Latest / Curiously Guided Podcast / Ep.17 | How to Use Breathwork to Tap into Intuition and Ease Decision Making in Business with Breathwork Facilitator, Amy Kuretsky

Transcript

Ep.17 | How to Use Breathwork to Tap into Intuition and Ease Decision Making in Business with Breathwork Facilitator, Amy Kuretsky · Curiously Guided Podcast

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the Curiously Guided Podcast.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: We're your hosts, Mariah and Shay, two intuitive business strategists exploring the intersection of entrepreneurship, spirituality, and the subconscious mind.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: If you're interested in exploring and learning how to integrate strategy with energetics to help you grow a profitable a profitable business in a way that actually feels good, you're in the right place.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: In today's episode, we are interviewing one of my longtime coaches, Amy Koreski.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be completely honest, this episode was a dream come true for me.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: I've always wanted the opportunity to um kind of switch the tables on Amy and ask her some questions.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: I have found her incredibly inspiring, especially in terms of a business owner that's um making space to listen to intuition and then building a business and evolving her business accordingly.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Amy's the pitch I refer Amy to everyone all the time.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: And the pitch I usually say is I have a business coach that pulls tarot for me, and then we do a breath work together, and it's been the most transformational investment I've ever made in my business.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's always been true, and it continues to be true.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Amy has just put together this really cool approach to business coaching, and um, she has a background in Eastern medicine and um holism, and she's just combined this really diverse background into a very powerful practice that she, you know, she's definitely leading by example as someone who is constantly iterating on her business, then taking a moment to tap in, see how it feels, and then tweaking and adjusting accordingly.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: And now she has this very cool innovative business model that is so fun.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, honestly, I pay for her one-on-one coaching, and I'm about to sign up for this new offering that we'll talk more about at the end of the episode.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, just because I don't think we can have enough breath work, and I don't think that we can have um enough Amy.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I really encourage you guys if you're unfamiliar with her, go stalk Amy, listen to this episode.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Breath work in and of itself has been a game changer for me, which we'll talk more about in the episode.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's a really powerful tool.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: And Amy kind of gets into what is breathwork.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we've all kind of heard about it, and I think it means different things to different people.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: And we talk about the benefits are, you know, what's actually going on in the body and how we can use it, whether or not you're a business owner as a tool to really regulate your nervous system, get in your body, and find that place of inner knowing and inner calm where we can really get in touch with our intuition.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think that one of my favorite things about this episode, besides the fact of finally getting to meet Amy, that Shay always talks so highly of, is that like there's Shay and there's Amy that love breath work so much.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have me, Mariah, coming in, who like breath work has never really been my thing.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that this episode is really interesting, especially if breathwork isn't really your thing, because Amy's able to switch the perspective.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying that, you know, by the end of the episode, I'm I'm doing breath work every day, but I gained a whole new understanding of like what breath work actually means.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And like you'll hear in the episode, maybe like, oh, wait a minute.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think I do like breath work.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so I feel like I was having like my own real, real-time aha moments.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's fun like listening back, like hearing the journey of like where I started and being really just like, I don't know, like not super excited about breath work in itself.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then I can tell you, after the episode ended, I went and I meditated and started focusing on my breath and literally started laughing and was like, cool, now I'm pro-breath work.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I really like how Amy, yeah, just like explains everything.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And she is just like this big ball of knowledge and personality.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's not like she's just like spitting facts about breath work.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: She's actually making it really relatable, really grounding.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I love the example that she gives of just like how she uses it, as Shay said, to like tap into it, tap into intuition and help her with decision making because I think that it's really helpful.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Amy's a lot like us in the sense that, you know, we're hanging out at the intersection of kind of woo and science.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: She's very grounded in her approach, very, you know, evidence-based.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Amy is certainly a smart girl.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: She has a lot to say, but then she also has this talent for demystifying things and making them seem very approachable and not perhaps scary or whatever, intimidating that it may have felt like before.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, um, we're all open for the magic here, no doubt.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: But I really think Amy has this wonderfully grounded way of explaining this stuff that makes it sound very doable and not too out there, if you will.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, a little bit more about Amy.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: She is a breath work facilitator and wellness coach for mind, body, and business, working on occupied and unceded Dakota and Anishinaabe territory.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Her work is focused on helping radical business owners thrive in the liminal space between work and life.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: She believes that the health of our physical and emotional bodies are inextricably tied to the health of our businesses, and that when we work in this overlap, we can build businesses that are heart-centered and healing for both the individual and the collective.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: She uses the breath as a tool for healing in both private business coaching and public group healing sessions, and has led in-person breathwork groups all over the US.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: She completed her breathwork training in 2017 and in 2020 organized for more anti-oppression and trauma-informed training as part of the Breathwork for the People Collective.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: Along with her coaching business, she has also has a background in acupuncture and Chinese medicine and co-owns Constellation Acupuncture and Healing Arts based out of downtown Minneapolis.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: When she's not supporting others, she's hiking in the woods with her pup, playing nerdy board games or pulling tarot cards.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: And with that, let's just dive into today's episode.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, Amy, I am over the moon excited to have you here today.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, when I from what I know about your story, you are a really interesting example of letting curiosity guide you when it comes to building a business.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so what I know is that you started as with an art history degree, is that right?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then that led into um acupuncture, which you started a clinic around.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then that led into breath work, which now you have an incredible business around.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: So can you kind of take us through the origin story a little bit?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: How did one lead to the other?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like what did the journey look like?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, it's it's a very windy road, but those are the ones that you know you get to see the weirdest shit on, like the roadside attractions.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like you get off the main freeway and you're like, oh, checking out the back roads.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: And that's totally what my journey has been like.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: And you're right.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: I did um, you know, I did undergrad for art history degree.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um I worked at the Walker Art Center, which is a contemporary art museum here in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for many years.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: I actually worked there in high school and then worked there again after college and like had different jobs there.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: And um, during that time, I also got really sick.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, a lot of people who are in the healing profession usually find themselves in the healing profession because they themselves needed a lot of healing.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: And so for me, I um was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder when I was 21.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: And it was a really challenging um road for me to go on to like find uh more of like a physical healing.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what then kind of got me interested in herbalism and acupuncture and those things.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um in that, in that sort of like road, I also um I quit my job at The Walker.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: I had this really great job.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: I had like a salary sort of job, the job that you that I went to school for.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was just like, oh, I don't like this anymore.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: I I thought this was gonna be something and it's not what I thought it was gonna be like.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I left in the middle of like what they call the great recession, like it was around 2008 when like everything kind of went to shit.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, well, like I guess I'm leaving my job.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I had no plan.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like I did not have, I did not know at the time that I was gonna become an acupuncturist.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know I was gonna become a business owner, any of those things.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: I just knew that I couldn't do what I was doing for another day.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I actually quit.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: I cleaned houses for a couple of years.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: I was just like hustling, doing whatever I needed to do to make it work.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: I was also, because I was really involved in the arts, I was um the local producer for an international film festival, um, the bicycle film festival, which it's been around for a long time.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's all over the world.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I was the local Minneapolis producer for that.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like doing this thing that gave me um joy, like in art, but then was like hustling through cleaning houses to make money.