Latest / Spiritual AF! / EP #81 - From Stonework to Breathwork with Rory Price

Transcript

EP #81 - From Stonework to Breathwork with Rory Price · Spiritual AF!

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome everyone to the special series of Back Yourself Mini Podcasts, where Liz and I meet with five people for five mini interviews with five very different stories.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: And today I am joined by Rory Price from Imbus.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, Rory.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me, Diane and Liz.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's an absolute honor to be on your podcast.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: I've been listening for a while, so I'm excited for this.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, very good.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: We love hearing that.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure Liz is in the background cheering you on there as well.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Rory, one of the reasons we had so many people who came through who are either backing themselves or they had been nominated to back themselves further.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: But what stood out for me about your story and your background is just the contrast of the work.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, you're a stonemason, you're an author, you're a breath work and meditation guide, you're a healing practitioner, and you do soul frequency mapping.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that is such a broad range of things.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And like clearly, there's a story behind the work that you do.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: But before we go into the work you do today, if you can just tell us a little bit about your kind of background and some of those kind of pivotal moments or those turning points in life that kind of set the breadcrumb trail into the work that you do today.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, I guess it all started in childhood, you know.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: I grew up in in Derry in the north of Ireland and with a pretty tough life, you know, moving from different houses and single mother, and um, we finally got to a place that was supposed to be a safe place to live.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I would have been about six to eight years old and went through sexual abuse at that time, and that was obviously a big trauma to go through as a kid, but I remember thinking even at that age, you know, when I'm older, I'm gonna do whatever it is.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: I thought it would be a therapist or a counsellor, you know, to help other people to make sure other children don't have to go through through this.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: And no, I kept that to myself till my early 20s, and you know, went through all of the emotions with that, and then one night it just came out a big, big outbreak.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: And after that I kind of ran away from it for a long time.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: I thought I was fine because I spoke about it once, you know.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I travelled the world for 10 years, I lived across the UK and Australia and Vietnam for a long time.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: And at that time I was starting to write a book, you know.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's when the writing kind of began.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: I was doing email marketing, and my brother said to me, said, Rory, you're you're super talented with creative writing, you know, you should think about writing a book.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: So the idea came to me to write a novel, like an autofiction about my own life.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I spoke with my uncle who's published a few books, and I had this idea so clear in my head, but I couldn't get past the first chapter, you know, and it's like a mental block, you know.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: And then so the story was about me living in Vietnam as a man with lots of trauma, and he has to come back to Ireland to face it, you know.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: And funny enough, that's how life's played out, you know.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: I've come back and um yeah, started learning the stonework from my mother who runs festivals here in Donegal, and I just fell in love with the stone, you know, and working with something hands-on and using your body and your mind, and just connecting.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing special about working with natural things, you know, stone, wood, anything like that.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: So and from there, once the healing journey was kind of going underway and I was experienced more things and maybe going to meditation classes, like the writing started to come back to me.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: But I think the biggest kind of pivotal point in recent years was coming home, but then I was meeting my ex-partner, Lucy, as well, you know, like and she was a big catalyst for my growth and kind of like a mirror, you know, holding up a mirror for me to see the bits of myself that I'd pushed away and I completely was in denial about facing, you know.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, from there it's just been the last where are we now?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: Two years nearly.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's been intense, intense growth and work because I got to the point I started to remember like who am I without trauma?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's what kind of started it.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Who am I without the pain, without the story, without the sadness?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, who's Rory beyond all of that?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: And that's when I started looking in and I found breath work through a friend.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: He introduced it to me.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we went for a dip in the ocean.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: I was just back from Vietnam at the time, so getting in the Atlantic sharpen take a breath.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so he taught me how to control the breath, and you know, he spoke to me and I asked him, like, what's what got you into doing breath work?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: And he explained the physical side of it as well.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: But he said, in childhood, you know, it's he went through a lot of trauma in his own his own life and it blocked out everything, he blocked out a lot of stuff, and breath work had helped these memories to come back in a healthy way to process them, and that just clicked.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: When he said that something in me clicked, you know, and I went home and started practicing, started doing my own research.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, through the breath and these friends and and Lucy and these people that were around me, you know, I just I dedicated myself to figuring out me and remembering who I am, you know, and the the readings you're talking about, the soul frequency mapping.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um it was a different system I was working on before, kind of my own system, but they both use gematria, which is an old Hebrew kind of system of using letters and giving them a numerical value to break them down, and then it shows you like your destiny, why you're here, what's your physical talents, your spiritual talents, all of this kind of stuff.