Bend Into Balance: Jon Paul Crimi, Founder and CEO of Breathe With JP

Jon Paul Crimi’s journey began at rock bottom. Struggling with addiction, he reached a point where life felt unmanageable, and traditional approaches offered little relief. Sobriety became his first breakthrough, but it was a Breathwork class that completely transformed his life. The experience was so profound that he knew he had to share it with others. What started as a personal healing practice became a calling, and Jon Paul dedicated himself to helping people achieve breakthroughs in their own lives.

Originally from Boston, Jon Paul moved to Los Angeles in his early 20s. There, he quickly became a sought after sober coach and wellness guide for A-list celebrities, including Oscar and Grammy winners, Olympic gold medalists, and top executives. Jon Paul found Breathwork through close friend Matthew Perry, which further deepened his connection to recovery and healing work.

Yet he didn’t stop there. Seeing the power of Breathwork firsthand, he developed a unique style stripped of the new-age fluff to make this ancient practice accessible and practical for anyone, from high-powered CEOs to everyday people seeking transformation.

With over 15 years of experience, Jon Paul has facilitated workshops, corporate retreats, private coaching, and teacher trainings, both in person and online. He pioneered online Breathwork long before it became common. He has led some of the largest in-person Breathwork gatherings, including a 900-person class in Switzerland, and has also facilitated Breathwork at Tony Robbins events, bringing the practice into some of the largest personal development stages in the world. Even when the world went into lockdown, his online classes allowed him to continue reaching hundreds of thousands globally. His simple yet powerful circular breathing technique offers immediate relief from stress and anxiety while holding the potential to move through years of trauma, depression, and grief. First-time participants often describe it as “twenty years of therapy without saying a word.”

Jon Paul’s no-nonsense East Coast approach, combined with his commitment to accessibility, has earned him recognition in major media outlets and top podcasts and shows. But for him, the greatest reward is witnessing transformation. Every day, he helps people reconnect with their most authentic selves, turning what once felt like hopeless struggle into lives of fulfillment, clarity, and purpose.

Today, Jon Paul lives in Bend, Oregon with his wife and two children, continuing his mission to bring Breathwork to anyone willing to try something different—and open their mind to real change.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:16

Hello, my name is Adriana Marino, and I am host and producer of Ben into Balance, Powered by the Source. Today I'm accompanied by John Paul Krimy of Breathe with JP. Um, JP, thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Thanks for having me. I'm super excited to talk to you today.

SPEAKER_04 0:34

Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

I'm very impressed because you just told me you've been on about 50 podcasts over the last couple of months. So I'm like, wow, you've you're an expert on this.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

I don't know about that. Now there's too much buildup already.

SPEAKER_04 0:46

Well, tell me about yourself. How did you get into this wellness space?

SPEAKER_00 0:50

And yeah, it was sort of not something I was intending. You know, um, I've been sober 26 years, um, and I got pulled into sobriety coaching, helping people get sober, big kind of rock stars and then actors, famous people who need somebody to go on the road with them when they're touring, you know, if they after they get out of rehab or they need to go in the movie set with them. So I became a sober companion. I got kind of pulled into that because I was really good at helping people get sober. And I was also kind of a tough ass, you know, like like I don't care you're famous, give me 20 push-ups. You know, I was a celebrity trainer before I was a celebrity sober coach in Gold's gym in Venice. Okay. The Mecca, the Mecca of bodybuilding, but I call it the mecca of narcissism. Uh-huh. So I got pulled into sober companion work. And then by a series of circumstances, I I had been friends with Matthew Perry from the show Friends. And um, someone took him to like a kind of a guru guy, a healer, and he was telling me about it when we were working out together. And I said, That sounds ridiculous, you know. And but I had just met Tony Robbins, right, through Matthew, like through circumstances at a Los Angeles Kings hockey game. And it was incredible. Like Matthew and I were in, we were following the Los Angeles Kings all season, right? And it just happened to be the season they went on the run to win the Stanley Cup. And it's the last game, it's game six in the staples center. We had been flying around at the playoff games. It was an incredible year, it was amazing. And every celebrity in LA is in this little VIP room underneath the Staples Center. And like it's, you know, Will Farrell and Vince Vaughan and Zach Afron, and in walks Tony Robbins. And I turned to Matthew and I go, Holy shit, it's Tony Robbins. And he goes, Really? We've been following the Kings all season. They're about to win the cup. Every celebrity in LA is in here. You're excited about a gigantic man right now, you know? Yeah. And I said, He's amazing. I had his books in high school, I had his tapes. Uh-huh. You'd been following him for years. Years. And I'd never gone to, you know, I'd never met him or anything like that. And Matthew's like, why don't you go tell him how much you love him? I go, dude, everybody bugs you. I don't want to be that guy to him. Yeah. Right. So I, you know, and I'd worked with a ton of celebrities, and I just know that what people they go up to him, and it's a pain, right? So I was walking back through the tunnel, and Tony looked up from his phone and he goes, Hey man, how's it going? Uh-huh. And I go, Okay, I never do this. I know everybody says that, but I actually don't. I'm a huge fan. I've been following you since high school. And he goes, What's your name? What do you do? We start talking. And he goes, Have you ever been to my seminar? And I go, No, I don't, I haven't. He goes, I only do three a year domestically, but I'm doing one next month in San Jose. And I'd love it if you'd come as my personal VIP guest.

SPEAKER_04 3:33

Wow. I know. And I was like, You made a good impression on him.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Maybe, I don't know. And maybe he just, I think Tony has a he's really intuitive and he knows what somebody wants or needs. And at the time I was sort of going through a difficult transition. And he and I, that's exactly what I needed. And so I went to his seminar and it was life-changing. And we could talk about that for the whole hour, but I don't, you know, there were so many things that happened.

SPEAKER_04 3:54

And it but in a gist what happened at the seminar.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Well, okay. So I had I had been struggling in Hollywood. Okay. I was a screenwriter. Uh I had come really close to a lot of things. I had a million dollar deal fall apart and I got nothing, you know. Yeah. And it was really frustrating. And I had a screenplay stolen from me and made into a movie, which was heartbreaking. And I sold a TV show that didn't end up happening. It was just all these things. And I was so frustrated. And it I had a moment of awakening.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Where I realized I'm I'm I'm done with Hollywood.

SPEAKER_05 4:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

I'm gonna let go of this dream. And I'm just gonna help people. Like I'm getting emotional because I get like it's like calling it right back into me.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

No, it's good. Yeah, it's good, it's good then. I let it go. Like, and I say to people like sometimes you have to let go of your dream to step into your destiny.

SPEAKER_04 4:50

That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Thank you. And so I decided in that seminar, in that moment, like I'm done with Hollywood. I'm gonna help people. I don't know what that looks like, but that's what I'm gonna do.

SPEAKER_04 5:00

You had that revelation.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Yeah, I also had a revelation about children. Oh I never wanted children. And we were doing these moments, pulling these heart moments into our heart. Yeah. And one of them was a future moment. And I do these moments in my class, and we'll probably talk about them. But one was a future moment, and I saw two children. I saw a girl and a younger boy. And I was like, oh my God, why would I never wanted children? But it's was beautiful. And I was with my wife. I was married at the time. And I came back from the seminar and I said to my wife, I was quiet for like three days, which has never happened in history.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

I can tell you're a talker. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Yeah. My wife got to talk, I think, for the first time in our marriage. And so she it was like amazing. We were going for these walks and she was talking and sharing all this stuff. And then finally I said, I think I want to have children. And she's like, What happened to Tony Robbins? And I was like, I don't know. I saw this vision with these kids. And I'm like, I think I want, I don't think I want to miss out on this experience. And I'm done with Hollywood. I'm just going to help people. I don't know what that looks like. And so I was already kind of helping people. And then, you know, jump ahead a little bit with Matthew. And he someone took him to this healer and he's telling me about it. And I'm like, that sounds ridiculous. And he's like, well, I bought you a session because you're my only friend who's open-minded enough right now because of the Tony Robbins experience to try this out. Uh-huh. So I was like, all right, I'll do it. Yeah. Sure, why not? Yeah. Yeah. Right. And I went and it was weird, but like I had an experience. We were doing a breathing technique very different from what I teach today. But it nonetheless, it cracked something open inside of me. And I had an experience that was profound.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

And I said, you know, oh my God, what is this? What is this breathing thing? Right. And so I went down a rabbit hole and started researching. And at the same time, I was telling some close friends about what happened to me. And they said, you need to go try this breath work. And someone else said it, You need to go try this breath work. And I thought, you know, it's dumb. Like, you know, I'm going to teach, I'm going to pay someone to show me how to breathe. It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Right. Because I'm a little cynical. I'm from Boston, right? I'm an East Coast guy guy. I think it's ridiculous. I have to. Everything I I go and do, I think is dumb and stupid, but I'm going to go do it anyway.

