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Welcome to the show, I\'m excited to introduce Dave Florence, the man who was driven by a bang to the head to search for better psychological and physiological health. After years of research and practice, much of which was chronicled on his YouTube channel, \'Evolution of Dave\', he has created practices and protocols that have improved his mind and body and those of his clients. He is here to talk about how you can add these same methods to your daily life for more energy, a clearer and more efficient mind, a stronger body and a life experience that is in flow.

Connect with Dave here: https://www.daveflorence.com/

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Intro Guy 0:00
Your journey has been an interesting one up to hear you\'ve questioned so much more than those around you. You\'ve even questioned yourself as to how you could have grown into these thoughts. Am I crazy? When did I begin to think differently? Why do people in general appear so limited to this thought process? Rest assured, you are not alone. The world is slowly waking up to what you already know inside yet can\'t quite verbalize. Welcome to the spiritual dough podcast, the show that answers the questions you never even knew to ask, but knew the answers to questions about you this world the people in it? Most importantly, how do I proceed? Now moving forward? We don\'t even have all the answers, but we sure do love living in the question. Time for another shade of spiritual dub with your host, Brandon Handley. Let\'s get right into today\'s episode.

Brandon Handley 0:42
One, there\'s spiritual stuff. We this is the first podcast I\'ve recorded in the New Year. Welcome. I\'m not sure when it\'s gonna be out there. But David and I have been trying to connect here for a bit now had to push off a little bit in December. But I\'ve got David Florence, who I found through YouTubing and looking for 20 minute breathwork sessions, because that\'s all I wanted. That\'s all I could really tolerate in my daily day, day to day. Turns out David, you know, had some great sessions. I listened to him today, like, so it\'s been like six months, David, I\'ve been listening to your stuff. So thank you for putting it out there. And he\'s also a Soma breath practitioner Wim Hof breath practitioner. Evolution of Dave is is your YouTube channel. And you know, you\'ve got some really great content that\'s so helpful, practical, applicable to us in our current state of the world. So thanks for being on David. Hey, there\'s spiritual dope. Today, we change the format here just a little bit. Dave, and I got done with our conversation and some other stuff came up. And I was like, You know what, this, let\'s just go ahead and put this in the beginning. So it really gives you an introduction of who Dave was. Before he is who he is today, super pertinent to the listener, super pertinent to me, him the journey. And to anyone in this space, take a listen, weave it in, and then we\'ll jump into the regular beginnings. Right, you\'re saying Did you drink where you were pretty heavy drinker before doing all this stuff? And that world upside down? Vaca Dave? So you found so let me let me just I want to read this in there somewhere. So vaca Dave, and again, it\'s the similarities are so striking. And because when we say I used to live in a really nice neighborhood, and we owe them a nice neighborhood now, but like where I used to live, you know, nice community, we all hung out with each other all the time, we all drank and partied with each other all the time. And I used to make my own beer and my own wine, whatever. And nine times out of 10, you would see me with a beer in my hand. Right? It didn\'t really matter what kind of time it was or whatever. And it was. I had a water in my hand one morning, Saturday morning, neighbors like, what are you doing? Are you drinking water? I was like, Yeah, drink of water. And I was like that that was a point for me where I was like, I don\'t want to be known as the dad that\'s drinking beer all the time. Yes. You know. Right, as like, that\'s not that\'s not not what I\'m about, like, so what needs to change here again. So, again, so let\'s just, I want to rewind a little bit there. So tell me a little bit date about bought vaca? Dave?

Dave Florence 3:40
Hmm, what could Dave if I talk about him in the third person? Because that\'s how people would talk about actually so especially when I was living in London, people would, let\'s say there was a party, or some kind of event people would come up to me and say is vodka Dave coming? I go, Yeah, of course. And this is this is the thing, you know, I think people considered me boring unless I wasn\'t. So unless I was vodka, Dave. And I had attached that appreciation to my own psychology to a point where if it was a party or some kind of event, I could only be vodka, Dave because that was the mask that I needed in order to feel comfortable. Now luckily by today was a very fun character. He was always happy never got into any negative trouble only positive trouble. So you know,

Brandon Handley 4:44
there is a certain describe positive trouble to me, Dave.

