Laughing Through The Pain: Navigating Wellness

From Cyclist to Spiritual Sage: Pavel's Breathwork Journey and Holistic Life Hacks

• Richard & Andy • Season 1 • Episode 29

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What happens when a former professional cyclist transforms into a spiritual guide and breathwork expert? Meet Pavel from NOA|AON, whose incredible journey from franchising over a hundred fitness studios to DJing at major events has led him to profound spiritual insights. This episode delves into Pavel's experience with breathwork, recounting a life-changing Wim Hof retreat that reshaped his daily practices and teaching methods. Learn how breathwork has become an essential tool for Pavel, enhancing his physical health, mental clarity, and emotional well-being.

Pavel takes us through his path to spiritual transformation, exploring an eight-point lifestyle that minimizes dependencies and maximizes purposeful living. From battling depression and burnout to embracing mindfulness and spirituality, his story is a testament to the power of holistic practices. Through tales of his global encounters with shamans, gurus, and Zen masters, Pavel introduces a framework for personal growth—wake up, clean up, power up, and rest up—that offers practical steps for anyone looking to simplify their life and achieve true freedom.

This episode is packed with insights into mastering the power of breathwork. Discover how different techniques like the 4-7-8 method and Wim Hof’s deep breathing can be used to achieve various states of mind and tackle specific issues. Pavel emphasizes the importance of proper integration and closure in personal development events, detailing the physiological benefits of breathwork practices. Whether you're a seasoned practitioner or a curious newcomer, Pavel's personalized approaches and on-demand courses provide the tools to explore and find what works best for your own personal growth journey.

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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome back to Laughing Through the Pain. Navigating Wellness with me, richard L Blake and, for some reason, andy E Sam, who's making a funny face at me. Why are you doing that?

Speaker 2:

I don't know. I think it's just the intros are getting more and more like comical, Like hello and welcome. It's just a bit.

Speaker 1:

it's very newscaster-y, it's good that way Laughing Through the Pain, Laughing Through the Intro. Navigating Podcast.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, who have we got today then, rich? Sorry for interrupting.

Speaker 1:

No, you should be. I hate being interrupted. It's very rude. No, it's fine, I do it all the time. We've got Pavel. Pavel is from Noah Aon, so he has he's got a pretty impressive background. He no, you're shaking his head.

Speaker 2:

No, unbelievable. Unbelievable. It feels like the sort of thing that would fill like four or five lifetimes and the guy's 33. It's unbelievable.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so he was a former professional cyclist. We didn't go into that too much, but that's the first I've heard of that. Then he became a serial entrepreneur, franchisor, franchising, I think, a hundred orange theories, and then he sort of fell back into spirituality and breathwork and shamanism. So we hear about what he's doing with breathwork. He's doing some very innovative things. He's also a DJ. He DJ'd'd the biohacking conference, which where they had a big, big party with, you know, thousands of people and he was, he was in charge of that.

Speaker 2:

So he's a pretty big time dj festival and club scene as well, he mentioned yes, he did and yeah he's, uh, he's done some pretty intense stuff as well.

Speaker 1:

You know, I I like to think of myself as a bit of a like an intense spiritual seeker, but man amateur compared to me he does a 10 day 10 day darkness retreat every year darkness is okay, so darkness is one thing.

Speaker 2:

No food is the thing that really scared me yeah exactly, and yeah comes back. He does it five times now, so 50 days in total unbelievable. And all that with um. He was very honest about some pretty major setbacks in his life as well, so a real go-getter, putting a lot of good out in the world. It was a pleasure, wasn't it absolutely all right.

Speaker 1:

Well, enjoy listening. We'll see you in a little while hey listener. If you're enjoying the insights and stories we share on our pod, then don't miss out on any of our episodes. Hit the subscribe button to download and listen to our conversations at your convenience.

Speaker 2:

Pavel, we're going to start you off with a nice hard-hitting question. Could you explain what breathwork means to you and its benefits?

Speaker 3:

Yes, I like this. Breath is life, and I always say this. Breath is what you're born with and breath is what you die with. But what you do between the first breath and last breath is what determines the quality, the awareness of your life.

Speaker 3:

And so the minute that I took charge of my breath aka going from the unconscious mind into the conscious mind, which I think the breath is the lead gateway to this I realized the immense power that I have and I'm not talking about egoic power, but just self-confidence, knowing, understanding and hearing all of these insights that our whole life we've been maybe not listening to or paying attention to. And so if there is one thing that I truly believe that we can learn from, it is our breath. And, of course, we can talk about different varieties, or there's so many different ways to breathe and all of the different focuses. It will benefit you from your physical health, alkalinity, energy, all the way to your mental, emotional well-being. Where I think that's where it really gets interesting is using breathwork for past traumas and facing our things that we've been holding on to for way too long, which again is locking us from full potential.

Speaker 2:

So how did you come to breathwork?

Speaker 3:

So there was this time, when I was born, I took a first inhale. I always think it's hilarious, right, because like breath is always there, but like now it's like an industry right Of breathers that is becoming bad. No, so for me it was about eight years ago. I went into, I booked myself to go to the Wim Hof Polish excursion and a little bit of a backup. So I spent last 15 years traveling the world and searching for tools that can help us heal, whatever it's physical, mental, emotional.

