Welcome to Destiny.
Now here's your host, Cliff Dunning. Oh ho, hey, hey, hi doing We are into December, We're into the holidays and that means we are bundling up and not going out as much. And it is Christmas time. Yeah, December is Christmas time.
I hope you're doing well. Hi.
This is Cliff and welcome to Destiny. Today, we are kind of taking an approach that we haven't taken before, which is breath work. And it's funny because you know what, we had this series on the biohacking and a breathwork doesn't really come up in biohacking. But the more I think about it, it's a way to detox.
And today's guest is.
Going to give us a kind of an update on a new technique of breath work that lends itself to greater intuition, greater states of clarity, which does go along with breathwork. But I think you're going to find that our guest today has a different take on breath work. And years ago there was the rebirthing movement and this is probably nineteen eighties through the two thousands, and breath work was you almost hyperventilated. I was into it for
a little bit. But when you did breath work, you were breathing very quickly to fill the lungs and oxygenate the body and the brain. And the goal was to relive traumatic periods in your life, to call upon issues
that are bothering you and to clear them. And these were forms of toxins that you were carrying around, and that that typically happens with a lot of different breathwork because when you're breathing consciously and sucking in concentrated air, you are detoxing the body, you are expanding and passing great amounts of air through the body, and all kinds of wonderful things can happen.
UH.
I wasn't very much into it like some people were. There's there's a number of different programs. One of the other breathing UH techniques is holotrophic breathing, which is very
popular still. But the great thing about breathing techniques, and also there's some there's some meditative techniques that use breathing or the breath is the the clarification is the is the enhancing the cellular level and clearing clearing toxic clearing aches and pains of the emotional body and I think it fits very well within the biohacking movement, and so we're having this guest today talk a little bit about it.
Now.
What I find is fun about this author is that she has tapped into a cellular level that connects the body mind in spirit, so that you have downloads of what you should be doing, or what she calls discovering your life purpose. Now, a lot of people use different techniques to uncover your life purpose, and that's not necessarily an easy thing because you may work in a nine to five existence and not have a sense of what you are here to do. And there's people that are
martyrs and are like, what do you mean? What am I here to do?
I'm here.
I'm working as a lawyer, I'm working as a physician, and I'm flipping burgers at McDonald's. I'm working at a gas pump up a mechanic. I'm an engineer. That's what I've chose to do. Well, what that life purpose means is that there's on a cellular level, on a soul, higher self, higher wisdom level, you incarnated and you are supposed to do a job that you are here to do,
that you are fully equipped to do. On a more of a harmonious level, which is something that you love you do, you work and you love what you do.
And you've heard of people like that.
They go through life, they're working at a regular job, they're doing their engineering work, and all of a sudden they're like they have an aha moment, like I don't want to do this anymore. I'd rather consult on my own I'd rather have my own business as a consultant. Or I would like to do artistic work, but I want to do it so I can make a living, you know. I mean, you've heard stories like this, so are pro today covers this what you were.
Here to do?
Your life's purpose or your purpose in being here on the planet. And I think there's a lot of dissatisfaction in the work industry with people, and I'm one of them. For years I worked in corporate America and it's it's kind of a it's kind of a dead environment because you're you're like a number. You're sitting in meetings with other people who are just bored out of their minds,
you know what I'm talking about. You're making it, You're getting a paycheck, and in some cases it's very good, but you hate your job, and I don't think that's the way it's supposed to be. And I can tell you that from a personal aspect. I wasn't into podcasting initially, but as somebody who's artistic, you know, I was trained as an artist, went to college to become an illustrator, and later got a degree in business marketing. I had
no idea about podcasting. I did it as a side gig for clients who wanted to have podcasts, and I grew into it. If you go back to twenty fourteen, some of the early podcasts that I did, you can hear it in my voice. I'm like, you know, it's not like a kid. Of course, the tech wasn't great back then, but and I was kind of moved into it.
But this is a natural extension of why I'm here, and I've grown to really enjoy and appreciate podcasting simply because of the way to communicate with you, but also to give others a place to talk, to present information from a book, to present perspectives and information that I hope you, as a listener, enjoy, and so far you do. So we all have more of a life purpose than we think, and many of you may have jobs that you really love and you're like, this is it for me, babe,
not going anywhere. Others of you may just be miserable, and I think you're you may get something out of the program. So today's program is Unlock Your Purpose breath Work, Intuition and Flow State, and my guest is Francesca Symthma. There are so many different techniques out there for breath work, and I've had an opportunity to try a few of them.
I did the rebirthing years ago, and the thing I didn't like about rebirthing is that I would hyperventilate, but that was part of the process of shifting your consciousness and having some air not air whatever. But today we're going to talk about a brand new program, a form of breath work, but not only just breath work, intuition and getting into a state of wellness or harmony. That
is really a powerful program. My guest today is Francesca Sidma, and she has written a book called Unblock Your Purpose, breath Work, Intuition and Flow State.
And what makes.
Francesca so unique is she has a corporate background where she was working as an advertiser marketing person in a very fast paced agency, and at some point she was like, what am I doing here? And you hear this in her book, and I want to just mention that not only was she in the corporate world, she was working with major clients like Google, Marriott, Baccardy in a ten year journey that at some point, and we're going to find out about this today, she decided that this was not for her.
And what comes up is.
What is her true purpose? And so we're going to find out all about this. Francesca, Welcome to Destiny. Great to have you on the program today.
Thanks so much. I'm excited to be.
Here talk about the corporate world. Before we started, we were kind of reminiscing I was working for PayPal for a while, and although it's well pained and it's kind of exciting, there's something about it that's just not copasetic, is it.
Yeah? You know, I think it kind of goes through phases. When you're younger, you don't really know to expect. And I think that the grind, especially in New York City, was just sort of table stakes. So I went into it thinking, you know, this is how hard everybody works, and this is how much you have to hustle and how competitive and cutthroat it can be, and it just became a conditioned part of my life and my lifestyle.
And it wasn't really until I hit sort of those big milestones and those goals that I was really striving for and I didn't have anywhere else to go, that I had the opportunity to really reflect and be like, am I happy? And the answer was definitely not.
You know, it's funny you open your book and you're like taking adderall. You're taking these drugs to wake up, to go to sleep, to maintain. That's going to catch up with you pretty quickly. Talk about that lifestyle that you were adhering to.
