Heroes in Business - Alex Petrowski, 5EP Podcast Conversation with Brady Weinrich on Holistic Lifestyle Embodiment

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

Alex Petrowski, 5EP Podcast Conversation with Brady Weinrich on Holistic Lifestyle Embodiment. Alex and Brady dive deep on a whole rance of topics that span holistic life including companies Brady is involved in, culminating in his own Brady_Breathes practice (Instagram). Be sure to follow and become part of the 5EP community by joining on Instagram or your favorite social media. 

Hey Siri, what's on my calendar for today? Today, you have the 5EP podcast. Would you like to keep it on your calendar? 5EP? Yeah! Welcome to the 5EP podcast. Interview interviews and conversations to guide the genesis of personal development, mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, and social, the five pillars of living a five exclamation point life. On now with your host, Alex Petrowski. your host, Alex Petrowski. Welcome to yet another episode of the 5EP podcast. Today, I have certified yoga instructor, breathwork specialist, and the physical representation of holistic lifestyle embodiment. So without further ado, Brady Weinreich.

So without further ado, Brady Weinreich. Thank you for having me, Alex. I love what you are doing here and I really appreciate it. And that intro, amazing. I appreciate that very much. That's a recent animation that we conjured up. It really represents our brand personality to the T. So I want to get this thing going with my first question.

How has Breathwork changed your life? That is a loaded question, sir. And breathwork has allowed me to bring balance to my nervous system, which that creates so many things that that creates a calmer and more relaxed me. I'm more present in each moment. So what does that allow? That allows me to be here for each decision and make the best decision. Wim Hof says, control the breath and you'll control the life. And that is basically alluding to being with the breath, being aware of the breath is bringing you into the present moment. And instead of emotions or programs or the subconscious mind choosing for you, you are there to choose the best possible outcome to position yourself better in life. So I am less controlled by emotion.

I experience less anxiety, less stress. Yeah, having awareness of my breath has helped me to overcome like so many different obstacles, physical and mental limitations has allowed me to, you know, go out here into the world and attempt to live my purpose, create my dream, bring it into reality. And yes, it is vital to my well-being. So pretty much what I'm hearing is it allows you to be more present in the moment and not let external distractions really put you in this reactive mode to where you're constantly reacting to external stimuli. Am I hearing that correctly? You are hearing that correctly. I'm able to witness life from a more detached view and yet not be overwhelmed or overcome by different emotions that I'm processing.

And I still feel those emotions. I just do not make decisions out of those emotions. And that has proven in my life to create results, to get me closer to the position where I ultimately want to be. And I know you've mentioned in the past that you've struggled with navigating anxiety. How has breathwork been able, been a key tool in your, in your, in your regimen of overcoming anxiety? So what is anxiety? Anxiety is living firstly in the mind. We are in our thoughts. And then not only that, but we are living in the future. We're worried about things to come. And so just simply coming into the moment, coming into the body by breathing, by moving, there's many ways to get out of the

mind. That's going to relieve you of that anxiety. And as anxiety still exists for me, right? But it doesn't overwhelm me. It doesn't overpower me or control my life in any way. I lean into that anxiety. I don't dwell in it. I lean into it. I don't dwell. I don't dwell in it. I don't hold onto it. And I come back to the body. I take it as a message. I lean into it. I don't dwell. I don't dwell in it. I don't hold onto it. And I come back to the body. I take it as a message. I take it as a signal. I care about this thing coming up. I want to do well with this thing coming up. I am nervous about this thing coming up. So maybe I should prepare a little bit more in the moment instead of spending my time in my thoughts, in this worry, which am I being

productive if I'm just worrying about what is to come? Or am I being productive if I'm in my body preparing for what is to come? So I wouldn't say there is a way to necessarily delete anxiety from the life, but there is a way to treat it for what it is, which is a signal coming in through the mind, letting it be known that something important might be coming up and that we shall get prepared for it so that we can take on that experience in the best way possible. can take on that experience in the best way possible. I love how you brought up the point that most anxiety arises when we're focused too much on the future. One of the things that I've heard is there's this spectrum of anxiety and depression. And when you're focused so much on the past, you're thinking of the past negative experiences and they can cause depression.