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: And this whole time getting more interested in complimentary medicine through herbalism, through acupuncture, all these things, decided to go back to grad school for acupuncture, did that, uh, got a really great education in healing work, but got zero education in how to run a business.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not like there's a lot of acupuncture jobs out there.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like there are more now.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: Granted, you know, I graduated um like almost 10 years ago now.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: And there weren't a lot of like hospital jobs and like clinics hiring and stuff then.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like most of the people who went to acupuncture school had to put their own shingle out and like try to get clients coming in.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um and we didn't really learn how to do that.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: We took like two practice management classes that were totally shit.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like they just were not helpful.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so as soon as I, as soon as I graduated in 2013 and like put my own shingle out, I was like, well, I need to figure out how to run a business.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I had been like somewhat running businesses, you could say, from like the film festival, like that's a business.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, I was independent contractor when I was doing house cleaning, like that's its own kind of business.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I like knew some like basic things, but I didn't know anything about marketing.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know anything about like, you know, other than very basic bookkeeping, like all of these things I just felt really in over my head about.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so I took what I call like almost a second master's degree, but like one of my own where I was just like listening to all the podcasts, like taking all the online courses, reading all the blogs.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: And once again, this is like 2013, 14, 15, when like, you know, podcasts were still fairly new then.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: It was mostly like blogging and some like online courses and stuff.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: But I went like really headfirst in the deep end and got a lot of really great information and really quickly built up a very successful independent acupuncture practice.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, as part of my acupuncture practice, you know, once again, we got a lot of really great education on the actual medicine.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: But I felt like we also lacked education on how to interact with patients to help them reach the goals they wanted.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: So there's like a bit of psychology behind, like there's coaching psychology behind helping people reach goals, whether their business goals or their health goals.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's very similar motivational psychology behind there.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: And so really quickly I realized that I needed more education around that as well.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I did a health coaching program that was specifically geared towards um towards health professionals.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: So like you already had to be a licensed health professional in your state to take this program.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: And the program had no like health stuff about it.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't like a nutritionist program or anything like that, like some of those other health coaching programs out there.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: This was just coaching psychology to work with patients.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: And so I did this health coaching program, which I found so interesting and so helpful, and really started seeing my patients get even better results in their health when I started incorporating this more like coaching psychology part to it.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: And so then I started getting really interested in coaching and all this stuff.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: And most of my clients that were seeing me, like my patients, um, were artistic like I am, but were also like very driven like I am.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a Capricorn rising and I'm very much your like typical Capricorn rising.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I hustle and I get it done and then really have big goals and I make them happen.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and so then people started coming to me wanting to, you know, figure out how to balance their their health and their work.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then more people started wanting to talk about just word stuff.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: And so like it kept kind of um, I'm also a generator.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: And so like I will respond when people, when like the the invitation comes.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: So like all these invitations were coming of being like, oh, I want to work with this.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, yeah, I like working with this.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: So then I would follow that curiosity, I would follow that invitation.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: And then I myself um found breath work through another acupuncturist that was out east.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it blew my mind, like blew my socks off the very first time that I did it.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, what the fuck is this?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what is going on?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: I've worked with energy now.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like at that point, I had, you know, worked with energy in my body and with acupuncture and stuff for many years.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I've never felt qi move in my body in the way that I felt it when I did breath work for the first time.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: So then that took me down this whole other path.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: So like it really has been, you know, being curious and being guided, but also really like noticing when the invitations show up and like saying yes to them when they feel right.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, wow.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited you share all that.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, our last episode we talked about human design.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, we talked about astrology.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then we talked about human design with Neha.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, we have just been introducing all of these topics.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: So, Amy, you're with a friend.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Mariah is also a generator.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then um, yeah, I I really loved how you brought all that together because we have been noticing all of these tools make talking about all of this a lot easier.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm happy you took us there.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: And tell, you know, I'm curious.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: My first question was how did you find like how did you find breath work in the first place?
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like were you referred to it by a friend or like where did that come from in your life?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I kind of saw it on Instagram, which just feels ridiculous to say out loud.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: But it's kind of true because there um there was a couple acupuncturists out in out east um in New York that I, you know, was familiar with.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like doing some, I was actually doing like a rebrand for my website at that point in time.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so I was just kind of like looking at other acupuncturists out there and being like, what do other people's other acupuncturist website look like?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know, just kind of doing some research.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I found this one acupuncturist, and she also offered breath work, and I was like, what's that?
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: And just decided to do one of her online virtual classes, and that's and literally that one moment was just like like totally opened this door for me that ever since has just like opened further and further and further.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Your story is so relatable, like there's just so many overlaps.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like in my story too, especially when you said, like in the very beginning, you had this job, and then you're just like, I can't do this another day.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like I literally cannot do this another day.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like there's there's so many people that are either near that point or have also hit that point.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like it's really great when we can come back and like celebrate that because in society, so often it's like, yeah, but you have a good job, you make good money.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what do you mean?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to leave.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing, there's no big reason for you to leave.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: But there wasn't anything to go to.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't like I had a better opportunity that was like, Oh, I'm gonna leave this job for this other thing.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, my my story was kind of similar.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: I literally remember texting my boss and being like, I'm never coming in again.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like I felt like I was breaking up with him.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, listen, this isn't fair to you and it's not fair to me.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then my mom was like, What the fuck are you gonna do?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I don't know, I'm getting my tax return.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'll be good for like four weeks, like we're solid.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so I feel like that that story and and trusting the nudge when when you look back, it's like that's that's the snowball that started growing into this thing that like you couldn't even have imagined.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I am always I always come from the place of like, you know, I never how do I want to say this?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't regret any of those things.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't regret having that job at the Walker Arts Center.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: I don't regret, you know, even though I don't actively do acupuncture nearly as much as I do breath work now, like I don't regret going to acupuncture school.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like, and those all had their time and place, and there was a reason why I had to take the roundabout curvy ass backwards path that I did to get where I am now.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: And like, because I don't think that, you know, it I wouldn't be the same practitioner, I wouldn't be the same coach, I wouldn't be the same business owner if I had like literally just went from college to finding breath work.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: It wouldn't be the same, and I wouldn't be um yeah, it wouldn't be the same.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel totally grateful that I took the path I did, even though it was super windy.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like you say ass backwards, and I'm like, I say ass forwards.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like I feel like that, like that shit, just like following the curiosity, and it's like getting this experience in all of these different things are just making us so fucking well-rounded to be the person that I don't know, that we're supposed to be, that we're supposed to help people serve with, and like maybe we couldn't serve our people at the depth that we're supposed to unless we took that windy back road.