Yeah, I was extremely intense. So for about a decade, I was setting an alarm at five am taking an adderall, which was unprescribed by the way, I do not have ADHD. I was doing it for the adrenaline and for the productivity, and I would hit it double workout. I would go to boxing, then I would sprint over to a hot yoga class. I would shower in the gym, go straight to work, do a twelve sometimes fourteen hour day, and then I would chug a bottle of wine take a
xanax and pass out. And that was my lifestyle for almost ten years. So it was extremely taxing on my body. But again I had no reference point of something else. You know, a lot of people lived a very intense lifestyle in New York City. We all partied hard, we all worked extremely hard. So I didn't really know how out of alignment I was until I left New York.
When was the aha moment that you needed to move beyond that corporate lifestyle and into something else.
I very distinctly remember this moment. I was actually in Cape Town, South Africa. I had just traveled their business class for a global mart getting shoot on Bacardi and I was running the shoot on my own multimillion dollar production, and I was staying at a five star hotel and I was like, this is it. This is what I dreamed about when I was a young girl. You know, this is like the executive director job. And I was on this really glamorous shoot and I was crying in
my hotel room. I was like, I'm just so unfulfilled and I feel so empty, and if I can hit the peak of the mountain and I don't feel a gratitude, I don't feel a celebration, I don't feel a joy. Then something's truly wrong here. And so that's what sort of set me off on a quest.
Yeah, you described traveling to another of exotic countries and kind of taking time off. Was that kind of like I'm sick of this job, I need to find out who I am. Is that what launched that kind of introspective journey.
So it's funny. I actually before I got to that point, I tried San Francis. I thought, you know, I think I need something more entrepreneurial. I think I want more autonomy. Maybe that will bring me more joy. But SF actually just didn't resonate with me. And the company that I worked for it was, you know, it was in software. We didn't have the same sort of energy and vision that I was used to in New York, and that really forced me to go inwards. So I picked up
the power of now at Cartole. Oh right, Yeah, that was like my radical awakening moment. I recognized that I was constantly thinking about the past or the future. I was never in the present. Moment, I started to really tune into my body as the measurement of what was going to bring me joy and fulfillment and everything in my body, and my intuition was telling me, just go to Bali. Just book a one way ticket to Bali.
And so that was my first time not listening to my logical mind and listening to my body and booking that flight.
Were you going there just to get away in a vacation or were you going there to do coursework?
Because you do.
Talk about discovering other times of breath work talk a bit about your unveiling, your discovery, your self awareness and what that process was.
So I knew in my intuition that I was just supposed to book a one way ticket. I had no idea how I was going to quit my job or pay for my rent, or how I was going to financially support myself. But I knew that it felt really good in my body to book a one way flight. So I did that first, and then I started to explore different retreat options, and there was one that was a seven day breathwork retreat, and she used verbiage that was very similar to Eckhart, and I just resonated with it,
and I was very curious about it. I had no idea what breathwork was. I thought it was going to be like a meditation or a yoga retreat. And boy was I wrong. It was extremely intense, very similar to what you experienced with rebirthing. But we were going very deep into my subconscious mind. I was accessing childhood memories and just emotions that had been suppressed for decades. I was getting a lot of visions, a lot of insights,
a lot of messages. I was convulsing on the floor and shaking and crying.
Oh my god.
And it was a project. So it was seven days just going deep on the inner work and really healing on a cellular and subconscious level. And when I came out of those seven days, I just wasn't the same person. It was so cathartic and yeah, just so rejuvenating. And then I was really fascinated by breathwork and that's what set me off on a journey to really study it, to research it, and to go to every workshop and training that I could find.
Well, you didn't just quit corporate life. You must have transitioned slowly.
I don't know.
I don't want to speak for you. You may have just said I'm done and said gave you your notice, But I don't know. If that's likely or not. Talk about the transition and also within that, where did you find your purpose, because this is a part of your book is to go in to clear the noise and then to a sense of what you want to do in this life.
So two different things when it comes to the transition. You know, initially I was like, Okay, I'm gonna quit my job on this date. I'm going to collect the money that I have up until the flight, and that was sort of my plan. And then, as the universe would have it, the startup that I was working for decided to downsize about a week before my trip, and they actually ended up giving me a month severance. Oh so that was that was my first layup from the universe.
And then of course somebody also reached out to me on Airbnb and asked if they could rent out my place for two months. So I was like, okay, this is definitely a sign that I'm supposed to go to Bali, and I just figured that one month after that trip
I would go back into marketing and advertising. I just assumed that I'll take a couple weeks off to go do this breathwork retreat, and when I come back I'll go back into the grind, but my intuition just kept telling me to continue to travel and continue to expel, and I ended up going to India and Peru and Tiling, and I tried all of these different modalities, and honestly, the transition from corporate didn't happen logically, and it didn't happen with sort of the awareness that that's how the
journey was going to go down. I was constantly battling these inner thoughts that I had to go back to work. And it was about several months of a dance of me saying, Okay, I'll go to India, but then I'll start applying for jobs again. Okay, I'll do Peru, but then I need to go back into marketing, And my intuition just kept pushing me to heal and to study
and to discover. And then eventually I got the calling that I'm supposed to coach breath Work, and I thought, oh my gosh, like this is a big transition into entrepreneurship and also an ego death because I was used to, you know, status and significance from these titles and I didn't really know how it was going to monetize my own breathwork journey. But I just kept breathing, and I kept getting answers and insights and clarity, and eventually figured out how to start to build my brand and my
coaching offers, and it ended up being extremely successful. In my first year, I ended up making back my marketing salary and then more than doubling it my second year. So it was really just continuing to tap into the breath work and staying present and taking those intuitive actions.
So it sounds to me like you you line up all the goals, all the systems and put them in place too in it so you didn't have to really go back to the corporate world right away.
You were able to.
I mean, did you have to do Did you go back at all during this You didn't. That is so I mean, that's a blessing right there.
Let's you know, it absolutely is. But it also took a lot of courage because everything in my ego was like go back for a secure paycheck. You need that financial stability and pay the bonuses. So I definitely think that that was the toughest part of the journey, was just the battles of my financial beliefs and having to clear that, and the reason I was able to have that sort of strength to keep going was because breathwork
became my purpose. It wanted to get really loud and really clear that I was supposed to bring this modality to the world in a more efficient and modern way to help people also heal and get into alignment with their purpose. So when the calling feels that strong, it gives you a lot of strength and courage to keep going on the path.
