it gets to be too much for

34:45

Right. And so I said, if it's too much for

34:45

you,

34:49

if you get a cramp that's uncomfortable or

34:49

painful,

34:51

first of all, let me just say this that I

34:51

say in my classes,

34:54

there are zero reported incidences of

34:54

anything bad happening during this breath

34:58

work.

34:58

I've been teaching it for 15 years.

35:00

I've never had anything bad happen.

35:01

There's no evidence of anything bad out

35:01

there.

35:03

But I want to empower people to to to take

35:03

care of themselves if it got

35:09

to be too much for them. Because,

35:10

like, if you go do psychedelics now,

35:12

which are super popular, you're stuck on

35:12

that ride.

35:15

You're not getting off that ride.

35:16

Yeah.

35:17

Right? But this, you're not stuck.

35:19

So, you know, if it gets to be too

35:19

uncomfortable,

35:22

you just close your mouth, breathe through

35:22

your nose,

35:24

and pause.

35:28

No long Wim Hof breath holds combined with

35:28

this breath work.

35:31

That's actually not smart. And I can go

35:31

into why later if we want.

35:34

But so I gave people this way to back it

35:34

off.

35:37

And that actually makes people feel safer.

35:40

And then they can go deeper into the work

35:40

when they feel safer.

35:42

So I created that in my classes online and

35:42

in person.

35:47

So the science is part of this is science,

35:50

and this part of this is my theory from

35:50

what I've seen.

35:52

~ when we breathe into our nose,

35:55

down into our

35:56

body here, our diaphragm, we're breathing

35:56

parasympathetic,

36:00

which is rest and digest. Okay.

36:02

So most of the breath work teaches

36:02

techniques out there that

36:05

are taught are breathing through the nose

36:05

to calm the nervous system,

36:09

right? We take a breath in through the

36:09

nose,

36:11

we breathe out through the mouth.

36:15

And that stimulates the vagus nerve in the

36:15

back of our necks and calms

36:19

the nervous system down and puts us in our

36:19

parasympathetic and relaxes us.

36:22

So there's tons of techniques out there.

36:24

Box breathing is like this all through the

36:24

nose that calm the nervous system.

36:28

The style that I mainly teach that I like

36:28

to focus on,

36:31

circular breath work, we breathe through

36:31

the mouth into our sympathetic,

36:35

which is fight or flight. And so people

36:35

go,

36:37

wait, why do we why would we breathe in a

36:37

fight or flight?

36:40

Well, because that's where the trauma is

36:40

stored.

36:41

That's where all the stuff is.

36:44

in fight or flight, but we're doing it in

36:44

a safe environment.

36:46

We're doing it laying down in a safe

36:46

environment,

36:49

setting the intention to release some of

36:49

this stuff that we've been holding on to.

36:53

And there's something really powerful in

36:53

that intention.

36:56

And there's something really powerful

36:56

about breathing into that sympathetic

36:59

system in this way. And you do it

36:59

sometimes if you're exercising intensely,

37:05

if you're you know breathing through the

37:05

mouth and but your muscles

37:08

are absorbing that oxygen. This you're

37:08

not.

37:11

They're you're laying down, the muscles

37:11

aren't absorbing it,

37:13

right? So that's part of what happens.

37:15

This thing that happens and we start to

37:15

release some of the stuff emotionally that

37:19

we've been storing in our body.

37:21

So I believe there's a little bit of

37:21

mystical element to it,

37:25

but I always share the story of,

37:27

you know, when a rabbit gets chased in the

37:27

woods by a fox and it gets away,

37:32

it shakes afterwards because it's trying

37:32

to release that trauma that

37:36

it just experienced.

37:38

And I believe this is one of our

37:38

mechanisms by which to release the trauma.

37:43

Yeah, very cool. That's ~ you're actually

37:43

the first person that I've heard that uses

37:48

the mouth the whole like for breath work

37:48

'cause I've only heard about multiple

37:53

different ways to use the nose and the

37:53

mouth together.

37:55

So that's I find this like really

37:55

interesting.

37:55

Yeah.

37:57

Yeah, it's a different experience.

37:59

It's a really different experience when

37:59

people do my class.

38:02

And there are people who have done tons of

38:02

breath work and then they do

38:04

my class and like, I've never done

38:04

anything like that.

38:06

And they're like, they're blown away.

38:07

They've been doing all these practices for

38:07

20,

38:09

30 years, and then they do the class.

38:11

And they're like, Holy shit. And then I

38:11

push the energy pretty hard because

38:14

I bring out the old trainer in me.

38:16

And so people have bigger experiences and

38:16

they go,

38:18

Holy cow, I've done circular breath work,

38:20

but I never had an experience like that or

38:20

whatever.

38:22

And so

38:24

I try to be tell people like, come do my

38:24

class and see what's there for you.

38:27

Some people, the first time, they're kind

38:27

of just so taken back

38:31

by the physical sensations in their body

38:31

that they need to do it maybe

38:34

one or two more times to like to get to

38:34

the emotional stuff.

38:36

Mm-hmm.

38:37

They're just like, even though I spend all

38:37

this time telling people like physical

38:41

things are gonna happen to you,

38:42

your hands might cramp up, like you're

38:42

gonna feel tingling,

38:45

you might get dizzy. They don't believe

38:45

me.

