Manders Mindset
Hosted by Amanda Russo, The Breathing Goddess, who is a Breathwork Detox Facilitator, Transformative Mindset Coach, and Divorce Paralegal.
Amanda's journey into mindset and empowerment began by working with children in group homes and daycares. She later transitioned to family law, helping people navigate the challenging emotions of divorce. During this time, Amanda also overcame her own weight and health challenges through strength training, meditation, yoga, reiki, and plant medicine.
Amanda also shares her personal journey, detailing how she transformed obstacles into opportunities by adopting a healthier, holistic lifestyle.
Discover practical strategies and inspiring stories that will empower you to break free from limitations and cultivate a mindset geared towards growth and positivity.
Tune in for a fun, friendly, and empowering experience that will help you become the best version of yourself.
Manders Mindset
90: Healing Through Breathwork: Overcoming Eating Disorders & Alcohol Dependence with Megan Ashton
Imagine finding a path to healing that doesn’t involve expensive retreats or intense therapies?
In this episode of Manders Mindset, we’re joined with the inspiring Megan Ashton, a certified breathwork facilitator, clinical hypnotherapist, and wellness expert. Megan shares her deeply personal journey of overcoming an eating disorder and explains how breathwork played a pivotal role in her healing. We explore her upbringing, the subconscious programming that shaped her struggles, and how she ultimately found profound healing through breathwork. Megan also emphasizes the importance of trauma-informed facilitation and making breathwork accessible to everyone.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
•How breathwork can be a powerful tool for emotional healing.
•Megan’s personal journey of overcoming an eating disorder.
•The role of subconscious programming in shaping our behaviors and patterns.
•Why trauma-informed facilitation is crucial for safe healing experiences.
•The accessibility of breathwork compared to other healing modalities, like plant medicine.
•Practical tips on how to incorporate breathwork into your daily life.
Tune in to discover how breathwork helped Megan break free from old patterns and why it’s a healing modality anyone can access.
Main Topics:
•[2:26] - Megan’s early life: Struggles with self-worth and family dynamics.
•[6:21] - The onset of her eating disorder and using alcohol as a coping mechanism.
•[10:37] - Megan’s first introduction to breathwork after a series of failed healing methods.
•[11:20] - A life-changing breathwork session that unlocked repressed emotions from childhood.
•[20:08] - Why breathwork is more accessible and empowering compared to plant medicine.
•[27:53] - Megan’s transition to living in Mexico and finding a new sense of grounding.
•[41:38] - The power of breathwork and why finding the right facilitator is crucial.
To Connect with Amanda:
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To Connect with Megan:
Visit Megan’s website: Unity Breathwork
https://unitybreathwork.com/
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If this episode resonated with you, I would love for you to leave a five-star rating, share a review, and spread the word! Remember, you’re always one mindset shift away from changing your life. Thanks for listening!
Welcome to the Manders Mindset Podcast. Here you'll find both monologue and interviews of entrepreneurs, coaches, healers and a variety of other people when your host, amanda Russo, will discuss her own mindset and perspective and her guest's mindset and perspective on the world around us. Manders and her guests will help explain to you how shifting your mindset will shift your life, will help explain to you how shifting your mindset will shift your life.
Speaker 2:Hello, beautiful souls, welcome back to another episode of Amanda's Mindset. I'm your host, amanda Russo, and I am so excited for today's guest. Connecting with this amazing woman was a reminder to me about the synchronicities of the universe. I was seeking guests who have struggled with eating disorders in their lives. I am here with Megan today, and Megan has struggled with that and the way she healed.
Speaker 2:That was through breathwork, which was so profound to me, and Megan is a passionate, caring, highly experienced breathwork facilitator. She underwent two incredibly comprehensive 400-hour breathwork trainings and she's now a certified teacher as well. She's also a certified clinical hypnotherapist, wellness writer, yoga instructor, nutritionist and Reiki 2 practitioner, with a depth knowledge in trauma, mental health, relationship dynamics and the subconscious mind. She weaves all of her learnings into breathwork and it was her first breathwork experience that completely transformed her. She had cut herself off and led down an incredible path of feeling and healing, and since that that day, she's made it her mission to make breathwork as accessible and popular as yoga, and I am so excited to be here with Megan today. Thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 3:Hi Amanda. Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor. I love the synchronicities that brought us together, that brought me here today. I'm super excited to chit-chat with you about breathwork and how it's helped me so much and so many others. Yeah, I'm so excited.
Speaker 2:I'd love if we could go down memory lane and you could tell us about your foundation, upbringing, family, dynamic, kind of the layout of your family, however deep you want to go with that kind of the layout of your family.
Speaker 3:However deep you want to go with that, absolutely. But I'm just wondering if it's okay with you if we could just start by taking a few grounding breaths together. I know it'll help me feel better and more at ease and, you know, for anyone who's listening as well, I invite you to join us. It's just a few breaths of consciousness will help to just kind of put us all in a relaxed state. Is that okay? Yeah, absolutely Perfect. I'll make it quick. So just gently closing your eyes, connecting to your heart space, beginning to breathe in to a count of four and out to a count of four.
Speaker 3:Breathing in through your nose soft slow and deep into your belly and then just letting the air fall out of you.
Speaker 4:Inhale two knee four. Exhale two, three, four. Inhale two, three, four. Exhale two, three, four. Now just doing a couple of rounds on your own count.
Speaker 3:Taking one final round Now, letting go of the count, keeping your own count. Taking one final round Now letting go of the count, keeping your eyes closed, but continue to breathe soft and slow and deep, and reconnecting to your heart space again, imagining that you're bringing in love and light into your heart. And even connecting to the sensations of gratitude.
Speaker 4:Gratitude for your beating heart, for the ability to experience this life in all of its ups and downs.
Speaker 3:And then just gently blinking your eyes open. Thank you for that. No, I do too.
Speaker 2:Is that what you said? Family dynamics, the layout of it, any siblings, whatever you want to share with that?