Speaker 3:

I looked at all of the different complexes and committed myself that I will basically go into these retreats or workshops or teachings to find peace, and essentially this was one of them. I actually walked into this sick. I was mildly sick, with a little bit of a pain around my kidneys, I think I had a strep. It was really odd, right Like you go into an ice for a week with Wim Hof and you're feeling this way, and I walked out of there healthy and it was so far out of any sorts of belief system which I'm not saying to do this, by the way, like on a regular basis. This was just my experience, to wow myself that you can take charge of your own immune system and on your own focus. And it wasn't until these deep, hour-long breathing session that we did, towards the end, that I was just having these huge transcendental experiences similar to psychedelics, and I was so fascinated by it because I have tried psychedelics, I've used different plant medicines and I spent time with the tribes in my journey, but nothing ever could be something I could keep on an everyday basis, and so this huge empowerment of something that you don't have to seek something outside of you, but it's all there within you and you just can affect it with the power of your mind, with your will, was fascinating.

Speaker 3:

And right after that I signed up for the teacher training. This is before Wim Hof was what it is today. It was a very disorganized still and it was very different to which, and essentially I spent the next year of teaching and really teaching and showing others because I want everybody to feel what I felt, because it was just so incredible to begin with. And then I used to own a Orange Theory fitness franchises, but right next to them I created a yoga fitness meditation center in Atlanta, georgia, and that's where I started my breathwork. So I started doing breathwork classes for a membership already about seven years ago.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. Yes, breathwork yeah, it's amazing what it can do. And you made the joke about I made my my first breath. I took my first breath. But that is a lot of people's sort of joke is oh, you're a breath worker, I've been breathing for 35 years. What can you teach me about it? But there's a lot to learn. For sure you also have a protocol called the system reset. What does that mean?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so after about 15 years of traveling, I went into darkroom and so I spent 10 days in darkness about. I think it was either right before or right after the Wim Hof excursion. It was funny, it was like all happening in that year and I was a busy entrepreneur and I wanted peace. So I, like, signed up for this 10 days of darkness with no food, with Jas Mohin, who later on became my mentor, and basically it's this initiation into pranic living, into this whole other like alternative ways to life. Now it took me about seven days to finally surrender, and it was after Wim Hof because I was doing breathwork. In there. There was some of the deepest states I was able to access, like this DMT type releases, because of the darkness right, there was no food and no light, so you could really see the difference. And so this one session, seven days in, I finally just surrendered and I start crying and purging and I went into this beautiful state of bliss and for the first time in my life I wasn't worrying about what other people thought and who. I came into a place of who I am not for what I'm not, and in that moment it was so clear. This is where basically the System Reset came about, and also NOAA Aon, which is the brand that we do it under, and basically NOAA symbolizes movement, noah Aon, which is the brand that we do it under, and basically Noah symbolizes movement. Aon is all or none. And it symbolizes duality, this never-ending ping pong, highs and lows and good days and bad days, that I knew there is another way to it, and that is coming back into the center, coming back into that harmony, health and happiness. And so, when I walked out of there, the message was so clear Get rid of all of your business career. Like you gotta live in service. You gotta rediscover your passion, which is music for me. You gotta live your purpose, which became teachings, lectures and workshops. And it was done through the system reset toolbox.

Speaker 3:

So think about a system reset as a computer for a moment. So, just like a computer, when you hold the button for two or more seconds, it resets back to baseline. And through coding, we're doing exactly the same in our events. And so think about your mind as the software, the body as the hardware. And when a computer needs to download new software, we connect is the hardware, and when a computer needs to download new software, we connect to the internet. Now, what we do in the sessions and events, through breath, dance, meditation and sound, we're connecting to the inner net, which is always there.

Speaker 3:

But we got to change the brainwaves. We got to change the way we're operating and the way we spend our time. And we've got to change the way we're operating and the way we spend our time. And so what I've learned through this is we're overly thinking. Beta dominant species right now, right, whatever, it's just the life overdoers. But what happens when you take a pause? What happens when you shift those brainwaves into more of the alpha theta and you start accessing the subconscious mind, you start having these releases, you start having these insights that you maybe haven't heard for a long time. And, through System Reset, we open up this portal through these tools. Basically, after 15 years of traveling, I put the ones that worked, that had a scientific validation under them and that we could make, into a fun experience. That's all under the same motto. And then, through recoding, we are literally changing the way our belief systems and our bodies and relationships through these sessions that's awesome.

Speaker 1:

I love the analogy. I feel like, yeah, the computer analogy is what. What makes most sense to me when I think about are we living in a computer simulation and, you know, downloading information and things like that? But so what was it like doing 10 days of darkness? Because I've done 10 day for passing, I've done a month of ayahuasca, but I don't think I could do 10 days of 10 days in the darkness and no food yeah.