38:48

And then when it happens, then they're

38:48

like,

38:49

look at that.

38:51

And I'm like, I told you that was gonna

38:51

happen.

38:52

Like, why are you surprised? You didn't

38:52

believe me?

38:54

Yeah.

38:55

And so they're so d like just caught off

38:55

guard by the physical sensations that they

38:59

need to do it a few times to really break

38:59

through and start to have

39:02

the big emotional releases. And some

39:02

people come and just have this massive

39:05

emotional release the first time.

39:07

It's life changing.

39:09

Yeah, and you said emotional release and

39:09

so that kinda leads into my next question.

39:14

How can something as simple as breath work

39:14

create such powerful emotional shifts?

39:21

Well, we are tapping into the body's own,

39:24

you know, self-healing mechanisms.

39:26

And it's just that we don't realize that

39:26

these things have been inside of

39:31

us all of our lives and that we have the

39:31

ability to heal ourselves.

39:35

And it we think it needs to be

39:35

complicated.

39:38

We need to complicate it. You know,

39:39

I have this course online called the Five

39:39

Day Emotional Detox.

39:42

And it's these really powerful exercises,

39:45

~ writing exercises and different things

39:45

combined with the breath work.

39:49

That have changed my life. And I thought I

39:49

did workshops with them in Los Angeles.

39:53

And I thought, let me put these into a

39:53

course.

39:55

And that course has been incredible.

39:57

People have done it and sent me incredible

39:57

emails.

39:59

~ but I was doing it for this company in

39:59

Switzerland and they translated

40:04

it into all these different languages.

40:05

And they go, No, no, five days is not

40:05

gonna work.

40:08

The Germans, the Swiss will not believe

40:08

that five days is enough.

40:11

It has to be five weeks. So we have to

40:11

like we we trick ourselves into thinking

40:17

like.

40:18

If it's too easy, it like you hear

40:18

everything out there,

40:22

like, this is so transformational.

40:24

It's a pack of gum. It's not

40:24

transformational.

40:27

It's just gum. You know what I mean?

40:28

Like, stop calling everything

40:28

transformational.

40:29

Mm-hmm.

40:31

This actually is. This actually lives up

40:31

to that hype.

40:34

In one hour, you will have an experience

40:34

that you go,

40:38

holy shit, that was one of the most

40:38

incredible things I've ever experienced.

40:41

And then what happens is people have this

40:41

experience.

40:44

It's so profound to them, they can't

40:44

believe it.

40:46

Then they tell their friends and their

40:46

family and all their people around them,

40:50

and then they have to come try it.

40:51

So it just grows exponentially off of that

40:51

because ~ people are just

40:57

so shocked by how powerful it is and like

40:57

what it does,

41:01

what it creates. It they just ha they just

41:01

they can't wrap their mind around

41:05

it because everything out there takes

41:05

years to work,

41:08

right? Therapy takes a long time,

41:09

Mm-hmm.

41:10

yoga takes a long time, all these things

41:10

take a long time.

41:14

It doesn't have to.

41:16

This can this can create a massive shift

41:16

in one session.

41:19

And then if you did it once a week for a

41:19

year,

41:22

I guarantee you your you and your life

41:22

wouldn't be the same at the end of that

41:27

I've seen it for 15 years. I've seen

41:27

thousands and thousands of people just

41:29

Yeah. Very cool.

41:33

a practice and do it and then change their

41:33

life.

41:37

And and have you ever witnessed a a

41:37

transformation during a session that

41:42

just caught you off guard?

41:44

Yeah. I mean, it's the not so this is the

41:44

funny thing.

41:48

The ones that catch me off guard are n are

41:48

the the ones that aren't obvious.

41:52

Like I see people have this huge emotional

41:52

release and start crying

41:56

and like deep crying, like crying from the

41:56

soul.

41:59

So I know they're having a profound

41:59

experience.

42:01

But then there was other people that are

42:01

like nothing is happening on the surface.

42:05

And then afterwards they're like,

42:06

that was the most life changing thing I've

42:06

ever done.

42:08

I was like, really? Like I didn't see

42:08

anything happening there.

42:11

It was all going in.

42:13

Quietly on inside of them. And so,

42:16

you know, that's the part that's surprised

42:16

me in sessions over the years.

42:20

And I've heard people talk about releasing

42:20

traumas and physical ailments.

42:24

Like, you know, I had this thing in my

42:24

throat where I couldn't talk properly

42:27

for most of my life. And then it literally

42:27

released in the session or

42:31

my back or this issue. You know,

42:34

women have told me that they couldn't get

42:34

pregnant and then they started doing

42:37

breath work. And

42:38

They were able to just turn off their head

42:38

and the worry and all the stuff

42:41

and all the pressure around getting

42:41

pregnant.

42:43

And then they got pregnant. Because it was

42:43

an emotional block.

42:47

It's yeah.

42:51

So I've seen that. I've seen women who are

42:51

like in,

42:54

you know, I don't want to make that

42:54

promise.

42:56

Let me be clear about that. But,

42:58

you know, I've seen it a lot. I I've seen

42:58

it happen a lot of times.

