Brendon Hansford, founder of IMD Breathwork, joins Maria Botros on this week's Tell Me Why podcast to discuss the importance of breath-work and its often-overlooked healing benefits.
The way we breathe is determined by how stressed we are, how much anxiety we have and how happy we are, says Brendon
Brendon: Where I come in is the active breathing part, to consciously focus on our breath
Slowing down or speeding up our breath depends on what we want to achieve with the breathing exercise, says Brendon
Brendon: A good test is to mindfully focus and count how many breaths you take in a minute
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The way we breathe is determined by how stressed we are, how much anxiety we have and how happy we are, says Brendon
Brendon: Where I come in is the active breathing part, to consciously focus on our breath
Slowing down or speeding up our breath depends on what we want to achieve with the breathing exercise, says Brendon
Brendon: A good test is to mindfully focus and count how many breaths you take in a minute
Read the full story here:
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
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NewsTranscript
00:00You have to breathe. Now, obviously, our autonomic nervous system allows us to breathe for us and the way we breathe gets developed on our life.
00:08How stressed we are, how much anxiety we have, how happy we are, you know, on the opposite end of the spectrum.
00:13So, the key is to slow our breath down.
00:16All right, you know, we're in trouble when we have to talk about breathing and like when we have to remind ourselves to breathe, to intentionally do some breath work.
00:37And that's exactly why Brendan Hansford, founder of IMD Breathwork, is with me in the studio.
00:43Because we're going to talk about everything breathing. We're going to talk about how to remind yourself to breathe properly.
00:49And Brendan, you're a creative director. You're a dancer. You're a breathwork master. What are you not?
00:58I'm not lazy.
01:00Well, that's a good thing not to be. So that's great.
01:03Yeah. So I'm a creative director, film director, dance choreographer, video editor, photo editor, sound editor.
01:09And then breathwork came into my life not that long ago, actually.
01:13Amazing.
01:14So, yeah, that's me. I suppose I identify as my career because it becomes all encompassing.
01:20That's fantastic.
01:21Like I told you earlier, I have ADHD, so I get super hyper focused on the things I love. And I kind of like embody everything.
01:28I love it. I love it. I love it when we when we take like certain circumstances in our lives and we use them to our benefit.
01:34So you use the ADHD to your benefit because you can do wonders being a person with ADHD.
01:41It's a funny story because I didn't know. It was about 12 years ago and I was directing a documentary called Building a Dancer,
01:48which was about taking a dancer, branding them and showing how branding can help them build their career.
01:53And I had a meeting with a guy named Terry Hyde. He's a therapist in the UK and he specializes in working with performers and dancers.
02:00And I wanted to interview him for the documentary. So we sat down and we were chatting away.
02:04And within five minutes, he goes, so how long have you had ADHD?
02:07I'm like, what?
02:08I'm sorry.
02:10I was like, what? He goes, you know you have it, right?
02:12I was like, no.
02:14So then obviously I went down a rabbit hole, looked into it, found out and went, oh, yeah, yeah, I have it.
02:18Oh, yeah. That sounds right.
02:19We did all the tests and stuff.
02:20And my point system was like 32, which is two points below medication.
02:25OK.
02:25But I would never medicate like this.
02:27OK.
02:28There's so many cool ways to deal with it and so many benefits to having ADHD.
02:32Yes, absolutely.
02:32Once you know, yeah, it is interesting.
02:35To be honest, we did have a psychologist on the show, a therapist as well, and she works with kids with ADHD.
02:40And she's like, more often than not, they do not need medication.
02:43So I think you can you can work your way around it without opting for the medicine.
02:48Well, I've never taken it, so I can't speak from experience.
02:51But my understanding is it kind of takes your emotions and suppresses them, similar to antidepressants, right?
02:56Yes.
02:56And so being creative, I don't want to lose my creativity.
03:00So the idea of suppressing it down was an absolute no-no for me.
03:03I'm glad you didn't, because you're with us today.
03:06We want that energy.
03:07We want that energy.
03:09Awesome.
03:10So, Brendan, to be honest, I'm going to start off with the fact that you worked with Sam Smith.
03:15I mean, I want you to tell us a bit more about that.
03:17You're a dancer, so it had to do with dancing, maybe?
03:20Of course, of course.
03:20So, God, how many years ago was that?
03:23It was on a music video he did, Dancing with a Stranger.
03:26And I was asked to come and be movement director, choreographer.