Speaker 3:Okay, I grew up with three siblings. I have an older brother, an older sister and a younger sister, so I had all of that middle child syndrome stuff, because not only was I the middle but I was also the middle of the girls too, and all of us were very kind of close in age. My mom had a lot to handle on her plate with like four young ones under the age of I guess seven at one point, and my dad had to travel a lot for work, so she was overwhelmed. I am a highly sensitive empath. I need a lot of affirmation and physical touch and from my very first memories I always just felt like unseen, uncared for, unloved and like disclaimer. I'm not saying that any of those things were what was happening with my mom or my family dynamics, but that's how I was perceiving the world and so I just felt kind of not at ease. I even remember a story when I was like a baby. My mom said I would just cry in the crib unless she had like 10 soothers in there all lined up, and I just think that's so symbolic of how dysregulated I was, even from a baby. I was sensing something and just not feeling safe and at ease really. So I kind of became the black sheep of the family. I found the only way to get attention was to have a temper tantrum or something along those lines. Or you know, I have a very strong and stubborn personality, so I would do whatever I could to get attention, because negative attention was better than no attention. So I kind of grew up with all these subconscious scripts, you know, like I'm not worthy, I'm not lovable, like no one wants to listen to me or I'm not as good as my siblings, all of these different things. And I would say, you know, in order to cope with all of those things because they were definitely at the subconscious level, like on the conscious level I felt like I was confident and everything was fine.
Speaker 3:But as soon as I hit early teens, maybe even 12 or 13, I started to rely on alcohol to numb myself out. And I remember, even in grade eight, drinking alcohol with my friends and just waiting for the weekends to go and have some drinks and forget everything. And I think it was because when I drank, all of that negative self-talk that was in the background kind of just shut down and I felt like I could be kind of myself. Negative self-talk that was in the background, kind of just shut down, and I felt like I could be kind of myself and I would shine through more and I would get attention for it because I would be more interactive. So really it wasn't even so much about the alcohol as it was about the attention I could receive when I got out of my head and didn't have that negative programming keeping me playing small. Have that negative programming keeping me playing small.
Speaker 3:So I remember in grade nine I just started to restrict my eating and for me it wasn't so much about my body like that was a factor, but the bigger factor was just having a sense of control, I think. And when I started to lose a bit of weight I got a little bit of attention from my mom and my family who was concerned. And so I was like I think not consciously but I think subconsciously I was like, ooh, like attention, they care, I feel seen, I feel cared for, and that almost fueled it. And then on the other level, it was a numbing, you know, like I couldn't feel my feelings because I was so fully putting all of my attention and awareness into not eating that I didn't even have time to start thinking about my feeling and then that actually, you know, I couldn't restrict my eating for so long until my body revolted and it turned into binging and then I had bulimia. So the kind of transition, as opposed to being anorexia, was more bulimia, and that was what actually lasted with me for I know it's, I think, like 17 years off and on. I'd go through long stretches without it, but it was almost always a daily battle, always something in the back of my mind.
Speaker 3:So I spent my entire adult life just trying everything to heal myself. I went the traditional route with talk therapy before I tried anything else and I thought, okay, I found out about the subconscious programming. So I was like it's really expensive to see a hypnotherapist a bunch of times. Why don't I just become a hypnotherapist? That's next level and then surely I'll be cured. So I went into a clinical hypnotherapy training. Even though I worked for other people with some of their issues. I wasn't highly suggestible and it didn't help me at all with my bulimia. So I felt inauthentic offering it to other people. So I didn't actually bring it out to the world for very long until I kind of lost interest.
Speaker 3:And then I went into school for holistic nutrition. I'm like, okay, maybe there's like nutritional deficiencies that are fueling this. Maybe if I learn how to eat more healthy, then this can just subside. So I became a holistic nutritionist. But of course, there I am then offering nutritional advice for others and then going out and binging on like all the junk food which again, just didn't feel in alignment for me. So I didn't stick with that for long either. I became a yoga teacher. So I'm like, okay, maybe if I go spend a month in India and get my yoga teacher training, I'll be healed then. So I did that. I wasn't binging and purging during the training, but I wasn't healed from it. It was still there as soon as I left the training. So I didn't really offer the yoga for very long either.
Speaker 3:I had all these different things. I went and did some shamanic healing retreats. I got my Reiki certification to work on the energetic bodies. I did so many things and right before I discovered the breathwork which finally helped, I did a one-week ayahuasca and combo ceremony retreat, basically in a Colombian jungle, and it included taking five ayahuasca sessions and then three combo sessions, which is where they burn holes in you and then put frog poison and you violently vomit for a long period of time. Anyways, I do believe plant medicine in the right setting and if you've done the right preparatory work on yourself can be valuable.
Speaker 3:However, it was a traumatizing experience for me. I was left more drained than ever before as an adult. I was struggling with chronic fatigue, which isn't a surprise because I had these eating disorders, constant battle and I was drinking lots of alcohol. I was suppressing all of my emotions, which takes a tremendous amount of energy to keep suppressed. With all of this, after the plant medicine, I was even more drained and I got really sick. For like a year I was catching every virus, bacteria, et cetera. It was just too much for my body.
Speaker 3:But then a friend of mine told me hey, megan, we were abolished, you have to try this breath work. And she also had bulimia. And she said this cured me of my bulimia. And I was like wow, that's a big statement. And as a side note, when I was doing the yoga teacher training, my least favorite part was the breathing exercises. We had to do pranayama for a half an hour twice a day and I would just sit there like I am so bored. This doesn't work. Boo to to my breath, all of these like grip. I just couldn't surrender to it. So when my friends like, do this breath work? It's like oh, like oaks in on my breath for an hour. But you know, I trusted her so I showed up without you know any preconceived notions of what's going to happen. I'm like I'm just gonna go for this, I'm gonna follow the technique 100%.