I mean, honestly, it's a wonderful story, but there's a lot of people going, I can't do that, I can't quit my job, I'm making six figures, I'm in the corporate world, or I have a family defeat da da da da da.
How do we use our intuition to.
Really guide us when we're in that process, because that's I mean, you're describing things that are scary.
Yeah, I totally understand that, And honestly, that's why I wrote the book and also why I created Master g app because I know how much fear and doubt and subconscious blocks and just psychological behavior patterns come up in that transition. So for me, it's not a one size fits all. My story was my journey, but for other people.
They might start working on that side hustle. They might start building that audience while they're getting the secure paycheck, or they might feel really strongly in their bones it's not in alignment. They need to completely free up their energy and go all in on the thing that they love. So what I recommend everyone do is do breathwork hypno breathwork specifically every single morning so that you are in
your clearest state. And then the last vocal cue in every single one of our sessions is what's your one next intuitive action step. Because to truly make that transition and be successful at it, you have to be a co creator of your experience, and that requires execution. You can't just have whimsical dreams and feel you know, peace in the twenty minutes that you're breathing. You actually have to go out into the real world day to day
and take action. And those action steps are reach buck out to your boss or your HR department and ask to bring this wholeness modality to their staff. You know, sometimes that's the way that you start to get your coaching business off the ground. My first clients were guys that dated me and were like, Wow, what happened to you. I want that.
I love that.
That's so hilarious.
Let's talk a little bit about the other breath works that are out out there. I've had people talk about holo traffic, which has been around for a long time. Then I mentioned rebirthing, which is it's it's an unveiling of your inner dimensions, but it's it seems challenging at times. I mean, you're I was doing it in a closed room with a few people and you literally pass out sometimes because you're hyperventilating, Which, like, what is it about mastery, by the way, I love that name mastery?
What is it about mastery that is.
Unique as a standalone technique.
Well, A, it's hyper efficient, it's twenty two minutes, and we blend hypnosis and visualization into our practice and that's what makes it extremely effective and very results driven. So I love holotropic breathwork. I've also done rebirthing breathwork. Those journeys can be ninety minutes, sometimes two and a half hours. There's a lot of shamanic drumming, there's not a lot of vocal cues and guidance. And what I found on my journey is that people would have big cathartic releases.
They would definitely feel lighter, or they would cry, they might see a memory, but they didn't know how to take that experience and actually change their life. They didn't know how to create the future version of themselves or start to change the behavior pattern. So what I found is that by incorporating hypnosis, you're giving the subconscious a focal point. You're getting to the root of a limiting belief. You're actually breathing out the suppressed emotion and expanding the
mind simultaneously. And when you combine those two practices, people can see a new future. They can expand they can see themselves on this stage. They can see themselves having a success career and entrepreneurship. They can see themselves in the loving relationship, and they can feel it in their body.
So they're changing their energy as well. They're creating new neural pathways, and the more that they breathe and see that image and feel the emotion, they're creating a new reality that they can step into with more confidence and more ease.
Okay, so you're talking about activating aspects of the unconscious in this process. Is there and we'll talk more about it in depth a little bit later. But is there a intuition that you start out with you intend to go somewhere to free up more understanding of your purpose? And also do we use that language? What is my life purpose? How do I achieve it? I'm in a place now where I can't see this, but well maybe I will later. Blah blah blah. You know, the brain
goes nuts on this kind of stuff. Talk a little bit about it.
So purpose is a bit of a journy. I wouldn't promise anyone that in one hypno breathwork session I can get you to your life's purpose. What requires a bit of healing of the past and also uncovering subconscious blocks that have kind of posed those limitations on you. So typically in a hypno breathwork sessions, they're thematic, they're topical,
so we have different focal points. We might do a session on your mother wounds because you're carrying unconscious grief or sadness or guilt in that relationship, and once you heal that and free that up, then you'll have more clarity and creativity to go towards your purpose or that next project or your business. We might do sessions on self sabotage a session on procrastination. Whatever your pattern is that's blocking in your life. We have specific sessions tailored
with vocal cues and music to that pattern. So on Masteram, we actually have eighty different sessions across topics of health, of love, of corporate decision making, thought leader inspired sessions so that people can find whatever they need that day, read out the block, get their clear action step and take that intuitive action.
I love it.
I should mention to our listeners that you have developed an app and I guess it goes on iPhone or Android. Yeah, go through both of them.
Are you saying that these.
Techniques, these practices that are loaded on this app and that you just go through one through eighty or whatever you just were suggesting, or is there a guide to teach you or somebody that you work with in the very beginning.
So there's twenty coaches who have helped me create these audio sessions on the app, and basically you go in and you'll be prompted with a question, how are you feeling today? What is it that you want to focus on? And then we'll recommend three different sessions based on your intention for that day. So you might say I'm feeling like a five. I want to get more clarity in work. And we'll be like, great, here's a session on focus, here's a session on flow state, and here's a session
peak performance. And then go and choose that session that day, and as soon as you breath towards the end, it says, what's your next intuitive action step? Then you get a little journal prompt you put that in there, do you type it in? And then as soon as you complete that action step, you get your badge for the day. So it's a digital process to help people integrate and create that habit and also have accountability.
That's very forward thinking.
I really like that because I don't think I've heard of anyone creating an app for.
What you call flow state.
What are you hoping that the user is going to gain when they begin using the tool? In other words, you made some early points that I think need to be addressed. Is like, you don't just change your life right away. I mean, you could have a gig. And that's how I started my podcast. I had clients that wanted to invest in podcasting, so I learned all about it, launch their sites, and then through their through the trials
and tribulations of their work. I launch my own. How do you help people find what you believe is their purpose?
So purpose can be complex, but there actually is sort of a chronological and linear and tangible journey that I take people through, and it's orchestrated the exact same way as the book is. It's in three parts. Part once, you have to heal the past, So that's about going into your inner child. That's about reflecting on your relationship to your mother and also your father and seeing how their worldview shaped your belief in yourself and shaped your behaviors.