43:02

And I've seen people just, you know,

43:04

let go of things they've been carrying

43:04

their whole life.

43:06

Stories. Because we carry these stories

43:06

around,

43:10

Travis. This happened to me when I was 19.

43:13

I was stabbed. And this happened to me and

43:13

that happened to me.

43:15

And a lot of people, the stories are

43:15

running them.

43:19

You know, when

43:19

Mm-hmm.

43:19

I told my story, it's like none of that

43:19

has any power over me at all.

43:23

All those terrible things, none of them

43:23

have any power.

43:25

But sometimes you hear someone tell their

43:25

story and you can hear that it's

43:29

got all this power over them and it's

43:29

running them.

43:31

And it just doesn't the stories don't run

43:31

me anymore.

43:34

I'm not caught up in the stories.

43:37

Yeah, you're to me, you're using the story

43:37

to help other people,

43:42

which I I think is great. It's that's a

43:42

part of why I started this podcast

43:47

is because I wanted to use mine and allow

43:47

people to use theirs to actually

43:52

get other people to open up and try

43:52

different things to help themselves out.

43:59

Yeah, we need to hear that, right?

44:03

That comes in through our ear.

44:05

And if the person speaks our language,

44:07

if we feel a connection to them,

44:09

if they're speaking the language of the

44:09

heart,

44:11

if they're coming from a place of honesty

44:11

and vulnerability,

44:14

maybe it'll go through our ear into our

44:14

heart and we'll go,

44:18

you know what? I feel like this guy is

44:18

like maybe telling the truth.

44:23

And maybe I should try this. Like maybe I

44:23

should try this,

44:26

like and see what's there for me.

44:29

I don't know, it's it sounds ridiculous

44:29

breathing in a but let me go try it

44:33

And then they have an experience and

44:33

that's what changes their life.

44:38

So the stories that we share, hopefully

44:38

they can create action because nothing's

44:43

gonna change in your life if you don't

44:43

take any action.

44:46

You have to take the action.

44:48

Yes.

44:50

For sure. And and I remember I was I was

44:50

actually stuck for years and like

44:56

all the you know, it's medical and mental

44:56

health issues for me.

45:00

And until I actually went through s like

45:05

a bad medical spout and had some bad

45:05

mental health seizures

45:10

or mental health problems after years and

45:10

years of having them.

45:13

It's like a big cluster came on and I

45:13

finally admitted to myself.

45:18

I need help. I need to I need to find a

45:18

way out of this.

45:21

And it wasn't until I said those words and

45:21

admitted to myself that

45:27

I needed to do what find something that

45:27

worked for me.

45:30

Like I I knew I was gonna remain stuck.

45:34

Like

45:34

Yeah.

45:35

I the I need help is one of the most

45:35

powerful things you can possibly say.

45:39

But it's so hard to say it, especially for

45:39

a man like a man we were like taught like

45:45

you be tough, be a man, you can figure it

45:45

out,

45:47

walk it off, right? Like we do this thing

45:47

to little boys from a young age of like,

45:49

Mm-hmm.

45:51

be a man. It's like he's eight years old

45:51

and crying because he got hurt.

45:54

Why are you telling him to be a man?

45:55

Yeah.

45:56

He's eight. He's supposed to cry.

45:57

He just got hurt, you know, and so.

46:00

It's so funny. Like when I tried to quit

46:00

drinking on my own for a good solid year

46:06

and I would get like 20 days and I would

46:06

drink and I get 30 days and I would drink.

46:09

And so I could like when I really thought

46:09

I could do it on my own.

46:13

And that was such a hard thing to realize

46:13

to realize.

46:16

Like I can't figure this out. I need help.

46:19

I need help. So I'm gonna go take advice

46:19

from another man who I don't know

46:24

to tell me how to quit drinking.

46:26

Like that sounds crazy, but it worked.

46:30

Right. It worked. And so, and then I go,

46:34

wait, I'm gonna go to a breathwork class.

46:36

I'm gonna lay on the floor and breathe.

46:37

That sounds ridiculous. And then it

46:37

changed my life.

46:39

So now I've had so many things in my life

46:39

that I've done that

46:43

I thought were ridiculous that were life

46:43

changing for me.

46:45

I'm like, what else is out there?

46:47

Okay, I'll go do that. And some of the

46:47

stuff is ridiculous and didn't work at

46:48

Mm-hmm.

46:52

And I was like, okay, it didn't work.

46:54

No big deal. It's a great story.

46:56

You know, I tried that thing.

46:58

But some of the stuff worked so profoundly

46:58

that I'm like,

47:00

wow, this is amazing. I have to bring this

47:00

into my students and

47:04

my teacher trainings and share this with

47:04

the people around me and share this with

47:08

my family.

47:10

Y so I think the key word there is

47:10

sharing.

47:14

Like I think you're sharing your knowledge

47:14

and making it so other people

47:18

get the help they need is fantastic.

47:20

But what about those people who are afraid

47:20

to confront their

47:26

all the pain that's inside of them,

47:28

all those painful emotions. What advice

47:28

would you give those people?

47:33

Well, your emotions, I used to say

47:33

feelings aren't facts and feelings won't

47:38

you. But I learned that that's not true.