Or if you're focused on the future, like you were mentioning, you're too focused on what could occur instead of what you can do about it in the moment. And that when you're feeling these emotions, you need to focus more on the present moment to really balance out that spectrum of anxiety to depression and allow yourself to be more present in the moment, to live the life that you want to live. And with that, I want to talk about the two styles of breathwork, because there's the more functional and there's the more connecting to your spiritual side of breathwork. So could you delineate that dichotomy? So could you delineate that dichotomy? Yes. For one, both are beneficial.

And there might be other practitioners out there, other breath specialists that have created further distinction and maybe more category for this. But this is the way that I like to look at it through my own practice. And so both are beneficial. One breathwork technique or one group of breathwork techniques seeks to get us back in touch with ourself, to get us in that space where we are no longer attached to our thoughts, influenced by our thoughts, but in the body, in the moment, connecting more deeply with ourself and the experience around us. Now, this is very beneficial. If you're interested in living a healthy, happy, living a healthy, happy, and strong life, you need to remind yourself of this place. You need to touch down at home base really daily would be my recommendation. And so this type of breathing

doesn't always carry over to our functional daily breathing. And so there are other techniques and other ways to go about this. And improving how we breathe daily is really the root of the issue. Do we want to correct how we feel, balance our nervous system just for an hour-long breathwork session? Or do we want to move through life in balance, supplying the tissues and the blood with the proper oxygen that it needs and yeah, allowing the parasympathetic nervous system to really do its work where most of us now are breathing shallow, quickly, only down to the chest. And a lot of us are breathing in and out through the mouth, which this is not the way that we were designed to breathe. Yeah, on occasion, that's going to happen, especially if we're at a high activity level, like we're involved in a high intensity

physical exercise. There's going to be some exhalation coming out the mouth that's very difficult to control through the small nasal cavity. And so what I would say is there's a way to breathe to improve mechanics, the biochemistry, and the cadence of your daily breathing. And then there is a way of breathing to access more connection to self, to get into a meditative state. And both should be involved in your life if your goal is to live a healthy and long life. So an optimal week of breathwork practice, what you're saying is both of those types of breathwork should be practiced daily in order to truly be connected to your optimal self and to be firing on all cylinders. Correct? For starters, I would say correct. But once we get to the root of the issue, we will walk through life in this relaxed state connected to self. So as we move on in this journey, both will sort of merge together.

But if you're just getting into breath work and you're just getting into holistic health or yoga or are just looking for ways to get rid of anxiety, get out of the mind and get into the body and just make better choices for yourself, then to start, yes, hit it from both sides. Definitely get into some guided sessions so that you can learn more and really let go because it can be scary to go deep into a session. You might stop yourself. You might limit yourself because you'll feel stress because how often do you just do a specific type of breathing for one hour. Your body is not going to like that. Your mind's not going to like it because it is unknown. It is not familiar to you. And in most cases, at the beginning, you're going to need somebody to push you forward

and let it be known that, hey, this is okay. It's okay what you're feeling right now. All we're doing is breathing and we're going to keep going so that we can release what we're storing in the body so that we can release these mental blocks, these limitations. And yeah. And then if at the same time you had like a little five minute to 10 minute practice that does work on the breathing mechanics, even if that's just like being aware of the breath for five minutes a day, that's a wonderful way to start because it will teach us what is inside will start to guide the experience. And that's what's great about like a breathwork

session where you're breathing more so for that spiritual connection is once we start to access that space more often, that acts as a guide for the life. You are the purpose, you are the meaning, and we lead ourselves as long as we can move everything out of the way so that we can actually access what is inside of us. And yeah, so always start simple. Don't add too much things at once because we want things that can be done consistently and frequently. So adding a bunch of things right at the beginning of your breathing journey or your yoga journey is not helpful. A lot of times that's going to add more stress to the life, especially when you can't take on all the things that you're planning each day. So start simple, start going to a guided class once a week, start to learn, and then just bring awareness to the breath daily. And then

learn some techniques slowly to add to your arsenal that will get you better at breathing daily, improve your functional breathing so that you can improve your sports performance, or you can improve your nervous system balance, or the way that you regulate your own emotions. And then, of course, find some ways to breathe that bring you back into touch with yourself so that you can get out of the go, go, go, and the do, do, do, and we can bring a little bit of being into the life. So through all those experiences you've had with connected conscious breathing and just your life in general, what does spirituality mean to you? Another loaded question, Alex.