So once we sort of clear out any gunk or repressed emotion there, then we start to create new connections. We start to connect the dots between your skills, your experiences, the occupations that you've chosen, what people tell you that you're naturally gifted at, what you wanted to be when you were younger. There's a series of where we start to activate your gifts, your talents, and what you are passionate about. Once we start to find those intersections, we
will be all. We'll clear out the financial blocks and will as soon as you get this creative surgeony, you're like, oh my god, this is what I'm meant to do in the world. You know, the next day the financial fears will kick in and that's what that's why we have to do this breathwork.
Can glad you're mentioning that, because that's a huge was like, oh, yeah, I want to be a painter.
Years and you know.
Yeah.
We're going to take a short commercial break to allow our sponsors to identify themselves and we will return shortly with my guests today Francesca Sima discussing her new book Unlock Your Purpose. We'll rejoin you shortly. My guest today is Francisca Simpma, who's written a new book called Unblock Your Purpose, breath Work, Intuition and Flow State is. She's describing the techniques and the results of her therapeutic approach to wellness.
Listen, I created this app because it's what I use every single day up and I this morning. You know, I use it every single day because even as an entrepreneur who has had early success, I still have my fears, I still have my doubts, I still have my conditioning, my blocks, and this is what I need to get into the higher state of the future version that I
want to be and create from that place. So once we sort of connect your creative skills and we breathe out money blocks, and we breathe out you know, relationship blocks that are coming up in your life, then we turn it outward. Because the key to purpose is truly
being of service. And when you can figure out who it is that you're meant to serve and how you contribute to something greater than yourself, then your life starts to take on a completely new meaning and you start to feel real internal peace and fulfillment.
So run me through the process. You do one of the app meditations and the breath work, you're finished. Are you asking the person to write down impressions? Are you having them get a sense of the feeling? How are you reinforcing the practice?
Yeah, Cliff, I'm loving all of your questions right now because it's validating a lot of my process.
Oh, I've been doing I've been well. Any hell, I love what you're doing, and so I want to help you. And then by your clarity, the listener will go, oh, yeakay, Francesca is meaning this.
Yeah, yeah, I love it. Okay, so I believe that I've thought of this. So every chapter in my book, un Block your Purpose, gives you context, it gives you psychological principles, and also personal stories of people who have healed those milestones or made those creative connections. And then at the end of each chapter, we have corresponding journal questions and then we have many hypno breathwork sessions so that you can get to those insights, those revelations, that
healing and that next action step. So Mastery app actually has an entire section that is dedicated to the book that corresponds with each chapter. So you read about it, you write your own reflections, then you it and then you take action. That's sort of the process. And we created those two things complementary so that people could have the full experience to start to heal and discover their purpose.
Okay, I love it, you just give it to us. In the one two three, here's the issue. If somebody is wanting to make a change in their life, if they know that they're not in a career path that is helpful. If they have a sense of where they want to go, Are there counselors, Are there people on your team that they can reflect with, because Jesus Christ, if they're leaving a job.
If I mean this is not just job.
This could be a relationship, this could be a lifestyle, this could be a lot of different Yeah, paths, talk about that.
I've got this one too, Cliff. All right, So I also have my twelve week course un Block Your Purpose that is guided by one of my master coaches. So these are the deeper sessions. These are the ones that I went through when I needed support and I needed guidance with So if you need something more deep, that is like truly healing some of the core wounds in your life, then I recommend that you do this with the facilitator. So there's two options. Mastery does have one
on one options for coaches. You can hire a coach for six months and go through this with that sort of support. On Mastery App, we have a live chat feature so if you are going through something, they can also provide guidance or set you up with a coach. And then come January, I'm launching another virtual live session of the full course that people can breathe in community.
They can share their reflections on Zoom every week together, they can get a coach to give them more one on one time, and then we have a live event happening in April where they're going to be breathing with me in person and also getting my intuitive coaching and guidance as well.
Cool talk about the life path or life purpose as you call it, Why do we need to seek a more folk fulfilling life path? I mean, why should we care?
I think for two reasons that our top of mind, which is one mental health, is severely declining, and I think especially post pandemic, it's become so much more visible and top of mind for people about how unfulfilled they truly are and how insatiable some of us are. And so having something that you love to do, that you love to wake up every single day, it doesn't feel like work. You're creating, you're giving your gifts. That just
creates such a more peaceful and beautiful life. I think the other part is we're so focused on our own internal experience and we turn it outwards when we look at the obstacles we've overcome, when we look at the skills and the experiences that we've accumulated, and when we're able to share that knowledge to help someone else. I've never tapped into a feeling like that before, for you know, I've met a lot of milestones. I've had a lot of goals. I've had a lot of achievements and accomplishments
in my life, and the joy's always been fleeting. I go on this trip, I'm ready for the next trip. I date this guy, I want the next guy. It's like it's constantly this hamster wheel of chasing fun and happiness and joy. But when I'm giving, when I see my students and my clients say, oh my god, like I just have this clarity. I know exactly what I'm supposed to do. I haven't felt this love in decades. That is an indescribable feeling to me, and that feeling
actually sticks. So I just think that we're all deserving of a life that we love. I think every single human on this planet is capable of creating a life that they love. It just takes a little bit of healing and connecting the dots of the things that you love, and then having the courage to take that action on a daily basis.
In your experience, what would you say is the percentage of people who are doing what their life purpose is versus those who are stuck in a job or in a lifestyle that is.
Manufacturer.
Perhaps the parents suggested it and they went through life following their parents' guidance. I think a lot of people do this, by the way. Yes I'll go to school, Yes, mom and dad, I'll be a doctor. Yes, mom and dad, I'll get this kind of job. And they're miserable. Yeah, but talk a bit about in your experience now since you've launched Mastery, people who are in the right place.
I mean, that's a pretty depressing statistic. If you're going to make me put a number on it, the amount of people who are actually living their life purpose, I would say less than ten percent. But the really important piece to that is that nothing is wasted. What you're doing right now, the occupation that you've chosen, there's a reason for that. So I don't want anyone to feel down on themselves right now and to feel like they've
lost time, because that's not true either. Whatever job you've chosen right now has given you a set of skills, has given you relationships, has given you a network, has given you experience, and a lot of that is going to be transferable, and a lot of that also has clues into the next level or the next path that you're meant to pursue. I had a long career in advertising and marketing, and none of that has been wasted. I used all of that knowledge to build my personal brand.