47:40

Because sometimes you can get a lie in

47:40

your head that's so strong that tells

47:46

you something so strongly that it will

47:46

create a s like a loop and

47:52

you can commit suicide. And because I

47:52

someone very dear to me,

47:55

very close to me, got that lie in their

47:55

head and they committed suicide.

47:59

And so I don't say that feelings aren't

47:59

facts.

48:03

I say that, you know, if you're feeling

48:03

all these feelings,

48:06

first of all, just know that some of them

48:06

may not be true,

48:11

that our head isn't always telling us the

48:11

truth.

48:13

It's a hard thing to face, it's a hard

48:13

thing to realize that,

48:16

like, my brain, which is supposed to

48:16

protect me,

48:19

is now overprotecting me and lying to me

48:19

and telling me stories that aren't true.

48:24

And it can tell you things like nobody

48:24

cares about you,

48:27

nobody loves you. It isn't fucking true.

48:29

And so

48:31

I say, like, you gotta find somebody that

48:31

you trust and tell them what's going

48:35

on with you and walk through the fear of

48:35

the unknown and walk through those

48:42

of reaching out for help. You know,

48:45

the the it just starts with like picking

48:45

up the phone and asking

48:49

for help and saying, I don't know what to

48:49

do.

48:52

I'm I've got this feeling, I've got this

48:52

thing going on with me.

48:56

And

48:57

That's kind of the hardest part.

48:59

Like the build up to that is much harder

48:59

than actually taking the action

49:03

and doing the thing. We build it up in our

49:03

heads into such such a bigger story

49:05

Yes, for sure.

49:09

and such a bigger thing. We we actually

49:09

just taking the action is just

49:12

ten times easier.

49:15

Yeah. And you hit on something to me that

49:15

is huge when it comes

49:19

to especially like to me, I guess I can't

49:19

even say just mental health,

49:24

but anything you're going through is

49:24

having somebody in your corner,

49:28

having that one person that you can trust.

49:31

But I wouldn't even say it is just one

49:31

person.

49:34

I think you need to trust yourself,

49:35

trust others, the ones that you know are

49:35

in your corner that are there for you.

49:40

And you need to trust into the progress

49:40

that you make even when it's small.

49:45

Teeny steps.

49:46

Yeah. You and you need somebody to point

49:46

it out to you,

49:49

a a mentor of some type, you know,

49:52

to be like, no, you have made progress

49:52

because you don't see it in ourselves

49:55

a lot of the time. it's really hard to see

49:55

in ourselves.

49:58

And so finding those right mentors,

50:00

finding those right people, unfortunately,

50:02

you know, what happens with like something

50:02

like alcoholism or drug addiction

50:06

is it isolates us. It's an a it's a

50:06

disease of isolation.

50:10

We push everybody away and they get sick

50:10

of

50:13

you know, people lying to their face all

50:13

the time,

50:15

you know, and it's it and we become

50:15

isolated and we feel completely alone.

50:21

And so we are alone and we have to find,

50:25

you know, whether it's 12 step recovery or

50:25

some rehab or whatever it is,

50:30

it's just like we have to find some help

50:30

and be willing to take direction

50:35

and stop listening to ourselves for a good

50:35

six months to a year.

50:40

That 30 day bullshit, like

50:42

For treatment for recovery, like that was

50:42

created by insurance companies because

50:46

that's all they wanted to pay for.

50:47

It you didn't mess your life up in 30

50:47

days.

50:50

You're not going to fix it in 30 days

50:50

either.

50:52

It takes some time. So when I went into

50:52

recovery,

50:55

I was like, a year. I'm going to give this

50:55

a year.

50:58

And if my life isn't better in a year,

51:00

then the bar will still be there,

51:02

the liquor store will be still be there,

51:04

the drug dealer will still be there.

51:05

And in a year, the circumstances of my

51:05

life had changed.

51:10

quite a bit, but like I had really changed

51:10

on the inside.

51:13

Like I wasn't looking at things with the

51:13

same eyes anymore.

51:15

My perception had shifted massively.

51:18

And I really had started doing the inner

51:18

work on myself and reading

51:22

all these really powerful books like,

51:24

you know, The Power of Now and The Seed of

51:24

the Soul and on digging into

51:28

the work around myself and meditating and

51:28

helping others and all these kind

51:32

of things. And I was like, yeah,

51:34

you know what? I don't, I'm not that same

51:34

guy.

51:36

Like why would I want to go back to the

51:39

To the same horrible life.

51:43

Yeah, it's you found your way out,

51:45

found your way to the other side.

51:46

And it's I can see how that is.

51:49

And then you got to reach back and pull

51:49

someone else up.

51:50

Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

51:51

There's a lot of people,

51:53

Just keep going.

51:55

I meet people sometimes out in the world

51:55

and you know they find out

51:59

I'm sober and they're like, you know,

52:00

I tried, you know, I tried 12 step

52:00

recovery and it didn't work for me.

52:03

I go, ~ you did? Did you ~ did you get a

52:03

sponsor?

52:07

Kind of, yeah, I had a sponsor.

52:08

Did you work all 12 steps? Well,

52:10

I worked a few of them. Did you turn

52:10

around and work the 12 step,

52:13

help somebody else? No, I didn't do that.