03:28And I suppose that's the short version.
03:32But it was awesome, of course.
03:33You get the call, hey, you're going to be working on a music video with Sam Smith.
03:36You're like, okay, sounds good, yeah, let's do it.
03:40And we had these six androgynous models,
03:43and there were sections where they had to dance around him and dance around him,
03:46and they kind of appeared and disappeared like these holograms.
03:49And obviously, I had to help Sam dance as well.
03:52He's never really done any dancing up to that point, from what I understand.
03:56And so I was there more for him as a movement director
03:58to help him move and help him dance.
04:00And he did, he got really good.
04:02His next music video was a big dance video.
04:05So hopefully I inspired him to go on and do more things.
04:08That's amazing.
04:09But I remember this one so clearly,
04:11because there was this weird moment, and it's so surreal.
04:14We were in this mansion of a house
04:16in the middle of the countryside in England.
04:18And it was raining, of course, it was dark outside.
04:21And we were under this kind of canopy, tent, whatever you want to call it.
04:25Both of us were drinking a cup of tea out of plastic cups,
04:27just chatting away outside like it was nothing.
04:29And I'm like, oh, I'm having like a regular conversation with Sam Smith.
04:33That's amazing.
04:34And of course, you know, in my position, I can't be like, oh.
04:37Yeah, I know, yeah, you can't.
04:37So I was like, yeah, cool, yeah, yeah.
04:39Yeah, you have to be chill, you have to be cool.
04:41Yeah.
04:42Every day for me.
04:42Yeah, exactly, having a cup of tea with a celebrity.
04:45I mean, that's fine, yeah.
04:46A massive celebrity.
04:47Yeah, I know, I know, that's fantastic.
04:49OK, so we know about Sam Smith now.
04:52Tell us a bit more about yourself.
04:53So like about your career, about how you got to where you are.
04:57Oh, to where I am now.
04:58OK, how long have you got?
05:00Let me start.
05:00We have all day.
05:01OK, perfect.
05:02So my career started as a dancer.
05:04I went to a place called Laban Center,
05:06which is a ballet contemporary school in London.
05:09And I trained up as a ballet contemporary dancer first.
05:12And then from there, I shifted into more of the street dance style.
05:15So locking, popping, house, breaking, waving.
05:18Many other styles I probably didn't mention.
05:20And traveled America, traveled the UK, went around Europe,
05:23learning from as many different people as possible.
05:25This is the fast forward version.
05:27So then I was in that style.
05:28And then I opened a dance studio called Alter Ego Dance Studio in Hertfordshire.
05:32I literally found a plot of land that used to be owned by the Scouts,
05:35which is a thing in the UK.
05:37And I bought the land and converted the whole building into a dance studio.
05:41And then fast forward,
05:44got injured.
05:45So I was also working professionally as a dancer for about 10 years,
05:48running the studio, teaching, doing lots of different things.
05:51I got injured, went down the coaching path and decided I'm done with dance.
05:56It's over. I'm always injured.
05:57My body's had enough.
05:59And so I decided to train up as a life coach. OK.
06:02About two thirds into my coaching,
06:05I was being coached as well by the amazing coach that taught me.
06:08And then I realized I don't want to leave dance.
06:10I just don't want to be a dancer anymore.
06:12You know, I was done with it.
06:14So that's when I progressed into being a choreographer.
06:16And I'd always been a choreographer.
06:18I just kind of do it on the side.
06:20So then I'd say that's where my career really started.
06:23OK, like Flu.
06:24That's when I got to work with Sam Smear,
06:25Frost Stewart, Rick Ashley, David Guetta, Bebe Rexha, a ton of brands in the UK.
06:29And, you know, as a choreographer, I was doing a lot.
06:33Wow. And I got to teach at Pineapple Dance Studios in the UK,
06:36which when you're back in the day, we're going back now.
06:39Back in the day, Pineapple was like the studio, right?
06:42And if you got to talk there, it was like, wow.
06:45And then I got to teach there for about eight years, I think.
06:48And I taught a place called Bass.
06:50So, yeah, my career as a choreographer just flew.
06:53OK. And then, of course, fast forward Covid,
06:57which messed everybody up.
06:58Yes. And I had so much work that year.
07:01And I remember because I was in Thailand and I was having a break
07:05because I was like, I've got so much on, I need a break.
07:07So I went to Thailand for four weeks.
07:09A week in, the government is saying, come home, come home.