I've used all of that to build the brand for Mastery, and all of those colleagues, a lot of them have started my breathwork journey with me, coming to my community classes. A lot of those people have become investors in my company. So nothing is wasted where you are now, but there's just an opportunity for you to find more fulfillment in what you do next.
I like that. That's great.
You haven't talked about the higher self or the soul and how they influence our decision making. Will you say that through your breath work technique that you're having more of communication with this higher level of your consciousness, which I call either the higher self or the soul?
Great question. Yeah, breath is that direct connection to the higher version of yourself? So what is happening physiologically is you're changing the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your body. What that does is it starts to quiet down the default mode network or what I consider the ego, that's the really loud mental chatter. That's the protective mechanisms, that's the analytical mind. And you start to expand your
consciousness and you activate different regions of the brain. You go into your subconscious, and your subconscious is the storehouse. That's where all of your memories, everything that's inspired you, your beliefs, your values, your emotions, everything lives in your subconscious. So breath takes you to this more expansive place where you have more options, you have more possibilities, you have
more visions, you have more downloads. And the interesting thing that starts to happen is when we play the music and when we say the right cues. You know, if I said to you Cliff in a song for you know, I want you to see the highest version of your life. I want you to see your dream home. I want you to see the travel, I want you to see your family, you will all of a sudden get these pictures.
And the really cool thing is I feel like there's a really beautiful distinction between visualization and visioning because visualization we sort of curate that image. And again, when you're breathing and you're visualizing, the defenses and the doubt and what you can create are down and then you have this opportunity to see something bigger. But when you're visioning, that's a download from the universe. That's just like this picture that gets dropped down and you're like, oh, whoa,
I didn't know that was the north Star. And now I have had this clarity of where I'm going. I can give you a specific example to help paint that picture. You know, when I started breathwork coaching, I've always been pretty ambitious, so I was like, all right, if I'm going to become a breathwork coach, I'm going to be on Goop. I'm going to do sessions for Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, Jenna and I'm going to go to this
is like going to be my clients. Hell and I would do breathwork and it was like, no, You're going on a book tour, and I was like, whoa, I'm an author. So that was a vision that I got from breathwork before I really started writing or I even had plans to put a book out into the world. That vision came through and then I knew exactly where I was going that I wasn't meant to be the you know, the celebrity breathwork coach. I was actually meant to write a book.
I think we all aspire for the celebrity support and acknowledgment, but that's not always realistic.
I think. Is what you're.
Suggesting it manifesting from your ego versus your soul.
Yeah, exactly, very good talk about the dynamics of breath work and what happens when we breathe in a certain manner. What is access number one, what is cleared number two and number three? How it.
Sustains you.
So breathwork always finds the highest emotional charge, and that's a little terrifying because you can't hide from the breath. So I have a lot of clients come in and they're like, you know, I'm really frustrated with my wife today. She really triggered me. And then we'll go into breathwork and they'll see the seven year old boy whose mom is reprimanding him and feels alone. You know. So it
always finds the highest emotional charge. Or I'll have clients that are like, you know, I'm really pissed off at my boss, and then they'll see infidelity and their breath work and they're actually feeling ashamed of themselves. Yeah, So breath always finds what is lingering most loud in your body, that's blocking your energy. So that is something that's always fascinated me, and even as someone who thought I was extremely self aware, even recently, I'll share a personal story
with you, Cliff. You know, I came off a week of a grind on this book launch. You know, I was in like seven cities in two weeks. I was extremely exhausted by the time I got home, and I was convinced that my partner was not being supportive enough, and I was so mad at him. I was like, can't you have more patience with me? Couldn't you just have like dinner ready? Like don't you know I need sleep? Like, oh my god, what couldn't he be so not understanding
of my schedule? Like what is his problem? I was one hundred percent sure that he was the problem. I went into breathwork the next morning and I saw and I was bawling because this reflection and revelation was so enlightening to me. But I was like, I'm the problem. I have completely deprioritized my relationship because of this book launch. I have put him on the back burner, I have not showed up, and now I'm expecting more from him, but I'm giving less. And I was like, holy shit,
I'm in the wrong. And I couldn't believe it, Cliff, I couldn't believe I was the one in the flown. That's what breath does is it gets to the truth. It gets to your most authentic truth, and you can never escape the real emotion that's really residing in your body.
So that's one thing that I just really love about it, and that's why I also think that you have to do it consistently because even somebody who's been breathing every day for five years, I'm still coming up against areas where I'm wrong and my conscious mind is, you know,
disconnected to my subconscious motivations. So while you can definitely have cathartic releases that are life changing in one session, which I've had several of those, and they've changed a behavior pattern from one trigger being dissolved or one revelation being just completely exposed from the route, I have to do this consistently, which is why I built the app, because I know we all need to do this consistently
because there's been too much conditioning. There's been too many stories or expectations from our parents or society or brainwashing that we have to do this work every single morning, every single day. Take action from that place in order for the results to really last.
Now, you just said something that I was going to ask you, and that is that this is a daily practice that you're esting. You cannot skip a day, a week or whatever and.
Come back to it.
It's like working out, you know. I say this to my athletes all the time. I'm like, would you work out one time and expect to be physically fit? Yeah, these are muscles that you have to exercise, and we're developing them and we're building them. We're building our intuition, we're building our self trust, we're building our self worth. So twenty minutes every morning. I've made it as short as I possibly can, and I recommend doing it first thing when you wake up.
It sounds amazing.
I want to go over some points that you make in your book, including unblocking, higher levels of consciousness, enhancing clarity, cognition. That's a huge, huge area. Cognition is in the in our literature right now because people are having declines of cognition as we age, and I think listening to the you and the work that I understand breath work probably would enhance that. But talk about the higher levels of consciousness.
What are you referring to when you're doing this breath work.
So you're oxygenating your body, You're basically breathing new life into your brain. And when we talk about flow states, that's optimal consciousness. That's when things are effortlessly flowing. You're intrinsically motivated, you feel challenged, but you feel productive, but you're also in alignment. It's this perfect sweet spot. So what I discovered is when I needed to monetize as a breathwork coach, I treated it like an ad exac and I created an entire war room in my bedroom.
