“How breathwork helped Bradley to overcome addiction”

Q: How did you get to know about the Life Awareness Project?

A: First of all, I was a terrible alcoholic and drug addict. I went to rehab to get help, came out for a while and then I was doing fine. Then I relapsed, and about a year into that relapse, I knew I had to find another way. I was on the internet one day and I came across breathwork and pranayama. At that point in time, I started questioning things and I'd started waking up to things. It took one day of looking online at pranayama and different breathwork modalities. I started practicing without any guidance or anything like that, just watching YouTube videos. That's when came across Michaël's videos and I was like: “Wow, this is amazing.”

I started following Michaël and I started practicing every day. Actually, through the pranayama and meditation techniques, he was teaching, I stopped drinking and doing drugs. It was quite a profound experience. I carried on following Michaël and eventually I found his website Yogalap, The Life Awareness Project. I got in touch with him and that's where the ball started rolling. I was searching for this thing that was going to save my life and I found it.

Q: That's a really really interesting story already. It’s truly beautiful that the practices could help you so much. So now I’m getting really curious, how did Michael's practices help you with this? Because there are different people teaching breathwork, what made Michael and the Life Awareness Project different for you?

A: Once I stopped the drinking and the drugs, and we got in touch. Michaël, the wonderful soul he is, hooked me up with a course and it was life-changing. Although I had been practicing some breathwork, I didn't have any real understanding of it. When I started doing the 7-day Essentials Course I noticed his compassion, his authenticity and his wisdom. The way he explains things, the way he is teaching, he's doing it from a space where he really cares about the well-being of the people, on a mental, physical and spiritual level.

Through his teachings and applying the practices into my day-to-day life, I discovered things in me that I didn't know existed. From there, things got better and better and better in my life on a personal level. Through practicing every day and listening to Michaël, he just got this way, he's got this knowledge and wisdom and the way he comes across with it. It just sparked something within me. By that stage, I was practicing every day. The more I practiced, the more I had these self-realizations that changed my life.

One of the things he teaches is that everything we need, all the knowledge we need and everything we need on a personal level is already within us. He helps us quiet the mind and do these breathing practices. To some people that may sound like a load of nonsense, but when you actually sit down and you start doing the practice, it all starts awakening within yourself. You realize that everything you need is within you.

Q: You mentioned to some this may just look like a load of nonsense, you also said that Michael’s teachings lead to the spiritual side. Why didn’t you feel like this is just a load of nonsense? Did you ever feel like this at the beginning of your journey when you got in touch with it? Was it at any point too spiritual for you? 

A: For me, it wasn’t personally. It wasn’t, because I was looking/searching for it. You know, they say when the time is right, the teacher will arrive. So on a spiritual level, I was already there, I'd already started questioning things. I think it was through my addiction to alcohol and various other things, also, the fact that I had enough of my own nonsense and I was searching for something bigger and better on a spiritual level. So it wasn't too much for me. 

It is something EVERYONE has to find for themselves. So at first, it may seem a bit like, I don’t know what to call it, but I've experienced it and I've seen it happen. As soon as you get a person to sit and just be present and observe Michaël’s teachings, it's kind of inevitable that they are going to head into the spiritual journey.

You know, it may seem strange to them at first, but I know from personal experience and seeing it, that to be present and do these practices, meditation and pranayama and that sort of thing, it's 99.9% of the time it's going to lead to something greater.

Q: It's really interesting because we are convinced that this can help a lot of people if they would be open to it because we see it happening on a daily basis. On the flip side, a lot of people still do perceive this as a load of nonsense. As a marketer, this is really interesting. It’s in their benefit to show them the opportunity and the people that are ready, they will take the opportunity, right? What do you think?

A: Exactly. Something else about this and what's also been amazing was getting in touch with this and seeing the ripple effect that it has. I've spoken about it in the community. Doing these courses have a ripple effect on each individual in different areas of their lives. But it also has a ripple effect to fix everyone around you in a positive way.

