August 3, 2023
I’m a big fan of breathwork as a free and highly effective method to control your nervous system, performance, sleep, and much more.
The problem is (and perhaps you’ve noticed this) most breathwork apps are heavily secular, a touch “New Agey,” and tend to avoid encouragement of a deeper connection to God or Jesus Christ. In other words, they’re spiritual but not religious, bro.
And look, while I certainly use and enjoy such apps, I’ve always thought it odd that there were no good breathwork sessions or apps out there for Christians like me who want to connect more deeply with our Creator through meditation on Scripture, praying to God, or breathing with a focus on the presence of Jesus Christ.
So…
…I’ve started to record my spiritually uplifting, Christian breathwork sessions that forthrightly focus on God and Jesus, meditation on the Bible, and prayer.
The breathing sessions I designed can be used by anyone with any experience, anywhere (even if you’re not a Christian, I think you’ll enjoy them quite a bit).
Travis Steffens was born on a large working cattle Ranch in a tiny town in Colorado. Home Schooled and Working on the Ranch until building his first company at 18 years of age, and married at 20, Travis’s love for business and life’s real journey began.
Selling his first company at the age of 26 and embarking on a lifelong adventure of real estate investing, Travis had no idea the enormity of the life lessons that lay ahead of him. The next 17 years would hold: divorce, investigations, 300 days a year of travel, fighting drug and sex traffic across the country, leading homeless healing, invitation to The State of The Union Address from the US President, recognition, and speaking on stage with the US President, Covid pandemic, Chapter 11 bankruptcy, building two world-changing tech companies, and the unfolding of the three words that Travis now holds so dear “know thy Self.”
“We lived in our first fix and flip house while we renovated it,” says Travis, “…sleeping on an air mattress and working 16 hours a day, five weeks later the home was done and we sold it within a few weeks. Thus the Real Estate Investment launch was on its way.”
Over four years, Travis flipped nearly 300 homes and moved into a multi-family in 2010. Within a few years, a full vertical real estate investment company was built and in full flow. As he moved across the country and worked in the roughest areas of the country, his heart grew and vision expanded to make a Conscious Capitalist difference everywhere he did business.
Conscious Capitalism is now the flag Travis flies in the company.
His origin of this was through renovating slum lord properties in the roughest areas of the country, the forgotten shadows of those who have been swept under the rug. His mission was to clean up the crime, then empower and retain the residents that lived in these properties while he gave them a newly renovated place to live. This is where his first nonprofit was born.
Travis’s first stage of Conscious Capitalism was helping to minimize homelessness by keeping people in their homes through empowering them to take financial power of their lives. This stage involved his house construction company taking the homeless off the streets, housing them, providing tools of the trade, and training them to rejoin society as a contributing citizen. Through this process, Travis had many healing modalities he used to help them heal from the cellular level out, and one of those modalities was breathwork.
During our discussion, you’ll discover:
-Ben’s experience with breathwork…0:45
- Runner’s World Running on Air by Budd Coates
- Cold water swimming and breathwork
- Combining breathwork with scripture and prayer
- Discovered The Breath Source app
- Ben reached out to Travis Steffens of The Breath Source
- Proposed creating breathwork sessions within a Christian framework
- The breathwork session led by Dr. Sachin Patel had people weeping
- Ben reached out to Travis Steffens of The Breath Source
-How did Travis get into breathwork practice?…9:31
- Involved in self-development and biohacking
- Inspired by Wim Hof
- Raised in the church and big on morning rituals
- Began practicing Wim Hof method
- Tetany increased in hands and feet
- Practiced inhale holds under water and exhale holds outside
- Discovered SOMA and Pranayama breathwork with Michaël Bijker
-How Travis describes the physiological changes people feel when they start doing breathwork…11:27
- Blowing off carbon dioxide causes blood vessels to constrict
- Losing 2% of your mental capacity for every ml of CO2 you blow off
- Raises pH level in blood
- More CO2 than O2 in the blood
- Pulls CO2 to the edge of the vascular system
- Causes hands and feet to curl
- Breath by James Nestor
- Carbon dioxide inhalation to increase stress response
- Free climber Alex Honnold felt fear for the first time after being injected with CO2
- CO2 training can help rewire the nervous system
- Body is a factory powered by our heart
- Each heartbeat causes the entire lungs blood supply to exit and enter
- Cleanses body of old CO2
- Long exhale holds causes the lungs to fill up with used CO2
- Increases stress tolerance and resilience
- Creates a receptive state for healing, both physiologically and psychologically
- Ben is able to memorize scripture more easily
-How Travis guides his students to increase their breath hold time…21:40
- First: Discipline
- Second: Practice without expectation
- Dr. Joe Dispenza: “becoming no body, no one, no thing, no where and in no time.”