Dave Florence 4:47
Well, there is a certain posh club in London that did have a very large chandelier hanging And they probably have a replacement chandelier. But at one point I was swinging from it. So it definitely was not at what you wouldn\'t do that anywhere anyway, let\'s face it, but yeah, that was my do. Yes. Yes. Yes. So yeah, I think cycle.

Brandon Handley 5:25
Do you know the bank that I had? Was this a vaca? Dave incident?

Dave Florence 5:31
Yes, I think it was if I know it was, but I don\'t know how it happened. I don\'t know if I was beaten up. I don\'t know if I fell down some steps. I have no idea. And if that five hours the night are totally lost to me. I don\'t know what happened during that period.

Brandon Handley 5:47
Yeah, well, it again, just goes to show I think how you know, you hit on spirituality, you hit on like, you know, who we are now. Right? You and I, who we are now isn\'t who we\'ve always been. There is a pathway there that not everybody wants to take. Right? You don\'t have to take you know, Baca days route, you don\'t have to take, you know, you know, Brandon, you know, drinking beer all the time route. There\'s a path to to this space without having to go there. But a lot of times we\'ve been that person, we\'ve gone through that space. And we come out we\'re like, and we\'re here now. Yes, we\'re very evangelical about breath, work, exercise, read, learn all you can ah, but at one point, we were gargling, you know, in the morning with Vaca, or Jim Beam or something else. And so I put that out there. Because if vaca Dave can do it, if I can do it. And I\'m not saying you have to go out and stop drinking or stop from continuing doing what you\'re doing. But just know that that\'s not the end product. Right? That? Yeah, that\'s right.

Dave Florence 7:05
I know. And also, I think, you know, there\'s a reason why you\'re doing it, you\'re doing it because you\'re unhappy with who you are. You\'re not You\'re not you haven\'t accepted who you are, and you\'re willing to present who you are to other people, there\'s something that needs fixing. So if you can be a drunk, and be totally happy with who you are, then maybe that\'s your journey, maybe that\'s your path. Most of the time we do this, because we don\'t want to be the other person. Because the other person is either too boring, or maybe hasn\'t got anything to say isn\'t fun. So yeah, that\'s all it really, isn\'t it? I think it just comes down to who do I want to be? And am I happy with this person? Do I know who this person is? Because that\'s what the work does. That\'s what the pressure. Thank you. I appreciate being here. I\'m very grateful. Thank you. And thanks for your kind words.

Brandon Handley 7:56
For sure, and the other the other piece I\'ll share with everybody before we get on David also has a Scott, a space on Facebook\'s got a 90 day YouTube challenge that I took and went through 90 days, I think that they\'ve suggested that they be consecutive mine, we\'re not all the same. It was a great space and a great experience to be in there with Dave, as he, you know, encouraged me and many others along through the 90 Day Challenge. So David, I\'d also like to thank you for that while we\'re here.

Dave Florence 8:29
No problem. It\'s an interesting experience, isn\'t it? So for those listening? Yeah, it\'s I think it\'s actually good for anybody to do the whole idea, the premise of it was to see if we can get more people interested in putting their work out there breath work out on YouTube. But when you think about the practice itself, of committing to uploading and creating, or going live in a video every day for 90 days, the commitment itself is the crucial bit that has a knock on effect with your psychology in that you, you start to develop the real authentic, you\'re in front of the camera. And this is what I learned when I did the same exercise that went in front of a camera I think we all have a tendency of wearing the mask, you know, the actors masks the presenters mask. And by committing to doing this video every day, you eventually become the real authentic genuine you. But I think also what people\'s some people find with doing this. This exercise is yes, they start to hopefully create ideas for their content. But sometimes also people start to get a better understanding of themselves. Because once you get to a point where you no longer care, what you say, and what you look like. Often then The spilling out in this stream of consciousness flow of rambling chit chat is that you start to reveal to yourself some of the inner work, you know, you start rambling away and then it veers off in in a direction because you don\'t care anymore. You\'re not thinking about the listener and whether they find you interesting you do, you\'re just flowing with it. And so I think that\'s great. If you are creating a YouTube channel, but it\'s great, I think, from a psychological perspective as well, I think it can be, you know, a sort of a healing tool, if you want it to be.