Spirituality is going to mean something different to everybody. To me, in my experience, it is about aligning myself with my dream, with my purpose, and appreciating the divinity in this experience, seeing life as sacred. So to me, spirituality is not being influenced by what everybody else is doing, following the crowd, but living my own life, living my own vision, and ultimately taking care of myself as if I were or if my body was the temple of God. And so spirituality to me is very, very connected with what we're doing. You can't, you cannot separate spirit. It is the life. It is the direct experience. It is where we find, it is where we find real knowledge because knowledge is not up in our head. It's not something that we can conceptualize. It's not something we can do those things, but this has just given us

a fraction of what it all is. That's just us trying to understand and make sense of what we're experiencing. But spirituality is being in the actual experience and then just knowing, just knowing that you're in alignment with what you're supposed to be doing here. You're on the path that makes you feel happier, healthier, and stronger. And as long as you're heading in that direction, you're living with spirit. You're living with spirit. And yeah, so to me, it's about being in the moment, being in the experience and not separating ourselves from this sacred connection that we have to the planet and this experience. Yeah, I really believe that finding your unique purpose in this world, where your light shines

the most at is an essential aspect of being spiritual and being aligned with your spiritual self. So I align with you on that aspect, 100%. spiritual and being aligned with your spiritual self. So I align with you on that aspect, 100%. What I would like to know more about is with us both being young, when did your journey of holistic living start and how did that start? This is a good question as well. And of course, with things like this, it's tough to really pick a starting point. But you can look at just where big transformations occurred or where something really bad happened, where you made just a decision to make some crazy change that, you know, went against maybe everything that your friend groups, maybe went against everything that your friend groups were participating in. Maybe it went alternative to what your family was experiencing or what they

wanted you to experience. And so if I look back, there's so many things in my early life that have influenced what I would call my awakening or the evolution of awareness of self in the experience. But some of those big transformations started at around ages 17 and 18. I was personally dealing with different labels, different diseases, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, social anxiety. I had brain fog. I didn't know what was going on, really. I didn't know what life was all about. I didn't know what I wanted to do leaving high school. Going to university didn't make much sense to me. I was like, what am I going to do there? I'm just going to spend a lot of money, and then I'm going to be in a worse position

afterwards because I have no idea what I am or what I'm doing. I also had stomach issues, irritable bowel syndrome, and that made me really angry, to be honest. I was an angry kid at 17, 18, and 19, but I suppressed a lot of that. And then I would just have bouts of rage, right? From that suppression. I was still cool with everybody, chill with everybody, way more anxious than I was, way more awkward than I am now. But I wasn't, I wasn't trying to be like mean to people. And what, what ended up happening is I would hurt the people that were closest to me with these angry outbursts because I was afraid to show anybody else outside of my immediate community. And so I would end up hurting people. And then obviously that's going to have an effect on me. And that inspired change, all of these

things together inspired change. And I tried, I tried all of the traditional methods. I went to a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a therapist, and all of them probably had some good mixed with a lot of bad. I would say I got onto different antidepressants, different anxiety relievers like Xanax. I got into more recreational drug use because of this, because the medications that I was taking, they weren't doing enough for me. I wasn't feeling anything so that I needed to, you know, do things on my own. So I was taking Adderall. I was smoking marijuana. I was drinking alcohol before the age of 21. That's illegal. And yeah, a lot of these, a lot of these methods just were not doing it for me. I didn't see, I didn't see my life getting better. And I luckily had great people in my life, like my dad,

wrestling coach that, you know, they called me out on, on the stuff that I was doing. Like there was a period of time where I was just spending every night after school in my basement. I went to community college after high school. So I was still living with my family in the same community, same everything, because like I said, I couldn't decide on what I wanted to do for university. Didn't think I wanted to continue wrestling at the time because I was emotional about how my senior year season ended up. And yeah, I let emotions decide that, but it turned out to, it turned out for the better, you know? Yeah. But I was, I was spending time in my basement. I wasn't talking to my family anymore. I would just come home from school. I would play video games. I would take drugs in the basement. I would be sad. I would be mad. I'd be on my, my next still flip phone texting people, which let's