- Do not time yourself
- Buildup of exercises
- Step One: Heartmath coherence breathing
- Step Two: Breath of Fire breathwork
- 108 reps
- On 108th rep, holds last breath
- Let’s diaphragm drop
- Step Three: Kriya breathwork
- Restricts throat, inhale through the nose
- Vibratory hum
- Creates Nitric Oxide and dilates blood vessels
- Step Four: DMT Alkaline breathwork
-The correlation between breathwork and sexual performance…37:00
- Ben’s practice of contracting on the inhale enhances the post-contraction relaxation on the exhale
- Contracting and relaxing the pelvic floor muscles has improved the quality of Ben’s orgasms
- The Multi-Orgasmic Man by Douglas Abrams and Mantak Chia
- Couples breathwork is a great way to connect with your partner
-Ben’s experience with combining breathwork and microdosing…47:00
- Uses microdosing to enhance creativity
- 150-200 mg of oral DMT before a breathwork session
- Improves relaxation and receptivity
- Microdosing with intranasal ketamine increases inhalation and exhalation
-Travis’s history in real estate and community development…51:25
- Homeschooled on a ranch in Colorado
- Started first business at 18
- Married at 20
- Started a real estate business at 26
- Got into refurbishing multi-family complexes
- Heartbroken by the state of homes people were living in
- Became fixated on the concept of conscious capitalism
- Worked in the roughest neighborhoods in the country
- Had to build their own security company
- Removed crime themselves, working with the local police
- Mission was to raise the collective consciousness in the neighborhood by empowering the individuals that lived in it
- Trained homeless people to help in building and construction
- Studied Bruce Lipton’s work: The Biology of Belief 10th Anniversary Edition: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles
- Treated the homeless with respect and love
- Built a software that helped them combat self-sabotage
- Allowed people to feel a sense of significance
- Practiced breathwork with the people of these communities
- Introduced them to SOMA Breath
- Created the The Breath Source app after experiencing the healing effects of breathwork
- Podcast with Niraj Naik:
-Where would be a good place to start with The Breath Source app?…59:53
-Travis’s experience with breathing devices…65:30
-And much more…
Upcoming Events:
- Walk For Water: August 8th, 2023
The team and I here at Ben Greenfield Life will be participating in a special Walk For Water event this year. Around the world, 2.2 billion people lack access to safe water. Millions of women and children walk more than three miles to collect water for their families every day. Often this water is not safe to drink, resulting in illness and even death, but we have the power to change this. I invite you to join us by walking for water yourself. Just $50 can provide clean water for one person for life. Learn more here.
- Disrupt Healthcare: September 28 – September 30, 2023
Join me for the Disrupt 2023 Event in Atlanta, Georgia between September 28th – 30th. This highly practical and immersive workshop will feature live Q&As, my top secrets for career success, and much more! Head to bengreenfieldlife.com/disrupt2023 to claim your spot today.
- Couples Collective: October 25 – 29, 2023
Join Jessa and me for an exclusive and immersive way to explore health, wellness, and mindset with your significant other in Napa, California October 25th – 29th. Head over to ownitcoaching.com/couples-collective to apply.
Click here for the full written transcript of this podcast episode.
Resources from this episode:
– Podcasts:
– Books:
– Other Resources:
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Do you have questions, thoughts, or feedback for Travis Steffens or me? Leave your comments below and one of us will reply!