• 18:47
  unknown: Yeah.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's such a good point because it's really easy to get um caught up on I've wasted my time, or this, like I've headed in the wrong direction, or like, why did I invest in that?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: And like, what am I doing?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: And especially if you're going through any kind of pivot, it can often feel like you're starting from scratch, but really that's never the case.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: And everything, and no matter who we talk to, that's a consistent story of like I needed all of these things to happen in that order to get where I am now and to be this the value that I can provide to the world now.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's so unique, and then I needed all of those things to get there.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't always, it's it can be really hard to have that perspective when we are in the middle of the mess.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like for instance, um, you know, I also don't, I don't have not that not that it was my choice by any means, but like I don't have any like bad feelings or regretful feelings or anything about my experience with my health and my body, because I also probably would have never found what I've found, like acupuncture and all those things, if I hadn't gotten sick at 21.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: And yet when I was at my sickest in the hospital, like deciding if I was gonna have surgery or not, like no one could have said that to me.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: I would have been, if anyone had said that to me, I'd have been like, fuck you, go away.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like away for you right now because like it does suck in that moment.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: And then you're allowed to like feel the hurt and the sadness of that disappointment or whatever is happening in that moment.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: And it is usually only through, you know, like time and space that we can then have that more accurate reflection.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I know it can be really like frustrating when like people who are further along the path from us or people who are older than us look back and be like, it all it all means something.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like there's a reason for it all.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: And like that's one of the most like frustrating things to hear when you're actually in it.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and yet for me, I can only speak for my experience, but for me, like that that is now true.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, in the business that you've put together, it's like the most lovely orchestration of all of it coming together in a way that makes so much sense.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: So let's get into the topic of today's episode a bit more breathwork.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: I had the same origin story, but I was referred by Kelsey Kerslik, who's a bit another business coach of mine, to Amy.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I did one class with Amy and the same thing, just like brain scattered on the wall.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't believe I had never felt that feeling before.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I wasn't new to like self-care.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I had been doing all the meditating and I had been trying, I had all my movement and I had all my things, but I'm I'm a pretty heady person.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so even with like um, this is one way that Mariah and I are different, but sitting down to meditate is pretty difficult for me.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard for me to get to shut all the thoughts down.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: But breath work is awesome because it gives me something to do and it almost lets it like bypasses my brain somehow, and in a way that it's difficult for me to do with meditation.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: That takes quite a bit.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: So when I first found it, I had that exact same like mind-blowing experience.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then Mariah, you share your first introductions to breath work.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: So when I first heard about breath work, uh, my boyfriend Andrew, I don't he came across some YouTube video, Wim Hof.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: He was like, look at this dude.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: He can he can like be in like a glacier for like hours and like not die.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so he made me watch like a million YouTube videos.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh, this is like interesting.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then I joined a mastermind and I was at a retreat in person.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the first things we did was a breath work thing.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I was telling Shay this before.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, So did you like it?
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I wouldn't use the word like.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't, I wouldn't use it.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was powerful.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was very powerful.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it made me cry and it made me shake.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it is something that some people love, and there is a lot of resistance around it with me.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I've done it on my own and I've done it with instructors and things like that.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's just interesting because if I have to choose breath work or meditation, I choose meditation because I don't want to actively be doing anything, which is literally like the exact opposite of Shay.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: She was like, I need something to actively do.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, no, I want to meditate because I want to, I want to do nothing.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_02: Totally.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, just like anything that's gonna resonate with some people more than other.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: And like it's interesting what you were saying about the doing nothing versus doing something.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: Because yeah, that is definitely one reason why breath work can be more attractive to some people because meditation feels hard to do nothing, like it feels really challenging.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: And for you, it sounds like it feels challenging to be doing something.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, there's there's one part of it where like we can we can work with what we got and like why why push against our natural inclinations?
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: And also there's a reason why like it can be beneficial for Shay to sometimes be doing meditation, to like push herself in that way and like try to expand your um your you know window of tolerance or your discomfort.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then like, same for you, like it would be helpful for you to be doing some breath work to like expand what you are comfortable with because you know, um, there's something to be said for like going the easeful route.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then there's also something to be said against um or for um pushing ourselves at times.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: And um I I mean, I'm a meditator also, and I find that there's a lot of benefits for me for meditation.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: Usually it's like calming and grounding and um like rejuvenating.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: Meditation feels really like rejuvenating for me.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_02: I usually can, if I'm feeling really wiped out, I can sit down and do some, you know, 10 minutes of meditation and feel like got a little burst of energy and keep going in the day.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_02: But for me, breath work feels releasing and therapeutic um and cathartic in this way that meditation has never been able to offer me.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I feel like the first thing that came up, and it's like when you said releasing, I'm like, yeah, because every time I've fucking done breath work, I cry.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: I cry enough without doing breath work.
• 25:36
  unknown: Yeah.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: We all could use a few more tears though I bet in our life.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like I think in general, our um our Western culture doesn't uh doesn't give space for emotional processing.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it really values uh thinking processing, strategic processing.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't give a whole lot of value to emotional processing or even energetic processing.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_02: And that's one of the reasons why I think breath work is uh really needed out there because uh it helps um give more permission and space for the emotional processing.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: That um unless you grew up in a family where like everyone got therapy and like it was a really normal prop part of your process, you know, we could all use that a little bit more.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: But I want to like jump back for a second because, you know, Shay, you and I are talking about one kind of breath work.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, Mariah, you were talking about the Wim Hof style of breath work.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I I want to just really clarify that breath work is an umbrella term.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there's no like trademark breath work.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like there are definitely styles of breath work that are trademark or that there are styles.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: There are styles of breath work that go back thousands of years.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, breath work is such an umbrella term that um, you know, a lot of what you do at yoga would be a style of pranayama.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: So that's like from Southeast Asia.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: The style of breath work that I practice doesn't have a specific name, but it does have its roots in pranayama.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Wim Hof has his own style of breath work.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of his has like, he's kind of like pulled from um like Tibetan culture a little bit.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's um Stanislav Grof has a style of breath work called holotropic breathwork that's really powerful, kind of similar to like what I do, but a little bit different.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: There's um shamanic breath work for people uh for you know cultures that work with shamanism.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um even like when you're giving birth and you're doing lamas, that's a type of breath work.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_02: You know, even when you're um doing that like kind of square breathing breath where you're like inhaling for four, holding for four, exhaling for four, holding for four, you know, that's a style of breath work.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: So when you're doing meditation, Mariah, like that's a style of breath work, even if it's not quote unquote like the same sort of breath work that you were doing when you had that emotional release.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: So like breath work really is such a big term.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't, I don't really subscribe to the idea that there's like one style of breath work that is like the best.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like sometimes I'm doing square breathing when I'm stressed out and I need to calm down.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I'm doing, you know, my three-part active breath, which is what I call like the style of breath work that I practice with clients when I need to make a decision in my business and I'm feeling really stressed out and I don't know which way to go, you know, and I'll open up my intuition with that breath.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: And so there's a lot of different kinds out there and they all have their own strengths and challenges.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: And some of us are going to relate to some styles more than others.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: But um, the fun thing is that you can experiment in there and like see what resonates with you because we all need to be doing more breathing in general.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like that's just I don't do a whole lot of like overarching wide sweeps of like rules, but like in reality, like most of us in this world could be doing a bit more of intentional breathing of whatever style feels right for you.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, you go into that.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm sorry, Mariah.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: No, I was just gonna say I love that re reframe because now that you're saying that, I'm just like, oh, I do like breath work.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a liar.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, usually with you, you have like a strong reaction to something, and then you're like, Oh, there's something here.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: I need to dive into this.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's literally the story of my existence.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that is correct.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_02: So, and even that like dislike, that intense dislike, can be a sign that, like, hey, there's something here to be worked with.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's a continuous learning journey for me to dive into my disgust, and it ends up really benefiting me in numerous ways, and it just becomes a joke because it's like it's just it's it's how I process and operate.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_02: So, can you take a protection mechanism?