Brandon Handley 10:37
Sure, sure. And I love it. Everything that you\'re saying there resonates with me, I think one of the things that I think of when you\'re saying that is Bob Proctor has rip Bob Proctor. I\'m not sure if you\'re familiar with him. But um, you know, he had this exercise, that he would say, hey, the, the problems that I have right now, I like to get them all out of my head and onto this piece of paper. Right? And so he would say, all right, are all my problems in my head? Or are they on this piece of paper? And he would, he would do this exercise until all of his problems are on like this piece of paper he gotten everything kind of dumped out in there. And and I think that I think that\'s that\'s really similar process with this, right? Like, here\'s, here\'s how I want to communicate, here\'s what I want to say. You\'ve been on you. Listen to me ramble plenty of times people on this podcast have listened to me ramble plenty of times, you\'ve got

Dave Florence 11:27
beautiful rambling.

Brandon Handley 11:31
I appreciate it. I appreciate it. But you find that like, there\'s this other tangent, like, Oh, but wait, there\'s just one more piece that will help make this whole. And similar to kind of what you\'re saying there. Right? You, you get this opportunity to to let things out that have been contained for so long. And you\'re like, wow, hold on a second. Not only that sounds good. Wait, did they hear what I got to say next, right, or, here\'s, here\'s who I actually am. And it\'s all it\'s all unfolding right here. So again, appreciate you creating that space and making that a possibility had had a blast. I literally just finished it at the end of the new year, as promised. So, David, let\'s just jump into it a little bit, right. You\'ve got a breathwork practice. You\'ve been doing it for quite some time. I\'ve got a breathwork practice. I\'m fairly new to it. You\'ve got some stories I\'d love to dig into. Let me just ask you. Where did you first find breathwork for yourself? And you know, what made it something that you wanted to know more about? Hmm.

Dave Florence 12:35
So I had a dramatic entrance into the breathwork world. In the in 2017, I had a bang to the head. It was quite literally a bang, you know, literal Bang to the head. During a drunken night out, I lost about five hours in the night I was found by the side of the road taken hospital. It wasn\'t that bad, but it was enough of a bang. The next day, I wanted to do something to optimize my mind and my body. I had this, this thought of hang on a minute. I\'m a father of a young child, I\'m a husband, this is not how one acts, you know, and it was I was berating myself and I you know if I often say to people, you know, if I was a Catholic back in the, you know, in the Middle Ages, I would be there with my flail whipping myself, you know, it was that kind of psychology I wanted. And luckily at the time, although he wasn\'t that popular at the time, Wim Hof was putting out videos on cold therapy, and I thought, that\'s what I need. It was December it was minus 10 outside. So I went in the garden, grabbed the garden hose, poured cold water over me, was naked as well. And that\'s exactly what I needed. And I\'m sure my neighbors did do for amusement. So, along with the cold therapy, obviously with the Wim Hof Method, they do promote breathwork and that\'s when I got into it. So late 2017 After two months of doing the Wim Hof Method breathwork I was hooked. So hooked, I was going through the highs that you all go through when you start doing this practice with commitment and discipline. And I was screaming from the rooftops I was telling all my friends about it. None of them would listen, obviously, I was being very evangelical. And that\'s when I created my YouTube channel because I wanted to tell people I was you know, I was in such a great state. I think everybody should do this is amazing. So that\'s when I created evolution of Dave because I saw this as being a catalyst to change. You know, I saw this as being this is me putting a stake in the ground. And I\'m now going to optimize my mind and my body. Initially it was with breathwork and then a whole load of practices after that, but that was really my entrance into breathwork you know, this thing that I\'m now able to look back and think that happened for a reason. You know, that was one of life\'s messages I needed that in order to be this. So I\'m grateful for it now.