SPEAKER_03 7:16

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

So I have to be proven wrong.

SPEAKER_03 7:18

Got it. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Right. And now I just I've had so many incredible experiences doing different things that I just like, okay, what is it? That sounds ridiculous. Let's go.

SPEAKER_03 7:28

I love that. Yeah. Yeah. Open-minded.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Yeah, I'm open-minded. The funny thing about open-minded, everybody thinks they're open-minded. The most closed-minded people on the planet think they're open-minded. I've never met anyone. Have you ever met anyone that's like, no, I'm closed-minded? Everyone says it. I'll go, are you open-minded? And they go, Yeah, I'm open-minded. I go, come try my breathwork class. And they'll go, no, no, I'm good. And I go, then you're not open-minded. Right. Stop saying you are. Because you would come try it. But you think you want to be open-minded. You want to say you're open-minded, but you're actually not.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

So that's the funny thing. So, anyways, um, I went to this breathwork class and it was weird and woo-woo and new agey. And at the time, I was like, oh my God, what is this fresh hell that I've walked into? Like, this is not me. And I was like, oh, the teacher, the music, all of it. But the experience of the circular breath work, the conscious connected breathing, which is a specific technique. Like, I think we should say, like, clear it up for people. Breath work is an umbrella term.

SPEAKER_05 8:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

It's like saying fitness. Or yoga, even, right? Like there's so many branches. Yeah. Cause so because I'll say I'll do breath work, and people think I'm talking about box breathing. Sure. Or some other coherent breathing or some other technique. Yeah. This technique that I'm talking about specifically is called circular breath work or conscious connected breathing. It's an intense technique.

SPEAKER_05 8:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Similar to, you know, doing psychedelics or ayahuasca or something like that.

SPEAKER_04 8:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

So it has those similarities.

SPEAKER_04 8:56

Later you'll explain to us why it can be related to psychedelics. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Yeah, we can dive into that. So it's not a relaxing technique. It's not a meditation.

SPEAKER_04 9:06

It's like a workout. It's intense.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Yeah, it's intense.

SPEAKER_04 9:09

I did your workshop. It's it's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

It's intense. It's like a workout, right? And I make it even more intense because I bring out the old trainer and push people.

SPEAKER_04 9:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Because there's a thing that can happen in the beginning where your brain kind of fights you. It doesn't want you to it's uncomfortable. Yes. You have to push it out. It doesn't want you to do that. Yeah. It doesn't want you to do this because it will turn off part of your brain. It's called transient hypofrontality. Okay. So we're actually diving in now to the thing. But so, anyways, we'll go back into that. So I had an experience. I I I cracked open. I cried in a way I've never cried. I released things I didn't realize I was still carrying. And this is something I hear from a lot of people in my classes all the time. It's like, I thought I did all the work.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

I did the therapy. I did the 12-step. I did the Tony Robbins. I did the Joe Dispenza. I did all the things. But then I came and did this breath work with you and I realized I have all this stuff. And I said, Yeah, because the most of the work you've already done has been up in your head. Right. It's been around like things that you think about.

SPEAKER_04 10:07

Yeah, patterns, mental thoughts.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Yeah, mental thoughts. Internal monologues. Yeah. Right. Old, you know, connections and old like wiring, right? Yes. But this stuff is living in your nervous system. Visceral. Yeah. It's living in your body. And so when you do this breath work, we were working on that. And that's why all this stuff is still there. So I hear that a lot. And that was my own personal experience. All this stuff came up for me. So I started doing it every day. And everybody noticed a shift in me.

SPEAKER_04 10:35

Really? How did you change?

SPEAKER_00 10:38

I'm laughing because it's embarrassing to say, but I didn't realize I was angry. Angry people don't know they're angry. Just like, you know, crazy people don't know they're crazy. I was angry. I didn't think I was angry. I was overreacting about a bunch of things in my life, right? Because that stuff living in my nervous system was triggered when something would happen and I would have this reaction that wasn't appropriately sized for what just happened. Yes. People be like, you're overreacting. I was like, oh no, I'm not. You know, I'm like, oh, this is and it was an overreaction. Now it means like sometimes I might get mad or upset. I'm never, I'm never not going to have emotions. Things happen. We're living in the world. Yeah. And we're living in the world with crazy stuff happening in the world. So of course I'm going to have things that come up, but it's appropriately sized because I released all that stuff out of my nervous system. I cleared all that stuff out of my body. So what happened was I was doing it every day. I was having these big emotional releases. And it would clear all this stuff out of my body. And then I would go into my day happy, relaxed, present.

SPEAKER_04 11:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

And people were like, dude, are you medicated? What's going on? And I'm like, what do you mean? And they're like, you're so happy. You're so present. You're a different guy. And I'm like, oh, and they're like, tell me. And I'm like, I'm doing this weird breath work thing. And they're like, breath work thing? What is that? And I'm like, oh, I was like, I was embarrassed.

SPEAKER_04 11:59

Really? Uh-huh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

This is 15 years ago. Okay. No one heard of breath work then. There was no Wim Hof. There was no Goop, you know, Vogue magazine talking about breath work. It wasn't trending. It wasn't on the biohacking radar.

SPEAKER_04 12:16

Years before James Nestor's breath work.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Yes. Yeah, way before all this stuff. So nobody even knew what it was. Right. Nobody. I had never heard of it. So you gotta consider that, right? And so I'm like, I'm doing this weird breathing technique. And they're like, tell me about it. I'm like, you lay on the floor and you breathe intensely in this way, and your brain fights you, and it's weird and it's uncomfortable. But then you have this big emotional release and you feel amazing afterwards. And it feels like 20 years of therapy without saying a word. And they're like, show me. Wow. Show me. Clients, friends, Matthew, Perry, show me. So I started doing it. I did it with Matthew. I did it with clients. I did it with friends. I'd hear someone in a recovery meeting be like, I'm struggling with anger. I'm struggling with depression. I'd be like, Do you want me to try this thing on you? And they're like, Yeah. So I started doing it on my clients and my friends. And they were having these big experiences. And then this woman who had a fitness studio said, Hey, why don't you teach a class at my studio? And I was like, I don't even want people to know I'm doing this. You're embarrassed? Yes. Because it was new agey, because it was woo-woo, right? And I had a realization, I had an epiphany. If I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this in a way that's comfortable for me, for who I really am, for my personality.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

I fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

I'm going to take, yeah. I didn't know what authenticity was back then. It was just like, I'm going to do this like I don't give a shit. That's what authenticity is for me.