07:12So I had to get a flight home.
07:13And one by one, all the jobs got cancelled.
07:16And it was like, damn, I just spent a lot of money.
07:18Yeah. And then I had like nothing left.
07:21So I was in my flat on my own for the whole of the first Covid.
07:25I think it was about five or six months. Yes.
07:28And, you know, I just developed things, but nothing really that led to anything.
07:33And then finally it broke and then we went back into reality
07:37and then they put us back in another lockdown.
07:38It was like, wow.
07:39And then come the third lockdown, I just decided I can't do this anymore.
07:44So I Googled what countries were open.
07:47Guess what was open?
07:48Hey, Dubai was open.
07:50I knew one person here who was a choreographer as well.
07:53And I said, hey, dude, like, should I come?
07:55And he said, yeah, man, I'd love you here.
07:57And then three days later, I was on a flight
07:59because I tried to get out before they stopped the flight.
08:01Oh, of course. Yeah.
08:02So I came three days later and I never looked back.
08:04Amazing. So I need to rewind a little bit to inform the story.
08:07Now, when I got here, there was no entertainment open.
08:10So dancing wasn't a thing, you know.
08:12So they still had everything closed in terms of entertainment and singing
08:15and stuff that I would normally work on.
08:16Yeah. Rewind.
08:18Age 22.
08:20You know, I got bought a camera for my birthday once.
08:22All my friends, girlfriend and everything pitched together to buy this camera.
08:25And I got into photography and got into video.
08:27And then obviously that led to getting into editing a photography video and sound.
08:31And I've always done that behind the scenes, predominantly around dance.
08:34So I've always filmed, dance, done photography and built little dance
08:37films and concept films and stuff like that.
08:39Nice. Bring that back to today.
08:42I got here and also I couldn't be a choreographer
08:44because there was nothing open that I could do.
08:46And I had my camera equipment.
08:48And before you know it, I'm working nonstop as a cinematographer,
08:51videographer, photographer here for the first year.
08:54And what they pay you here is a lot higher than what they pay you in the UK.
08:59Well, that's a win.
09:00So I stayed, got my visa and got my flat.
09:03And I never really left.
09:05And you get sunlight as well.
09:06Oh, my God. I didn't realize how much having the sun out,
09:11even when it's too hot, just having the sun.
09:14Yeah. Really affects my mood.
09:15Yes. When I go back to the UK just for a week or two, I can feel it.
09:20It's like this dark cloud comes over you.
09:22Yes. It's so weird.
09:23See, I never thought it was an issue in the UK.
09:27And I saw a post not that long ago that voted the UK like the most depressing,
09:31the second most depressing place in the world.
09:34And I sent it to all my friends going, it's not you.
09:36It's not you. Not you.
09:38Come to Dubai. Come to Dubai.
09:40Yes, come to this side.
09:43And then I obviously got here and I go back about a year and a half.
09:47I was in a situation in my life, which I'm sure we'll talk more about.
09:51And went to Bali and found breathwork, found sound healing
09:55and got a little bit obsessed, hyper focused on it.
09:57Yes. And trained up as a facilitator.
09:59And obviously my background in sound editing
10:02kind of brought it all together, you know.
10:05And now I run a company called IMD Breathwork,
10:08which officially incorporated two months ago.
10:10So we've only been going two months.
10:12Still a bit.
10:13I started it in January as a side hustle, a little side project to help people
10:18because it benefited me so much that I thought, let's help as many people as possible.
10:22And then classes started selling out and I had people requesting to teach this as well.
10:26And so over the summer, when I was traveling around Southeast Asia,
10:29I developed loads of new journeys, a plan.
10:32And now we're launching worldwide.
10:34I think we've now got 20 in the space of two months.
10:36We've signed up 20 people around the world.
10:38Wow. They're going to be repeating my process.
10:41Wow. That's fantastic.
10:43And I'm here trying to do all my careers at once.
10:46That's amazing.
10:48And it sort of ties in everything together,
10:50because I feel like breathing is at the core of life.
10:52And I mean, I mean, in order for you to live, you need to breathe.
10:56And I feel like as a dancer, breathing is crucial.
10:59I mean, just like any other workout.
11:01I mean, you're always told, like in my Pilates classes at the gym,
11:05don't forget to breathe because we do forget to breathe.
11:08And we do forget the consistent breathing, which helps with, you know,
11:13with our mood and with with our overall well-being.