Speaker 3:

so it was one of those things that that, along my journey that was, was really intriguing to me, and I discovered this early on at a drum ball of Melchizedek's workshop, and it was called Opening Illuminated Heart and he. What caught my attention the most was that there's this set of people in the world that are solely nourished by prana they don't eat any physical food and I was so fascinated by it, but also just so far beyond any of my belief, you know, that this could be possible, and so my open heart and open mindset was like you've got to go. You've got to go test this out and see what happens. And so then I go for the first time, and this is with Jasmoheen, who is an incredible person. She hasn't eaten any physical food for the past 25 years and she's been one of those bringers to this possibility, stating that there is about 200,000 people in the world that are solely nourished by prana, or source or love, whatever we call this. And so I was like I'm going there see what happens, and it took me two weeks after the days to reintroduce food, and to me that was so fascinated that I literally was not hungry. Like it was the weirdest feeling, and you would think that you would lose weight. And yes, some people lose weight, but that's when you're still fasting, right. But when you turn the fasted fuel to no longer be dependent on the physical food and you turn it into the energetic food, you essentially stop losing weight. I have a proof of this as well. I literally took a pictures before darkroom and after darkroom and I show this to people. I'm like what do you think is the one before, after? Every single person thinks that the one after is it's flipped upside down and I've actually gained weight being inside of darkness without any food. So for me it was so fascinating and basically she teaches you a direct lifestyle.

Speaker 3:

It's an eight-point lifestyle that you abide and that you live within, and the goal is not to not eat, that you eat for pleasure. If you do want to eat, you don't eat for the need and you lose the desires of the physical, mental, emotional hungers that are attached to the way we spend time here on earth and when we are spending our time on money, sex, power, to keep it simple, right, all of the things of the flashy instant gratification. Yes, we're going to be hungry. Yes, we're going to seek pleasure. We're going to seek all of these instant things. But if we shift the focus more into the stillness and silence and you live in purpose, you spend time to meditate, you switch that busy lifestyle around and ask yourself what is true harmony, what is true peace?

Speaker 3:

But simple things like this, it's nothing. No high level spiritual concepts. But how do we just change the way we live? Then we will naturally start losing hunger in all of these levels. We will naturally move into the state of surrender and place of openness and love and instead of fear, of surrender, and place of openness and love instead of fear. And so I know it's really far out there and it was for me as well. But having this experience, I was really blown away by the potential and I haven't been able to convert fully in my lifestyle. I have a balance right now where I eat once or twice a day. It's mostly liquid. Even that alone. That knowing that I don't have to depend on it and I can go into a deep state of meditation and rather fuel myself with positive thoughts and emotions and feelings is really incredible freedom by itself.

Speaker 1:

It sounds incredible. Yes, as you say, incredible freedom. I'm speechless yeah. Yeah, I think I have too much of a dependence on ice cream to do anything like that you 100% do. Maybe I could free myself from my ice cream dependency with a 10-day darkness retreat.

Speaker 2:

Pavel, going back, it seems to me like 15 years traveling the world. Could you give us a bit of insight into what was fueling that? What were you looking for? Or did you not even know?

Speaker 3:

It was pain. So I used to be a professional athlete, I used to be a road cyclist and I traveled the world with it, and I also was an entrepreneur from a really young age where I had to figure out a way how to make means to fuel the cycling. And essentially I was about 19 years old and I fall into a massive depression. I had a chronic fatigue, epstein-barr. I was literally sick every two weeks and I could not continue with my cycling career, and so in that moment it was really like a just hardcore thing to have all these dreams to be at Tour de France and Olympics and being also at the forefront of it, like really far enough to be able to do that one day, but then it gets all crushed. So that was like a big pivotal moment. My second pivotal moment was when I moved to America and I started putting all of my endurance into business. I built this fitness empire with almost 100 locations under my belt, but I burned out again and I was depressed again and I got divorced. And so you know, even though I checklist all of these things that were taught that are happiness and that will bring us happiness, I kept on having this deep voice inside of me that says there is more to life. Follow this. To give you a little bit of a context I grew up with shaman out of all things in Czech Republic, and so my mother was the first inclination to spirituality and yoga and bedas and a lot of the traditional stuff. But I always thought it was weird, I like put it on the back burner and I like didn't want anybody to know this. But while I was even cycling, I kept on reading books and I kept on being intrigued by this topic of mindfulness and meditation and I joined a few different groups. I went with the gurus. I spent a month in India, where I traveled through different ashrams and really like living that whole lifestyle. I've done Zen master training with the Japanese samurais in Japan, in Kyoto. I spent a month with the psychics in Brazil, literally in this psychic village in the middle of nowhere. So it led me on a really interesting pathways.

Speaker 3:

But what I've learned from all of these travels is that life is so much more simple than we make it and we life continues to give us feedback on every single level. I basically brought these levels into three different ways of how we operate and I call it a me we be and what I mean by this is me is the individual consciousness. This, this is your physical health, mental health, your emotional health, your spiritual connection. Then you've got the we, which is the relationships that we have. This is also the environment that we live in the air, water, anything on the outside impacting inside, and also the social structures. What is the belief system of the countries that we're part of, and so on. And then the B is the belief system of the countries that we're part of, and so on. And then the B is the supraconsciousness. This is, if you keep on zooming out on our existence, right, it can go infinitely deep and we don't even, we can't even comprehend that. But essentially, if you simplify it, we operate in these three different levels. It gives us micro cycles and macro cycles that will keep on coming back to us and giving us the feedback based on what we need to receive.