SPEAKER_04 13:35

I like that definition.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Meaning, I'm going to do it. I'm going to play cool music. I'm not going to play the new agey woo-woo drumming and all that kind of music. I'm going to play the who and you know, Coldplay and Fleetwood Mac. I'm going to play that stuff, right? I'm going to do it like a trainer would.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

You had the Lumineers when I did my course. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Love that. Love the Lumineers. So I'm going to do it like a trainer does. I'm going to push people because I what do I want to hear when I'm doing breath work? I want to hear somebody go, hey, John Paul, it's not that hard. You've done harder shit in your life than lay on the floor and breathe. Stop being a wuss. Yeah. That's what I needed to hear. So that's what I started saying in the classes. So and I, and then I want to add a yell at the end, right? Like I want to let go of all that energy I've just built up in the system. And then I added the heart moments because a lot of stuff, heavy stuff, can come up during this breath work, but I want people to leave focused on gratitude and love. So you have this big emotional release, your heart's wide open, you're very vulnerable. But I want you to pull in gratitude and love from your own life. Because that's what I want you to leave focused on, because that's what matters.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

So I created the class that I want to take. And it was very different from what was out there in the world. Right. Nobody was doing a class like this. And I was begging my friends to come to the class. Right. Matthew Perry came to one of the first classes and he goes, John Paul, I know you want a TV show, but this is your gift. This is what you're supposed to do.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Yeah. And I was like, really? And he's like, Yeah, this is what you're supposed to do. Like, you're amazing at this. And this is life-changing for people. This is better than a TV show. And I was like, I don't know. And so I started doing that class. And I was begging my friends to come. And they're like, I'm not coming to your breathwork class. But it took off. It was organic. This was in LA. This is in LA, right? And what happened was people would come and they would have this big experience. And then they would bring two of their friends.

SPEAKER_04 15:22

No, I can imagine this grew. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

It looked viral, humanly viral.

SPEAKER_04 15:28

And especially when there's an experience to be had, people just want to share it.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

They want to share about it. They would buy five tickets for their friends and family, right? And so they would bring five friends. So it grew naturally.

SPEAKER_04 15:39

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

Where were you holding these classes?

SPEAKER_00 15:42

At first, I was holding them at a meditation studio in LA. And then um, and then I rented a church.

SPEAKER_04 15:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

I rented a church space, my own space, because she didn't want to pay me. Like this thing was sold out twice a week. We couldn't, like, people were begging to get in there and she didn't want to give me any real money. And I was like, what? Why not?

SPEAKER_03 15:59

That makes sense for me. I know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

But you know, studio owners can be greedy. Got it. So uh I rented a church and then she fired me. I'm like, what? I'm like, you won't pay me. Yeah. But then you're gonna fire me because I'm gonna do it at another space on another night. Anyways, we don't want to dive into the negativity of that. But anyways, you found it I found a space and if it took a little bit, but like word of mouth spread pretty quickly and it filled up. And then it got to the point where, you know, celebrities' assistants were calling, Owen Wilson, can we get Owen in the class? You know, and all these celebrities were coming and supermodels were coming, and it became this like trendy hip thing. You know, celebrities are always the first to go.

SPEAKER_05 16:36

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Right. And then there was an article in Los Angeles magazine, and the guy who did the article ended up interviewing a woman next to him in the class who had been coming all the time, who was a supermodel who was on the cover of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Got it. So damn word got out, and now I've got all these people coming. Right. And my friends, this is funny, my friends who wouldn't come before now wanted to come. Now they want to come. Now they want a free spot in a sold-out class. Right. Especially if there were supermodels.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

I was like, oh yeah, you want a free spot in a sold-out class. Come on. And so it became a thing, and it was it was a wild ride. It really was an experience. I was on Good Morning America, and I got a bunch of press. And then I was in um the Heel Hay House Summit that they did, you know, the movie Heel, the documentary.

SPEAKER_05 17:22

Okay. Oh, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Yeah. So they did a Hay House summit and they interviewed a bunch of, you know, teachers like Joe Dispenza and all these kind of big name teachers, and I got to be in that for the Brathwork guy. It was great. It was incredible.

SPEAKER_04 17:34

It was in a great visibility.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

It was incredible. It was overwhelming.

SPEAKER_04 17:38

I have a question though. Yeah. Given that you got so much hype around you, it was LA, the you know, the press, models, actors, whatnot. How did you not lose your focus and your real purpose and why? Because I can imagine, you know, when you you're when you're getting kind of so much fame, yeah, it's easy to lose track of really that sole reason.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Such a good question. So there's two parts to that. The first part is I had spent a lot of time with celebrities before this happened, uh-huh. Watching them navigate it, sometimes good, sometimes really poor.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

And in their defense, I was meeting a lot of them at their bottoms from drugs and alcohol. Right. And so I saw them navigating fame and I was like, oh, I'm never gonna do it that way if that ever happens to me.

SPEAKER_04 18:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

And then the other thing is, and I this is still true today, I always keep on the forefront of my consciousness that it's the breath work that's the thing.

SPEAKER_05 18:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

I'm not the thing. I'm really good at facilitating it. I spent 15 years like making it the best class that I can possibly do, doing the best job that I possibly can. I open my heart, I get vulnerable, which we can talk about, you know, which was my greatest wound growing up was my sensitivity and my vulnerability. And now it's become my greatest gift in my classes, right? Because what comes from the heart goes to the heart.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

So I keep it on the forefront that it's the breath work that's cracking people up all. It's the breath work that's that's changing people's lives. I'm just a facilitator, I'm just a guide. I'm not the thing. Because I've watched other people start doing it and then they're like, I'm the thing, you know, and their ego gets out of control and they become Bikram from Bikram Yoga or whatever, whatever happens, whatever, you know. I don't want that. I don't and it's funny, when I was young, when I was an actor, I wanted to be famous. And then once I actually got a small taste of that, you're like, this isn't for me. No, yeah, it's it's uncomfortable. Yeah. You know, people recognizing me like at Whole Foods and like it was weird. And uh and I had seen it, I had been around it. You know, I worked with Justin Bieber and Matthew Perry. I've traveled all over with Matthew, and I I so I know what real fame looks like, big fame looks like. Um and it's it's interesting. It's not it's not for me. I'm fine. I want to help as many people as I can. That's why I'm doing the podcast. I'm trying to spread it as far and as wide as I can. I want people to come to my class online and experience the breath work and crack open and change their lives through this incredible breath work. But I don't need to be a big superstar. And it it before COVID happened, I had all these events that were on my calendar.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

You know, I was supposed to do Steve Harvey's event in Washington, and I was supposed to do this big, you know, healer thing in Georgia, and I had a sold-out retreat in Iceland, and I had six trainings sold out and all these things, and it all got wiped off the calendar.

SPEAKER_04 20:22

Uh-huh. When COVID hit.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Yeah. And fortunately, I had had a vision before that of like doing this online.

SPEAKER_05 20:30

Oh, really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

I was doing breath work online. I was the first person to do that I know of.

SPEAKER_05 20:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

And I had searched. I was on Google every day. I I was the first person that I know of to do this circular breath work online. Okay. And the old school teachers kind of pushed back against me. They're like, You can't do this online. I'm like, Yes, I can. In fact, I think it's going to be better online. People don't have to drive afterwards, they're in their safe space. Sure. Right. Nobody's there touching them in the room, right? And so I started doing it online. And then when COVID happened, everybody showed up. And those teachers who pushed back, they started doing it. Of course.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

We had to.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Yeah. So, anyways, so I I was doing it online and I have my teacher trainings online as well. So I've been doing it online for a while now. Okay. Uh, and I've been training other people in this breath work for nine years. Okay. I've certified over 3,000 people.

SPEAKER_04 21:18

Oh, wow. That's a lot of people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Worldwide, because I have it online and I do them in person once or twice a year.

SPEAKER_04 21:25

Okay. So tell us about the certification? No, about the breath work itself. Like, how does this work? What is the power of it? How is it helping people? Why is this continuing to grow?