52:15

Yeah, I know. Cause if you did,

52:18

you'd still be there.

52:19

What you did is you went to the gym and

52:19

you walked around and you looked

52:24

at the equipment and you maybe sat on a

52:24

piece of equipment or two,

52:27

but you didn't even lift any weights.

52:29

And then you what left there and you said,

52:31

Yeah, I tried the gym. It doesn't work,

52:32

it doesn't get you in shape. Well,

52:35

you didn't really do the weights.

52:36

You didn't do the diet. You didn't get it

52:36

someone to show you how

52:36

Mm-hmm.

52:39

to lift weights and eat right.

52:40

And then you didn't turn around and help

52:40

somebody else.

52:42

Yeah you

52:46

Yeah, and you for sure have to put the

52:46

work into it.

52:48

It's I for some reason I had in my head

52:48

when I first started therapy that

52:55

they could just take all my emotions and I

52:55

take them away and they disappear

53:00

and I'd be fine. It would take about,

53:02

you know, six months to year. And my

53:02

therapist had to set me straight.

53:06

He sat me down. He's like, You know,

53:08

you can

53:12

Your goal is actually to learn the

53:12

techniques to deal with what you have

53:16

So you can look past it and move forward.

53:16

Yeah.

53:20

I was like, so you can't just talk it out

53:20

of me He's like,

53:25

No, it doesn't work that way. So it was it

53:25

was a big mind shift for me.

53:26

Yeah.

53:29

The the

53:29

emotions require to be felt. And what a

53:29

lot of people do is they don't want

53:32

Mm-hmm.

53:33

to feel them. They push them down inside.

53:35

They don't realize they're pushing them

53:35

inside.

53:36

They think they're just pushing them away.

53:38

But like what I always like to say is like

53:38

you can't open your heart

53:42

up and feel gratitude and joy and love and

53:42

close it off from grief

53:46

and sadness and disappointment

53:46

disappointment.

53:49

It doesn't work that way. So you have to

53:49

feel the other emotions too.

53:53

And that's not what people want.

53:54

They don't want to feel them. And

53:56

I just found that when I allow those other

53:56

emotions to be felt,

53:59

then I can get back to gratitude and love.

54:04

Which is where I want to live.

54:04

Yeah.

54:07

Yeah, and I I think for me that's exactly

54:07

where I want to live too,

54:10

by the way. But I think the biggest like

54:10

blocker for me was the fear

54:14

of being vulnerable.

54:16

Hmm. Yeah. Well, it's funny because,

54:19

you know, I said this at the very

54:19

beginning when I was telling my story that

54:23

I was told I was overly sensitive,

54:25

right? And that's just being vulnerable

54:25

and ~ you know,

54:28

allowing your emotions. And I just was in

54:28

an environment that didn't allow for it.

54:32

And my joke was if I started to feel my

54:32

feelings,

54:34

I would do a shot and then punch somebody

54:34

in the face and the feelings would

54:37

go away. But now, if you do my class,

54:41

you'll hear I get really emotional in

54:41

certain moments in my class.

54:45

And people, it gives people permission to

54:45

get emotional themselves in the class.

54:51

And so I think it's one of the things that

54:51

makes my class really special

54:55

in the way I teach it. And, you know,

54:57

what comes from the heart goes to the

54:57

heart.

54:59

So what I learned is your greatest wound

54:59

can become your greatest gift.

55:03

My greatest wound was that I was too

55:03

sensitive.

55:05

And now I allow that vulnerability to come

55:05

through to help other people.

55:13

I love it.

55:14

Yeah. It's like I'm a I'm a I'm not I'm a

55:14

guy guy.

55:19

I'm still a guy. I'm a jujitsu black belt.

55:22

I can kick the shit out of most people out

55:22

there.

55:24

Like I joke, it's like I'll choke you out

55:24

and then I'll show you

55:27

how to put gratitude and love in your

55:27

heart.

55:28

U use

55:29

use all of your talents in one spot,

55:32

right?

55:32

Yeah,

55:32

well, it's funny. It's like you can be

55:32

both.

55:34

You can be a sensitive, vulnerable man and

55:34

be a badass at the same time.

55:40

You don't have to be one or the other.

55:42

And I don't have to be some new age

55:42

woo-woo guy to teach breath work.

55:47

You know? And I like people were shocked

55:47

when they started coming to

55:50

my class at this one studio that I was

55:50

teaching at a long time ago.

55:53

Cause I I sometimes would be really

55:53

frustrated.

55:56

I had to take the

55:57

for the 10 freeway to the 101 to the 405.

56:00

They're like three worst freeways in Los

56:00

Angeles.

56:02

And then I was like fighting over a

56:02

parking space.

56:04

So by the time I got into the room,

56:06

I was like, Jesus, sit your ass down so I

56:06

can show you how to put gratitude

56:09

and love in your heart for God's sakes.

56:11

And they're like, my God, this is the

56:11

teacher.

56:13

Cause all the other teachers were walking

56:13

in the room and they were like,

56:15

Hi, hi, everybody. I know Mercury's in

56:15

retrograde right now and we're

56:20

Yeah.

56:21

all having a hard time. And I was walking

56:21

in the round room and just being like,

56:24

sit your ass down. Let's go.