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us about the breath.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: Why do we need to breathe breathe more?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what is happening in all of these breath work?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what's going on?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you're asking me to go into the science, which I don't know if I'm accurately able to do without reference materials in front of me.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: However, I will say that there is a book out there called Breathe by James Nestor, which I highly recommend.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: It is an engaging read that has both like science and storytelling in it and a lot of history also.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I highly recommend it.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: He did this really interesting, um, he did some really interesting studies in there, but one of them like talks about um he did this study where he basically like him and this Swedish dude went and got like their noses plugged from some like ENT person, like literally had stuff like plugged up their nose so that they could only breathe through their mouth for like two weeks or something like that.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_02: And then opposite, like then had them take out and did this thing where they like at night they would put tape over their mouth so they could like only breathe through their nose and did all of these tests, like their blood pressure, their cholesterol, their blah, blah, blah, you know, all the things.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_02: And it the results were incredible.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it talks about how um how the breath really does have some very specific measurable benefits and harms that happen depending upon how we are choosing to breathe or not breathe.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I can't, I don't really have this, I'm not a scientist, so I'm not gonna go into that right now, but I do really recommend that book.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_02: And that is also to say that like, so when I'm doing breath work with my clients, we are breathing through the mouth, which is something that he does not recommend doing on a regular basis.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_02: However, it is, it has been shown that like breathing through the mouth in like shorter amounts of time for intentional purposes is uh really it creates interesting um responses in the brain, which is partly why breath work does create these altered states of consciousness or non-ordinary states of consciousness, which is what why we're doing it, where it's like a way to um go into that place that usually we can only ever get to through like LSD or mushrooms or something like that.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I still haven't read that that new book, that new Michael, or not so new, but that Michael Pollan book about um like hallucinogens yet and psychedelics, but I'm really curious about reading it because I think he even mentions breath work in there too, because there's a lot of um there's a lot of synergy between like how we react to those plant materials and the experiences that we can create with our own body just through the breath.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think you're selling yourself a little bit short.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: I like at the beginning of all of our practices, you talk, it's like there's two things going on here.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: There is like a physical, you know, you're breathing in a lot of oxygen, you're like oxygenating your blood.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so there are physical things that happen and can be like I say proven but explained with science.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: But then there's another layer of this that I would probably call like more of the spiritual realm, which I think is what attracts all of us.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it is like a really multifaceted experience, but I think the power here really lies more in that like spiritual side of things.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, it's it's an opportunity.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if I'm ever feeling really stuck, I have a big decision to make, I want to tap into intuition.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's something that comes up a lot.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: How to how to tap into intuition.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: For me, breath work is like the fast track.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's not necessarily fast, but like the way to really get into that and really get connected.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_01: If I have big questions, big just issues going on, it's a reliable way for me to kind of like sift through all the junk and really get to the heart of the matter.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know that that can ever be explained with science, but for some reason, like knowing that there is like a scientific process going on I really liked, and like layering on the spirit on top of that.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's just a really, it makes a really powerful tool, if that makes any sense.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_02: And something that I I think um I've said a lot over the years, and I'm starting to change my languaging and my understanding around it a little bit, is like, you know, a really common phrase when talking about breath work is like, oh, it um gets us out of the brain and into the body.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: It like turns off the mind so we can tune into the wisdom of the heart and the body.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I do believe that to an extent, because for instance, people like you who are like, I'm always in my brain.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_02: And then when I do breath work, I like amable to get out of that and be more present to what's here.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: And and also alongside that, I think that that is selling ourselves short from believing that we are only ever in our brains.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: Cause I think that we are actually our brains and our bodies are more connected than we like give ourselves credit for.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I think we're turning it into a really like simplistic way of thinking about it, being like, we're always in our brains during the day when we're like on the computer all the time.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_02: But like, no, we all have moments where like, oh, we get a funny feeling in our gut, and we're like, or our shoulders get tight when we read an email that makes us like unhappy or something.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: We all have our own way of that showing up in the body.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_02: And but what I do think breath work does is it's not just then getting us out of our head and into the body, but it's helping those things integrate in a way that is more intentional, that we're not necessarily giving that intention to during the day and or you know, during the regular course of our lives.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, for a lot of people, even myself included, the body didn't always feel like a safe place to be because our body, like my body, specifically with the autoimmune disease I had, was that my gut, my digestive system, started attacking itself, or my immune system started attacking my digestive system, thinking that it was like not supposed to be there.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: And so like my body was was actually so confused that it was attacking itself, which it doesn't, it's not like a safe feeling to have that your body is like attacking itself.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: So this idea of like, oh, let's get out of the brain and into the body doesn't feel very safe.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_02: And granted, I by the time I found breath work, I had already done a lot of work to like find that safety in my body, but like that's not true for everyone.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_02: So it could be really, you know, unnerving or even slightly harmful for someone who has a lot of um like a lack of felt safety in their body to say, like, oh, well, you need to get out of your head and into your body.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, finding that place where we're actually like allowing the brain and the body to be in better communication is kind of the languaging that I'm starting to use a little bit more because, you know, even for me, I am also someone who is very much in my head.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a thinking person.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_02: And when I lay down to breathe, it's not that I'm ever totally fully in my body and out of my head.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like it doesn't work like that for me.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: My brain is still like going a million miles a minute, but instead of being like thinking about the grocery list that I need to have or whatever, like it's thinking about these different things and seeing these different connections and kind of like when you are on psychedelics and your brain is moving a million miles a minute, but it's like seeing these connections that you would not normally be able to see in your real life and like it is going like outside of your body.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_02: I think about I think about certain drugs like alcohol and weed and stuff like that as being like real like downers or like these grounding forces versus you know things like um like speed or like cocaine or something like that, like coca plant that are really like uppers, like they bring your energy like really high up, but then um like mushrooms and LSD and stuff as being like outers.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_02: They like push you outside of yourself and see something bigger.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_02: And that's like kind of what breath work does.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not that my brain is turning off, it's just like seeing things in a brand new light, which is why I'm more connected to my intuition when I do it, when I can why I can see the answers that I would not normally be able to see when I'm just normally in my my regular state of being.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it's yeah, this other way of thinking about it.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I love the way that you framed that in terms of like allowing the brain and the body to integrate because like we're humans, we we can't get rid of our egos, we can't get rid of our brains, we can't get rid of our minds.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like, how do we allow ourselves to fully embrace this human experience?
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that that wording of it, like that's the work.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and a lot of times, like you know, a lot of people that I work with find um that they're able to shift a lot of limiting beliefs when they're doing breath work, and like that wouldn't be possible unless we were in our mind.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like, that's where the limiting beliefs live.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, how else could we do that unless we were connected to that part of our brain during the breath?