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Yeah. Well, so everything out there now, people say, oh, this is so great. This is so transformational. And so few things actually live up to that kind of statement, right? It's it's a pack of gum. It's not transformational. You know what I mean? Stop calling everything transformational. But this breathwork actually is transformational. And it's in one like the first session, it the the effects are immediately. And they're undeniable. Like it's different for everybody, and it's different every time you do it. You could sign up for my Sunday class online and there's a replay afterwards, and you could do that replay five times and have a different experience every time with the same exact class. So that's what's incredible about it. But people, even if you're cynical, this is one of the things I love. Even if you're cynical like I was, oftentimes I'll do a class and then, especially here in Bend, right? I'll do a class and then someone will come and this woman will come up to me afterwards and she'll go, Okay, my husband would never do this, but I'm gonna make him do this with you because you're like a guy guy. And I think it will work for him through you, right? Yeah. And I go, okay. And the next class I see the husband sitting out there next to her and he's like, Oh my God, I can't believe she dragged me to this shit. You know, it's like I could see it in him. He doesn't want to be there, he thinks it's stupid, he's rolling his eyes that everything I'm saying is gonna happen to you, right? You know, because I do the best I can to prepare people. Like I spend 10 minutes preparing people for this powerful experience, but they don't believe it's gonna happen because something you've been doing your entire life, breathing unconsciously. You wait, now I'm gonna go to a class and you're gonna show me a different way to do it, and it's gonna clear out stress, anxiety, grief, generational trauma. Like, I don't come on, John Paul. I don't, I'm not buying it. And I go, Yeah, you don't have to buy it. You just have to do it.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

And then come see me afterwards, right? Okay. And so they don't buy it, they don't believe me. And then they do it. And if I can just get them to breathe the way I'm trying to show them, and it's not a hard technique, but afterwards they have this big experience, right? They have this massive experience. And then I see them in the lobby and they come up to me and they go, hey man, um, I gotta say, my wife told me all about this. She dragged me to this. I thought it was stupid. That was the most incredible experience I've ever had in my life. That was transformational. Thank you so much. And they go, Can I give you a hug? And I go, sure. And they start hugging me and crying on me in the lobby. And this is like a SWAT team captain on the police force or a fire the fire chief from the fire department. You know, these are like guy guys.

SPEAKER_04 24:02

Yeah. Um and that happens a lot?

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Happens every class. It happens every class for 15 years. Oh, wow. Every single class.

SPEAKER_04 24:10

So, what's the power of this breath work? How does this happen?

SPEAKER_00 24:14

I mean, I some of it's mysterious, but like if we look at the science behind it, because when I found it, you know, I couldn't find any science behind it. You know, I was asking all these breathwork teachers out, like, because I'm a trainer, right? I uh I'm into the science. I want to know why is this happening? Sure. Why when I breathe in this different way through my mouth as opposed to through my nose? So one of the things is that we're breathing through our mouth, which is your sympathetic nervous system.

SPEAKER_04 24:39

Yeah. Right? Fight, flight.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Fight or fight. Exactly. Good for you. Parasympathetic, right? Breathing through your nose, rest and digest.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Right. So most of the breathing techniques out there are teaching you to breathe through your nose. Yes. To calm your nervous system, exactly. To relax you, right? And they're all great. They're all amazing. Why would I want to breathe through my mouth? Why would I want to breathe into fight or flight? Well, because that's where the trauma is stored. That's where the stuff happens. When the stuff happens to you, it gets stored in your nervous system.

unknown 25:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Fight or flight. I just took a big deep breath. That's where it gets stored in there that way. So we need to breathe into the nervous system that way.

SPEAKER_04 25:17

Oh, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Yes. But in a safe environment, in a safe way. Because sometimes you'll breathe through your mouth intensely when you're exercising.

SPEAKER_04 25:25

Yeah, for sure. Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

But you're using that oxygen for the muscles when you're exercising.

SPEAKER_04 25:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

You're not using it when you lay down and you do breath work in this way.

SPEAKER_04 25:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Also, intention is a very powerful tool.

SPEAKER_04 25:35

Yeah. It makes all the difference.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Yes. So we're setting an intention to let go of something, right? I want to let go of some anger, some sadness, some grief, some disappointment, right? And so you set that intention and your body listens to you. And we we start breathing in this way to clear out these things in our nervous system. We don't know what's going to happen, but it's a very powerful tool. For example, when a rabbit gets chased in the woods in the wild and it doesn't get killed, it almost just got killed, it shakes to relieve that trauma.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

I believe this is one of our mechanisms to do that.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

So we have ways that we can release trauma from our body. And this is one of them. So until you actually experience it, until you actually do it, it's you, it just sounds like I'm explaining, you know, colors to a blind person. I understand. Yeah. You keep experience. You have to experience it. It's experiential. And it's different for everybody. You know, some people have these wild experiences that are like psychedelics. Other people see relatives that have passed. Other people, you know, feel connected to the universe or God or all these things. And I don't like to say all that because I don't want to set up those expectations. But I tell you, I tell people like, you're going to have an experience. I don't know what that experience is going to be, but something's going to happen for sure.

SPEAKER_04 26:51

You won't leave untouched.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

Yeah. Some people get so caught up in the physicality their first time because they, even though I tell them all this stuff's going to happen to them physically, they don't believe me. And then they're so sort of focused on like, oh my God, my hands cramped up and my body turned weak.

SPEAKER_04 27:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

And they're so like surprised by all the physical stuff that they they can't really, they don't really let go the first time.

SPEAKER_04 27:15

I see.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

They still have an experience.

SPEAKER_04 27:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Or maybe they let go after the breath work's over. That happens too. Um, or they like the yell is a powerful thing for them. Like, when in life do we get to yell for a minute or two?

SPEAKER_03 27:28

When it's not yell at our children.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

Yeah. Or yell at somebody who can't pull into the roundabout and bend or like, why can't why can't you pull into the roundabout? It says yield, it doesn't say stop. I have to say this because I'm going to fix Bend Oregon like one podcast, one class at a time with these goddamn roundabouts.

SPEAKER_03 27:45

Okay, that's valid.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

So, anyways, um, so you're just not expecting it. And so it it's a really powerful experience. And I take you on this ride, and it's different for everybody, and it's different every time. And you know, ayahuasca and ibogaine and microdosing, these are kind of the rage these days. And I will say that the breath work is just as powerful as these things. Um, and I will also say that with those things, the power is in the plant, but with breath work, the power is in you. And I can do breath work on a Tuesday afternoon and then go pick up my kids from school. Yeah. But I can't really do ayahuasca on a Tuesday afternoon.

SPEAKER_04 28:24

No, right.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

Nor do I want to.

SPEAKER_04 28:25

And you can do this for free. Yes. All these plant medicines have a cost. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

Exactly. That's a great point. Yeah. I mean, listen, uh, you can come to my class one time and then you know it and you do it on your own, make your own playlist, do it on your own, whatever you want. I'm not building a cult here.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:40

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

You can do it for free. The breath is inside of you.

SPEAKER_04 28:44

Yeah. And how does this, you know, going back to this, your love of science and, you know, understanding the why, you know, physiologically, why is this happening? What have you discovered?

SPEAKER_00 28:53

Uh, well, it was the part I was talking about where the trauma lives in the nervous system. Um, there's also this thing that I touched on briefly, which is called transient hypofrontality. Tell us more about so what happens is when we breathe in this way through our mouth, it starts to turn off part of our prefrontal cortex of our brain.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

There, that's the area of your brain where the critic lives. Right. Where the ego lives. It's called the default default mode network. And it can turn that down, that area of your brain, and get more into your lizard brain. Which is incredible. Okay. Because that's the overthinking part of our brain. That's the part that's always trying to protect us.

SPEAKER_03 29:30

That's how we want to always turn off.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