Speaker 3:

And so my whole life I spent running away from problem, running away from pain, right, hiding the pain and not talk about the pain. But then, in a dark room, and through this, I started realizing that it's actually where I need to look into right. And so then I start looking into negative thoughts, negative health, like an Epstein bar and figuring out how to fix it. I came up with this simple framework that anybody can look where they are, and essentially it's four steps. It's super easy.

Speaker 3:

It's a wake up, clean up, power up and rest up Essentially what it does. You first wake up. You look at all of the most prominent things in your life, whatever its relationships, whatever it's something simple as your blood work right. Maybe you are low on vitamin D, high on environmental toxins. It gives you a data set so you can bring the power back to you.

Speaker 3:

The second part is clean up. This is when you detox the toxins, when you get rid of the negative relationships. If you keep on thinking that you're not good enough or that you can't, you get rid of that thought. So that way you can power up into the third phase and this is when you bring vitamin D supplement. This is when you bring new ideas, new thoughts. You go into the offense so you can rest up, which is the fourth phase and that's the reassessment, understanding where you are taking time for yourself and unhooking from all of this busy world. And so, through these steps, I basically start understanding that everything is an opportunity to grow, everything is an opportunity to learn, everything is an opportunity to give the power out or keep the power in, and so this is just a simple way of how we we teach this and how we do it in our events, so people understand that nothing is by coincidence thank you so much being so honest about all of that.

Speaker 1:

It's a hell of a journey you've been on absolutely extraordinary yeah, I know it's really interesting that the journey of the athlete and the entrepreneur you've done too. You know I know a lot of professional athletes. Yeah, they have successful careers. Then they retire age 35. And they slip into a deep depression because nothing can match that high of performing in front of the crowd. Or the entrepreneur thinks, I'll be happy once I make my 10th million dollar, and then they slip into depression. Depression. But you've had those both so early and at the same time, had that sort of spirituality to fall back on because it was something you grew up with there. And now you've dedicated your life to it. And yeah, you, you're also a superstar dj, aren't you? That's a big part of your thing. So I don't don't think anyone's really doing breathwork and music like you are. So tell us how music comes into your work.

Speaker 3:

In the process of unhooking, as I like to call it, which happened for me in dark room the first time. For the first time I had a time to think. I had a time to think about the past, about the future, about the present and basically, just to give you a quick background on this, how I occupied my mind in a dark room. I spent the first half going backwards, so I would literally think about all of the different situations I could remember and who did I hurt, what hurt me? And just like, really marinate on it, because otherwise I would go crazy with the monkey brain. And then by the last few days of the dark room I start spending about what are my dreams, what do I really want and like, where do I want to go? And so this is when, for the first time, I had a chance to actually think what are my true heart's desires? Because a lot of times we just live and do and never allow for that opening, and then we're wondering what is our purpose? But then how do we find the purpose if we don't allow the time for the purpose to come into the space? So in that moment I rediscovered my passion, which was always music, and so it was really clear I love DJ shows and I love festivals and I've always loved that act of it. I used to also grew up dancing, and so the message was like you get out there and you're going to learn how to produce music, you're going to learn how to DJ and then you're going to bring this to the nightclubs at a time. So that's where, from Darker, where it started and my purpose right became you got to give this message out. So retreats, workshops, immersive experiences, combining the passion with the purpose, and what I also learned in there was what is the legacy Like? How do you make means to live in service, which was given by the events we do, by our e-commerce and so forth. So it literally it all came from darkroom originally.

Speaker 3:

Now, because I like to do everything different, I was like how do we push the boundaries of traditional music? And because I love meditation, but I also love having meditation through dance, because, who's to say, we just have to be so still and rigid and disciplined. Right, it's not always about this pitriphal way of learning. A lot of times it's about having fun and in the process of it, which we are a lot of times forgetting. And so I was like how do I create music with solfeggio frequency on a modern beat? And so that's, when you go to our like spotify or our dj sets, it's a reharmonized tracks that you may recognize, that you may know, but we use at different frequencies based on the solfeggio scale or to help with different topics, right? So if it's frequency of love, we use a lot with five to eight hertz and essentially it's a really intentional music and songs, but it still hits. We still go hard.

Speaker 3:

The energy of our events is incredible. We've got live instrumentalists, drummers, singers. It's a full-on show but it's sober, it's conscious, it's a way of opening and safety space for people to express without being weird, without feeling like they're weird, because when I started this, I played at major music festivals and festivals, from Ultra to Burning man and to like a nightclubs. But when I quit drinking alcohol, I could not be in that space anymore and I was like what am I doing here? This is not why I started this, and so my poor little lost soul basically was like I need out and I need to figure out a way that I can keep on, channel this fun in a different ways. That's why now we curate our own events. We do also festivals, we also do conferences and all of these different things. But generally we have our own stage or we have our own environment that we can contain this. So it goes within the environment of what we want to do.

Speaker 1:

What are solfeggio frequencies?