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: Also, yeah, wow, I love that.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um so in terms of like using breath work as like a healing tool for business owners, I think you mentioned this before, but like how does breath work help with decision making?
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Is it kind of like it just it it calms your body down and allows you to like clearly think about things, or like how would you explain that?
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_02: I would explain it like here, let me step for one second.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_02: When I do breath work with that sort of intention, which I also want to talk about intention.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_02: So, like let's put let's put a pin in that and put that to the side for a second.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_02: But when I sit down with kind of the intention of having a challenge in my business that I need direction on, whether that's like a decision or something like that, I I you know light my candles, I get my get my stuff together, whatever I need.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: I lay down, I call in my support team.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I call in my guides that I work with, or you know, my ancestors.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um some of my more direct ancestors have some like business ties.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like I a lot of my ancestors, all of my ancestors came over from um Eastern Europe uh between World War I and World War II as like refugees um because they were Jews that were pushed out of Russia.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so when they came over to the US, they had no support system, no nothing, and they had to like, and Jews weren't allowed to have a lot of jobs back then.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so they had to find their own way, and so they all became business owners in different ways.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_02: And so I call upon some of that ancestral support.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I lay down and I start to breathe and I, but then at that point I let go of any expectation of what of an answer coming, and I just breathe.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's and then yeah, so I let go of that expectation.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_02: I just breathe for a couple songs.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like I said, my brain is still thinking or like it's still moving when I'm doing breath work.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'll maybe like get inspiration for an idea that like maybe has something to do with the challenge, but maybe it's something different.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_02: But I just like let it be there.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I like let the picture real, like the movie in my brain go of whatever it is.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, I stop the breath and in breath work.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I call it just like just like an acupuncture.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_02: There's the yang and the yin.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_02: So like the active breath is the yang portion of the practice, but then the resting portion is the yin portion, which is equally as important.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I never just do breath work and then like go about my day.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like I do breath work and then I rest after well, afterwards, because that integration period, it's just as important.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_02: You can't just have the yang without the yin or the yin without the yang, which is partly why I don't always love just regular meditation because it's so yin.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like there's a yang component that's like missing in that.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_02: But that's also another tangent we can go off later.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_02: But um, so I rest and usually, you know, this is for me, I don't want to speak for anyone else, but usually in that rest period, it feels like the cobwebs have gotten cleared and the ideas have swirled in and something rises to the surface.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's not necessarily like a flashing neon sign, but sometimes it is.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_02: I've definitely had times where it's a flashing neon sign, but sometimes it just feels like the cream rising to the surface.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll so then I'll sit with that and I'll tune in and see how that feels.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'll usually then pull a card or two, like a tarot card or two, and maybe do a little bit of journaling.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_02: And through that process, I come to a decision that feels aligned for me.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's not that it's just the breath work, it's not just the pulling tarot, it's like kind of the whole process together.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and which is also how I work with clients, because like in our sessions, and like, you know, Shay, you're welcome to talk about what it's like for you because I can't speak from that side of things.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_02: But like we talk for a while, interesting things come up and ideas and light bulb moments happen.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_02: We breathe for a while, like things happen there and we pull cards and there's messages, and it's really the like alchemy of all of them together that creates the magic.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's not like one thing or another.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love this reframe, Amy, because it is more of like it's the communication between the two.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_01: And you're right, my brain does not shut off during breath work, but it it spaciousness is the word that keeps coming up for me.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's like all of a sudden it's just able to think a little bit more clearly, things have a bit more breathing room.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's not necessarily that I'm getting these neon signs, like you said, but it's helping me, I don't know, process a little bit more in a way that feels like I feel more regulated and calm and grounded, and I'm able to think about things a bit more clearly, and then I can bring in other tools and a coach support.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: Amy, I always tell people to go work with Amy because I've never been able to like get as much done and get as much clarity in my business as I have with her through tarot breath work, right?
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so all three of us on this call, and I think a lot of our listeners are all resonating with that.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like we're smart girls, right?
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: We can go to YouTube university and learn everything we need to learn about running a business.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Business.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I did all that.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_01: I certainly had that phase two.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: But then I got to this point where it's like, I'm doing all the things and I'm freaking out.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_01: I can't, this is unsustainable.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: What am I missing?
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_01: I know all the answers.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: And through the work that Amy's describing, that really helped me take it to the next level of like, it's kind of about nourishing yourself and giving yourself different ways to look at problems that's not just so like what online university or online business people tell us we should be doing, you know?
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's a lot of self-trust too.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_02: A lot.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_02: I think the main, I think the main underlying thread that goes through all of the clients that I work with, no matter what their background, no matter how far along they are in business, is this concept of self-trust because we live in a culture like capitalism, like we all own businesses, yeah, where we live within capitalism.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_02: And also the culture of capitalism is to have us not trust ourselves and that this other, this person outside of ourselves has the answer for us and that we have to look outside of ourselves for the answer.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't subscribe to that.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_02: I subscribe to the fact that like it's really good to get outside information and we need outside information to like learn.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_02: But then we actually get to choose to synthesize that and like find the answer that's right for us.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_02: And so, like, Shay, you're a great example of like the people that I love working with are like, they aren't coming to me looking for the best Instagram strategy or like anything like that.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, I know all the things, I've taken all the courses, I've learned all the tools and the tactics, but like I'm having trouble tuning into trusting what is right for me in this moment.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_02: And once we're able to like really find that deeper source of trust, then it's like it's you just like go forward so fast because there's nothing holding you back.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like the self-doubt isn't holding you back in that way.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I love that.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: And especially like the way that you explained like the ritual that you do.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, thank you for walking us through that.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like it like the way that you were explaining it, and I know our listeners can't see the video, but like you even had your eyes closed, like you were there, like you were doing it.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that allowed us to like take that walk through the ritual with you.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I just I really love how you explain that.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in terms, so you said that you do breath work, you said for like a number of songs.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how long does a session take?
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it really varies.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, when I do breath work groups, so like pre-pandemic, I would do in-person groups here in Minneapolis pretty regularly.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I, you know, I do groups for um other, you know, like masterminds.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_02: And like I just did one the other day for Nicole Antoinette's retreat and like stuff like that.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I do groups.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_02: When I do group sessions like that, uh, we're usually breathing for about 30 minutes with about a 10 minute rest period at the end.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um and and when I do like one-on-one sessions with people, it can vary wildly.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like sometimes we only breathe for like 10 minutes, sometimes we breathe for 20 minutes, sometimes we breathe for 30 minutes.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_02: It really um, I don't have a cookie-cutter way of doing my sessions.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_02: So it is, it varies widely in that way as to what is necessary in that moment.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but generally, like if you were to, you know, Google a breath work practitioner and like find breath work, average is going to be a session is about an hour, you're breathing, you know, you're talking for a bit, you're breathing for about 30 minutes, you're resting for about 10 or 15 minutes afterwards.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_02: And that is with at least the style of breath work that I practice, the three-part um open mouth active breath.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, if you're doing something like holotropic, you know, holotropic, they don't do virtual sessions.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_02: I don't, I don't think, although I could be wrong with that, because a lot of the way they do it is like very much like one sitter for every breather.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_02: So in a big group setting, they'll have like maybe 15 or 20 or 30 or whatever breathers, but then they'll have 15, 20, or 30 sitters where like each person has someone sitting with them holding that space for them.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_02: And because those can go for hours, hours.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not kidding, hours.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so, like, you know, Shay, you know that like if you've been breathing for 30 minutes, you're like a little lightheaded afterwards.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_02: You like, you're like, I can't get up right away and go to the bathroom.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_02: And so for those, I've never done one, but I've like read a lot about it.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: I've read Stanislav Groff's book, and you literally um the setter like helps the breather up and like will take them to get water or bathroom, like or whatever they need, and then they lay back down and keep breathing because it goes for like hours.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's like this whole rebirthing process.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's really interesting.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh shit.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I had a friend telling me he's like, I did a two and a half hour session, and I was like, what?