Yes, that's the part you think you're going to turn off with meditation. That's the part I tried to turn off with drugs and alcohol, right? And it actually turns that off. So the first time I did this, I turned off that part of my brain and I went, holy shit, why didn't somebody show this to me when I was like 13, 14 years old? It would have saved me so much pain and agony in my life. It would have helped everyone around me. So it turned off that part of my brain and it actually moved me into my heart. Right. I like to I like to use the analogy like my brain, this is me in particular, has all these tabs open, like on my computer. Uh-huh. And I've got the family tab, the kids tab, I've got the bills tab, the business tab, the wife. I've got a million tabs running all the time. All these things I got to take care of, all these things I got to do. And what Breathwork does, it goes in there and it closes out all the tabs. And it shuts down the computer and gives me a hard reboot. And while that's off, I actually get to move into my heart, which is a whole other operating system that I can operate my life from and I can make choices from. And it's actually a better way to make them important choices from. I'll tell you a funny like story. I used to do in-person sessions. I don't do them anymore, but I did them for years. And I would have people come in and you look, let's just say, you know, had women come in quite a bit, and I go, okay, what's going on? And they go, okay, there's this guy. And I go, okay, you got two minutes to tell me about the guy. Right. And so they would be this lawyer pleading both sides of the case. Well, he's really good and he does this. And he, I like how he does this, and he shows up this way and he's successful. And I go, uh-huh, okay, the other side of the case now. And they start laughing and they go, okay, well, he doesn't do this and he's not this. And they, right? And so they're torn about this guy back and forth. And I go, okay, let's just set the intention for the breath work to give us clarity on the relationship of what's the right thing for you in this relationship. And they go, Great. So we do the breath work. I already know what's coming. So they sit up afterwards and I go, okay, how was that? And they go, that was amazing. That was incredible. Oh my God. I let go of so much. And then they'd say, He's not the one. And I go, Oh, he's not the one. Yeah, it's clear. It's crystal clear. They're 100% sure. There's no doubt that all that doubt is removed because in their heart they know he's not the one. Right. But what do you think happens? A couple days later, or even a day or two later, depending on them and how overactive their brain is, their brain turns back on. And their brain, our brain's job is to protect us. Yeah. And the brain thinks it's protecting you. And so what it starts to do is create fear. And that fear goes, Oh man, you don't want to get back out in the dating world. He's not that bad. Do you really want to get back on those apps? Those are awful. And it starts to create fear. And what I tell them to do is lay down and do breath work again and get back in your heart. And if you're lonely, go get a dog. And just find that you're okay within yourself, that you're whole and complete within yourself, that you don't need somebody else. Ironically, that becomes an incredibly attractive quality. And you level up in a way. But the breath work, it clears out this lie that we need somebody else. Remember that movie Jerry Maguire?

SPEAKER_01 32:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

You complete me? It's a goddamn lie.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

You don't need somebody to complete you. You complete yourself. You're whole and complete within yourself. And so this breath work takes us there. It takes us to the place. It sounds so corny to say it of self-love. But that's what it's about.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

Right? I'm I'm I have to learn to love myself. How do I do that? You hear it all the time now. Like, you gotta love yourself. Great. Show me how to love myself. Show me an actionable way to love myself. And this is one of them. Like doing the uncomfortable work, to clear out the stories that I'm not good enough because of this or I'm not enough because of this, and get to a place where I am enough within myself. It's a beautiful experience to get there. And then, you know, when you realize that you can stop chasing all the things outside of yourself that you think are gonna make you whole and happy and lovable.

SPEAKER_04 33:46

Can I ask you why this awakens so much vulnerability in you, Jonathan?

SPEAKER_00 33:52

I guess because you know, spending so many years not loving yourself and then finally getting to a place where you do is uh it's a very sensitive emotional topic to talk about for me. You know, thinking there's something wrong with you. Living your life like there's something wrong with me and then doing the work on yourself to get to the place where like there's nothing wrong with me. Yeah, I'm just a human being, having a human experience. And so it makes me sensitive, it makes me emotional, it makes me vulnerable. And I see that in the people that I work with. And I'm never gonna get to a place where I stop making mistakes. I was so hard on myself for messing up all those years. And I see I saw my daughter being hard on herself, and I went, oh my God, what I have to model for her self-love. Right. I can't tell her to not be hard on herself. I have to show her what that looks like.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

And so I say now to my students, I say, work hard on yourself, but don't be hard on yourself. You know, show up and love yourself no matter what, because you're worth it.

SPEAKER_04 35:04

Why do you think this breath work is awakening this self-love and this capacity to kind of just have more compassion for ourselves? Because you're right, we are so hard on ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

Yeah. I I think it because it it strips down the walls that we build around our heart.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

We build these protective walls, right? So things happen to us in our life. I got stabbed and left for dead. I got this happened. Someone broke my heart. You know, all these things happened to me.

SPEAKER_04 35:32

We see ourselves as victims.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

Yeah. And then you build up these stories. And these stories, they're walls, they're layers we put over our hearts. And then what the breathwork does is it goes in there and starts to strip away the stories and the layers. Yeah. And it opens us up. You know, people, they want to feel the joy and the love and the gratitude, but they want to close themselves off from the sadness and the grief and the disappointment and the heartbreak. It doesn't work like that. You have to, you have to be willing to feel it all. For sure. Right. If you want to feel the gratitude and the love and the joy, you have to be willing to feel the grief and the heartbreak and the disappointment.

SPEAKER_04 36:06

Because it's only when we feel the pain that we can be grateful for what we've gone through and how it's changed us.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

100%. And I want to live with an open heart. So that means I have to be vulnerable.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

I want to, you know, what comes from the heart goes to the heart. And I think if I do have anything special about me and the way I do my breath work, is I I let myself be vulnerable in the class because I want other people to be vulnerable. I want other people to let go of the things they've been holding on to. So I will allow that vulnerability to come through in my classes because what comes from the heart goes to the heart. And when I was a kid, I was told I was too sensitive. I was overly sensitive. There's something wrong with you.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:49

Right. And so that thing that was like my my wound, your wound, your greatest wound can become your greatest gift. And that was my wounding. And now it's become a special thing that I do in my classes that helps people. So I think it's also I'm really vulnerable because we're in person. And I'm I've been used to doing things online. And I think there is a little bit of uh separation there. Yeah. It's amazing because I connect with people all over the world and I get to do it for people all over the world. But I do a class here in Bend, Oregon, every couple months. I'm doing one in September. I don't know. I hope this is going to come out before the class. Maybe. Oh, great. Perfect. So I'm doing a class at uh the Bend Convention Center, which ironically nobody knows that we have a convention center here in Bend. Yeah, look at your face. Yeah, nobody knows. I actually lived on the top of Mount Washington the first year I lived here, and I drove by it every day, 10 times a day, and I didn't know it was there.

SPEAKER_04 37:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

So it's owned by the river house and it's across the road from the river house. I see. I know it's when you go up Mount Washington, but there's no sign there because the guy from the river house had a too big of a signage, so they wouldn't let him have one for the convention center. It's a whole thing.

SPEAKER_05 38:10

Yeah, I've been there.

SPEAKER_00 38:11

It's right there. Yeah, they have events there. That's the Bend Convention Center. So I've been doing my class at the Bend Convention Center ever since COVID ended.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

It's an amazing space. And I do it here in Bend every like four months or so. So I'm doing one September 11th. And I don't do the classes in person anymore, except in Bend, because I live here. I was flying all around the world, all around the country. I did one in Switzerland last year for 900 people. It's the largest circular breathwork class that's ever happened. Oh, wow. I did one on Tony Robbins, which was a full circle moment. I got to do a Tony Robbins, a class for Tony Robbins for 3,000 people in one of his events. They his people came to me and they're like, We've heard amazing things. We'd love for you to do a class. I go, Do you know my Tony Robbins story? And they're like, No. And I'm like, you don't even know it.

SPEAKER_03 38:56

It's thanks to him that I'm here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

How about circular paths? He's part of this whole story. Yeah, it's a circ, it's a full circle moment. It was incredible. So I had this incredible year last year. That's incredible. I've stood. Thank you. I scaled back a little bit just because I want to be present for my kids in these last few years that they're going to be with me. I mean, sure. They might be with me until they're 30. Who knows? But just in case, you know, my kids are 10 and 13 and I want to be with them as much as I can. Yeah. So that's why I do it mostly online.

SPEAKER_05 39:24

Got it.

SPEAKER_00 39:24

But I'm here in Bend, the River House Convention Center is five minutes down the road from me. So it'd be remiss to not do it. And people ask me, I they bump into me here in Bend all the time, like I'll be in Costco and they'd be like, You're the breathwork guy.

SPEAKER_05 39:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

And I go, Yeah. And they go, When is your next class? And I'll go, it's in September in the convention center. So I have to have a class on the schedule to satisfy the people in Bend. And I love the people in Bend.

SPEAKER_04 39:47

Of course. But yeah, it's give it back to the community where you live.

SPEAKER_00 39:50

Of course. Yeah, you have to.

SPEAKER_04 39:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

And it's easy. And people here are great and they show up on time, which is in LA, it's a different animal.

SPEAKER_04 39:57

Well, we don't have so much traffic here.