56:26

We're gonna do some shit, you know?

56:27

And they're like, what? And I'm like,

56:29

yeah, I'm not gonna, I'm gonna teach this

56:29

in what's real.

56:32

Like, there were some days I came in

56:32

there,

56:33

I was pissed off. There was some days I

56:33

came in there,

56:36

I was heartbroken. And I allowed that to

56:36

come through during the class.

56:40

I allowed that emotion to be felt.

56:42

I get just as much out of teaching my

56:42

class as the people do taking my class.

56:48

So I'm so grateful when I get to do my

56:48

class online every Sunday.

56:51

I'm like, I needed that too.

56:54

Yeah. ~

56:55

I wanna be moved

56:56

and I wanna move other people.

56:58

I don't wanna just teach a friggin' class.

57:00

I wanna be moved in the process.

57:04

And I get the same way when I start a

57:04

podcast,

57:06

like it's I'll be having a crappy week and

57:06

all of a sudden I jump

57:10

on that podcast and when it's over,

57:12

I feel so much better.

57:14

Yeah. It's amazing. Telling your story,

57:18

sharing your story, sharing with somebody

57:18

else.

57:21

That's human nature. It's in our DNA.

57:24

We used to sit around the fire and share

57:24

stories.

57:27

And we've kind of lost that. We're finding

57:27

our way back to it through this podcast,

57:32

through that connection, sitting around

57:32

the fire,

57:34

telling stories. But a lot some people are

57:34

just so disconnected.

57:39

We're on this device doom scrolling all

57:39

day long and trying to

57:44

and we and we're feeling you know,

57:46

lonely and whatever, but like that's

57:46

because we're missing that connection.

57:51

You gotta get out there and touch grass,

57:53

as the young kids like to say now,

57:55

touch grass and connect with other people.

57:59

Yeah, for sure. So if somebody right now,

58:02

or so somebody listening is struggling

58:02

with whatever,

58:07

anxiety, stress, feeling stuck,

58:09

what's one thing they could do today to

58:09

start moving forward?

58:14

I would say take a small action,

58:16

you know, a small action. You could sign

58:16

up for my class on Sunday,

58:20

you know, there's a five day replay

58:20

afterwards,

58:22

but this Sunday's class, well,

58:23

I don't know when this is coming out,

58:25

but like there's a five day replay after

58:25

the class.

58:27

And so if you just commit to it and then

58:27

put it on your calendar and do that,

58:33

I promise you you're gonna feel a shift.

58:37

You're gonna feel a shift. And I may not

58:37

be the right guy for you.

58:40

There's other people out there doing this

58:40

work,

58:41

and there's other things, but maybe it

58:41

takes you to the next thing.

58:45

And like so, commit yourself to doing

58:45

once,

58:50

one thing a week that you've never done

58:50

before.

58:52

It doesn't have to be one thing a day,

58:54

one thing a week. You're saying,

58:55

you know, I'm gonna do one thing every

58:55

week that I've never done before,

58:59

I've never tried before for myself,

59:01

for myself care. And I like to say that

59:01

self care is about,

59:05

you know.

59:07

Doing the uncomfortable work, right?

59:09

People think self-care is a bubble bath or

59:09

a massage.

59:12

No, that's the reward for doing the thing.

59:14

Real self care is is good showing up for

59:14

yourself and being willing

59:18

to get uncomfortable for yourself.

59:19

Being willing to do the thing you're

59:19

scared of.

59:22

That's real self care. That's real self

59:22

love.

59:27

Yeah, and it it and if you don't if you're

59:27

not willing to put the work into it,

59:32

~ for example, the very first time that I

59:32

started therapy years ago,

59:38

I I really honestly just half assed it.

59:41

I was given all these worksheets and

59:41

assignments to do outside of therapy

59:47

and I didn't do So I didn't really see any

59:47

progress and I'd go back and

59:51

he he would say, Okay, it explained the

59:51

progress over the last like two weeks

59:55

and I was like, I

59:57

didn't have time to do this. I didn't have

59:57

time to do that.

59:58

Yeah.

1:00:00

He said, Well I need you to do that.

1:00:02

So we but this time around, now that I

1:00:06

was fully committed and actually did the

1:00:06

assignments,

1:00:11

I saw huge shift in the way I think about

1:00:11

things.

1:00:15

Yeah, you can't be mad. It's funny to me,

1:00:18

people get pissed off looking at other

1:00:18

people's lives.

1:00:21

And it's like, well, you don't know what

1:00:21

the what work they put in.

1:00:24

You can't be mad about the life that you

1:00:24

don't have for the work that

1:00:28

you didn't put in. Right? You didn't put

1:00:28

the work in.

1:00:29

Mm-hmm.

1:00:31

You have no idea what work that person put

1:00:31

in.

1:00:34

Stop looking at other people's lives on

1:00:34

social media and thinking they have

1:00:37

it so good. You know, you don't know what

1:00:37

it's like behind the social media,

1:00:41

but also you don't know what work they put

1:00:41

in.

1:00:42

So

1:00:44

If you want a better life, be willing to

1:00:44

put in a little work for yourself,

1:00:48

be willing to show up for yourself and see

1:00:48

what happens.