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like that sounds wild.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_01: I can't imagine going for that long.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um actually, that actually leads me into something you touched on earlier, the idea of cultivating safety in the body.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_01: And um, what does it mean to you to be a trauma-informed breath work practitioner?
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_01: Because one thing I've noticed in the breath work world, it's like everybody like you'll hear, you know, breath work's exciting, go out and do breath work, but it actually is a very, like Mariah said, powerful process.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's good to work if if you're starting, work with someone who knows what they're doing.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_01: And um I don't know, tell me a bit more about uh how a lot of us don't have that sense of safety and building whether it's building self-trust or building a sense of safety in the body that takes time.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_01: What are your recommendations for people that are kind of curious and want to jump in?
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_01: But it obviously we wouldn't recommend going straight to holotropic, right?
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like what does it what does that look like to kind of go in safely, I guess?
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_02: So um first off, there are some like really amazing program, or I don't know if I want to call them programs, but like you can't just like read a bunch of Instagram posts and like take one like weekend course and call yourself like a trauma-informed therapist or like a trauma-informed like practitioner.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like it is a commitment over a long time.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like by being by I consider people who are trauma-informed practitioners as people who are constantly unsure of how trauma-informed they are because they are constantly wanting to get better and continue learning instead of saying, like, I know everything there is to know about trauma, because that is not a real thing.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um and there granted, there are a lot of people out there who know a whole lot about trauma-informed um practicing.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like I know the tip of the iceberg and I'm constantly learning myself.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and yet I know a whole lot more than a lot of people out there who are practicing this work right now.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_02: I think for me, at the root of it is really leading with a consent-based practice.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_02: So like I always, always, always lead off my groups when people are showing up for the very first time.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_02: That like I consider myself, I use the analogy of like a GPS system.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna invite you to take a left here or a right here or to go faster or go slower or whatever and go in this direction.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_02: But you're the one driving the car.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_02: You are the one breathing, and you always get to choose whether or not you take that invitation, or you say, like, nope, I'm gonna go this other way and like go a totally different way.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_02: And you have the right to do that.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so a lot of it is like instead of saying like go faster, breathe faster, did it like, you know, really forcing a prescriptive method on someone, really meeting them where they're at and letting and leading with a consent-based practice.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um there are other specific things, you know, like I generally believe that people who have experienced trauma, and and I this is both like big T trauma and little T trauma.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like it I think that trauma, I mean, we've all experienced a pretty significant trauma over the last two years of like living through this pandemic.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like it has been traumatic for our nervous system in a variety of ways.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that um oftentimes people who've experienced trauma, uh, the anxiety that comes up from that stems from a la a feeling of out of being out of control.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_02: And breath work often pushes our boundaries on that because when we are in breath work, we can often we're often being invited to let go of our egoic control and give over to spirit, which for some of us who have practiced that a lot can feel easy, but most of us feels challenging.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_02: And for people who've experienced trauma can feel like incredibly challenging.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_02: And so um the more information that we can give people before their practice so that they know what to expect, that can be really helpful from a trauma-informed place, but also like not pushing people outside of their window of tolerance.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_02: So, like some people's window of tolerance of what they can handle because they've done a lot of work with like letting go of ego and control, is gonna be a lot bigger window.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna that window's gonna be wide open and you can really push them a lot further than someone who has a very limited amount of experience or has had, you know, increasingly higher amounts of trauma that have like closed that window over time.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so then it's about meeting them where they're at, even if it's just a that's a tiny smidge open.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then each time maybe it will open a little bit further and a little bit further.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I really I think that when searching for a practitioner that you're working with, um you know, if you're someone who knows that you need to specifically work with trauma-informed therapists, like I think it's a fairly I mean this might be a overgeneralization, so I don't know.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_02: But like for me, it feels fairly easy to read someone's copy on a website and have a sense of how trauma-informed they are using their language.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like most people who know that they need a trauma-informed therapist will maybe also feel that way.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but not necessarily.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_02: So but once again, that's a bit of intuition of like reading someone's copy and like, oh, do I feel safe with this person?
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like, does this, does what they're sharing make me feel safe in my body?
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like, if so, then you're probably gonna feel, you know, more and more safe with them the more you work with them.
• 54:40
  unknown: But yeah.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love how you that was always helpful for me.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you're very much in breath work, you know, go at your own pace.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna, I'll, I'll demonstrate a pace for you.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_01: But if you want to go slower, go slower.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to go faster, go faster.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that mindset because I do think it could go in the other direction of like, if you want to get there, you need to keep this pace and like go hard, go for an hour and a half.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I could see how that could really, if you don't want to do that, that would be hard.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_01: And when I get in those situations, I'm thinking of bikram yoga.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like my the first time I did bikram yoga, they were like, don't leave the room.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_01: If you leave the room, it's worthless.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_02: And like now, like, look at all the crazy fucked up shit that like like beakram yoga.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm not a yoga person, so I don't know all the whole messy details, but like consider like it makes total sense.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, when you're showing up and leading in a that way, like it's not surprising that that bullshit happened.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, yep, absolutely.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_01: There was obviously uh red flags.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_01: But I that's almost like when I have, I don't know if this is trauma response or whatever, but when someone's telling me in an authority spot what to do, I get into this like I have to listen, I need to listen to all the rules.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of times it's not good for me.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I need to, like in that room, I was too hot and I needed to leave, but I was all caught up and like, I don't want to get in trouble, or like whatever that is.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I do appreciate that coming from a coach in that your kind of vulnerable space of saying, go at your own pace.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, Mariah, this is reminding me of you.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_01: If I have a day where I don't want to do anything, I'm like, I just have to lay here and breathe.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_01: I can go as slow as I want, and I'll just like go at like a snail's pace, and it feels wonderful.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_01: And the the um freedom to choose how I want to experience breath work has felt very empowering for me.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that ability to listen to my body and take it at my own pace.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_01: I've then applied that to other areas of my life.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like, no, you're gonna tell me the pace that you want it to be at, but I don't have to listen.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_01: I can I can take this at my own speed.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's such a beautiful and empowering approach.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I appreciate that you're doing that, and that really helped me like click together some things about what to look for, I think, in the future.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that brings me to a question that you put a pin in a little earlier is like the intention behind breath work.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_00: Can you kind of like tell us more about that?