SPEAKER_00 39:59

Yeah. LA, they're like, you know, talking. And I'm like, listen, I know you wrote an episode of Save by the Bell back in 91. And you're really important. But like, I'm going to teach you something that's going to change your life. So yeah. So I love doing my class here in Band. And it's really incredible in person because I have the two gongs on either side of the room and those are vibrating through you for the last song. And then you get the scream with like 150 people in the room. Post-COVID, it got up to 350 people, which was wild.

SPEAKER_04 40:26

Oh, wow. Yeah. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

Yeah, it was pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_04 40:30

So, what are the kind of comments that you receive from your from the people that come to your classes?

SPEAKER_00 40:36

The most common statement, and this is where I ended up putting it on all my website and all my, you know, advertisements and stuff for classes like, holy shit, that felt like 20 years of therapy without saying a word. And I started putting that on all my stuff because my students kept saying it to me. And I thought it was going to really piss therapists off, but it didn't. Ironically, therapists send me more people than anyone else, than any other profession. And um, I did a class like not too long ago for a whole therapist, uh, like a collective. It was like 20 therapists. And yeah. So they like to send people to me because you know, it brings up all the stuff for the people and then they process it with them. So it's a great thing in conjunction with therapists. And I have a lot of therapists who do my training.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 41:20

Do my trainings, which is great. I'm like, you don't need to send people to me. Come to my training, yeah, get certified, and then do the whole thing yourself. Do the session with them and then, you know, do the download with them afterwards, the processing with them afterwards. So I have a lot of therapists that go through my teacher trainings. Um, but I hear a lot of different things after the class. You know, some of them are pretty wild, they're pretty out there. So I hesitate to share it.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

That's okay.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

Um, because I don't feel comfortable with it. I just don't want to set up the expectations for people. I see. You know what I mean? Of like, you know, a lot of people say they they're visited by relatives of people they love that have passed.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

I've heard that a lot in 15 years. Like every class, I've heard that from somebody. I've never experienced it myself, but I've heard it a lot.

SPEAKER_04 42:04

Thank you for that clarification. But wow.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

Yeah. And then I've heard people say, well, my experience was is that I felt connected with some kind of universal energy, I'll call it.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 42:15

Like I felt connected to the trees, to people, to everything. Like I'll call, you know, some people might call it God, I call it universal energy, but I felt it and it was undeniable. And I went, holy cow, like this is I'm connected to everything. We're all connected.

SPEAKER_05 42:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

Right. And when you look, I have this really interesting print at home. And half one side of it is the like the rings of a tree.

SPEAKER_04 42:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 42:39

And the other side of it is a like a fingerprint. Right. And they look exactly the same.

SPEAKER_04 42:44

Same. I know. I've seen that.

SPEAKER_00 42:45

It's like, you know, and the lungs look like the the roots of a tree system. Right. Yeah. And when we exhale, the trees inhale. And when the trees exhale, we inhale. So we're all connected. I mean, we really are. Yeah. Science has proven that. It's not me being woo-woo, but um, I felt it. I felt it inside of me. I felt the connection to everything. Um, and I've had I've had some pretty powerful experiences from people. Like, you know, I had this guy in in in LA come up to me afterwards and he said, uh, can I talk to you? And I'm like, Yeah, we're talking. And he goes, No, no, can I pull you over here? And it's like, he looked like he might be gang affiliated. Like he looked like kind of a rough kind of gangster tri type. And he was like, Man, that was that was wild. Like, what I felt God. And I was like, okay. He's like, is that normal? I'm like, for some people, yes, or other people, no. Some people just re let go of all this stuff. And he's like, that was incredible. And he came to a bunch of classes and he had like what looked like a big shift to me.

SPEAKER_01 43:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:45

You know, and I and so sometimes the people who have the most stuff who don't talk to anyone, who don't have anyone to share with, who keep it all inside, yeah, they have the biggest experiences.

SPEAKER_04 43:58

I can imagine.

SPEAKER_00 43:58

Yeah, because they're packing it. Inside. So, you know, it's great for them to come and they can let go of all this stuff. And I knew that online would be great because I thought maybe some of those people can't let go next to people.

SPEAKER_04 44:12

Yeah, that's a great point. You know, like in the safety of their home, they feel they can just let go, they can turn off the videos at once. Yeah, they can be vulnerable.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

Yeah, you're in your safe space. Yeah. No one can hear you, no one can see you. So I thought some of these people are really gonna benefit. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I knew it would be amazing online. So, you know, if people have told me that it's helped cure physical ailments, physical issues, because so much of our physical stuff comes from the emotions.

SPEAKER_04 44:42

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 44:43

Right? I mean, nobody's doubting that stress can cause heart problems and cancer and disease, all these kinds of hyper autoimmunity stuff. Yeah. Autoimmunity is through the roof.

SPEAKER_04 44:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:55

And I have alopecia. I have an autoimmune, right? So I always joke with people, I'll say, you don't think that your emotions can affect your health? Then go from my eyebrows because they're gone. And that's due to an autoimmune, which is due to my emotions affecting my physical health.

SPEAKER_01 45:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:11

Right. So, you know, I have seen so many people's physical ailments like go away as a result of this because it's it's it's rooted in emotional stuff that they've been carrying around for years. Yeah. And so they start to release all that emotional stuff and then all the physical stuff goes away. Women who struggle with infertility come in because so much of that is up in their head or in their body.

SPEAKER_04 45:37

It affects the endocrine system, the sound. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:40

Yeah. And they start doing breath work and they let go and then boom, they get pregnant. Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:47

That's talking about stress.

SPEAKER_00 45:48

Yeah. So but stress is a fancy word for fear, isn't it? Right. When you say I'm stressed out about something, I'll go, what are you stressed out about, Addie? And you go, Oh, I'm stressed out about this. I'm like, oh, so you're really just afraid of this happening.

SPEAKER_01 46:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:03

Right? But stress is the acceptable word in our society today. It's acceptable to be stressed out. Just like it's acceptable for men to be angry in some way. But I found that men need permission to cry. This is a generalization. Yeah. And women need permission to yell. And I give you both in my class. So the women come up to me afterwards and they're like, dude, they're like, that was amazing. I love the yell. I it was felt so good, especially with the gongs, because it drowns out the noise. And the guys come up to me and they don't say, I love the cry, but they say, like, that was incredible. Thank you. I feel so light. I feel like I've let go so much. Yeah. And so that's what you get. Right? What you need. I have different themes for my classes online, you know, anger, sadness, grief, you know, different types of themes. But the breath work is going to give you whatever it is you need at that time when you come to the class, regardless of the theme, whatever's going on in your life. If you're struggling with grief, it's going to work on the grief. Of course.

SPEAKER_04 47:02

If you're struggling with anger, it's going to get whatever we're carrying heaviest in our hearts.

SPEAKER_00 47:07

Yeah. Yeah. For me personally, anger was just a mask that sadness was wearing. So I was angry, but that was just because I didn't want to feel sad. So when I started doing the breath work, I got past the anger. I got to the sadness. I allowed the sadness to be felt. And then I got to the other side, which is gratitude and love.

SPEAKER_04 47:28

Bright. So anger was kind of like your defense mechanism to feel that sadness.

SPEAKER_00 47:33

Yeah. I don't want to feel sad. Like depression is kind of like that too. Depression is anger turned inwards. Right? I don't want to feel depressed. So I'm going to turn it outwards. But if I can strip away those layers with this breath work, I can get past all that stuff. The feeling requires to re be felt, right? I think it was either Freud or Young that said, like unexpressed emotions will always come forth in uglier ways. Yeah. So we have to deal with that stuff.

unknown 48:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:03

It's not going anywhere.

SPEAKER_04 48:04

No, it's not.

SPEAKER_00 48:05

I've had people come, oh my God, like, you know, this the breath work brought up this thing that happened to me in my childhood and it was horrible. I'm like, yeah, the breath work is just showing you what needs to be worked on. The breath work didn't put that there. Right. That was already there. It's just showing you if it wasn't an issue, it wouldn't be coming up.