I had physiological benefits, psychological benefits, spiritual benefits, media channels, content pillars, partnership strategies. All this was up on a wall and then I would breathe, and all of a sudden, my brain and the higher states of consciousness would make new innovative connections that I didn't logically see. So it was reach out to this former employee, offer this benefit in this format and make a video about it, and then send it in your email newsletter and it would
just get like a mind map. It would connect all of these dots every single morning, and I would get marketing strategies and I would get ideas for business. So I thought to myself, could I bring this to corporate? Can I bring this to different industries and have their teams focus on a vision, on a mission, on a project, on a concept, and have everyone get into a collective flow state. Feel rejuvenized, feel re energized, feel motivated, see
their part in the team dynamic. And it happened every single time I did a session for three hundred employees at Deloitte, I said, how are you guys feeling? Put into the chat box? You know they were tired, stressed, drained, exhausted, Da da da da. Twenty minutes later, inspired, rejuvenated, light clear. Can we please do this every week? Amazing reflesh twenty minutes and I had them focus on specific tasks and
then I said, what's your next action step? And every employee said, delegate this set a meeting with my manager, do the brainstorm, get this off my to do list. They had clarity, they had creativity, their energy was rejuvenated, and I just discovered this through my own self experimentation that we could get into these flow states. So what ended up happening was I did every every single day.
You know, again, we talked about the transition from corporate to entrepreneurship is really hard, and it's not just that the day that you make the leap, all of those fears and doubts go out the window. I still get them in mastery, like holy shit, how am I going to do this? And then I just breathe, I connect back to the vision, I get my next action step, and I keep going. So the cognition really what ends up happening is you get all these ideas and once
you execute on them, it also built your confidence. Now you're in integrity with yourself and every day you just keep getting sharper. You're clearer, your problem solving, your articulation, your retention, your decision making. Everything is happening at heightened speeds and heightened focused. So it triggers me so much when people are like, I don't have twenty minutes to breathe,
I'm like, you know, twenty minutes to not breathe. I can write the email, do that website, send out the presentation, do the pitch deck in a quarter of the time because my mom is so clear.
We're going to take a short commercial break to allow our sponsors to identify themselves, and we will return shortly with my guest today, Francesca Simpma discussing her newest book, Unblock Your Purpose.
We'll be right back.
My guest today is Francesca Simmashi has written a new book on breath work called Unlock Your Purpose, and we're hearing about the techniques that are used to draw on a higher level of consciousness, also cognition and the ability to function in a higher state. I think one thing that we also need to let people know, and I'd like to hear from you real quickly on this is the fact that you don't need to leave your job
to become an entrepreneur. You are being enhanced, is what it sounds like you're suggesting, and these enhancements can make you better at your job. Job right, talk a little bit about not necessarily bolting from your job, but perhaps becoming the different person through this breath work.
I want to be really clear that I do not recommend entrepreneurship and quitting corporate for everyone at all. Entrepreneurship has its hardships, just like corporate environments do. And some people like having systems and processes and working with teams that have already been developed, and I'm all for that, But breathwork makes everyone better because it makes you more attuned to yourself. You're exhaling out stress, You're exhaling out anxiety.
You're exhaling out any anxious, any tension, any repressed sadness or grief or guilt or shame that's living in your body. That's what's happening on a physiological level when you're breathing into your parasympathetic nervous system. And then with the hypnotic vocal cues, we're giving you focus. See the project, see the pitch, see the email, see the campaign, see the sale. Then and you're having that visualization of Okay, it's closing.
I'm getting the outcome that I want. I'm hitting that goal. What does that feel like? What does that look like? And what is that version of you do next? How do you show up in the room, how do you walk in the room. What's your tone, what's your energy? What's your demeanor? What are the words that you say? What's the message that's going to be received, and now you're doing everything on a completely different level and your energy is felt and your words are felt.
Yeah, I like that.
I think the one area and just talk briefly about this because this comes up a lot in corporate world. Toxic toxic environments, a toxic boss, a toxic theme, a toxic group. I mean when I work for PayPal, we had not only individuals who were toxic, but we had groups that were formed and one of the leaders would be toxic and kind of influence everybody. You can't get
away from that. But if you are aware of this toxicity, you can compromise it and you can perhaps work around it, and then ultimately, if it continues, we want to get the hell out of there. But talk a little bit about that. That's a huge, big problem in corporate life. You know what I'm talking about.
I know what you're talking about. And it's reminding me of this very high up CFO that I did a session on and I remember him coming out of the session and it was so shocking. He just said, Oh, I just realized why I'm such an asshole to my team. It's because I hate my mother.
Oh.
I was like, whoa, We're projecting a lot of your own personal stuff onto your team. So the other really cool advantage of breath work is because it gets you out of your own head and it gets you out of your own vantage point, you actually start to have compassion for other people around you. So we can do
this in a multitude of ways. I can say, Cliff, I want you to close your eyes, I want you to breathe, and I want you to see your partner, I want you to see your children, I want you to see you colleague, and all of a sudden, defenses are down and you're like, whoa, they're just also really hurt. They're not feeling heard, they're feeling frustrated. You know, you'll immediately see that this person's not just out to get you. You don't need to take it personally. They're not just
an idiot. You're actually breathing and you're seeing a completely different perspective. And you can do the same thing with teams. I think the biggest disconnect in these toxic environments is,
you know, upper management feels a lot of pressure. They're probably frustrated because they feel like they're working, you know, to a certain degree, and maybe other people aren't living up to that, and then a lot of employees are frustrated because upper management has absolutely no respect for their work life balance, and so all these two places are
at contention with each other. But there's a way for us to a breathe out our expectations and our projections, and then b also just have more clarity so that we are performing at a higher level and we are contributing to the team and being collaborative and being productive. So it's instead of a mixed bag, it's saying, you know, we do sessions on compassion empathy, and then we do on peak performance and focus.
Yeah, amazing. Let's go through a couple of more of these points that you highlight in your book, and then we want to get into some case studies of some of your clients and people who have got through the program. The other one is enhance clarity. How do we get enhanced clarity? Which is a good one because if you're bogged down with a problem and you're not able to get through it, enhance clarity will chop away at.
That and you'll get hopefully the results the answers.
Yeah, so the enhanced clarity is just the pumping of the breath is again, it's bringing more oxygen into your body. It's quieting down the deep the prefrontal cortex and analytical mind. It's giving you more options, it's giving you more creativity, giving you more solutions. And so with the right music, with the right vocal cue, if I say, what's your next step on that project? How do you scale this podcast? Who's the person that you want to partner with? What
do you need to say to them? How do you present it? What's the real that you need to create that your mind will immediately start to find solutions for that thing. And that makes you feel extremely clear, and when you take extion on that, it also makes you extremely confident.