bring us back to that. That would be wonderful. Next, next still flip phone, way less, way less distractions with a unit like that, I would say. Yeah. But after doing this for a while, my dad came down and he's just like, like, what are you doing? Like he was, he was livid with me. He's like, what are you doing? What are you taking? You've been doing this for three months. You're not talking to your family. There's no life in you. Like, I don't see the energy in you. Like what is going on here? You need to stop. And so that really was a kick in the butt, I would say. And from the physical side of things as well, I had the IBS, which in wrestling made me socially anxious. Like I was like, do I smell? Am I going to have to go

to the bathroom during a wrestling match? And, you know, it just, it was not, it was not serving me. And I saw a GI specialist, I was taking muscle relaxants for my digestive system. And I wasn't seeing anything happen with this as well. Like I had people telling me that I was lactose intolerant. I had people telling me that I was gluten intolerant. And I realized everybody was just going to give me a different answer. They're going to give me something else to try. And I was like was just going to give me a different answer. They're going to give me something else to try. And I was like, why don't I take matters into my own hands? Why don't I try things out that I learned that aren't so detrimental to my life situation, my life position? And so that's, I mean, that's kind of when I began the journey around 17 to 18 was when a lot of those things were happening really bad in my life. And I probably

continued with those things until 21, 22, but I started really evolving and trying different alternative practices, tried different ways of eating. I got into meditation and breathwork this young, like at 20, at 21, because I was having panic attacks at parties. And I couldn't talk to anybody. So I would just like go in the corner. And I would have to like, I would have to slow my breathing down. I was just trying to figure it out. And guess what happened is I went from this anxious, panicky state where I thought I was dying to like this, what felt like enlightenment at the time. Just like very deeply into the moment, this new experience. I'm like, oh, I never felt this relaxed, this euphoric before.

And that was all just from like slowing breathing down and coming into the moment. And another big part of that was this. And this came to me through panic attacks, which I called death attacks because I thought I was dying almost every time. I thought I was dying. But as you continue to get them, you realize like, hey, wait, I'm not dying at the end of this. So it became easier to kind of deal with, like knowing that there was going to be an end.

But acceptance came in heavy here. Acceptance to I don't have control over whether I die or not. Maybe whatever is going on right now, this worry, this panic is going to destroy me. But I've already seen it 90 times. So I don't think it's going to. So I accept. I accept if I die, I die actually became a mantra for me at a young age. And I just I reminded myself that every time. And I and that just got me deeper and deeper into the moment and deeper and deeper into this journey.

But, yeah, that's where it all started. I can go further into that if you'd like, or I'll let you jump in here. I love how you talked about those closest to you really being a pivotal force in your own development for yourself and providing that urge to have agency over your life and to create your own destiny. Because at the time, you don't want to remove those bad habits and you're comfortable in that position. Well, you're comfortable being in a pretty, pretty bad situation. And then when somebody comes in to push you to get out of it, you initially don't want, don't want to take the steps. When you look back at it, you're so glad that you did because of where you've come. And so many people don't want to take the first step. So I commend you for taking that first step and becoming the person you are today because of it.

The next question that I'd like to get into is your experience within one of the most intensive meditation retreats around the world. Very interesting story. I'd like for you to tell the 5BP community about it. Cool. So Alex is alluding to Vipassana meditation, which is the meditation that the Buddha taught. And it is a three-part meditation practice where you're learning, yeah, you're learning three different techniques. And what is wonderful about this experience is that there's facilities all over the world. Almost every country has a Vipassana meditation retreat center. And another big plus

is that it is donation based. So they provide this opportunity for healing, for detachment, for free. But of course, you're going to get a lot out of it. So you're going to want to, you know, give it back. And you can also do that in the way of volunteering because they need help feeding the people that are coming in, the meditators, they need help, you know, cleaning, all that. So you can always volunteer like right after you sit for 10 days and so what this meditation retreat is it's a 10-day silent retreat boys are on their own women are on their own there's no eye contact there's no talking there's no exercise there's no writing there's no reading there's no distraction you are there with 10 hours of meditation per day. There is a little