SPEAKER_01 48:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:24

So you need to do the work around that. So I would suggest you do more breath work and and maybe see someone that you can talk to and help process it with a therapist, someone you know, really qualified. I'm not that guy anymore. Yeah. I was for a lot of years, but I only want to do the first part now.

SPEAKER_04 48:42

Okay. So after doing, I guess, hundreds of sessions and helping thousands of people based on what you've told us today, JP, how has all of this experience enhanced your own wellness? Like how have you evolved as a That's such a good question.

SPEAKER_00 49:01

You know, I always tell my students in my teacher trainings, yeah, you are like what's going to shift for you? Keep doing the breath work on yourself, but you're going to get more out of taking other people through breath work at some point than you do you're doing the breath work yourself.

SPEAKER_02 49:16

That's what I'm thinking. That's how I want to get to it.

SPEAKER_00 49:18

Yeah, yeah. So like when I do my classes, I feel elevated, I feel lifted up, I feel uh emotional stuff, like the same stuff I get from the breath work. It gives me purpose, it gives me fulfillment. And I always tell my students this, and then they go and they start doing sessions and classes, and then they start emailing me, oh my God, it was amazing. I did this session with this person, I did this class, and these people changed their life, and I feel like I have such purpose, I have such fulfillment. I'm like, yeah, yeah. You're doing great, incredible work in the world. You're helping people change their lives. Yeah. And that I go, forget about the money. Yeah. Who who gets to say they're doing that? Who gets to see that in an hour where they like you just changed somebody's life? And I go, the money is a byproduct. People are gonna pay you for this, but that's not the goal. The goal is to just change people's lives. Whether there's two people in the room or 200 people in the room, it's incredible. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_05 50:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:09

And so that's what I say to focus on. Focus on just changing people's lives with this work, and everything else is gonna take care of itself. Because that's been my experience.

SPEAKER_04 50:17

Yeah. I mean, if thinking about, you know, the fact that you said you had deal dealt with alcohol and maybe drugs. I don't know. Yeah, that you are sober. Is this kind of your new high, if you will? I mean, take it lightly, but I mean, yeah, helping others, is that like what's giving you this amazing purpose?

SPEAKER_00 50:37

Yeah, I think so. I mean, I don't know if it's a new high, but I would say that, you know, the high, the problem with getting high is like you have to keep increasing it.

SPEAKER_04 50:47

Right.

SPEAKER_00 50:48

Right. To feel it. Right. You always have to turn up the volume a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 50:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 50:53

And um with the breath work, it doesn't get me high and it fills me up. Yeah. You know, the the high, like people who are trying to drink or get high, it's like they're looking for to fix themselves. They're looking to fix an internal thing, an internal issue from the outside in.

SPEAKER_01 51:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 51:09

But this stuff works from the inside out.

SPEAKER_01 51:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:12

And when you help people, it fills you up. It gives you fulfillment. It's filling me up. It gives me purpose.

SPEAKER_04 51:18

Yeah. And so, you know, I'm not sure such an important component of health and wellness is having that having purpose. It's like it's the most important that those who like live longer are able, you know, who are still to be able to hone in that purpose in their life. Like having a reason to wake up.

SPEAKER_00 51:36

Everybody wants to be happy. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_04 51:39

But it's not about being happy, really.

SPEAKER_00 51:40

Right. Happiness is an emotion that's going to come and go. Yes. Yes. It's a cloud in a windy sky. It's going to come and it's going to go. You're not going to be happy all the time. And you're not supposed to be happy all the time. And if you're not happy, you don't need to take a pill to make you happy.

SPEAKER_04 51:52

I completely agree.

SPEAKER_00 51:53

Right? Yeah. But purpose, fulfillment, if I have that, that's going to carry me through the times when I'm not happy.

SPEAKER_01 51:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:00

That's what I so that's what you need to find. That's what you need to focus on. That's what you need to create. However, you get there, that depends on you and what makes you feel good about yourself. You know, when I got sober.

SPEAKER_04 52:12

And I'm sorry for my question before. That's what kind of was going at.

SPEAKER_00 52:15

No, don't be sorry. That's a great question.

SPEAKER_04 52:17

No, about like that high in the sense that something that really motivates us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:21

Yeah. You know, when I got sober 26 years ago, I have really low self-esteem, self-worth, you know? And they told me if you got, you know, low self-esteem, then you need to do esteemable acts. And I was like, okay, what's an esteemable act?

SPEAKER_01 52:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:36

Right. And I thought, how about if I did this um Big Brothers of America, this mentoring program? Yeah. So yeah. So I went and became a big brother. Uh-huh. And I picked up this kid who was a young teen and like helped him. He lived in like Crenshaw, like in a bad neighborhood in LA. And I took him to the Getty Museum and we did paintball and we did the arcade. We did all this cool stuff. And you know what? I dropped him off and I felt lifted up, right? I felt elevated. I felt 10 feet tall.

SPEAKER_01 53:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:07

I got so much out of that. And that started to build my self-esteem. And then I started helping other guys get sober.

SPEAKER_05 53:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:14

And working them with the 12 steps and doing all that. And that I watched these guys go from like homeless to like incredible members, productive members of society, to like fathers and husbands, and like in front of my eyes.

SPEAKER_01 53:28

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 53:28

It was incredible. And so, you know, that gave me self-esteem. That gave me self-worth. And you know, and I did that for many number of years. And then I found the breath work and that did it. So it's just been an evolving thing of like, what is the best way for me to help people? And and I'm right now I'm doing the breath work. If I find something better, then I might switch to that. But this is what I'm doing right now because I haven't found anything better to help people than this breath work. But that's what I have to do. Unfortunately, for some reason, I don't know if this is the way I'm wired. I don't know if this is because of some things that happened to me. You know, my intuitive nature is a little bit self-centered and selfish. And so the way to deal with that is to help other people. Right. Some people are opposite. They're like people pleasers and they always are trying to people please. And they need to take care of themselves, right? They need to set boundaries, right? You know, for me, and I've had to learn to do that because as this teacher who's now kind of known, people are always asking me for things, and I have to set clear boundaries. Like, and I tell my students, like, you need boundaries. You're gonna have to learn boundaries, you know. But uh, I really need to help people. That's what I need to do. And it's been life-changing for me.

SPEAKER_04 54:48

Yeah, how's how has it changed your life?

SPEAKER_00 54:51

It's just filled me up with purpose, it's made me into a person that I am proud of, that I think my kids are proud of. And uh and that I can hold my head up high. And when I go to sleep at night, I can feel good about myself when I go to sleep at night. And none of that was there before I got sober or before I started helping people. It was the opposite. You know.

SPEAKER_04 55:21

What's next for uh you, JP, with breathe with JP with your uh trainings?

SPEAKER_00 55:28

I am working on uh a few new courses online. So I have a bunch of courses online right now. I have the teacher trainings online, so I do the teacher trainings in person twice a year, right, in Los Angeles and Calabasas, California. Um, and then I have them online as well. So people do them from all over the world. They'll just do the training online. But I'm creating some more courses around that. Uh-huh. I'm creating another course for this company in Switzerland where they translate it into different languages, which is amazing.

SPEAKER_04 55:56

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 55:56

Yeah, it's really cool.

SPEAKER_04 55:58

Um you're really reaching.

SPEAKER_00 56:00

Yeah, bigger audience. I'm big in Switzerland and Germany, like David Hasselhoff. I'm kidding. But yeah, yeah, like they they're all over the world. They translate these courses into different languages into Spanish and uh German and different things, which is really cool. So I'm doing another course for them right now. Um, and I probably gonna finish this book sometime in my life.

SPEAKER_04 56:25

Oh, you're writing a book.

SPEAKER_00 56:26

Yeah, I've been working on a book for a while, and it's challenging. It's a different kind of writing. I was a screenwriter for a long time, and screenplays for me were easy, but yeah, regular book writing is not. Yeah, so I'm different format.

SPEAKER_01 56:40

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 56:41

So I've been working on a book for a while, so I'm hoping to finish that.