Speaker 3:Within 10 minutes I was in a non-ordinary state of consciousness. I was brought back to, I would say like maybe my two-year-old self and I was just bawling for my mother's love and affection and I was just like why couldn't you love me? Why couldn't you touch me? All of these things that I had felt which, again, I'm not saying were real, she did love me but all of the things I felt and had numbed and suppressed, that I didn't even realize I was carrying around, just came up and there was an assistant or angel in the session who helps out with the supportive touch and Reiki and she was by my side for so much of it, just giving me loving touch and giving me all of the touch I felt so starved for my entire youth and just having someone be present with me and holding space for me to feel my emotions, which I hadn't felt my entire adult life. I had numbed them all out. So by finally feeling these things that I just pushed down, I just released so much. I was really exhausted that night. But the next day I woke up and I just felt like I'd been reborn. The colors were brighter, I felt more confident.
Speaker 3:Suddenly, I didn't care so much what people thought about me, and right away already, that like pull, that there was always in the back of my mind, like oh, like when's your next binge? It had already lost its grip and so I was like this is what I want to do the rest of my life. And as a backstory, about four months before I discovered the breathwork, I was working with a law of attraction coach and I was trying to manifest my life's purpose. I was like you know what? I haven't found my soul partner. But if I could find my life's purpose, I feel like I would feel so complete. And then suddenly the breathwork just lands in my lap and I just knew and this was seven plus years ago Like this is what I want to do with my life. I want to bring this work to the world. I want to help make it as popular and accessible as yoga, because everyone should be doing this.
Speaker 3:It is the most empowering self-healing modality. I know you do breathworks. You understand that. I think it's amazing to give everyone these tools to realize that we are our own best healers and that the answers we seek and heal when we're looking for it's within us and we don't need to take something outside of us because that's disempowering. It know, it's all our own breath.
Speaker 3:And so I was in the training within a few weeks of that, a big 400 hour training, and I would say, you know, there was still maybe two, three, four I don't even remember it was so long ago incidences of bulimia over the next couple months. But as a part of the training we did weekly breathwork sessions and it's like each week it just lost its grip more and more and then it got to a point where it just didn't resonate. It was no longer a battle of wills, you know, or an ongoing script of will I won't, I don't, you know all of that and it was just like I don't want to, you know, I was just. I was vibrating on a different level where it no longer called me. It was the most powerful healing tool and exactly what I've been looking for with everything else, and I just think it's so empowering and I want the world to get to experience this magic.
Speaker 2:So when you started drinking alcohol pretty young, when you developed the eating disorder, were you still drinking alcohol pretty regularly.
Speaker 3:All of my youth, right up until I mean, it wasn't a daily occurrence, but it was a weekend binge drinking occurrence, you know. So it's like eating disorders and alcohol, and actually the alcohol like ignites your hunger, especially if you haven't eaten too much all day. So it's like you binge drink and then you come home and you have a binge episode and it's like no wonder my body was so worn down and it's like no wonder my body was so worn down.
Speaker 2:I relate to that because I wasn't as young when I started drinking it was early high school, but I started that as well to the numbing out and it increased the confidence. It wasn't even per se to consume the alcohol, but I felt more like a badass, honestly alcohol. But I felt more like a badass honestly, like I just you know, like just straight up, like I'm 15 years old and drinking this drink and now I just feel more loose, I guess is a good way to put it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly Because I think those of us who do have eating disorders were very sensitive people and were highly self-critical. We've taken on some negative programming from our upbringing. That's why we turn to alcohol or food to try and shut that off. And alcohol especially would shut it down temporarily, like temporarily, that inner critic's been put to the side and we can feel confident and almost like finally experience happiness. Because outside of that, at least for me, I couldn't experience happiness. It was just numb.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I love how you said you did ayahuasca and combo as well. Now, I didn't do it for a week, but I did ayahuasca and combo in a weekend as well. No-transcript. I definitely understand what you mean by the traumatizing after it. Like, it's intense, you know, like, and it's not easily accessible to so many people, exactly, yeah, and there's so much that comes with it, like, I'm not someone who's on medications, but there's all these different things that you can't be taking these medications, you can't be eating this food to prep for this ayahuasca experience. You know, there's just so much. The diet, yeah, there's so much struggle to entry, almost, whereas breathwork anybody can do it, and that's one of the things that, like, I loved. It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if you can't get to the jungle, you know, like, like, and there's so much fear around, like, hallucinating, you know, which I under understand as well. So, like, when I was able to discover that, I loved that.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's so accessible. That's something that I love about breathwork is that it's for everybody and, like you said, it's accessible in the sense that you can cut there. It's online, so you really don't have an excuse. Even if you don't have a car, you can do breathwork. If you have no time, you have a little bit of time. You still have enough time to log on and do a session. You don't have to book your week off work, get something to watch your kids or pets fly to Colombia or Peru. And the thing is with those types of retreats is it's like a shotgun kind of retreat and then there's no integration support afterwards. And integration is huge, whether it's breathwork or plant medicine. When you're working with non-orderly states of consciousness, your insights need to be integrated to actually create change. And with breathwork, by being able to do it regularly, that in itself is a process of integration, because you're not doing like a shotgun. You can do it regularly until you start to actually rewire those neurons or reprogram that subconscious mind. You have time after to journal or watch your dreams or be in nature, and it's just so much easier because I feel like people think they've made so much change and then they come back home to their old routines and patterns and it's like jolting and they think that they've created the change, but they just slide right back into exactly how things were. Yeah, I completely agree Now, as you said, with people being worried about hallucinogens and all of that.
Speaker 3:That's what experience for me. I do not do well, even with weed. My mind does not like it. When I was in the ayahuasca, I basically got stuck in hell for 18 hours each day. I would just come out of the time for the next ceremony. I would at points, think I was better. I'd get up, eat something, have a shower and go to bed, and then I'd open my eyes and I was back in it and there was so much vomiting it lasted for hours and hours and it just wouldn't stop. And the shaman just did not hold space. Well, like, at one point like I wanted to quit, and he's like well, like, how awful has your life been so far? If you quit now, it's just gonna be awful again. And I'm just, my inner wisdom was telling me to leave and he convinced me otherwise oh yeah, that's tough, you know.
Speaker 2:That's another thing that I even I love about breathwork is like you, you can stop it, and even like, not that you want to be stopping the conscious connection, but you can. You're in full control.
Speaker 3:My favorite thing is I always say to my graders it's always in your control, you have the accelerator and the brake, is it? Any time you feel overwhelmed, you can come out of it.