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: And when I did a reading for myself, this is telling me stuff I already know.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like I'm learning something new, but it's yes, remembering a part of me that maybe you've covered up or you've hidden or that's been hurt that you didn't want to face, you know.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: So the journey of coming home is just and meeting these people and reconnecting with with old people is what's it's led me here where I am now, you know, and been able to offer it.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: I relate so much to that, Rory, because I know myself like my own mental health journey and this this series is focusing on both, you know, the spiritual side and the wellness side as well, like for practitioners in those spaces.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it is, you know, we can run away from things.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: We can either run away from whether it is, you know, traumatic experiences in our lives or um you know be in denial of some of the things that have happened to us, or if we're someone that some of our spiritual gifts are, you know, opening up, we may run away from those as well.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: But at some point, that deeper look within is so, so important.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I will say I've had one of those readings done with you, which blew my mind.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I love what you said about it's not like a predictive thing, it's actually telling you what you already know.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's such a huge sense of knowing.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think for any of us who are on a healing journey, that we want those moments where we're blowing ourselves wide open, but we want something to kind of hang on to or something that this feels home, this seems safe, this seems to resonate with my soul.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I would love to like that is such wide work and it's such so many pivotal moments for you.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: But in the work that you're doing now, can you share some of the things that might be impacts of your work?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so that was the impact it had on you.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: What is now the impact that you're seeing on the work that you do on others?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's been huge and very varied, you know.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I started off kind of maybe sharing this work with the readings with the soul frequency mapping.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that was, I think you were one of the first actually that I did a reading for.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, I didn't know that.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, as a service, as putting it out there and backing myself to do this, and that I'm capable of doing it, and that it's it's work worth sharing.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: You're one of the first.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember your review and reaction that you gave me over coffee, you know, and I was I was blown away by how you were blown away by it, you know.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, nearly everyone that I did a reading for was similar.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, people were calling me up, saying they were crying their eyes out, and how I had brought them back home to themselves, you know, and then from there I started to back myself into the breath work.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a lot of people were asking me, like, when are you gonna start teaching this?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: And like last year I published uh an ebook on breath on breath work and a lot about sacred geometry, numerology, the connection with with the covenant above, you know.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I backed myself into writing at the late last level or no, sorry, uh yeah, last year or the year before, I can't remember now.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: But then started doing the breath work classes, and that's probably where I felt the most like I could see the biggest results instantly, you know.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I went into the first class and I just felt calm, you know, straight away as soon as I started speaking, I was like, I've done this before.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's not okay, yeah.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: Not something new, you know.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: It just it was naturally just flowing, flowing out.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, one of the the very first class had a woman who I'm close friends with now came and at that stage we were strangers, you know.
• 9:03
  unknown: Yeah.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: And she came in and she shared a bit about herself and said, Look, I've I've gone through abusive forms and that inv involved getting strangled, and I've got real problems with breath work and even putting myself into this kind of space.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but by the end of the session, you know, she shared it all of that.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: I kind of lifted that she really was able to drop out of her body and go into the experience, and she just felt lighter from it.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and she's been to quite a few classes now, and we've we've we've ended up being really close best friends, you know.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, everybody that come is from all different walks, you know, it's people that might have no I hate the word, but spiritual background, everyone's spiritual, no, they've not maybe indulged that side.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: And then I've had people that are practitioners for 30 years come and everyone ends up going on a deep kind of healing journey through the breath work as well.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: So to sit and watch these kind of classes where I'm only guiding people through steps, you know, I'm not um I'm not performing some kind of magic on them, I'm just telling them how to breathe and how to understand what the breath is and what it can do, and watching it unfold, like most of my classes follow a kind of similar pattern, a similar structure.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, it's you know, we'll do some gentle breath, we'll go deeper, and then we'll kind of go into a meditative state.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and when they come back around from that, and you're using a lot of sound and music to kind of guide them out.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: For me, the the most beautiful part is seeing the reactions on people's faces when they come back around, you know.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and then and you open the room and seeing people be so vulnerable to sharing, like there's people that have shared things that they've never told their family, their friends, their partners, their husbands, and they're sitting in a room with strangers sharing it because their hearts have been opened up that much, you know, and they're ready to do it.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's such rewarding work, and I'm very grateful to be to be doing it now, you know.