SPEAKER_01 56:44

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 56:44

And I'm gonna just keep doing my classes online because I love doing those. And uh, I'm gonna do my classes here in Bend every couple months, and I'm gonna do my trainings maybe once a year in person. And I'm gonna spend a lot of time with my kids while I can. Yeah, and be a great dad. Yeah, and be a good husband, and just try to be like a good person walking in the world. That's what's next. Yeah. And uh if you're listening and you want to know where to find me, I would say breathe with J P. That's the website. B-R-E-A-T-H-E, W-I-T-H-J-P. People do breath with J P.

SPEAKER_04 57:25

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 57:25

They forget the E at the end of the breath. So breathe breathe with J P.

SPEAKER_04 57:28

Breath and Breathe are very different.

SPEAKER_00 57:30

Yeah. I have another website, Breath Work Teacher Training, too, which is the online courses. Got it. But you can find that through Breathe with JP. And you can find the to sign up for the online class on Zoom, which has a five-day replay. You can find that through Breathe with JP. And you can sign up for the Bend class there. All the tabs are across the top.

SPEAKER_03 57:48

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 57:49

People will just scroll past that and contact me. Like, how do I sign up for the class? I'm like, you've just scrolled over it to get here. You know, like it's right there. It says classes. Click on that button.

unknown 58:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:00

Learn to use a website. So, like, I love helping people and people frustrate the hell out of me at the same time. It's that paradox.

SPEAKER_01 58:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:09

So, so yeah, so I'm gonna just keep doing the things I'm doing. I'm in a good place. I'm I love my life, I'm happy with my life. And um I love I love doing what I'm doing. I've really gotten to this place now where I've found my purpose, I found my fulfillment. And like that story, like the hero's journey, right? Which all the screenplays are based on.

SPEAKER_03 58:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 58:33

When you get to the end, what do you do? You turn around and you bring back the elixir to help other people. And that's where I'm at. You know, I've done all the trials and things that you had to go through to get here, and it makes sense. You know, if you're not sure what your purpose is, what you're supposed to do, then you're still going. Like you have to keep working on yourself. It becomes clear when you're doing the right thing.

SPEAKER_01 59:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:01

People I was struggling because I was still in the Hollywood thing, but people were calling me for breath work. And one of my teachers was like, JP, that's your calling. People are literally calling you to do the breath work. That's what a calling is. Right. They're asking you to do it. That's what you're supposed to do. That's your calling. So if that's not happening, then you got to keep going till you figure out what it is. And you know, one of the great things about doing this breath work is it will get you clear on what's in your heart, what you're supposed to do. Because people come in and they'll be like, I want to do this and I want to do that thing, and they'll have 10 different things. And I'll go, why don't you just set the intention for clarity on what's the most important thing in your heart? Because all those things are great, but they all require work and effort, and they're all distracting you from the number one thing that your passion is. And you want to do the number one thing that you're passionate about because it's gonna get hard at some point. And so that passion will carry you through when it's hard.

SPEAKER_01 59:59

For sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:04

If somebody's listening to the podcast and wants to try the breathing on their own, you know, you've piqued their curiosity, what can they do? It's laying down, breathing through the mouth.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:16

Well, I wouldn't say do it on your own the first time. No, okay, no, because I think you need to be guided.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:22

Because there are some things that are gonna happen in that uh and they might freak you out or scare you. So in your first session, I would say do it with someone. If you do it with me, you can do it online. It's 19 bucks for your first time online. Yeah. Or uh, you know, the in-person class is a little more, it's $45 in person. And then you never have to do it with me again. Yeah, you can do it on your own, but the first time you should be guided by someone with this style of breath. Yeah, I definitely think that. Um, yeah, because I've you know I've had people do it in the car. You never want to do it in the car, right? I know you but you would understand. I had a guy who skipped the track, the pre-track on one of my things, and he that said, Don't do this in the car, don't do this in a pool, don't do this in a bathtub. Yeah, and he was driving over to Panga Canyon and like had to pull over because he almost crashed. Oh no. Because you get really lightheaded and your hands can cramp up and all these weird things happen to you physically. So you kind of need someone guiding you your first time. I would say maybe the first couple times, but at least the first time.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:22

Right. But and then that's something that one can do on their own.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:26

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. People come to my class because they want me to push them. I call out names in the class. I know, I do. Yeah, yeah. People like that, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:34

It was ironic when I did your class online. There were two Adrianas, which is crazy because it's never usually the only Adriana in this country. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:43

Anyways, it's wild.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:44

And I yeah, I kept in here and Adriana. I'm like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:46

But so so uh, you know, I tell people like, you don't have to have me push you, but people like that because it's hard in the beginning. So they want like a like a trainer. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:56

So I have regulars that can be like, No, it helps that you call us out, and yeah, you're very, very encouraging.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:02

Yeah, but you don't need that, you can do it on your own. And also some of my courses online, they have downloadable tracks in them. Okay. So you can buy like the five-day emotional detox course. That's a really powerful course that has a bunch of downloadable tracks in there that you can download to your phone or your computer, whatever, and do it whenever you want. And that course is a bunch of workshops that I used to do in LA.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:23

Um, one of them is like the transformational letter. Yeah. Okay. So I have you write a letter, teach you, you write this letter to someone you have unresolved issues with.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:31

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:31

And everyone's heard that. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no. Write the letter, say everything you need to say to them, and then you write a letter back from them to you. That's the part that I've added that's different. Saying everything you want them to say, everything they're never gonna say, either because they're not with us anymore, or because they're just never gonna own it. They're never gonna say it. And if we have to wait for people to say it to us to own it, we could wait, we're screwed. Yeah, we could wait forever and never hear it. So you write the two letters and I teach you how to do this in the thing, and then you do the breath work afterwards. The two letters bring it all up and the breath work heals it. And I've I've done this, people I do it in my teacher trainings. I have a course called the Five Day Emotional Detox, where people do it in the course, and people say, like, that's the most life-changing thing I ever done. So when you combine that exercise with the breath work, it's really powerful. It's really life-changing. My father, they'll say something like, My father left when I was 10 and I could never get over it. I could never forgive him. And I spent thousands of dollars on therapy, and it didn't work until I did that workshop with you or I did that class with you with the transformational letters, and it changed everything. And so I have other exercises in that course too, like affirmations, and I have, you know, I call it the legacy or eulogy, like different love letter. You write, it's a lot of writing with breath work combined. So it's really powerful.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:46

I can imagine. As someone myself, I journal, I think, every night. So there's a lot of power in that. Just putting in paper what are we what are thinking and feeling.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:55

And in my trainings, I have my teachers do this stuff in the training.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:59

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:00

And I don't tell them that ahead of time. But like, yeah, they get up and they like you write your, you know, your your legacy. Yeah. And then you get up and read it. And if you can do that, then you can lead a breathwork class.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:12

Right. So I strengthen your voice in that training. I also teach people like techniques to remember. I have a script that I give you that's everything you need to say before a session in a class. But I have you work on it over the four days of the training and the in-person training. And so you know exactly what to say or do.

unknown 1:04:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:32

And you can deviate from that if you want, but like you need that confidence. Sure. Powerful.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:38

Wow. I'm thinking how many people you've touched through this course, just the fact that you've also trained so many teachers, and those teachers have their own client.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:48

I mean, they must Yeah, it's a ripple effect. Yeah. It's a multi-level marketing for good.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:55

I love it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:56

Me too. Yeah. I get to hear people will email me, be like, I, you know, I worked with your student and so-and-so, and it changed my life. And I'm like, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:06

I love it. I get to be a part of this thing. That's like spreading across the globe. And 15 years ago, nobody knew what it was. Yeah. Nobody knew what the hell I was talking about. They still don't. That's why we're on this podcast. So, like a small percentage knows now.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:24

And it's like, I got a lot of work to do still. I got a lot of people to help, a lot of lives to change. That's why we're here.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:31

To keep spreading it bigger and wider and have more lives be changed.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:35

Well. You've done amazing so far. Thank you. Very honored to have you on the podcast and to share your story.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:44

Thank you. I'm honored to be here.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:45

Yeah, thank you, JP.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:48

Thank you. Thank you for having me.