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_02: So where what I was kind of like my very specific ideas around this are that um, you know, if you go to a lot of times in meditation, we like set an intention for blah, blah, blah, whatever.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_02: And and I love intentions, like I set intentions for my day or for like my quarters, you know, I'm a business owner, so I often like set goals and intentions and quarters, not necessarily in seasons or whatnot.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_02: And um, but when it comes to breath work, I don't really love setting intentions because part of I think the magic of breath work is letting go of control and letting spirit lead the way.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, if I lay down being like, I want to work on blah, blah, blah today, but like that's not what is in my best and highest that day, well, then I'm like blocking that opening from like receiving what spirit thinks is in my best and highest for that day.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_02: So one of my very favorite intentions is just to be like open and curious about what needs to come through today.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like that's the intention that I'll often offer to newbies when they're like, what sort of intention should I set?
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, how about just to be open and curious about what wants to come through today?
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because there have been times where I like have really wanted to like have something come in, but then like my grandma comes in and it is like the most profound like ancestral support ever.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, okay, well, this is just what needed to happen today.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so um I sometimes think that when we are doing this sort of work that is that is about surrendering and like trusting, two of Shay's favorite words, um, then it really is about letting that is all about letting go of the egoic parts that um need to direct the the process.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's about letting that go.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love that.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_00: That was a really great answer that I didn't know that you were gonna give.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like it it ties really well, of course, into just the podcast as a whole, staying curiously guided about like what wants to come through.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I I kind of always say this, but like human me doesn't know everything.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, like allowing ourselves to take a step back, trusting that what is meant to come through will come through, trusting that we're supported and we're loved and whatever way that we feel called to go forward, like that's that's kind of where the magic is.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_01: I love this.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, Amy, this conversation has been really, really great.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if listeners kind of want to start dabbling or like getting started with breath work, like where would you suggest that they go?
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, on my website at amykretzky.com.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_02: I've got a 10, 15 minute, I don't even know how long it is.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_02: I have a little YouTube video that I made um that leads people specifically for business owners through a practice.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then if they want to go a little bit deeper with that, uh I've got a Patreon community.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's called Fuck the Hustle, because like I I am someone who hustles, but I'm also someone who's like really trying to move away from that uh that sort of cultural conditioning of like hustling being necessary.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think that we can choose to hustle when we want to, but we can also uh move in a more um supportive and intuitive way through work.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so I've got a Patreon community, and we um one of the main benefits of it is that we gather together every Thursday at 10 a.m.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_02: Central time for like an hour and a half to two hours.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the first 10, 15 minutes is we do breath work together.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_02: And then we've got an hour of co-working time to really get focused on whatever you're wanting to work on.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because I love doing like short breath works before work time because it really can open the creative channel.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_02: It gets me like energized for that day, like really sets the tone for what I want to work on.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_02: And it really, especially if I'm doing writing work, I like doing breath work because it really opens that creative channel and I feel like it just flows and my writing just goes so much faster when I've done some breath work.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_02: So, and a lot that's what a lot of the folks are doing in that group.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_02: And so we breathe for 10, 15 minutes, and then we've got an hour of independent co-working time, and then we've got um we do some, I do group coaching and conversation during the last half.
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's um call it like an office hour sort of thing where there's uh a topic and we'll do some conversation about it, but oftentimes someone will have um a struggle or a question and we'll end up doing some group coaching around that topic.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that last part is totally optional.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so some people just stay for the co-working and then leave right after that, and some people stay for the conversation because it's a really beautiful community that has started to form.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_02: And so um, and I've also got some like a library of content and resources and other things on there, but um, that's the best way to work with me right now.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_02: My coaching books are full, so I'm not taking new clients right now, but uh I love I love having the folks in the Patreon community when they want to be there.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I actually I was skeptical about shorter breath works at first because I'd only done longer ones with you, but the short ones are wonderful because it's like you said, it's a different effect, it's a bit more energizing.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you have a creative project to do, it's a really nice little quick hit to like get the flow rolling.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I love yeah, it's not like a oh, let's let's work through all of your trauma in your entire lifetime and have all the tears come up and have to emotionally process for an hour afterwards.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's not that.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's more like, hey, let's like move the body and have some fun and give some laughter and like it's cool.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I this is like a perfect shift then to the question I had for you, Amy.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_01: I know that you have just navigated through a large pivot in your business, and the end result is a very, from my perspective, unique um not solution, but offering as a coaching business, right?
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_01: So you take one-on-one clients, and that I am fortunate to have snuck in in time.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so I am one of Amy's one-on-one clients, but then she also has this Patreon community that she started, which has the co-working, it has the library of resources.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_01: You also have a Discord community, is that right within that?
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's like part of the, yeah.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's super cool, and I want to know how you got there.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how did the it's very unique?
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't see a lot, you know, in a world with a lot of copycat ideas, it seems like a really unique, cool idea that is very situated for exactly what you do.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_01: So tell me about how you got there and how it's going.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, great question.
• 1:04:01
  SPEAKER_02: So the original fuck the hustle, because that's what I call the membership is like fuck the hustle.
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_02: The original concept was um came about uh about a year ago.
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_02: I had surgery a full year ago and took some time off right afterwards.
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_02: And during that time off period from work where it took a few months off, um, really like gave myself the space to uh get curious as to what wanted to develop in my business.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I found um I was part of some accountability groups, like co-working space groups uh where we would like meet and I found a lot of benefit out of that.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I I really had a mindset shift around this idea that like that offerings have that like that our services and our offerings have to like that we have to, how do I want to describe it, that they have to be hard, that it has to be like difficult, that we have to be like selling something, that it has to be, you know, proving ourselves in some way.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, this is actually a really generative process that feels really fun for me.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what if I just open it up for other people and they just came in like droves and it was easy and it felt fun, and I was like, great.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_02: I'm also someone who loves to iterate and experiment.
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like that's very much um, I'm a man of I'm a generator, but I'm a one-three generator, I think it is.
• 1:05:22
  SPEAKER_02: And like part of I'm not super knowledgeable in the human design, but something about the like one three is that we do our best with iteration.
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_02: And so um, this group has iterated over the course of time.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_02: Cause at first I was doing it in these quarterly containers.
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_02: And so each quarter it iterated a little bit and then it would iterate a little bit more, and then it came to a place where I decided to do it in this Patreon model.
• 1:05:45
  SPEAKER_02: And part of that is because one of my other really important um belief systems and like values is accessibility.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think accessibility can mean a lot of things.
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think it's like just um financial accessibility, I think that it is a much broader umbrella term.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_02: And there's a lot of ways to increase accessibility.
• 1:06:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm, and by no means have I mastered that.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_02: And that is something I'm still working with in my own business.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_02: But as part of that, like I know that I have a limited capacity with one-on-one clients.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that I I feel comfortable with the price point that I'm at with that.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_02: And also I knew that there were people that wanted to work with me that I, that A, can't afford my regular prices and also aren't the right fit for my one-on-one clients.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know, my one-on-one clients I mostly work with established business owners that are um that have fallen out of love in their business in some way.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like they've built up this thing that's really successful, but they're like, why don't I actually enjoy doing this anymore?