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I think you've touched on a really important thing there because I think when we talk about in terms of backing yourself, it's one thing to back yourself to start facilitating these sessions and putting yourself out there, but it's a whole other level of backing yourself to be able to hold space for that vulnerability and trusting yourself that you're going to be able to handle whatever comes up for someone in the room and knowing your own personal experience that people come from all walks of life with all sorts of with trauma or adverse childhood experiences, all sorts of things that they bring into that room, but that you're able to hold space for it.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: What, if anything, is some a way you were able to back yourself to do that, but also if you've any pearls of wisdom or guidance for other people who may be stepping into spaces where they have to hold that space for people?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: I guess for me, how I back myself to naturally my nature, my personality is calm.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm a very kind of easy-going, calm guy, so that obviously helps a lot.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: But it's again the breath is a huge tool for it, you know.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like a simple thing like box breathing, which is where you're doing an equal inhale, so a four-second in, four hold, four out, four four hold.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that trains your brain to expect the pattern, you know.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: So it comes like maybe seals would use that before they're jumping out of a plane into a war zone.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's little tricks like that that can really help you get in the room, but I find for me it's getting there early, it's being prepared, you know, and not over planning stuff, you know.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like I've got a structure for my class, but what every class is different, everyone is coming is bringing their own story, their own energy, you know.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: So you can never have a plan and hope to follow it because it's never good, no two classes are the same.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I think going on and having time to get into the room yourself, and you know, I I would go in an hour early and set up and then do my breath work myself for 10-15 minutes before anyone's coming in.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm already in a very you know relaxed state.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: And for breath work in particular, for classes, I invite people in and I ask them just to be quiet when they come in, so there's so everyone's dropping in straight away.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think for other practitioners similar thing, if whether it's breath, you're doing or hands-on healing or meditation or something like yourself, public speaking, just having yourself prepared and calm before and saying to yourself, like I always say to myself before my sessions, like I'm doing this for a good reason, you know, I'm doing it from my heart, I'm not doing it for for ego or for this or for hopes that I'm doing it to help other people.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: And success might come from it, money might come from it, friendships, whatever, but I'm doing it because I want to help.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's that's what helps me to back myself, you know, is remembering why I'm doing what I'm doing.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, remembering your why, and that like I guess there's a huge humility that comes with that as well.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: It is just that it just brings you back to being grounded because for anyone who's you know, whose business or presence grows over time, they may struggle with that as well.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's like bring it back to, well, why am I doing it?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And and for me, I know one of the things just when I get on a stage is like if I can help one person or if I do a group session, it's if I can help one person that always brings me back to, you know, not having ideas of grandeur of myself or not, or not being that kind of superhero who wants to save the world and you know, solve everybody's problems.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's still something that if you can back yourself and bring yourself back to that centered place, I think that will be very helpful for a for a lot of people who are, you know, looking at this in a way of, okay, well, how am I, how am I going to back myself?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: So is there anything that you're doing at the moment, Rory, that you're, you know, you're pushing yourself to that next level to say, okay, what's my next level of backing myself?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: For me recently it's been again, it's working on a new book.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: That auto fiction book I was talking about in Vietnam.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm deep into writing that now.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that's been such a healing journey in itself because I wasn't ready to write it at the time.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's why the block was there.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I hadn't done the healing.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: If I had tried to write it, it probably would have torn me apart, you know.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: So that's embacking itself in my writing again, which is great.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: And collaborations, recently doing a collaboration with a close friend with kind of meditation and breath and healing work and learning to trust to work with other people, you know, and kind of expand in that way.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: And in person and online, also just looking to grow the recent collaborations, kind of focusing on Donegal, Dairy Sligo, and maybe look to doing it online, you know, healing hearts, we're calling it.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of my main focus is my book and this collaboration at the moment.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll just see.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's it.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's another way to, and and this was what Liz and I wanted for it.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, okay, there's so many people out there doing, you know, doing incredible work that they're not necessarily either backing themselves or maybe they're not getting the visibility.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: So this is our little way of just encouraging people to to back themselves as much as possible.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you, Rory, for sharing your pearls of wisdom a little bit about your story.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and just for anybody who's interested in finding out more about Rory, so Rory Price and his website is Imbus Breath, I-M-B-A-S-B-O-R-A-T-H.com, or you can find on Facebook and Instagram under Imbus Breath as well.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: But Rory, huge, huge thank you for joining today.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: And to our listeners who are all tuning in today, I have no doubt that you have found something in this from Rory's um journey and hopefully will inspire you to back yourself.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: But as mentioned, we this is a series of five mini podcasts with five different people sharing their incredible stories with you.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: So please make sure that you follow, you subscribe, and that you check out all of the amazing stories and that you continue to back yourself.