11:16So how important is it to breathe?
11:21I'm going to I'm going to ask you as the expert.
11:23Very, very important.
11:24Obviously, hold your breath.
11:27How long can you hold your breath?
11:29I think like 30 seconds.
11:30Now, don't drink water or food. How long can you last?
11:33OK. Yeah. Yeah.
11:35You have to breathe.
11:37Now, obviously, our autonomic nervous system allows us to breathe for us.
11:41And the way we breathe gets developed on our life.
11:44How stressed we are, how much anxiety we have, how happy we are,
11:47you know, on the opposite end of the spectrum.
11:49So the key is to slow our breath down.
11:52So, OK, obviously, I've had funny, funny people in the past
11:56go, you're a breath instructor.
11:58Does that mean I can teach, too?
12:00Yeah. So we breathe every day without thinking.
12:02Everyone does, of course.
12:03Otherwise we'd be dead.
12:05Literally. Yes.
12:06Now, where I come in is active breathing to actually consciously
12:10focus on our breath, slow it down or speed it up,
12:13depending on what we want to achieve.
12:15Now, a good test is to basically mindfully see
12:18how many times you breathe a minute, you know, 20 and above.
12:22You're in the area of sympathetic nervous system is a high stress response.
12:25OK. I need to get very scientific to explain this.
12:28Is that OK? Yes, please.
12:30All right. So love it.
12:32When you're there's OK, where do I start with this?
12:34Because there's so many different angles I can take when you breathe fast.
12:38Right. So let's say you're a stress person.
12:40You're breathing really fast.
12:42Your body obviously creates CO2.
12:44It's a waste product of your tissues, your brain, everything in your body.
12:46Yes. And there's a oxygen CO2 exchange.
12:49Now, if you're breathing fast, you're letting out a lot of CO2 very fast
12:53and your body's not creating enough CO2 to replace the CO2.
12:56So unlike popular opinion, CO2 is not bad for you.
13:00In fact, having a high CO2 tolerance in the blood
13:03allows your hemoglobin protein to release oxygen.
13:06So when your CO2 is higher, not too high that it's toxic high enough,
13:11the hemoglobin, which carries the oxygen around the body on the red blood cells,
13:15will let go of oxygen freely.
13:17OK, so people have this misconception that is actually talking
13:20to someone about this morning.
13:21So it's so weird this question came up that if you just breathe in more,
13:24you'll release more oxygen.
13:26It doesn't work like that. OK.
13:27So, for example, in our sessions, we get people to breathe very rapidly.
13:31So. OK, so they're letting out all the CO2 super fast.
13:36And what it does is it lowers the CO2 in the body
13:38and the hemoglobin protein needs the CO2 to go.
13:41OK, it's OK to let go of oxygen.
13:43It's like a little greedy little monster.
13:45It wants to hold on to the oxygen.
13:46But if it's getting enough CO2 like a fix, it lets go of the oxygen.
13:50As much as it can. OK. Right.
13:52So now go back to a fast breather.
13:54They've got low CO2.
13:55So even though they're breathing faster and taking more oxygen,
13:58the hemoglobin protein is not releasing the oxygen to the body.
14:02Yeah. So now what you need to do is slow your breath down.
14:06OK, so this is where mindful practices come in.
14:09This is where breathwork comes in.
14:10This is where bringing everything down a step can help
14:13because you slow your breath down and you count it like over five seconds.
14:17So you've gone from 20 something breaths a minute to five or six. Wow.
14:21Right. So then what happens is the CO2 can be released
14:24from all the muscles and the tissues, the waste product.
14:26And it builds up in the blood.
14:28So then hemoglobin goes, I've got loads of CO2.
14:30I have the oxygen and it releases more oxygen to the muscles,
14:33to the brain, to the tissue.
14:35So you're oxygenating your body, which we all know is extremely healthy for you.
14:39It makes you think clearer.
14:40It makes your muscles heal faster.
14:42It improves your immune system, your cardiovascular health.
14:45Yes, the list is literally endless.
14:47So coming back to what you were saying, yeah,
14:49the importance of active breathing is huge.
14:52OK, just breathing without thinking depends on your state of mind
14:56and where you're at.
14:57And I can talk heavily into
15:00the trigger process of how we get there in life.
15:03Yes. No, absolutely.
15:04I mean, that's that's part of that's part of our conversation, how
15:07emotional trauma has also affected our breathing and and and
15:12and the consequences of that as well.