Speaker 2:But I think it's so empowering and important to know that you can Exactly Like. That's the big thing, because even like I think so many people have fear around plant medicine because it's like a weight you don't know You're just stuck in it.
Speaker 3:You can't come out when you want to.
Speaker 2:Once you're in it, you're in it, it's the thing, and like it can come crashing back. Like I remember, at one point I really thought I was done with the ayahuasca. It wasn't in me and then I couldn't even walk through that room and I was like, oh okay, yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm good. Yeah, I feel the breathwork is just such a softer medicine. So, yes, I was bawling my eyes out and like shaking when I was releasing and processing so much, but I always felt safe and it felt so much less harsh and taxing on my system than the plant medicines ever did.
Speaker 2:Now I want to backtrack real quick. You mentioned Bali. Did you do breathwork for the first time in Bali?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I spent a lot of time in Ubud Bali. So part of like, my healing quest and also part of my numbing was living around the world. So many times shit got to be too much and the bulimia and alcohol wasn't enough to numb everything out, I'm like okay, so where am I else to next? Ubud Bali really resonated with me, especially after I did my yoga teacher training, and that's where I did my yoga teacher training and that's where I did my first ever breathwork session. My teacher was named Vani Stella and she was so amazing and powerful. Usually I'm very indecisive and I would spend months deciding on what training I wanted, but I just like asked her what she did and I was like okay, I want to train with whoever you trained with.
Speaker 2:So have you been to Bali? It's kind of synchronicity that you said that too. You said that too, because it was super last minute that I went. But I went on a retreat that was hosted by someone who's also a breathwork facilitator and got certified with me. She hosted a folks retreat in Bali in May. Wow, love that. That's so cool. So did you get certified in Bali as well?
Speaker 3:So the training was a 400 hour training. It was much more practical to have it be mostly online, so that's how it was set up. It was weekly meetings online, followed by a one-week intensive in person, which is always in different locations. Mine happened to be outside of Barcelona, ooh okay, wow, no, that's so cool.
Speaker 2:So how was your first experience doing Breathwork in Bali? I feel like that's even more Because Bali has just an energetic vibe.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you've never been, I don't know how to explain it, but yeah, like it is, or whether you're planning to or not, you're going to be given some lessons that are going to lead to healing.
Speaker 3:It's going to happen no matter where you're at.
Speaker 3:You might think you're going to heal others, but you still have shit to learn yourself, so, yeah, so how was Breathwork in Bali your first time?
Speaker 3:That's where I did my very first session that I had mentioned, with, like the release of all the crying and all of that, and it was just so powerful I think because I cut myself off from feelings to finally be able to reconnect to those. Usually I would be hyper conscious of people around me and I wouldn't be crying loudly. So the fact that I was even able to go there just as a testament to the medicine that breathwork is it allowed me to do that, and my second session was more releasing. But then my third session, which was at the same place, radiantly Live transitioned into me having these beautiful childhood memories that I had forgotten come back to me so that I could remember you were loved, your parents did the best they could. It was never a reflection of you and it really allowed me to start to rewire all of those negative thoughts and scripts that I had been holding on to since I was so young.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's amazing and I love how you mentioned three sessions, because even the man who trained me always recommends doing breathwork three times, because every session is different but you're more likely to have multiple experiences. You can't really judge. I did breathwork once and this is what I got.
Speaker 3:You might have an amazing experience, but it's hard to fully tell the effects of it with a one-time thing, the breakthrough session that I had on my first session, which does happen to some people, not to everybody. That's just one layer of the onion. It does take anything that you're doing. There's no such thing as one magic pill you take one dose of and like you need to follow up, and there's so many layers of the onion so you're going to address one thing on one session, but there's other things and you really need to start to integrate those.
Speaker 3:I actually recommend people do at least five sessions regularly, so either weekly or bi-weekly, and then after that feel into where they are and then usually after that it's more like topper up sessions.
Speaker 3:So maybe they need one every month, or maybe they only need one every few months, or maybe even only just twice a year, or maybe only when shit starts to hit the fan in their life, because there's always going to be things coming up Initially, I think, to really start to create some deep and lasting change. Having like at least five sessions, you start to get nervous around the technique, even if your facilitator hopefully warns you about it in advance. But things like that you can't fully let go some people until they've experienced it once and know what to expect, and then they feel even more safe the second session to start to go somewhere else. Plus, sometimes the body just needs to like dial up physical tension to release that before it can go to an emotional layer. So sometimes people just need to feel like a lot of physical things their first couple sessions and then suddenly in the third or fourth session they have some major emotional breakthrough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's a big factor of it, because so many people, even everybody I tell about the symptoms, they don't believe me, oh, they don't think it's going to be to the level like that's not going to happen to me. I've had people say that to me and I'm like it might not but it might, so just be prepared in case it does. But I actually experiencing it. You know it's different than like hearing, oh, this could happen. You know, like that feel of the unknown, what people have anxiety or not we all have a little bit of that like oh shit, like what is this?
Speaker 3:you know, like, yeah, I don't normally breathe with my mouth wide open by becoming more familiar with it and they feel safer to let go and be more vulnerable and reach deeper parts of themselves I, I want to backtrack real quick.
Speaker 2:But you mentioned you started traveling kind of as an escape.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, not consciously, I just thought I got bored easily, you know. But anytime I was somewhere and I just started, these feelings started coming up. That didn't feel good. I start distracting myself by planning my next spot. You know, I'd like blame it on the location. I'm like, oh, I don't like this and this about it. So I wasn't like going place to place daily. It was more like I'd like blame it on the location. I'm like, oh, I don't like this and this about it. So I wasn't like going place to place daily. It was more like I'd stay somewhere for three months, six months, eight months and go somewhere else. But this was like 16 years. It was my entire 20 up till I discovered breathwork at like 35. I don't know when I lost track, but it was a long time.