Speaker 3:

is somebody that has played with frequencies quite a bit, so there's a whole scale. There's anything from like 174, which is like a pain reducer all the way up to 980 something I would have to have it in front of me but the one that's most utilized has been 432 hertz. A lot of instruments are tuned to that and it's believed to be like the closest thing to God or to oneness, to this universe. And essentially from my research on this, when you use 441 hertz, like the standard that actually has been set up by Rockefeller family in the 20s. It was set up to be the standard sound for radios, tvs, music and so forth standard sound for radios, tvs, music and so forth.

Speaker 3:

Now think about 440, 441 hertz I don't use it enough anymore so I don't even remember the frequency. It's if you are driving in a car and you're listening to a radio and you are in between cities, so the radio starts muffling before it hits the next city, and so the same thing is 441 hertz does to our brain, so it's a distorting sound basically that we're putting in. Now, anything that's even just a little bit different from 441, maybe, let's say 442, just an even tiny bit different than this standard, it becomes a sound that's closer to God, to universe, to the sound that we are meant to listen to and progress with, and so I don't want to be a conspiracy, but I think it is made by design in a lot of ways, like what we're using, and, essentially, when you start playing with these frequencies and intention, I truly believe that sound can heal the world.

Speaker 1:

It's the one thing that we all have in common and it's the one thing that, even from a biblical ways, right at the beginning there was a word and word whatever sound, frequency, vibration, right, that dictates our existence yeah, I think that's really interesting and I think that you're yeah, you're bringing something new in the sort of the ecstasy that a lot of young people are giving up Because supposedly a lot of young people are not drinking. I've just seen a statistic that the percentage of young people who don't drink has gone up from 14% to 21% in the last five years in the UK. So can you say more? Because, yeah, breathwork. I think when most people think about breathwork, they think, oh, it's just going to help me relax, that's it. And now people are also starting to think more about, like, conscious, connected breathing. Oh, it's going to help me as a replacement for therapy. But you're doing more than that. What else are you doing with breathwork?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So I always like to say we use breath as the guidelines, like, breath is just a tool, just like some people use vitamins, minerals, nootropics. It's a tool that we get to certain states, but the main why is recoding our existence, because everything is. Computers are an extension of us right, and so if we think about how computers work for a moment and we have a certain amount of apps, for example, on our phone, when you don't use an app, you hold the app, you exit out of it, and so really I see the breathwork as a way to get into these alternative states, to change your brainwaves, so that way you can face whatever those limitations are, and then you can recode the new limitations. Just like a computer, you download a new.

Speaker 3:

Now, when you think about breath work in general and I think it's important for people to discern, so I always like to put it in two categories You've got the subtle breathing, which is something you can do right now when you're listening, talking, driving and whatever it's. The gold standard is about five and a half second in, five and a half second out, in and out your nose, and if you can be aware of this as frequently as possible, we know it increases your heart rate variability, it lowers down your stress. We'll bring that conscious mind into a forefront, and so to me that's like the basic one-on-one Be aware of a longer extended breath in and out your nose also really important for longevity and as a filter to our respiratory system. Now then you've got also things like 4-7-8, where you inhale for 4, hold it for 7, exhale for 8. Another one, amazing for anxiety.

Speaker 3:

Now other one, for example, when you look at life situations is when somebody crosses in front of you in a car, right, something as simple as this. You have an option to react or to proact, as I like to call it. Come back into neutrality and again using every situation in your life as a way to grow, to expand you. Essentially, when you go into the treacherous situations, eyes, bad, fear, anybody's trying to fight you, right, like anywhere, you get exposed to fight or flight. The way you calm yourself down is long, deep, prolonged exhale, so out of your mouth and just blowing the air out, relaxing into your body. So these are just like a very mainstream, three simple breathing styles that you can do to just bring more awareness. But now then you've got the deep breathing styles, which is when things can get interesting, which you don't want to do standing up, driving, being around water because you can potentially pass out. There's a lightheadedness involved in this.

Speaker 3:

This is when I like to play and integrate a lot of them. So one of my favorite things, what we've been doing, is we call it the hybrid breath work. We integrate different styles together with intention, with sound, with vibration, so that way we can maximize the results. And the reason why I know this is because we've been using this EEG headband to be able to measure exactly what is happening in real life to your brain and what happens in a different state that you're accessing. So there is no guesswork. We actually literally reverse engineered the breathing styles to be able to tackle different issues For this category right, you've got the Wim Hof breath.

Speaker 3:

You've got holotropic breath. There is this power breathing where you're squeezing. There is connected breath, soma breath. Right, there's many different styles. Again, what I always like to say to people is find the one that works for you and play with it, integrate it and make it your own, because your own breath is the guide to your own success and expansion, and that's something that I would love to maybe we can gift to the audience is our on-demand library. We'll give you free access and I've got over 80 hours of recording in there that will give you whatever you're looking to, but you can definitely try all of the different styles which one works for you.

Speaker 2:

That's very kind of you. Thanks, pavel, and it's clear you're incredibly in tune with your body and how things impact on your body. For those who aren't, what would you say in terms of how to know if you found the right breath work, or will it be incredibly obvious?