Okay, and that gets into our next one, which is cognition, and that has to do also with brain function, brain brain wellness, which we're not talking about, but I think in many ways bringing in oxygen, oxygengating the brain helps in that area.
Talk about cognition, Yeah, it's the same thing as the clarity, But the other part to the cognition too, is you're breathing out all these emotions that are creating energy blockages in your body. When you're holding onto anger from twenty years ago. You are not your clearest, You are not functioning at your optimal performance. So as you get triggered throughout the day because someone cuts you off in traffic, or you know your partner didn't answer the phone when
you called, or whatever these things are. When you breed those things out, they don't block your energy from flowing and then giving you that clarity, that cognition, that creativity, and all the brain power that can be used for things that are more productive.
Have you been able to ascertain the levels of clarity and cognition in your own practice or do you actually have your students kind of look at it and do self assessment. I'm here, I need to be here, I need to be at this level. Do you do you have like a way to discover how successful the practice is.
Our measurement is really through how close are you to the life that you want to create. So if I have people who are in you know, they come to me and they are completely depressed, They're miserable, they hate their jobs, they're in a relationship that they don't want to be in anymore. And then they go through my twelve week online program on block your Purpose and all of a sudden, they've put that job. They're now doing
breastwork in a yoga studio. You know, they're dating a guy that you know actually makes them feel safe and is consistent, makes them feel loved. So that's sort of the progress that we measure it in. How much of your dream life are you creating that trip that you saw in a breathwork session? Did you book the ticket? And I get selfies from them? You know, they're like, Hey, I'm in Greece, just like I saw in my breathwork session.
I'm hosting that street for this group. We have the intuitive actions that we kind of share with each other, and then once those intuitive actions come to life, then that's really the progress of success.
But are there levels to clarity and cognition that you actually teach in this breath work.
It's it can be actually more like task based or project based. So if we did a session right now, tell me something that you want to maybe grow or change in your business.
More downloads, more listeners? Okay, great, is there every podcast or even Joe Rogan's going to say the same thing, I need another million?
Okay, no, but that's perfect. So when you're breathing, I might cue you. You know, first, let go of any emotion, any blockages, any anxiety, any stress from the holidays, or anything that's going on with your family. Then I'll in the middle of the breathwork session, I might say, I want you to see your podcast, and then I'm going to have you connect to why why did you start the show? What is it that you want your listeners
to get the most out of it? And now you're connecting to a different emotion, right, You're connecting to service. And then I might say, what are the topics that you know are most culturally relevant that people need and people want to hear. Then maybe some ideas will start to percolate, and then I'll say, who is your ideal guest on this show? Who would you like to bring on in the show? Maybe a couple of ideas will
come into your mind. Next, I'm going to say, I want you to see your show having a million more downloads, a million more listeners. What does that feel like? What does that look like? Get into that emotional state, get into that energy right now? Cool? What's your next action step towards that? And your intuition? I can't do it for you. Your intuition will tell you I need to hire this person, I need to do this social media campaign. I need to get on TikTok, I need to make
more video content. I need to go to in and studios. I have no idea you're into will have it, and every other podcast hosts might have a completely different answer. But those vocal cues and getting you into the emotional state and triggering your intuition is what's going to give you the clarity.
I like that, Thank you.
I wrote it all that down too. There's a little brief coaching session there with free Francesca's coaching. Uh, let's go to the last item, which I'm curious about. I think it kind of speaks for itself though, which is decision making. Those are that's the last area that you discussed as a benefit you talk about that is it enhanced in some way?
It's clear because it's intuitive. So what I mean by that is, you know, people waste so much time and indecision. They have a problem, or they have the next step, and they have a feeling of the direction they want to go or what they want to do, but their logical will tell them all the ways will it'll negate and it'll impose fear and threat into the thing that they do, they'll get FOMO. So they oftentimes procrastinate and they waste time in this over analysis and this overthinking.
But what breathwork does is it gives you that clear channel, that bridge right into your intuition. So you might say, you know, your decision coming up is do I hire this person or do I move to this platform? And I'll cue it in a breathwork session towards the end when all the emotions kind of cleared, and you'll just either get a picture, an answer, a word, something in your intuition. Something will just flash and that's how that
you make the decisions moving forward. I'm the craziest. I make crazy decisions to the outside world, but they are all things that have come through in my breathwork, and I just believe them. I act on them and it's worked out.
What do you call them crazy? Because there's something that in your daily life you would not initiate.
They're unconventional.
Oh, we'll define that, okay.
So when I started Mastery, we were we were going to fundraise a million dollars to start this company and to create the app and the platform. So in a typical fundraising process. And I did masterminds on fundraising and went to these founder schools and did all these things because that's the process that my linear mind told me to do. In rough work, it was like post a
headshot on Instagram. Post your headshot on Instagram with a caption that says, in twenty twenty eight two, I'm coming out as a female founder of a new wellness company to raise the collective consciousness. If you want to get involved DM me. And my ego was like, whoa, I'm not putting that on Instagram. That's so what if it doesn't work out, Like, I don't want to put myself out there like that. My intuition, my decision, in my
intuition was post it. I posted it around forty eight hours later I had the call, and I think forty eight hours after that, the first one hundred K was wired into Mastery's bank account.
Oh my god.
Yeah, so you really tapped in, you know. That's so funny. It's like everything happens for a reason. It's like all the energetics are lined up, and when you sent that into the atmosphere or the the whatever reality it manifested.
Yeah, that's totally cool. Yeah, the books called Unlock Your Purpose.
My guest today is Francesca Sima. I want to get into some case studies now at the at the end of this interview, and if you could give us obviously you're not going to name names, but if you could give us a couple of people who have perhaps we're in a certain situation and then use the breath work and now you're happy to report this or that. And I mean they all can't be Roses and spark. There could be some that are working their way up from
a certain situation. But whatever you could provide to be great. Yeah.
I think the first story that comes to mind it was actually my very first Unblock your Purpose course, and I had a gentleman in there. He was about fifty six years old. He had started his own company before and actually went bankrupt, so we had a fear of entrepreneurship now from that experience, but he deeply wanted to create a legacy for his kids. So we came in thinking that we were going to heal the financial situation
from his last experience and first breathwork session. Ever, he came out hysterical, shocked, you know, was crying and I said, you know what came up for you? And he said, sexual trauma from when I was five years old that I haven't thought about in five decades. Wow. And that was the block. And once that was released, and once that was healed, he got the idea for the platform that he wanted to build that was much more in alignment for him. So that was a huge one.