Speaker 3:So, would you move to these locations? I would be basically living there. Like you know, if I ever, I would come back to Canada and visit my family for like a month or six weeks every year and just take my parents, leave my stuff there. I ended up getting a condo, but never staying there. I just rented it out. So basically my home base was like the world. I just was always in a suitcase and like I'd leave, and then I'd like, oh, I missed that place and I'd go back to that place again, but it was just always leaving. You know, and I think that's like a protective mechanism too you can't really form deep relationships and be vulnerable if you're. You know you're going to be leaving in a couple of months oh wow, that's true, I don't know.
Speaker 2:So what made you start the travel in?
Speaker 3:Well, after the breath work I just it started to not resonate so much. It was just like the bulimia. It's like all these unconscious, unhealthy coping mechanisms just start to lose a grip on you when you've done enough sessions, cause, like you've reunited with your inner wisdom, you've become more confident and empowered and happier. Like I always said, I used to be numb, but now, once I've started to allow myself to feel the lower feelings, I was able to actually have a higher happiness set point and feel the higher stuff. So I didn't need to run anymore, you know. So I wanted to put down some roots.
Speaker 3:Now I'm not a cold weather person and I do love my family who lives in Canada. So I do come back and forth, but I split my time now where I'm like eight, eight and a half months in this amazing, charming town called Salina, mexico. It has the same spiritual vibes as Bali, which is like what I was always looking for. I wanted an Ubud, but with a beach, because Ubud's inland Bali and that's what Salina is, plus it's so much closer to my family. So then I come back to Canada for a few months of the year, just outside of Toronto, but it's like much more settled, grounded and I'm going back and forth to the same two places. So it's like my, it's my ideal really.
Speaker 2:Now, what were you doing for work when you were doing all this traveling?
Speaker 3:So originally I wanted to be a naturopathic doctor, but then I realized I would have to stay in Canada for an additional four years after my university and there was a lot of winter in me from that. And then I realized I loved to travel. I didn't realize that unconsciously, a big part of that like yes, I do love adventure, exploration, but a big part of it was escaping. But I was like I can't not travel for that many years and have all this debt. So then I was like, okay, I will become a wellness writer so that I can research and write about holistic wellness without having to be stuck in one place. So that's what I did right up for the whole adult life until I reached Breathwork. Once I discovered the Breathwork I couldn't fully afford the tuition just up front. So I reached out to the owner of that training company and I asked him if I could do like a trade where I do writing for his breathwork company in exchange for half of the tuition. So I did that and then it led to me writing for other breathwork training schools, which was amazing. For like four and a half years five years even I got to write for seven different international breathwork training schools and I got to learn so much from all of them. I got to peek inside of them, I got to see their strengths. But then I finally realized, like a year and a half ago, I was like, why am I spending so much energy promoting these other people? Why don't I put this into my own offerings? You know I want to make breathwork as accessible as yoga. So you know, teaching is a big part of that. Every person that I teach to hold space with confidence, grace, ease, compassion. They can go out and uplift tens of thousands of people and then they're going to inspire other people to become facilitators and that's like really the path. I started to make my website a resource with all kinds of different research and learning and science behind breathwork, and I started to offer bi-yearly retreats in that spiritual town, sayalita, and I do the teacher training. Now I facilitate sessions online and in person, depending on where I am, but it's 100% Unity Breathwork now. And and in person, depending on where I am, but it's 100% Unity Rathburg now and it's been the most empowering, amazing shift. It's been such an asset getting to work for those other companies because I got to learn what was good and what wasn't good and infuse all of that into my teaching. Not everybody at your dinner table wants to hear about it. So it's so nice to have students because I have so much knowledge and I want to talk about it because I'm so passionate. But now I have a platform to share with people who actually are just as interested as I am, which I think is amazing.
Speaker 3:Plus, I think probably what attracts you to facilitating is that we get to empower others to heal and transform. Well, as a teacher, there's such a big emphasis on the inner journey and so in our nine months together, I really I get to see my students face their fears, face their doubts, face their stressors, all their limiting beliefs, and then step above it. And then by the end, when we all meet in person for the one week intensive in-person in Cellulita, they all get a chance to actually lead a group session. They all just shine so brightly and they're all just so at ease and so at grace and so unique Like they all do it their own unique way. It's the most amazing. I never thought I'd like anything as much as I like facilitating. Teaching is right up there with facilitating for me, Wow, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:I want to backtrack real quick, but I absolutely love and really respect that. You made that work when you didn't have the full amount for the tuition. That is absolutely amazing. A lot of people would have just thrown in the towel, but you figured out a way to make that work.
Speaker 3:Love that, yeah no, I just knew I have to do this, and so I'm like I have all this experience of the wellness writer, maybe he needs some writing, and so I just wrote him a nice long letter explaining the situation. And you know, I ended up becoming their primary full-time writer for a few years and then ended up kind of transitioning to other companies.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's awesome. No, I think that's phenomenal. If you want something bad enough, you'll do what it takes. I have a lot of respect for that. I really do. But that's awesome about the facilitating. And you like teaching that much. Do you like teaching more than?
Speaker 3:I would say I love them equally. I feel so blessed. Most people don't know what their passion in life is, and I found two passions, I think, because it's all breathwork related. I think breathwork is my passion. So whether I'm facilitating or teaching, it's all about breathwork. Even writing. I love writing about breathwork from my side. I love learning new things about it. I love trying to figure out things that, because it's so new you know modern breathwork at least that there isn't enough science about it. So I love starting to make connection. I wanted to research more about how breath holds affect things, so I started to research freediving, because that's where there is science to back up what happens physiologically with your breath hold. So and then I wanted to, you know, learn about whether or not we're releasing DMT, because you've probably seen a lot of people calling their breath work DMT, breath work, and I'm like but is it even proven that we're releasing DMT? It would make sense. There's a lot of similarities. So I have a big article on that and now there's like hundreds of offshoots.
Speaker 3:But if you ever do a session where you're lying down with your eyes closed for an extended period of time, typically supported by music, and it induces altered states and you're keeping the breath connected. It's most likely exactly what we're talking about. It's a conscious, connected breath work practice. It's often done through the mouth. Some facilitators do it through the nose and the breath's a medicine. So it's really encouraged to take deep belly, expanding breaths and keep those breaths connected and by doing that you're taking in more air than possible and creating the physiological shifts that lead to the non-ordinary state.