Even in my personal life, I can see people changing around me, people that I'm in contact with every day. The way I've changed through the practices and through the courses. We have an influence by having a little chat here and there, and obviously on, on social media (Facebook, Instagram etc...), just how everything has evolved, it really has power. My mom is doing breathing exercises now as well, including meditation. As well, my wife and two kids. I've posted a few pictures on my pages where you can see my three-year-old and an eight-year-old sitting there together as we do some breathwork and meditation, including some friends and family at times. So it is having this amazing effect on the people around me, that ripple effect where you can see these techniques affecting hundreds of other people.

Q: Yeah. It's, it's really interesting how it starts with one, and then you have an influence on your environment. There's something going on there. So it basically ripples through and then there are more people naturally wanting to be part of that. Right. It's a very interesting phenomenon.

A: It has been a huge thing, I can see it. I confirm when looking at my journey until now and how I am standing in life as we speak. I'm on this higher vibration of love and kindness and just being positive, I no longer have financial issues and of course, life is not about money but that's just one aspect. Since I started the courses and got into the breathing center, I haven't touched alcohol nor drugs, that's two and a half, nearly three years now. Just everything got better. That's all that Michaël is teaching, he teaches you to be okay, you are okay and it's brilliant that even when you're not okay, it's still okay. You learn if something traumatic happens, instead of us bundling it up inside, we learn to observe.

Q: I think it's. It's a really interesting story. And beautiful. How the practices help and also what Michael teaches on top of that. Do you think that the combination of theory and practice is right for you? Like that the methods are actually backed up by explanation. So you know why you're doing this?

A: Yeah, absolutely, that helps a lot. There's a lot of things that are scientifically proven. He explains very well, why are we doing this. On the other hand, there are things that science can't prove yet and that's when it lands in the individual's hands to actually practice what you're being told to practice or taught to practice and experience it for yourself. Everyone's experience is different and what's different with Michaël is that he's backing everything up and he's giving us these amazing practices. Besides that, it's the way he teaches, you naturally want to learn more and experience it all for yourself.

I think everyone has different experiences. Personally, and this is more on the spiritual side of things, but I've experienced Kundalini awakenings through his practice. Like these amazing, powerful and profound things. I still remember, one day I said, "something happened last night and I don't quite know what", "was this Kundalini-like awakening in me?" It was exciting and a little bit scary at first, and honestly, I didn't think the breath was such a powerful thing. I'm rambling a bit, but if you listen to your body and you practice breathwork for yourself, you might experience these things that science can't prove.

I think the courses are amazing. It's made a huge difference in my life. 

Q: It’s amazing to hear you talking about this. I've been doing some of the courses myself and love it too. And now when I hear about your Kundalini experience, that makes me want to experiment even more. 

A: It's amazing. It happened to me maybe three or four times in the last couple of years. Different experiences, really profound and really powerful when Kundalini rises. Nonetheless, I think each individual has their own individual experience. I don't think any experience of that sort is identical. That's where his guidance is so great because you can't take somebody's word for these experiences. You can't experience it through somebody telling you about it. It's a unique individual experience that you've got to be willing to explore and through the way he teaches, he can tell you things, but it's up to you to put in the work and actually experience it yourself.

Q: Exactly. You gotta be open and try it and then experience it.

A: That's it. And when you do experience it, it's quite hard to explain really. It's a lot of self-realization. I've been hiding from myself for years. Drinking from morning till evening and trying to run away from these things. He gave me the power and the opportunity to sit with myself and observe. Observe the things that happened from the age of 7 years to the age of 35. He teaches you a lot of self-love, something I didn't even know existed. 

We are all scared to sit with ourselves and take the truth, head-on and sit with it and learn to love ourselves and learn to love our imperfect selves. We are perfect, we are imperfectly perfect. 

I could go on forever :-)

Bradley Thompson