15:14So please get into it.
15:16All right. You ready?
15:17I'm ready. I feel like I'm going to relate to that.
15:21Take a nice deep breath.
15:22Big, big sigh of resonance.
15:23All right. So there's kind of a trigger storyline, should we say.
15:28And I'm just going to get it here because I'm refreshed.
15:30So let's say a trauma happens in your life.
15:34And, you know, depending on how old you are, how old you are,
15:36if you're before the age of seven, anything can create a trauma.
15:40Yes. You're very much in a kind of theta brainwave state before the age of seven.
15:44And it fades out up to the age of 26 when your brain is fully formed.
15:47So before that age, you know, your mom or dad can drop a glass in the kitchen
15:52and you can make it about you because at that age, everything is about you.
15:55Whether you like or not, it's not a narcissistic thing.
15:57It's your whole world revolves around you because that's all you know.
16:00Yes. So you make it about you, especially if it's a shock and it scares you.
16:04And then you decide, I don't like that.
16:06I don't feel good enough.
16:07Something scared me.
16:08Whatever happened.
16:09And then you make a decision.
16:11I'm going to be like this, so this can never happen.
16:14So you're protecting yourself.
16:16So it's not a bad decision.
16:17You know, taking it to more extreme is a parent leaves as a young child.
16:21You blame yourself.
16:23Maybe they left me.
16:24They didn't leave that person, the mom or the dad.
16:27They left me because that's what they did.
16:29And that's how you take it as a child.
16:31So you then create a trauma. I don't like that.
16:33So you decide to create mechanisms, even at a young age,
16:36to stop that from ever happening again. Right.
16:39So let's say the glass drops. Right.
16:41And you decide that I'm going to go nowhere near this.
16:44And then you be like that for the next week
16:47and you continue to be like that for the next month.
16:49Three months later, you're still doing that.
16:51How long before that just becomes your personality?
16:54That becomes an inbuilt trigger for you. Right.
16:57So fast forward.
16:59Trauma creates triggers.
17:01So then you get triggered by maybe a loud bang. Right.
17:03So loud bangs scare the hell out of you now. Yes.
17:05So this is obviously making it very basic when we're talking about other things
17:09that loud bang triggers you from the trauma from the past,
17:12which creates stress, stress.
17:14Then is it the the hypothalamus?
17:17I think it is. I might be wrong.
17:18That goes stress.
17:20Well, the amygdala goes stress and then the hypothalamus kicks in and goes stress
17:23and then sends a message to your adrenal gland, which goes cortisol.
17:27Have cortisol. Right. The stress hormone. Yeah.
17:29Which is not always bad.
17:31So cortisol gets a bad rep. Yeah.
17:33But without it, we wouldn't think clearly we wouldn't react fast.
17:36We wouldn't have all the quick triggers to deal with that stress.
17:40It's good for you.
17:40Like before this podcast, my cortisol was probably high because I was nervous.
17:44Like, don't say anything silly.
17:46You know, what am I going to say?
17:47What's she going to ask?
17:48You know, so that's getting me ready to deal with whatever situation is.
17:52So cortisol is not always bad.
17:54But when you are stuck in that sense and cortisol being released constantly.
17:59So when you're releasing cortisol, it suppresses your immune system.
18:02It affects your cardiovascular health.
18:05It releases more sugar into the blood.
18:06So it can help you put on weight.
18:09Being stuck in cortisol.
18:11Right. There's loads of other things to do.
18:13But my brain went straight away. ADHD.
18:15No, but those are those are more than enough.
18:16I mean, those are big ones.
18:18But there's another really good one.
18:19And it's going to kill me until I think of it. OK.
18:21But honestly, by having a constant release of cortisol, it's bad.
18:24Yeah. Because all these things are being affected.
18:27It takes everything away from your normal bodily function,
18:30like digestive system, for example.
18:32And then your body can't digest stuff and people get IBS
18:34and they get physical symptoms based on stress.
18:37OK, so one of the main things that the cause of too much high cortisol
18:42all the time in balance is good.
18:44But if it's being released all the time because you're constantly in stress
18:46and you're constantly dealing with stuff every day, then it leads to anxiety.
18:50Right. Yeah. And we all know where anxiety is.
18:53Anxiety can lead to depression, irritation
18:57and all the things that are not great for us.
18:59And that keeps you in that loop.