Speaker 3:

Absolutely. So the number one thing is questioning everything. So I always say, if there's one superpower that I have, it's to question everything and everyone and every intention all the time. And basically what I mean by this it's simple questions. So does it work or does it not work? So start learning what this feels like in your body. For some people, they feel it, they hear it, they sense it. The senses project into our life in different ways. But what's really important is start everything with question.

Speaker 3:

When I'm not sure in life, I ask what would love do now? So simple, if I'm not sure what my purpose is or what the right breath work is, I always do it, I feel it. But I also ask is this breath work limited or limiting, or is it limitless? So step number one is always question Now. At first you might not hear the answers or you don't feel sure about the answers. There's always answers inside of you, but you're not going to get them in that dominance of your beta brainwaves, because what happens with our mind, the highest level of our ego, is a spiritual illusionist that justifies everything. By the way, that's one of the biggest fears to our world is this never-ending justification and righteousness which does not come from our true self, that comes from our build-up ego. To be right, the need to be right Now. To bypass that, we have to change the brainwaves, the dominance of our brainwaves. That can happen through a subtle meditation, but for most people today you got to do a little bit of a deep breathing. And so I even say, if you just do 15 deep inhales and exhales, let's say like the basic retention, at the end of these 15 inhales and exhales you hold the breath on, inhale and then you sit down or lay down and you squeeze from the center of your power, so that way you can connect to that brain guides action. Then you move the energy to your heart and then you move the energy to your brain. So that way it's like a heart, brain, gut, right, like you've got all three of our centers, and then you slow release, exhale. Even something that simple, just one round will change the brainwaves. The minute you close your eyes you're closer to alpha state Again, like with our research, we can tell literally what's been done.

Speaker 3:

And then also with HV visualization, then you can start, stimulate the subconscious mind more of the theta brainwave dominance. And so when you think about it, right, like how do I start and where do I start? It's first like allowing the space and time for it, so you take a few minutes off and you discover self-discover, self-question. Then it's being consistent with these times and maybe I can share with you a very simple cyclical tool that I use, and I call it a process of unhooking, which allows me to constantly be able to live by my highest path. For me, it's once a day. First hour of the day I just spend by myself. I go into breath, work, meditation, nature, I use some of my biohacks like light therapy and red light and beyond, and essentially the first hour of the day is the key to determine your choices and consequences for the day to follow.

Speaker 3:

Now, once a week, I spend full day off, completely out of the digital world, physical world. So I detox physically, digitally, mentally, and the first half of the day I spend it just by myself. The second half of the day, I bring family kids as well. I have three kids by myself. The second half of the day, I bring family kids as well. I have three kids. Essentially, I go back in a week and then I focus on the next week forward. What happens in those times is. I'm now used to receiving these insights, receiving all of these directions, which I used to mute. It just wasn't there right. I just thought whatever I'm doing is right. But now I feel and I see that direct response because I allow this time for it.

Speaker 3:

Once a month, I spent four days completely off, and I'm just coming out of this. After our crazy European tour. We did 15 events in seven days in Finland, and so I flew the family to Italy, and so for four days there was zero cell phone. It was just us connecting nature, hot springs. We were completely restoring, and what I do is I write, I look back in a month, what have I loved about this, what would like to improve? And I'll go forward a month. What's what I want to do next? And once a year I spend 10 days in darkness and I take two weeks completely off, and so this is the bigger cycle. So I've now done it five times. I spent total 50 days in darkness without any food. Essentially, this becomes my yearly reset. So same thing, yearly understanding where I'm going. And the first time I went, my life changed 360. But the second, third, it was just a minor adjustment, minor twist, and so that's what this process of unhooking is for, so you can know constantly where you are and where you're going.

Speaker 2:

Wow. My instinct is to say I can't believe you keep going back, Pavel. But my instinct is to say I can't believe you keep going back, pavel. But I'm very impressed.

Speaker 1:

Wow, yeah, um, I do find that. Yeah, andy, I've an agreement there. Like all the retreats I've done, I don't know if I could do them again. They were so challenging to go back and to know what you're going into and how difficult it's going to be. You've got to be, you've got to be pretty tough mentally for that kind of thing. So hats off to you.

Speaker 1:

Pavel. So yeah, with breathwork, obviously it's a very expanding territory and a lot of people call it the Wild West. There's a lot of people sort of misusing, abusing it, doing social media things. What do you think people are getting wrong about breathwork?

Speaker 3:

I think, just like anything, we have to treat it just like any psychedelic experience, because people are getting into the same states, and so I think what I personally see what's important when people have negative experiences, that they come from other places and what scares them, I think what a lot of the breathwork instructors have to be careful about is that we're not here to cook people, right. We're not there to like do it because we want people to cry. We're not there because we're doing it because we want people to scream and yell and do all of this. It's that's not the point, right? The point is that breath is the medicine that's inside of all of us. That has to be treated as that and so doing a prayer, protection, creating a proper field that is energetically, mentally, physically safe, making sure that when people are going through this, there's people to support them, right. So in every event, we have a whole group of angels, reiki healers and people that are there to assist any of these things.

Speaker 3:

I also think integration and proper closing is so important as well, which in our events, we do a 30-day committed journey with a partner.