Brandon Handley 15:06
I get it real similar kind of line in the sand I guess, in terms of enemas timeline of stepping into these practices myself similar, I did not fall down with a bang that ahead, but I drank enough. And I was like, Is this really? Is this really who I want my children to see? Is this really the like, I\'ve got two boys I was like, and if they are going to use me as their model, that is just a model that I should have in front of them. And it was it was really around 2017 It\'s funny. But I said, you know, what? Time, you know, how can I? What changes do I want to make so that I can be a better model? If not, you know, I\'m not the best. Right? But how can I be a better model offer for my children? And that was a starting point for me. So let\'s talk about the highs that you mentioned. What do you mean by that? Like, you know, the highs from breathwork? Or some of the other stuff?

Dave Florence 16:11
Yeah, so akin to the kind of highs I would have experienced when I was a raver back in the day, you know, we\'re talking early 90s. You know, I would, I would do all the things without putting it into words, I would do all the things that you did when you would spend 20 hours dancing.

Brandon Handley 16:37
I\'m super familiar.

Dave Florence 16:40
There\'s a lot of us out there. And so whilst they weren\'t necessarily the same intensity, some of the highs that I was getting, were this very elated feeling. Sort of, you know, when I was saying, you know, shouting from the rooftops, that\'s what I felt like doing, you know, I wanted to get outside the front of the house and go, everybody, you should do this amazing, you know, I was in that state, I didn\'t care what percent. But also, obviously, when I\'ve started to push the rounds into four or five round territory by then I was doing so my breath, which I preferred, because I, you know, it was the music, the isochronic tones that enhance that experience. And I love the music because of course, that still took me back to the days of raving as well. Not that it\'s all like that, but you know what I mean? Some of it is with a very specific rhythm. And when you start doing the four or five rounds, you do then get these out of altered state experiences. So, you know, as you describe it like a high that that is quite a good descriptive, I suppose to that experience. You know, you\'re left afterwards going okay, yeah, you know, you\'re in a beautiful floaty state, you\'ve had some visions, or at least visuals, albeit light, you know, during the sort of fourth and fifth round maybe. And you\'ve you come out of it almost as if you\'ve just been given some insight sometimes as well. Not always. But you know, sometimes you think Ah, okay, yeah, I figured something out, I think. So.

Brandon Handley 18:20
You\'ve got you\'ve got you\'ve got a really nice you\'ve, I forget which one of your summer breath works that you do. But you talk about, you know, whatever is coming to you, in this moment, use this for today, what do you want this day to look like? And, you know, there are visualizations that come through, or a lot of people like to call them downloads, but these insights that they kind of come when we\'ve been so we\'ve been putting so much effort into life, right? And then when we sit down and we do these breathwork moments, or these breathwork, meditations, and then something comes to us, and it\'s so easy and effortless for like, like you said, it\'s like, why isn\'t everybody doing this? Why aren\'t we all talking about it? I share this breathwork with a group of guys at a sober house. i One of the things I talk to them about is say, say well imagine, you know, like you talked about going to the party doing the rave all night dance for 2020 hours or whatever. Imagine you kind of get a super similar feeling to that. But then you can get back up and go back to work. Right? Yeah. For four to eight hours, right? Like, you know, so. So I always make that joke with those guys. And like you said, these altered states of experiences. When we talk about that, and you and I\'ve been in this rave scene, I always liken it to like, yeah, it\'s an altered state, but some was better, right? Because it\'s hyper clean. We just created it within ourselves. We are Chemical

Dave Florence 20:00
factory unit pharmacy. Yeah.

Brandon Handley 20:04
Yeah. And so being able to be able to do that and kind of come out of it. It\'s amazing. I love being able to do it, when the How are you using this to, you know, optimize your own life? What are some of the what are some of the benefits that you\'ve received after you found it?