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_02: And we can like find the threads under there and and heal, heal the business.
• 1:06:46
  SPEAKER_02: But there are all these other folks that wanted to work with me.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so I wanted to find something that both felt fun for me but supportive for them.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_02: And this is just the iteration that's come out of that.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_02: Does that answer your question?
• 1:06:57
  SPEAKER_01: It does.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it was a continuous process of asking yourself like I don't know you and I have talked about this before like it feels easy.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought that was so beautiful.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like you it's an incredibly supportive container but for you you're like I could do this times a million.
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like what a wonderful feeling to have you know you don't have that feeling very often.
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_01: So um it's definitely something that I'm aspiring for and I've been asking myself like okay how could this be so easy to where like showing up feels like a no-brainer and like I just and I I wanted community like I was missing that because like pre-pandemic like I said I was holding breath work groups of like 40 people like every other week here locally and like I felt like I had a community and and then the pandemic happened and we like moved it online because like luckily you can do breath work online like really well and it doesn't lose any of its like potency.
• 1:07:51
  SPEAKER_02: And there was a really beautiful community there and we were doing the online classes there.
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_02: But I just got so I'm so zoomed out.
• 1:07:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so like burned out from whole I don't know I was burned out from holding that specific container over Zoom.
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_02: And granted this thing's over Zoom too.
• 1:08:09
  SPEAKER_02: So like whatever but it feels like a different sort of container than I'm holding and it felt more generative for me more fun for me and um and more co-creative because like when I'm holding a breath work circle over Zoom, I am holding that whole container the whole time and everyone else is so zoomed out that 95% of the people were turning off their cameras for the majority of the time.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like me looking at myself and a bunch of black squares.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_02: And that you know like part of why I like doing group work is for the like that relational aspect to it, which was just wasn't there anymore.
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_02: And and with this container with the fuck the hustle, it is completely relational.
• 1:08:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like you know at first the first couple times I did it it was it was an hour and a half and we only really had 10 minutes for that sort of like coaching conversation sort of time at the end.
• 1:09:02
  SPEAKER_02: But everyone loved that so much and I loved it so much that I was like all right let's make this like 40 minutes long.
• 1:09:08
  SPEAKER_02: And if people don't want to stay they can leave after the 10 minutes but like 95% of the people stay have I've only we only changed that fairly recently but so far 95% of the people will stay for that whole 40 minutes because we're having such like generous and uh interesting conversations.
• 1:09:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think we're all like uh so thirsty for community and I I am feeling hungry for it and I can see that that's um out there.
• 1:09:39
  SPEAKER_01: So the program is just I love that you gave yourself permission to really iterate with it like you said and to flow with it and oh notice things make little changes um I think a lot of times we get really stuck on an idea and so your fluidity with all of this is very very inspiring.
• 1:09:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah I mean uh some of it is like I know some of it is just like my natural inclination and so people have asked me before like how do you how how do you give yourself permission to like iterate and change and stuff like that.
• 1:10:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I wish it was something I could like teach like oh here's the process to be able to let yourself do this.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_02: But like some of it is just like me as a person I've always not been afraid to try and fail something.
• 1:10:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so you know this whole curiously guided like concept you know if we're if we're willing to be curiously guided we also have to be willing to like fall sometimes.
• 1:10:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like if we take those leaps like yes of course spirit is going to catch us in some way or another but sometimes the way spirit catches us is by letting us fall so we don't like land on the wrong path that we're not supposed to be on.
• 1:10:50
  SPEAKER_02: And like and there can be a lot of fear over the fall and fear over the failure but um I don't mind it.
• 1:10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 1:11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah because it's really just another data point right it's not it doesn't have to be anything more than that.
• 1:11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well that's actually a perfect transition then into our final question we love to ask people what has been sparking your curiosity lately um this is totally not business related.
• 1:11:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's great.
• 1:11:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah but I'm obsessed with weaving right now I bought myself a loom um like for the holidays as like a little present to myself and it's like a big one like it's like two foot by three foot to like make really big tapestries.
• 1:11:35
  SPEAKER_02: And so I've been making tapestries and I've been loot I've been weaving.
• 1:11:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so then I like went and bought myself all sorts of fancy yarns and like ropes and like all of the lovely textures and the roving and everything and I've been um I'm off of Instagram I've been off of Instagram for a couple years now but I'll like I like still have an account I just don't post on it.
• 1:11:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll like kind of go on Instagram on safari on my phone because I don't even have the app anymore.
• 1:12:00
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'll just like scroll only weaving accounts and like watch other people weave and so that's what I'm that's what I'm really curious about right now is like making art again it's been a long time since I like made art with my hands and it feels really good.
• 1:12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yes I love that making space for creative expression that has nothing to do with business is is the work for me right now.
• 1:12:21
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you for sharing that I am also realizing I really need that in my life it's really important.
• 1:12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Weaving is super cool.
• 1:12:30
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know that and uh yeah thanks for sharing that super it's really cathartic.
• 1:12:36
  SPEAKER_00: I took a weaving class right before the pandemic and I have a loom like in the in the closet in my office and I'm like oh shit should I should I pull that womb back or that that womb oh my god no only got one womb but the loom that's great feels very nurturing like you're in a womb you know like in your loom um yeah but I was also just going to say like the weaving Instagram accounts like it's one of those things that are like what is it like satisfying just to watch somebody like weave in and out and you just kind of like lose yourself for a minute.
• 1:13:21
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm really the other one that the other ones that are really good are the pottery accounts where they like take the video and they just like see them spinning and when they're like trimming the pottery stuff like the when they flip it upside down and they're doing the like the trimming stuff I kind of love watching those too.
• 1:13:36
  SPEAKER_02: It is very like mesmerizing and you're like oh yeah.
• 1:13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah the internet is great.
• 1:13:43
  SPEAKER_00: It really is I like art.
• 1:13:47
  SPEAKER_01: Wonderful.
• 1:13:48
  SPEAKER_01: All right well I think we're gonna close this episode down.
• 1:13:51
  SPEAKER_01: If you enjoyed this episode feel free to share it with someone you think would love it or tag us on social media.
• 1:13:57
  SPEAKER_01: We're kind of a relatively new podcast so we do really appreciate y'all that are listening.
• 1:14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Please share it with your friends we're kind of growing slowly and steadily and we really appreciate all the love that y'all have given us so far.
• 1:14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Please definitely DM us if you have any questions or any topics you'd like us to explore on the podcast.
• 1:14:14
  SPEAKER_01: We absolutely love connecting with you.
• 1:14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah and we just want to say thank you so much for you guys listening for all of your support.
• 1:14:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't already just take that little quick second and consider subscribing to the podcast or leaving us a review so that we can all continue to grow together.
• 1:14:35
  SPEAKER_00: And until next time remember that you have the power to create whatever the fuck you want.
• 1:14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Follow the nudge ask questions and let curiosity guide the way we will see you in the next episode