Speaker 3:

So we team up people, they have an accountability partner and for 30 days, they have things that they can follow, and we also do integration journal because I think to journal and write and open is really crucial. But the key is that you have that opening with a safe instructor right Somewhere where you can understand, learn but then really explore it on your own, setting up these intentions in your privacy of your house, and you will be blown away how far and deep you can get without using antidepressants, without using, you know, all of these other things that people are dealing with, like anxiety and sleep and so forth. So, yeah, so I think we have to be really safe with the environment we're creating and we have to be really mindful that we're not doing it for the reason to have people cry and breakthroughs. It's. We're doing it for the reason to be space holders right to be in that safe environment to realize their greatest potential yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

I like what you your phrase there. We don't want to cook people. I think that's spot on and I've been posting a little bit about this sort of the trauma porn that you find on Instagram of people you know having huge cathartic experiences and why that's not necessarily a good thing. But it brings me on to, yeah, something we we were going to talk about, which is a new study that just came out. I think it may have actually come out today, so the author just sent it to me. He's named Guy Fincham. I think we'll have him on the podcast at some point.

Speaker 1:

But he did a study where he compared effectively he's called it high ventilation breathwork with breath holds, which is effectively Wim Hof, and he had 200 people. So I think it's the largest study, randomized control trial done on breathwork and he had a placebo group who just did normal breathing, around 15 breaths per minute, without the hyperventilation and short breath holds, and he found no difference between those two groups. So in in the measures of stress and anxiety and depression. So both groups worked in some regard. Both groups had reductions in stress, but there was no difference between the people who were going, you know, being cooked, you might say by uh, by the wim hof method and those who were just doing more passive breathing. So so what do you think's going on there? What do you think that study says?

Speaker 3:

I think it's. It goes back to the basics of when we focus. Well, our brain can focus only one thing at a time. So when we give a clear focus to something else but our never-ending thinking right monkey brain, our past and future we immediately realize peace. We immediately go into this state of relaxation.

Speaker 3:

I would be wondering so I haven't seen the study, but I would wonder if they also measured the alkalinity, if they measured the levels of CO2, if they also measured EG. I think that would be interesting to understand, like what's happening in the brain. But remember, like Wim Hof method, some of the biggest breakthroughs that happen, I used to when I did solely Wim Hof workshops. We would give a pH test before and after to people to measure the alkalinity and majority of the people would be acidic and they will be alkaline after three or four rounds of breath and that was always fascinating because that's a very physical measure of health and I do think that happens with the greater saturation, because I don't think that happens.

Speaker 3:

I also would love to understand the CO2 limits because I think in today's world right, there's a lot of people that are scared of CO2. And then, like it's also the levels of how much we are able to release, and I do think Wim Hof method does a lot of magic in the best way possible with that. Because of the pauses right, because when you hyperventilate and you hold your breath on exhale there's lack of CO2, right. And then when you inhale again, if it's a deep saturation, there's an overload of CO2. So I wonder what that does as well when you don't do the deep breath.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So I wonder what that does as well when you don't do the deep breath. Yeah, so I can say he didn't measure CO2 or alkalinity or brainwaves, he just measured well-being, anxiety and depression and stress levels and yeah, I found improvements in all those things. But, yeah, without any differences between the groups. But I know that Wim Hof has been revolutionary for for many people. Some people have said it saved their life. It has taken them out of deep depressions when nothing else would. So maybe it is. I think there'll be more to come out of this. Maybe wim hof is particularly good for certain people who need that aggressive inhalation and exhalation, and maybe there are other people who benefit more from the passive the pacific passive style of breath work yeah, and I also would say, looking at it from there's the whole physical, mental element, right, but then also there's that whole emotional trauma element which I think sometimes needs that extra pressure, right.

Speaker 3:

If you had some really negative trauma happen to you in the past, there is a point where you got to bring it up to the surface, and sometimes that it happens through deep states and that's why I think ketamine, psilocybin treatments, going in those ways, it's a very strong experience, right for people. And I think the same thing happens with a deep hyperventilation that sometimes you really need to feel it and bring it out so it leaves you once and for all I have a general question, pavel, it's with all these different skills and areas of interest and experience.

Speaker 2:

What does it look like when you start working with someone as in, who would come to you? What would you do? Can you talk us a bit? Talk us through that yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

So we work in three different ways. So we've got basically our on-demand library with courses. So we have a whole digital footprint where we, where people, can just get a course and then go through that experience. Then we've got in-person stuff right. So this is retreats, workshops, even corporate festivals, and immersive experiences, and that's in a group, right when they come through. And then we have an e-commerce that's all around consciousness expansion. So this is like light therapy red light, blue light. We've got measuring brain scan so we know where people are. And that's the third part.

Speaker 3:

Now, when I work one-on-one with people, I actually take everybody through the same reference that we discussed. So it's like a, it's a process that we first identify where we at. So the wake up, clean up, power up and rest up. I walk generally with all of the different aspects of the life because for my personal journey to transform, like it's not just your physical health, it's not just your physical health, it's not just your mental health, it's not just your relationships I always like to say is, if you wake up in the morning, right, and let's say that you're supposed to have 100% of your vital force, energy, to be at your highest expression, but then let's say that your house has a mold. Let's say that your wife is.