19:01And then suddenly, physically, your body's not operating
19:03is optimal and optimal performance.
19:06And we wonder why people who are depressed have anxiety
19:09and are constantly irritated, get sick more. Yes.
19:12You know, like the first thing I said, their immune system becomes defective.
19:15So you can't fight off illnesses.
19:18And then, you know, things go and sit in the body.
19:20So if you're constantly sitting in your sympathetic nervous system,
19:24I'm going to jump so much.
19:25So when you're in your sympathetic nervous system, if you think of it like
19:30it's not a toxin because it's not.
19:31Again, it's good for you when you need it.
19:33Gets you ready to run and gets you ready to run away.
19:35You know, back in the day, there's a tiger.
19:38Oh, run. Right.
19:39And it activates all the muscles in the body.
19:42But we don't get rid of it.
19:44So it gets stuck in the muscles and the tissues and different parts of the body.
19:47So if you think of the animal kingdom for a start, a lion chases a gazelle.
19:52Gazelle gets away, hides behind the corner, has a quick look.
19:54Thank God they're gone, you know, and it drops to the floor and it shakes.
19:57So it's somatically shakes out all of that stuff
20:01that the sympathetic nervous system created.
20:02And it gets up. I'm good.
20:05And then trots along.
20:06Yeah. When was the last time you saw a human drop to the floor?
20:09Shake it off and shake it off.
20:11That's why they say shake it off.
20:13Shake it off. So you're somatically getting rid of it.
20:16You know, the body.
20:17There's a great book called The Body Holds the Score,
20:19and it talks about how things get stuck in the body if you don't release the trauma.
20:24So what should happen is the trauma happens.
20:26Have a massive cry.
20:27Shake it out. Go into a dance class.
20:29You know, go do something that you can physically release it and move on.
20:34Wow. You know, obviously, depending how big the trauma is,
20:36there is a big trauma. It can take a lot more than that.
20:38But that's the kind of what you need to do.
20:41The basic traumas. OK. Yes.
20:43If not, they build up.
20:44And then the cortisol is super high the whole time.
20:46And, you know, your body functions stop to work
20:49and you end up in anxiety and you end up in depression.
20:51Yes. And it all comes from the first trauma.
20:55So this is what people think.
20:56They go, I'm just stressed because my job is stressful.
20:59My wife, husband, parents, kids are stressful.
21:01This is why I'm stressed. And this is why I'm anxious. No.
21:06You had a trigger from a trauma
21:08that caused you to be stressed by whatever those people are doing. Right.
21:12OK, let's say your husband, wife,
21:16they trigger you by saying X.
21:19Right. That X comes from a trauma from the past
21:23because mommy or daddy or friends or family did something.
21:27And now you have a trigger.
21:29Yeah, you probably forgotten about completely because that's what happens.
21:32Right. Happens when you're two.
21:33And then, yeah, you forget about.
21:35So then that gets triggered.
21:37That then stresses you out.
21:39That leads to your anxiety, depression.
21:42Sympathetic nervous system, unhealthy life.
21:45Wow. It makes sense, to be honest, because when it triggers you,
21:50like when whenever you something triggers you,
21:52at least if it's something from the past,
21:55a lot of people around you might think that you're blowing it out of proportion
21:59and they'll always say, like, it's not a big deal.
22:01Like, relax to them. Exactly.
22:04And it just makes so much sense because you've suppressed it all these years,
22:08as you said in the beginning, that it reached a point
22:12where it's an instant trigger and it leads to like the worst possible outcome
22:17from this. And this is the problem.
22:19People are dealing with the stress and anxiety in the moment.
22:22They're trying to deal with that, but they need to deal with the root cause.
22:25Exactly. They don't get rid of the root cause.
22:26They're going to constantly be stuck in this loop.
22:28Yes, absolutely. And this is where breathwork comes in.
22:30And this is where it comes in.
22:32So tell us a bit more about that.
22:33Like, how do you help people get rid of those emotional traumas?
22:36So let's let's talk about IMD breathwork.
22:38OK, so please.
22:39IMD breathwork stands for immersive multidimensional breathwork.
22:42So you're immersed because you wear an eye mask and you wear headphones.
22:45The eye mask obviously cuts out all the light and you can't see anything.
22:48The headphones cuts out all the sound.
22:50So you're on your own journey.
22:52You can be in a room with 20 people and you won't even know they're there.
22:54OK, so one, we immerse people.