1:00:53

Exactly. Very well said. So looking back

1:00:53

at the person you were,

1:00:58

you know, when you hit rock bottom,

1:01:00

what would you want him to know about the

1:01:00

life you're living today?

1:01:07

You know, it ~ it's funny because it

1:01:07

always takes longer than we think it's

1:01:11

take. So have patience, be kind to

1:01:11

yourself.

1:01:15

You know, I like to say work hard on

1:01:15

yourself,

1:01:17

but don't be hard on yourself,

1:01:19

you know, because I was really hard on

1:01:19

myself all that way.

1:01:22

And one of the things I've gotten from

1:01:22

this breath work is like,

1:01:25

you know, I'm gonna keep making mistakes.

1:01:29

I'm still making mistakes. Do I I don't

1:01:29

need to beat myself up when

1:01:32

I make a mistake?

1:01:34

And do I want my kids to beat themselves

1:01:34

up?

1:01:36

Do I want my kids to be as hard on

1:01:36

themselves as I have been on myself?

1:01:40

I don't. So I can't tell them that.

1:01:43

I have to show them that. I have to model

1:01:43

that for them.

1:01:45

Like, hey, look, I messed up. It's okay.

1:01:48

Let me fix it. Not a big deal.

1:01:50

Let me not beat myself up. Because I

1:01:50

watched my daughter being hard

1:01:54

on herself and it broke my heart.

1:01:55

And I was like, well, that's kind of what

1:01:55

I do.

1:01:58

so

1:01:59

You know, work hard on yourself,

1:02:00

but don't be hard on yourself.

1:02:02

Ca create a shift where you're like,

1:02:03

you know you're gonna keep making

1:02:03

mistakes.

1:02:05

You're never gonna reach it a point in

1:02:05

your life where you stop making mistakes.

1:02:09

So if that's the case, like can I just be

1:02:09

easier on myself when about these

1:02:13

mistakes?

1:02:16

I love it. Love every piece of it.

1:02:18

I always say that when I do these it feels

1:02:18

like a free therapy session for me.

1:02:23

Cause I I pick up so much from

1:02:26

Well, you're gonna come to class.

1:02:27

That's gonna

1:02:27

be that's gonna feel like ten therapy

1:02:27

sessions when you come to my class

1:02:30

Yeah.

1:02:31

and do that. You're gonna be like,

1:02:32

Holy shit, we need to do another podcast.

1:02:34

That's what happens every time.

1:02:34

He

1:02:38

So I have just one last question and then

1:02:38

if just a few follow ups.

1:02:41

You've helped people move through

1:02:41

addiction,

1:02:45

anxiety, grief, and trauma, and you name

1:02:45

it,

1:02:48

you've probably helped someone in thou

1:02:48

those lines.

1:02:51

What's the biggest lesson you've learned

1:02:51

about the human ability

1:02:54

to overcome adversity?

1:02:59

Yeah, I just think that your spirit is

1:02:59

stronger than you think it is.

1:03:03

And you have to be willing to love

1:03:03

yourself and and and just keep showing up.

1:03:10

Like it I you know, I've I love stories of

1:03:10

adversity.

1:03:14

I think everybody does. I mean,

1:03:16

that's why we go to the movies,

1:03:17

that's why we watch shows. But you see it

1:03:17

in other people,

1:03:22

but you don't think it's there for you.

1:03:23

It's there for you too.

1:03:26

You can be the hero of your own story.

1:03:28

You are the hero of your own story,

1:03:30

but you have to be willing to do something

1:03:30

different.

1:03:34

Because if you keep getting the same

1:03:34

results,

1:03:37

then you have to like look at that and go,

1:03:40

like, what haven't I tried? What am I why

1:03:40

am I making the same mistake over

1:03:44

and over? What can I do differently here?

1:03:46

And look at that and have an honest look

1:03:46

at yourself.

1:03:49

Be honest with yourself because a lot of

1:03:49

people are lying to themselves

1:03:53

and find people that you can trust.

1:03:55

That will get honest with you too.

1:03:59

said and I I totally agree. ~ what and the

1:03:59

these this one's just

1:04:05

a generalized question. I try to ask this

1:04:05

to every guest.

1:04:08

What would you say is the biggest stigma

1:04:08

when it comes to mental health?

1:04:15

~ I I I don't I think there was a big

1:04:15

stigma.

1:04:18

I don't think the stigma is is there as

1:04:18

bad anymore.

1:04:21

At least for me, like I talk about it so

1:04:21

much,

1:04:24

maybe I'm I'm just so used to it.

1:04:26

You know, it's like right there at the

1:04:26

forefront.

1:04:29

But I I think just like alcoholism,

1:04:31

you know, alcoholism, there was a lot of

1:04:31

stigma around alcoholism in the 50s,

1:04:35

the forties, the fifties, the sixties.

1:04:37

And now it's like everybody knows somebody

1:04:37

in their family.

1:04:41

That has alcoholism, that has addiction.

1:04:43

It's it's ripped through the lives of

1:04:43

every single you know family on this

1:04:48

on this planet, I think, at this point.

1:04:50

If you if you nobody wants to be an

1:04:50

addict,

1:04:53

and so it's not a it's not a personal

1:04:53

moral failing,

1:04:57

it's it's a disease. And so and the same

1:04:57

thing with mental health,

1:05:01

but it's just calling it out takes away

1:05:08

the power.