Speaker 3:

You're really going hard with your spouse, you are living as a I don't know. You're not living to your purpose, right, like you're working for somebody that you hate. So let's say that, like we take these three things and you lower down by 40, 50% before you even start the day, right? And so this is why I like in my work is I like to look at every single aspect that makes us who we are. Then I like to use this reference, go through each aspect so we can first clean up and get rid of those things that don't work. We replace them with the right things that do work. We do this through breathwork. So when it's digital, we always identify it through chit chat. We look at the different elements. It's almost like a therapeutic in a lot of ways right To just identify where you are and then we replace it. We go straight, anchor it with a new belief system through these exercises and sound and so forth.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, awesome.

Speaker 2:

So very interactive. Yeah, sounds very thorough. I'm into it. I like it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, what is digital microdosing? That is a great name. Tell us more about that. Is digital microdosing?

Speaker 3:

That is a great name. Tell us more about that. Digital microdosing yes, I don't know if this comes from me, but yeah.

Speaker 1:

It's in your light visor that we have.

Speaker 3:

Oh, okay, got you. You mean drug-free microdosing.

Speaker 1:

Oh, sorry, yes, Drug-free. Sorry, yes, drug-free. Microdosing, yes.

Speaker 3:

So that's a technology that we actually brought to the market. It's called Visor and it's a light therapy in combination with sound, and it's based on the studies from the 20s. Basically, there's incredible science showing how light therapy can help with neuroplasticity, and so we actually. We also combine it with breath. There's a variety of different settings, but the inventor Garnett was able to figure out how to basically stimulate the same areas in your brain as if you were doing psychedelics, and then, based on the therapy treatment, we literally follow the same projected, research-based formula. You can choose three days on, one day off, or the different ways to microdose, and then it follows in a course with the light stimulation to basically have this impact, and so I call it the VIP lane to present moment, because when you are exposed to this amount of light in a short period of time, it instantly brings your brain into focus and then it can create some major effects with your neuroplasticity amazing amazing and do you want to ask?

Speaker 2:

yeah, I was going to ask. So what's coming up for noah?

Speaker 3:

aeon. So I think the the most exciting thing that we've been working on for a while is we're creating a peloton or orange theory for your brain, and so we are working on a location to basically open up a facility where we're going to do breath, dance, meditation all the things that we're doing, but measured with technology. And so imagine, like a Peloton bike, right when you are cycling from home. So we will be recording from this centralized location, but people wearing a device that will be able to tell us where we are on a group, coherent level, but also on a personal level. So you're going to have a real life data and real life neurofeedback that's personalized to you while you are on a sessions, from whatever city that we're in, and so my goal is to revolutionize completely the way that we're meditating and breathing.

Speaker 3:

There is no more guess work. There is a direct, instant technology that will give you feedback, and my goal is also to bring all the disbelievers to this to understand that what something so simple can do. And because I come from franchising so I used to franchise Orange Theory I would love to eventually start creating these facilities around the world that people have modern church or whatever we call it, where you can come and dance, where you can come and experience, there's this whole community of people that are in this journey through self-transformation. So this is my kind of a big thing that, especially the next year, we will be releasing, and also a book. I'll have a book on transformation and putting this into a paper, wow, fantastic.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, sign me up, I want to come to this. Yeah, breathwork Church.

Speaker 3:

Or maybe buy one of your franchises. So yeah, pavel, I know you're a very popular podcast guest, so I want to. For me, it's I don't like service level podcasts Like. For me I'm on a mission to unify the world one person at a time, and it's really how we're going to reflect that and how we're going to take the walls that we are putting, the separation between us, because we're all on the same journey. Right, whatever you're doing, we're doing where none of us are higher, lower, bigger, smaller. So it's like any deep question that will tackle that is important for me.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

Hopefully we've gone there, yeah, I think we have a little yeah. I think we did go on there.

Speaker 2:

Okay, good stuff. Where do people find you then, Pavel?

Speaker 3:

It's noaaoncom. No-a-a-o n is our website. We'll send also, if you guys want the link, free library, so you can test out all that we talked about. You actually can have it from home, which I like to take people straight to action. No more waiting for anything.

Speaker 1:

Fantastic, yeah yeah, we'll put that in the show notes for sure.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and then the social media or however else you like to connect. We're here on our website you can find the events. So if it's anything near you, I know in. We're constantly in europe, in us, asia, south america, so it's there's every three months. We switch the different regions and we teach on every continent besides antarctica, which I'm putting out there because I would love to do one there yeah good luck with that fantastic yeah sounds.

Speaker 2:

It sounds chilly, but probably better than the 10 days in the dark. Cold exposure, free cold exposure.

Speaker 1:

You don't have to pay for any ice nice immersion, yes, with penguins exactly.

Speaker 2:

Thanks so much for giving the time today, pavel. It's been fascinating to talk to you, yeah thanks a lot. Thank you, guys, thank you for what you do. Right back at you. Yeah, best of luck for what's next. Yeah.