22:56Unlike a lot of breath classes, I've gone to where I can hear everything.
23:00I'm doing that and you're like, and then someone starts crying
23:02and someone starts screaming and you're like, oh, I can't focus.
23:05An ADHD boy here. Yes. Can't focus.
23:08So for me, one thing you realize is everything I've created,
23:12I kind of created for myself.
23:13And that's perfect, by the way.
23:15You know, it seems to resonate with people, so I'm happy.
23:17So, yeah, I'm the breathwork and the immersive multidimensional
23:20is when you put the headphones on.
23:21The way I edit everything together in the sound journeys,
23:24there's like 20 different levels to it.
23:26OK, and the basic is the music, you know, the basic.
23:29I choose the music to.
23:31Take the journey on a storyline, like a narrative.
23:34That's my history, right?
23:35I've always been building stories,
23:36building narratives, being creative, building shows.
23:39So I want to take people on this narrative and it all flows.
23:43So basically there's the sound.
23:45Then there's the main coaching.
23:46So obviously I write all the scripts myself and I try and say,
23:50do you know when I write them, I write them for myself.
23:52This is the funny thing and hope that it will resonate with everyone else.
23:56What you want to hear, basically. Yeah. Amazing.
23:58You know, so there's the scripts and there's a ton of affirmations
24:01that are used as subliminal messages.
24:03There's a ton of tones.
24:04I won't tell you because it's like the secret sauce.
24:06OK, and a ton of beats again that follow a certain frequency.
24:10And then underneath that, there's screams, which is always fun.
24:14And there's breathing sound effects.
24:16There's different other sound effects that are done in different directions
24:18on purpose. So it's called binaural patterning.
24:21So when you edit it, it can appear from any different direction.
24:24So even though you're only wearing two headphones, two headphones,
24:26one headset with two speakers,
24:28I can make it sound like it's appearing in front of you, behind you,
24:31to the side, down, up and the whole spherical kind of surround your head.
24:35So the journey always follows kind of a similar path.
24:38You'll be breathing. You'll be holding your breath.
24:40We'll be telling you to scream.
24:42So you get to scream and cathartically let everything out.
24:46And we do that. We do like two rounds in the class.
24:49And then there's also a massive parasympathetic section at the end
24:52where we bring you back and we do visualizations.
24:54We do breath holds. We do sighs.
24:56There's so much involved in it.
24:58So that's incredible.
25:00Coming back, if someone was to come to the session,
25:03one of the things that I'm proud of is, one, we're trying to make this trendy.
25:07We're trying to make this accessible to everybody.
25:10And from speaking to a lot of people that wouldn't normally come to something
25:13like this because they do come to my class now is they get a bit intimidated
25:17by your kind of normal, holistic wellness healing,
25:19where they think they're going to have to go and share their feelings.
25:22They think they're going to have to dance around.
25:24They think they're going to hold hands with someone.
25:26You know, there's so many things that I wouldn't mind doing.
25:29I don't care. I'm from the dance world.
25:30We touch and we talk all the time.
25:32But for the common Joe who looks at this and goes,
25:35That's embarrassing, man.
25:37Yeah, I feel silly. Yeah.
25:38For us, you show up, you sit down, you listen.
25:41We talk about the science.
25:43We talk about what might happen to you physically and mentally.
25:46We tell you what to do.
25:47We teach you four breathing techniques
25:49that are going to help you in the journey and in life.
25:52And then you put your headphones on and everything is pre-recorded.
25:55So they just sit back, headphones on, follow the advice,
25:58breathe the whole way through, do the breath holds, do the screams.
26:01And then an hour and ten minutes later, they come out.
26:04And then we give them another little speech on how to behave now.
26:07And then, you know, sorry, alas, they're done.
26:11And then they leave.
26:12There's no sharing. There's no
26:15vulnerability. Yes.
26:17I feel like a lot of people have issues with being vulnerable in front of others.
26:20You just come, you do it and you leave.
26:21And then we get amazing reviews.
26:23We've got like 117 five star reviews now on Google since January.
26:27Wow. And they all say my life has changed.
26:30I'm transformed. That was incredible.
26:32I was skeptical, but wow, you know, mind blown.
26:36So, yeah, everyone that's come, we haven't had a bad review yet.
26:39OK, touch wood. Yeah, I mean, yeah.
26:42But even then, you know, we say to people, if you if you do have a bad experience,
26:46come talk to us.