Speaker 3:So that's just in case anyone's like what is this breath work they're talking about? Like, are they talking about the box breath? Because that is so different? That's the opposite. That's activating the parasympathetic rest of the gastrointestinal nervous system. But with conscious, connected breath work we're purposefully activating our sympathetic fight or flight nervous system, but we're doing it in a really safe and empowered way and by doing that we get to be in the same state that we were in when we had stressful experiences or traumas that were hidden and we get to actually go back to that state in an empowered way and start to actually work through the root cause of a lot of our negative self-beliefs or, you know, addictions or harmful coping mechanisms.
Speaker 2:Basically, I'd love if you could elaborate on a little bit of the DMT aspect and some of what you found.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so DMT is the they call it like a psychedelic spirit molecule that's active in ayahuasca and that induces a hallucinogen, so it's considered the most powerful hallucinogen on the planet. Interestingly, the human body makes it. It's the only hallucinogenic substance that the human body makes on its own. We believe that it's released during birth and death and near-death experiences. Research has found or suggested that DMT is released when you have a near-death experience. That's why you have those experiences of the light or seeing your whole life flash before your eyes all of these things. Some people say that even during certain pregnancies or during giving birth, some people have DMT release, but in everyday consciousness it's not released Because breathwork connected.
Speaker 3:Breathwork has such similar effects and benefits as taking any kind of plant medicine or anything that induces non-runnery states. There's a lot of people saying you know that breathwork releases DMT and that's why they're so similar and, as I said earlier, there's a lot of companies that are calling their breathwork company DMT breathwork, but it hasn't been proven, however, when I was doing the research. So what happens? Even though you're taking in more air than usual, with breathwork you're actually blowing off so much CO2. So you're actually lowering the CO2 levels and increasing the pH and because of this you're actually slightly decreasing the amount of oxygen that's being released into your cells and tissues. So there's a slight oxygen kind of depletion state. It's called hypoxia and that would be a tiny bit of less oxygen going to your brain.
Speaker 3:So potentially, maybe when you go into a near-death experience or you're in a severe trauma experience and the body releases DMT to protect you, maybe when you're in breathwork, because your oxygen is slightly less than it's ever used to, it's like oh, are we dying? Let's release DMT. So that could potentially be a way that breathwork is releasing DMT. And I want to follow up saying breathwork is completely safe if you don't have any contraindications and you follow through with a qualified facilitator who knows what they're doing. Totally safe. No one's ever had any kind of like brain deprivation, damage or any lasting effects, aside from wonderful effects from breathwork.
Speaker 2:But it could just be that modification that could be leading to it Interesting, because I always thought that it did release the DMT.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, people, it's a trendy thing. It's just like. You'll see, like somatic breathwork, like, well, somatic means working with the body. Any breath is somatic breathwork, any conscious breath practice. It's trendy, yeah, and it's like. It's a highly searched term, if you'd like, for like, if you're into SEO, like DMT breathwork is like probably the most read article on my entire website because everybody's like what is this? It's not proven and I say that in there, right, I show you the research that it would make sense, but it's not proven yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's true, with so much about breathwork that there's not a lot of research.
Speaker 3:It's really an up and coming practice. Like in the last five years, especially since COVID. It's blown up. So I do think in like 10 years from now there will be a lot more research and hopefully also a lot more regulation with regards to trainings, because I see people going to like a weekend training in California and calling themselves facilitators and I just think that's dangerous. You know you're working with people's subconscious minds, their vulnerabilities, you're working with altered states. It's just and trauma like you can re-traumatize people. If you put people in there who don't feel empowered and you're forcing them to breathe more when their inner wisdom is telling them something else and maybe they have old traumas where they felt forced into something. You can have them leave worse off than they came then.
Speaker 2:it's such a beautiful, safe and empowering practice that it's such a beautiful, safe and empowering practice. Yeah, no, I think that's key to having walked the path, because even prior to me being certified, we had to do 30 days of breathwork in a row. You're that you need to do a weekend of breathwork and then start offering it. If you missed a day you had to restart and like we had to post it in the snack.
Speaker 3:I'm glad they kept you accountable to that. Yeah, for ours it was nine months. Every single week we did a session, and so that's like you're just automatically a changed person by the end of it. You can't not, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then we did a full week in person. It's got to be, you've got to have it. You know, even like the how to hold space, you know, and I think so many people think I'm just going to facilitate, like yeah, they're like it's just a breath, what could happen?
Speaker 3:But that right there shows their ignorance. You know, and it's just, yeah, it's such a powerful thing and when you get people into these altered states like, for instance, you could be saying things and because their subconscious mind is so suggestible, in this state they could just absorb it. So you even need to be worried about the way you speech and phrase things like there's so many little idiosyncrasies that are you. Just, you can't learn in a week and you can learn how to tell someone the breathing technique in like less than an hour, but you can't actually safely hold space unless you go into that very deep, inner, long journey. And that's why I really respect schools that are at least 400 hours. I just think that's so important that it's an extended school and that it's not just in a shotgun period.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's so true, because I think it ties back into the plant medicine, like in the re-traumatizing people how being prepared. Now, I'm not like I don't know if I even get certified in plant medicine, I'm not, so I don't know how that works, but, like, I've known a lot of people who have had negative experiences, and it not being the plant medicine, it being the facilitators.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, that was. My biggest issue was the shaman. There was something. There was like a dark energy about him I was feeling when I was in the sessions and just the way he was forcing me into things and like even at one point he referenced the bulimia that I had told him and at that point I wasn't willing to talk about it to anybody. I told him in passing and he's just like, well, do you want to be bulimic the rest of your life? And like I'm just he just like was throwing my things at me and it was very traumatizing.
Speaker 3:And the thing is, a lot of people come to my session I'm sure most kind of breathwork sessions. They're like, wow, I had done psilocybin retreats or I had done ketamine with my therapist and that was actually even more powerful somehow. And so that's the thing People think. Because it's the breath, it's not a big deal, but it's every bit as powerful, if not more so, than any kind of psychedelic substance you can take. So we have to learn how to hold space properly and I think the problem with a lot of plant medicine these days is that it's been culturally appropriated, so you have shamans that are maybe not, it's not been passed down through their lineage and they're not in it for the right reason, like I think.