1:05:09

Takes away the shame around it.

1:05:10

S you know, calling it out, speaking,

1:05:13

speaking it into the light, as they say,

1:05:15

you know, like we're doing, we're bringing

1:05:15

it all into the light right here.

1:05:19

It just takes the power away from it.

1:05:21

You know, like people try to make jokes

1:05:21

about me being hairless.

1:05:24

It's like, I already made all those jokes.

1:05:26

I've already heard of if you've got

1:05:26

something good that's I haven't heard,

1:05:30

like, great, give it to me. I'll use it

1:05:30

myself.

1:05:32

Like, there's no power. You have no power

1:05:32

over me.

1:05:35

There's nothing you can say to me.

1:05:37

about me that's gonna hurt my feelings at

1:05:37

this point.

1:05:39

I wouldn't give someone that kind of

1:05:39

power.

1:05:41

So t calling out the mental health stuff

1:05:41

takes the power away from it,

1:05:46

takes the shame away from it. It shines

1:05:46

the light on.

1:05:51

Awesome. Fantastic. where can people find

1:05:51

you?

1:05:55

My website, I have a couple websites,

1:05:57

but my main one is breathewithjp.com,

1:06:00

B-R-E-A-T-H-E-W-I-T-H J P dot com.

1:06:04

Not breath with J P, breathe with J P dot

1:06:04

com.

1:06:06

And you can find my other websites through

1:06:06

there.

1:06:09

You can find my Sunday Zoom class on there

1:06:09

as well.

1:06:12

if you put your email in, I give you 10

1:06:12

bucks off the class.

1:06:15

So it's only 19 bucks your first time.

1:06:17

The price of a burrito these days,

1:06:20

I like to say. And so

1:06:22

Come try a class before you don't just

1:06:22

sign up for a teacher training

1:06:25

if you were inspired by this podcast.

1:06:27

Do a class first. I want people to

1:06:27

experience the breath work before they

1:06:32

deeper. And then if you want to dive

1:06:32

deeper,

1:06:33

check out my courses online. The five-day

1:06:33

emotional detox course

1:06:37

is really profound that I was talking

1:06:37

about.

1:06:39

And just show up. Just be willing to try

1:06:39

something different.

1:06:42

Don't eat before the breathwork class.

1:06:44

You want to do it on a bit of an empty

1:06:44

stomach and ~ give yourself an hour.

1:06:48

If you don't have an hour to take care of

1:06:48

yourself,

1:06:51

Do a breathwork class, then you don't have

1:06:51

a life.

1:06:54

Awesome. And the last thing here is we've

1:06:54

discussed a lot of topics tonight.

1:07:00

Is there anything that you would like to

1:07:00

bring up that we did not bring up?

1:07:05

I think we covered a lot of ground.

1:07:07

I think we we really hit everything on the

1:07:07

head and I feel really good about this.

1:07:12

I I just I just think, you know

1:07:18

Have to say, it sounds so corny to do the

1:07:18

self-love,

1:07:23

this kind of work on yourself.

1:07:25

You know, I I think I was embarrassed when

1:07:25

I started talking about breath work

1:07:29

and saying self-love. Like I just never

1:07:29

thought I would be that guy.

1:07:32

But the biggest regret that people have at

1:07:32

the end of their life is that they wish

1:07:37

they lived a life more true to themselves.

1:07:39

They've studied this in hospice where

1:07:39

people are dying.

1:07:43

And that is by far the biggest regret that

1:07:43

people say they have is like.

1:07:47

I wished I I wish I lived a life more true

1:07:47

to myself.

1:07:50

I wish I did the things that I really

1:07:50

wanted to do and lived more authentically

1:07:53

who I really was. And so I really feel

1:07:53

like I'm doing that.

1:07:57

And I feel like when you do the breath

1:07:57

work,

1:08:00

you stop giving a shit what other people

1:08:00

think.

1:08:02

And when you don't care what other people

1:08:02

think,

1:08:05

you can create an amazing podcast.

1:08:07

You can do so many beautiful things in the

1:08:07

world when you stop worrying about

1:08:12

or stop caring about other people's

1:08:12

opinions of you in your life.

1:08:17

Yes, that's that's really well said 'cause

1:08:17

at some point I had to learn

1:08:22

how to do that. I had to stop caring what

1:08:22

people th thought of me 'cause

1:08:24

Yeah.

1:08:26

I really don't care. I'm gonna do what I

1:08:26

want to do.

1:08:30

Yeah.

1:08:32

Well, John Paul, thank you so much for

1:08:32

taking some time to speak with me today.

1:08:37

And thank you for what you do.

1:08:37

Thanks for having me.

1:08:41

I really admire how you're out there and

1:08:41

formed your own type

1:08:47

of breath work basically to help people

1:08:47

out and how you're sharing your story.

1:08:52

Thanks, Travis. Appreciate it.

1:08:54

And thank you all that have listened to

1:08:54

this episode.

1:08:58

If it resonated with you, please share us.

1:09:00

Or please share us. Please share this

1:09:00

episode and give us a follow.

1:09:05

Thanks again. Until next time.