I also stop you real quickly.
We don't recognize physical abuse. It can be emotional abuse as a form of a block. And that's a classic example of someone who was physically abused and holding on to that trauma. And what you're saying is that the release came when he was doing his breath work and now he's more fully available.
For the work.
That is a memory that he completely blocked out and hadn't talked about, shared thought about in almost fifty years.
Wow.
And it was the first thing.
I think your next book, Francesca is my clients in their road to success.
I have hundreds of stories I could share, definitely. Another one that I thought was really cool was I was working with the renowned producer for Justin Timberlake actually, and he thought that his purpose was to create music that affected culture, and he's like, yeah, I think this is you know what I was supposed to do, and dada da. We went into three breathwork sessions and he saw, no, my purpose is actually to show minority boys that they can live their dreams.
Wow.
So that was like a really cool shift. And then I shared this with you earlier. But I think like eighty percent of people end up putting their corporate jobs once they do my actual course. So I've had now I've certified one hundred and twenty Hypno breathwork coaches in my modality, and I get photos and videos and tags and emails from them all the time. I mean they are in they're doing retreats in Costa Rica and in Greece. They're on stages, they're doing sessions for football players. You know,
they're writing books. They're I mean, they're out there living their life because they're tapping into this practice every single day. But they are having the courage to do the deep work, to be consistent, to take the action. So the life of your dream is as possible, but you got to do a little deep work. You got to heal, and then you got to take intuitive.
Action, unlock your purpose, unblock excuse me, unblock your purpose?
Thank you.
Breath Work, Intuition and Flow State is the title of the book, Francisca. Where can people get it?
I own it?
Also mentioned to you listeners it just came out. The book just came out. Hey, did you do an audible version of it?
I did, and fantastic and I recorded all very specific hypno breathwork sessions that are complimentary with the book for this.
Oh my god.
So you can actually follow along and do do you do like a beginning breath work session with Oh wow, wow? That's that's really worth the price of.
The book.
You're telling me.
You're probably thinking, why did they do that?
No, My mission is to help people get into align with their purpose, and I'm more than happy to provide that resource. I hope that everyone tries it.
That is very generous, Francesca, very generous. Okay, So that's your the book. How where else can people find you? What's your website?
You can find you on Instagram at Francisca Sema or on my website Fanceasca setma dot com.
Okay, and mastery app. Talk about how do we access that? Of course you should probably go to the website first.
Read a little bit about it. But where is that available?
So you can download Mastery. It's m A S. T r Y on the Apple or the Google Play Store and you can learn more about it at mastery Experience dot com.
Fantastic And just for you, what do you see yourself doing in the next five years, I'm going to build a dome. A dome you mean a pyramid, yes.
Center for subconscious reprogramming where we hook in our brain waves. We see when the rewiring is happening, we get those expansive visions. We can measure it, we can calculate it, we can have the research and the data to support it. Yeah, we can bring an artist and thought leaders and turned their concepts into hypno breathwork sessions so that people actually retain their lessons and their learnings. Yeah, I want to blow it up.
That's very very old world. That's the previous civilization creating domes for meditative processing. That's you must have been tapping into a couple of different lifetimes when that came up.
Well, it's actually like a black mirrored glass dome. So it's very futuristic looking and very modern, but it definitely came through in a couple of breathwork sessions.
Brat Cska Simba, thank you for joining me and much much success.
Thank you so much thanks for having me.
I wasn't sure.
About that interview, but I really enjoyed Francesca's work and her take on the breathwork app that.
She has created. And she's really put a lot of thought into the program, which I think is very important.
I'll tell you something else that we spoke about.
At the end. We didn't include it in the recording.
She has created an audible she narrates the book, but she told me that she also has guided meditations to take you through the various levels of the breath work. That is huge and I found it not only a huge benefit an important part of the book, but this is a way for those of you who are unfamiliar with breath work to have her working and guiding you through these important steps. This is huge. I was like, really,
that's I mean, you're giving away your coaching. No she's not, but it's helping you and introducing you to this fabulous technique. And I got to tell you, when you begin to do breath work, it can really clear a lot of problems up. You can be faced with trauma, stuff will come up. You'll have a memory, you'll have a flash of a traumatic event or an event that upset you, and you can clear it right there. You know you can, you can accept it. I felt it, I remember it,
I release it for its highest good. I don't know what techniques she uses. Those are some of the old techniques that I use. But when you start doing that, you're freeing up little pockets of pain and trauma and tuxins toxicity. You get rid of your toxicity. So check out that book, Unlock your Purpose on Amazon and download the audible version, because she takes you right through it.
What a great gift. Talk about a Christmas gift. Thank you, Francesca.
Hey. I want to mention that we still have a space and I've talked to Ed and Ed's like.
Well, we only want one person to make twenty.
But if you're a couple and you want to join us on Easter Island March fifteenth through the twenty third of next year, twenty twenty five, join the crowd, join us. Go to Earth Ancients dot com force tours. Look at the itinerary, Look for the banner. It says Rapahnui Easter Island. Check it out, Come on and join us. This is going to be a world class really once in a
lifetime opportunity to tour with Ed Barnhardt. He has done surveying for the local administration, the government there, and he has an unusual and intimate perspective that is not typically allowed or sanctioned.
By the locals.
So I don't know what we're expecting, but he keeps telling me to expect fun stuff, and that means we'll see the moai, these monstrosities, megaton sculptures. We'll see the quarries, We'll see the buildings. We'll see the lovely elegantness, the flowers, the old world charm, ancient world charm of Rapa Nui otherwise known as Easter Island. Be that last person or a couple come out and join us. We're at nineteen. We need one more person, maybe two, to complete this
tour group. So again, to find out more information, go to Earth Ancients dot com, forward slash Tours, look for the banner and register.
All right, that's it for this program.
I want to think my guest today, Francesca Simpa, and check out her new book Unlock Your Purpose. As always, the team of Gail Tour and Mark Foster in London. You guys rock, you really do all right, Take care of be well and we will talk to you next time. No, not the back back