Speaker 3:It's become like a westernized money-making thing, you know. So I think there, even in Peru, there are shamans there where it's not something they're doing out of a place of like pure love or out of something that's been passed down to them, but it's more like a money thing I know, I think it is too, because even it costs a lot of money just to register to go to these, the workshops for the plant medicines, and I see a lot of places advertising per per se.
Speaker 2:And now you shouldn't have to advertise a plant medicine retreat, it's become just a money thing as opposed to a spiritual growth thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and the money thing too.
Speaker 3:Like you said, that's just another thing that makes breathwork accessible, like, yes, as facilitators, we have to honor the amount of hours we've put into our training, that we put into making our playlists and creating the space and our own mental upkeep and all of that.
Speaker 3:However, it's so much more accessible than plant medicine, or even I do love that therapists are now starting to turn towards using ketamine, and there's the assistive therapy with these other substances. However, you know some like some people that have come to me for one or ones-ones who are working through some deep traumas. They're like those sessions were like $1,500 US a session and you have to sign up for five therapy sessions and you can do that with just your breath, and it's so much more economical, like hundredfold way more, for instance, even for for the retreats that I offer in Salida. You're in this gorgeous little wellness hotel, palapa place. You have your own beautiful bedroom, you're five minutes from the beach, you're in this really safe container with community and the price is like fourteen hundred dollars, like that's including everything. It's not for me. It's about giving people tools, holding space, connecting, and it's not about just banking all this extra money, you know no, I do.
Speaker 2:yeah, but I think some of the plant medicine people got down that path and do you have any opinion as to why?
Speaker 3:I just I'm curious when there's money that can be made in anything, when it becomes something that's like becoming popularized, you're always even in breathwork like. I hate to say it, but I have met owners of breathwork companies that have been the opposite of what you should be as a facilitator. I have seen people in the company that I work for actually other employees getting traumatized by the way they were treated by the owner, who was so passionate about Prather that they treated this company. It's almost like when you start to grow to a level, the ego gets really challenged and a lot of people can go one of two ways you can maintain your groundedness, your integrity, why you started doing this, or it could become an egotistical thing and actually you can start to create damage. There's, like you know, spiritual narcissism. That's real. I think that not a lot of people start out that way and they grow so big that it starts to just take over.
Speaker 2:Wow, I've never heard that tone before.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's real. If you look in the guru world or spiritual practitioners who are making like the biggest ones, if you Google, the biggest ones probably at least 50%, if not 80, have some level of. I hate to say this, but there is, it's a thing. It's even different than when I went and I'm just like as these wellness things grow, a lot of times they lose their heart.
Speaker 2:And it's sad to see, but it's a reality. Yeah, no, that's true and honestly, that's even why I talk about plant medicine on the podcast. But I really try to emphasize like do your research. And I don't mean do your research on breathwork, I mean do your research on who you're working with, because so important.
Speaker 3:Yeah, facilitator makes such a difference, whatever it is, whether it's plant medicine or just there's like a therapist.
Speaker 3:You can see dozens of therapists and get nowhere, and then you find that right connected person for you and you can actually make some really real and great progress. I still strongly believe you need to bring that progress into the body, but I do think the two together can be so potent, and so I'm loving that there's actually been a lot of therapists who have been drawn to our training lately and they're starting to open their mind up to it and recognize how powerful this can be. Because I feel like if you can give people the tools and the awareness through your talk therapy and then they can bring that into the body and subconscious mind, then instead of seeing them for decades, you can actually create lasting change in a few months. That's so true. I know people that are drawn to me that are therapists like I know they have so much integrity, but that's not good for business to like have you know something that works in a few months and then you lose your client. So I'm like, okay, you're in this for the right place. I love that.
Speaker 2:That's true. I think some therapists are starting to make that transition into being more open. One of my recent clients actually, she tried breathwork for the first time because her therapist recommended it, because she wasn't able to release things they had been trying to release. And she's like you should try some type of breathwork. And she's like I didn't even think this would work. But I gave it a shot and she was able to release things she hasn't been able to release in therapy. You know, she cried like she never had. Yeah, it's amazing. I know I'm going to. I love everything you're doing, megan. You too.
Speaker 3:And thanks for creating a platform for us to talk about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, my gosh, of course. So when did you officially found Unity Breathwork?
Speaker 3:It's been around for five years. I gave it its name and everything. Maybe three years ago I had a website, but I didn't put a lot of work into it until a year and a half ago. I don't actually have an official date. That's awesome, because I used to like when I was working in Austin I called it Austin Breathwork originally. Unity just came to me. I was like this is the perfect name on so many levels. It's like a unity of the subconscious, the conscious and the super conscious, which we achieve in our session. It's the unity of all living things, of everybody in the group. You show up as strangers and you leave feeling like this deeply connected family. It's just a unity of the lost and broken parts of ourselves, like on so many levels. I just think it works and I love that.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's beautiful. Now, have you heard of a man named Jay Shetty? I haven't. So he's a motivational speaker, he's an author, he's got a podcast. His podcast is called On Purpose, and he ends his podcast with two segments and I incorporated them into mine and the first one is called the Many Sides to Us. There's five questions and they need to be answered in one word, each One word.
Speaker 3:Ooh, this is tough, See. As a writer, I have a tendency to write way too much, and I can never make things concise, so this will be a fun challenge.
Speaker 2:Number one what is one word someone who was meeting you for the first time would use to describe you? Compassionate? Number two what is one word that someone who knows you extremely well would use to describe you? Caring? What is one word you'd use to describe yourself Kind? What is one word that if someone didn't like you or agree with your mindset would use to describe you? A bird? What is one word that you're trying to embody right now? Authenticity. And the second segment is the final five, and these can be answered in a sentence what is the best advice you've heard or received?
Speaker 3:Life is too short to play small.
Speaker 2:Why is that the best advice?