26:47Yeah. Let's see if we can turn that into a good experience.
26:49So we're we're always there if people need to follow up.
26:51You know, I've got a really good team now of people that are constantly there
26:54on the messages to help.
26:55And they're all fully certified breath instructors.
26:58So they know what they're talking about.
26:59That's incredible.
27:00So do you have your own space or do you basically offer these classes
27:04in other studios, in other studios?
27:06So, yeah, we rent the spaces.
27:07OK, one thing we didn't want to do is constrict ourselves to one space.
27:10Yes, because like I said, we're we're now going international.
27:14So we have instructors coming on all around the world.
27:16We've got a load in the UK coming on Australia, a few around Southeast Asia,
27:20some in Europe now.
27:21We're talking to a few people in America.
27:23So it's grown so fast and that wouldn't work if we isolated it.
27:28Yes. And the thing with isolating, I feel like it will cut us off a little bit.
27:32Absolutely. So we we rent spaces and we you know, we can take 15 people per class
27:36because we only have a certain amount of headphones each.
27:39And once it sells out, it sells out.
27:40But yeah, we we try and do it everywhere.
27:42We want it to go all around the world.
27:44And I think it's ideal because it just makes it more accessible for everyone.
27:47I mean, rather than just sticking to one location, you're across the city,
27:50across the country, across the world.
27:52So it's it's perfect. And that's the plan.
27:54OK, so can you tell us some of the feedback that you've received?
27:56Because just listening to it, it reminds me I know it's not the same,
28:00but it reminds me of how good I feel after a sound bath healing class.
28:06Because I know I started doing it last year
28:09and I try to consistently do one class a week.
28:12And I remember how I felt because a lot of it also has to do with breathing.
28:16Like the instructor tells us to focus on our breath,
28:19to sort of let go of everything.
28:21And we sit in a cocoon in the hammock.
28:23And so it's similar. I know it's not the same.
28:26I'd love to talk about how the breath and what it actually does in the body.
28:29Like I've already spoken about the benefits of breathing and CO2 balance
28:32in the body. But what we do is a little bit different.
28:35OK, so when you come to our session, we're actually activating
28:37your sympathetic nervous system.
28:39So when you breathe the way we tell you to breathe,
28:41which is fast and rapid, also known as super hyperventilation,
28:45you're off gassing the CO2. OK.
28:47So remember what I said about the hemoglobin protein that it's
28:50when it's got a lot of CO2, it lets go of the oxygen.
28:51When it doesn't, it holds it back. Right.
28:53So we lower the CO2 tolerance in your body.
28:55So the hemoglobin holds the oxygen back.
28:58So what happens then is you go into something called vasoconstriction,
29:01which means there's a lack of oxygen being released around the body.
29:03OK, now the main part is your brain goes into something called hypocapnia.
29:07So when it's getting a lack of oxygen,
29:09it diverts the oxygen away from your monkey brain, your prefrontal cortex,
29:12the part of the brain that tells you you can't do stuff every day
29:15because you've pre-programmed it with all the triggers. Right.
29:18And send it all to the limbic system,
29:19which is your hippocampus and your amygdala.
29:21That's your memories and emotions.
29:23Now, that's suddenly getting all the oxygen that you have left. Right.
29:26So all of a sudden, all these memories and emotions can come up
29:30and play without the prefrontal cortex stopping you,
29:33because that's normally what stops you.
29:34The logical brain goes, no, no, no, no.
29:35Let's not go there with this. This hurts. Don't do this.
29:37It's protecting you.
29:39But now we've made that a little bit quieter.
29:41So all these memories and emotions can come up
29:44and be processed in the same time your body's releasing serotonin and dopamine.
29:48So, yes, that's breathing like that will put you into this state
29:51which will allow you to deal with these emotions.
29:53Like I've had memories from when I was two years old
29:56that linked to one of the deepest traumas of my life.
29:58And I didn't even know it existed.
30:00I had 20 years of talking therapy and it's never came up.
30:04It never resurfaced in my brain because I just didn't remember it.
30:08And, you know, and then suddenly I remembered it in breathwork.
30:10And then fast forward a week.
30:13And the trigger that was always a trigger for me just disappeared.
30:17Yeah. But one thing I learned is you need to do something every day
30:21to achieve stuff. Yes.
30:22And now. Yeah.
30:24Every day I do something to build what I want to do
30:27and what I want to do in the world.