bit of teaching, which is usually recorded. And it's usually the voice of Goenka who started bringing Vipassana meditation to the community. He took it from the teachings of the Buddha, and he organized what we see today. He was the start of that SM Goenka. And it is a crazy experience. You don't have your phone, you lock that away. And you're learning this technique every day. And of course, you're dealing with having to let go of everything that is in your actual world. So some people, maybe they're not involved with so many things and maybe that will create an easier experience for them. But say you have a business, you have a wife, you have children, you have all of this stuff going on. That doesn't

leave just because you've left everything behind. And it actually comes to you even more strongly and so through this process through this retreat you really learn more about yourself and what you have and what you can rely upon and during these experiences for me which I'll also mention that this has been better than any psychedelic ceremony that I've been involved in. This is pure existence without any distraction. And maybe it takes three to four days to break through because it's going to be a lot of wanting to go home. Oh, what if this is happening? A lot of thinking, a lot of wanting to go home oh what if this is happening a lot of thinking a lot of weird dreams a lot of wanting to make eye contact and socialize with the people around you like oh are you here

too am i here by myself no you're here i feel better now but yeah that that does not happen and one thing that i'll never forget from these meditation retreats. And so I was trying to do one of these a year. I've done just three total, and then I've served at two. And I've done one where I've left it early. And that was at the beginning of COVID in Nepal. And we could always, I don't know how much time we have, but we could always get into that story later if we want. But basically, but basically my routine with this stopped when COVID hit. And then the facilities were requiring certain things to attend during this time. And so I lost my consistency with this practice, but this is something that you can of course practice daily afterwards. And they give you the tools to do this. But one thing that I learned and will always remember is that I could just keep a

running list of items in my head. Like it was clear as day. Like I had a sheet of paper in my head and I could just write down everything that I wanted to do when I wanted to get, like when I got out of the meditation retreat. Yeah. But basically in a retreat like this, you're waking up at 4.30, 5 a.m. at some of the centers, and you're going into the meditation room. You're doing an hour meditation. You might then have a 25-minute break. You're going to come back and do another hour meditation where you're trying to not move a muscle. They don't want you to move one muscle, and you're going to get pain in your legs depending on how you're sitting. It is going to be pain in your legs, depending on how you're sitting,

it is going to be very uncomfortable at first. But you break through. You definitely break through and you unlock new parts of yourself, new dimensions of yourself and new understanding. And yeah, so this is a wonderful experience. If any of you guys have the opportunity to get into something like this, dhamma.org is the website where you can see all the locations and then all the times. There are shorter retreats than the 10-day. There is a three-day, but you might have to first complete a 10-day to do anything else within the organization. attendee to do anything else within the organization. And yeah, is there anything in particular you want to know about this retreat? Because I can always go into more detail. Well, I've heard there's retreats where you're not only not talking to anybody, but you're also in a dark cave as well. Is that something that that organization offers as well. Is that something that that that organization offers as well? I haven't seen anything like that in the US, but that definitely exists, like in India, in Nepal, in Thailand. And so they have, I think it is a choice also, like you can go into the group meditation room and meditate with others. But there are also okay, it's meditation time i go to my my dark room and i sit in there

by myself shut the door and so that is definitely an experience that um they offer i have not had personal experience with that at any of the retreats that i was at and then there yeah i've heard many stories of darkness retreats like if if you're familiar with Aubrey Marcus, he'll talk about this darkness retreat where he was in silent darkness, being fed meals, like through like a little, like basically essentially you're like in a blacked out prison with your mind and with whatever is given to you to support your nutrition while you're in there. And Aubrey Marcus apparently did, I believe, seven days of darkness.

And that has to be taking it to another level, I would say. That would be something that I would think would be more challenging than the Vipassana meditation retreat. You've been listening to the 5EP podcast with Alex Petrowski. Interviews and conversations to guide the genesis of personal development. If you enjoyed the show, share it with friends and family and on your social media, and feel free to send us your feedback. Until next time, thank you for listening and live your 5 exclamation point life every day.