Speaker 3:I just think it's something that works for all of us. Like something I always use it in my sessions and it's a reminder to myself too. Like so often we can just get caught in our negative programming of you know. Oh, like who am I to think that I can hold space? I haven't gotten everything sorted. I still have things in my life. But it's not about being small. It's about being our full, authentic selves and shining our lights. We all have a bright light within us and I just think life goes by so fast and it's too short to play small.
Speaker 2:What is the worst advice you've heard or received?
Speaker 3:I don't know. One saying I find strange though is is it is what it is. I feel like we haven't settled, we haven't solved anything with that. I'm a problem solver.
Speaker 2:So you don't like that advice.
Speaker 3:I don't think it's the best. I feel like it's almost just taking a passive approach to life, when I think we have a lot more authority and power than we give ourselves credit for.
Speaker 2:Okay, what is something that you used to value that you no longer value? I?
Speaker 3:don't know. I guess I used to value like binging on junk food and now it's just not something. I have any call to do.
Speaker 2:If you could describe what you would want your legacy to be, as if someone were reading it, what would you want it to say?
Speaker 3:Power in others to be their own healer.
Speaker 2:Okay, If you could create one law in the world that everyone had to follow, what would it be?
Speaker 3:Treat others like you would want to be treated. Could you imagine if people actually did that? Everyone treats people. Some people are treating others like you would want to be treated. Could you imagine if people actually did that? Everyone treats people. Some people are treating others like subhuman you know. Could you imagine the butterfly effect if people actually were able to connect with how they wanted to be treated and treated others that way?
Speaker 2:That's true. Now I have one more question for you. But if you had the attention of the whole world for five minutes, what would you say?
Speaker 3:I would say we need to stop looking outside of ourselves and start looking within, that we can actually change our world from the inside.
Speaker 3:When we want to see a change in our external worlds, by going within and doing our own inner work, that's the most powerful way to start to create change in those around you. And I would say it is time to reconnect to our breath, because the breath is our most powerful tool for healing and growth and transformation. And I would encourage everybody to know that the love that they're seeking is within them, that they are deeply loved and that they are more than worthy and that they don't have to prove themselves and that their dreams are valid, and that it is time to stop playing small and for them to take back their power and to start to really enjoy more moments of present, because in our final days, when we look back, it's those moments of presence that are really going to be of value and really in our final days, when we look back, all that matters is love. We are love and it is time to start combining that.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you so much for speaking with me. I really appreciate it and we'll connect with you. I really appreciate it and welcome on Connect With you.
Speaker 3:So my main resource is my website. It's been a passion. It's called unitybreathworkcom. I'm also on Instagram. I'm not a huge social media person so I haven't given it as much love, but there's definitely some fun resources on there.
Speaker 3:My most recent post was just a quote from my breather two days ago in my group session. At the end she just started by saying holy shit, this actually. Oh no, she said this shit actually worked and I was like new slogan of Unity Breathwork and so I have a little post about that, which is funny. So you can catch me at Unity Breathwork on Instagram or Facebook as well and just reach out. I have even a page on my website where it's like a Q&A for both facilitators as well as trainees or sorry, as well as breathers, just participants, because I found a lot of people who are facilitators.
Speaker 3:They still don't feel comfortable asking questions to their teacher. I have one in particular, a friend of mine, and she's like she's come to me with questions because she's like my teacher would shut me down if I brought this question to her. So I want it to be a safe space to ask any questions you might have about maybe something that's happened in a session with one of your participants whether it's safe to hold space with them with a certain contraindication. Also, maybe you, as a breather, had a really unsettling experience or you have a question about what happened to you. You can find the link to reach out to me with any questions at all, and I just love to support people and provide information and resources, and I'm available for online restwork sessions too, if you want to book a private with me, and I would love to see somebody who's watching this at one of my retreats. The next one is November 29th to December 6th in beautiful Thalia, mexico, and our next training launches mid-December, but you can get started with the home exploration unit basically anytime.
Speaker 2:Thank, you so much. I really appreciate it. Is there any final words? You want to leave the listeners with no pressure whatsoever, but anything else you want to share with them.
Speaker 3:Just to remember that you're already more than enough.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful, thank you Well. Thank you so much for speaking with me. I really appreciate it. You're welcome. I hope we get to connect again and thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of manders mindset.
Speaker 2:Hey guys, manders here, and before we wrap up, I want to take a moment to reflect on a few key takeaways from today's powerful conversation with Megan. First, we heard all about how Breathwork was such a transformational tool in Megan's journey, particularly helping her overcome her eating disorder. It gave her the confidence to step out of old patterns and create a new narrative for herself. It's another powerful reminder that we can connect to our breath at any point and we're also connecting to deeper layers of our healing. Megan also shared something really profound about her experience with touch and growing up she didn't receive the physical touch that she needed, but during her first breathwork session, a Reiki practitioner placed a hand on her and it reminded her of the power of physical human connection. And it's these subtle moments and it's just a beautiful example of how breathwork can really show us emotions and feelings and sensations that we are longing for that we did not even realize we were longing for Megan and I also talked about the importance of working with trauma-informed skilled facilitators, whether it's breathwork therapy or plant medicine.
Speaker 2:When we embark on these healing journeys, especially the deeper emotional work, it is crucial to feel safe and work with someone you trust, because you should feel safe and supported. Your facilitator should be someone who has the proper training. Your facilitator should be someone who has the proper training, certifications and someone who makes you feel comfortable, seen, heard and just safe, like you are at ease. Whether you're exploring breathwork or other healing modalities, always prioritize your safety, and I don't just mean your physical safety, your mental and emotional safety as well. Trust your gut, do your research and make sure the person guiding you creates an environment where you feel secure enough to truly let your guard down so you can be vulnerable and you can heal.
Speaker 2:I hope Megan's story resonated with you and thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of Mando's Mindset. In case no one told you today, I'm proud of you, I'm booting for you and you got this, as always. If you enjoyed the show, I would really appreciate it if you would leave me a five star rating, leave a review and share it with anyone you think would benefit from this. And don't forget you are only one mindset shift away from shifting your life. Thanks guys, until next time.