Dave Florence 20:22
Well, interestingly, I would say three months in, of doing this kind of intense breath work every day, I realized I was beginning to develop this insatiable appetite for learning. And also, it felt like my memory had improved. At the time, I thought that was something to do with the bank to the head, you know, I genuinely thought I\'ve had one of those, I think they call them the sort of idiot several moments where, you know, you have a bang to the head, and all of a sudden, you become this incredible artists. So I was thinking, Oh, maybe that\'s what\'s happened, something\'s been knocked in my right hemisphere. You know, the creative bit. But then after obviously doing more research, and that\'s what my journey has been about since 2017. It\'s you know, it\'s it\'s learning practices research, playing with it, that\'s crucial, from my perspective, is what I teach others, you know, it\'s really play with this stuff, explore experiment, and then you won\'t ever give up. And what I was discovering was that I was, not only did I have this insatiable appetite for learning, so I was, you know, getting book after book, but I had a capacity for remembering it as well. And this was never, I hadn\'t experienced this before. And then when I looked at the research, that there\'s various bits of research that indicate that things like spatial memory improves through doing this kind of breathwork. So I realized, okay, right, so it\'s down to the breath work. And that\'s why the breath work has been as just run like a clean vein, day after day for the last five and a bit years. Because I\'ve always known the power of it. And then obviously, when you start exploring lots of other forms of breathwork, you realize that you can get a breath work for creating energy, you can use breath work for preparing your mind for a presentation, you can use breath work to calm the nervous system, you know, there\'s a whole load of different practices that you can learn that a really good for different kinds of situations. So not only did I get that sort of cognitive benefit, but then I realized I could add these into my, my imaginary toolbox. So I\'ve got this box of tricks that I can actually return to, under given situations. But all of that, I have to say, when I\'m teaching people on a one to one, quite often, what I\'m saying to them is, it\'s all very well me teaching you this stuff. But you\'ve got to retain it, you\'ve got to remember it. And I think the problem that we find now in today\'s society is that we are awash with potential practices and ideas and methods that could optimize us that could heal us. And we pick up a book and we read it, we go, wow, that was amazing. I\'m going to use that technique. And we do so for a month, and then we forget it because we\'ve picked up another one. And we see the next shiny object. The crucial thing is when you realize and recognize that breathwork is so powerful, you got to say to yourself, right? How do I therefore make that a part of who I am? So not that I see it like a chore. In other words, I should do this, I must do this, you know that kind of psychology before then doing the breath work, you\'ve got to figure out how do I make this a part of who I am, and how I flow through life. And that\'s what I realized early on that I\'ve got to find ways of making this stuff stick. Because I want to keep this the intention was this is now me, and this is how I flow and move through life with these techniques. So I think a lot of people listening will have tried breathwork. But I would imagine there\'ll be lots that have probably stopped. And this this conversation will go Oh, yeah, I forgot I was doing that.

Brandon Handley 24:09
Oh, sure. Sure. And I love what you\'re saying there too, right? We, you get to the certain point. I never, I never got to a point myself where my memory got suit a lot better. But I got to this point where people are breathwork is this insatiable desire to like learn and pull in. Pull in an amazing amount of content, right? And then one shiny object to another Oh, this will make me amazing. I\'ll go do this. This will make me amazing. I\'ll go do that. This is an you know. So that is a real challenge. How were you know, how have you been able to implement it like you\'re saying as a part of who you are integrated into the whole of who you are, and maintain it, like stick with it?

Dave Florence 24:53
Yeah. So apologies for dying in the background. Now. I\'ve got I\'ve got your room. I\'ve got a little tickle on my throat earlier today. So I decided to make myself a warm drink with honey, organic thyme, and lemon. But the cup is full of thyme seeds, and I think they went away. So anyway, they\'ll save you or kill you. Exactly, exactly. So how do I make this stick? Well, let me tell you what I teach others. First of all, it is this whole, looking at the intention behind it asking yourself, Why am I doing this? You know, am I doing it because it\'s the latest fad Am I doing it because somebody else has suggested it, am I doing it because all I just tried that experience has given me a really good high. Because if those are the reasons, you\'ve got to look at your intention behind it, that you hear so many stories of people doing the Wim Hof Method or Soma breath three months in, they give up because their neurochemical changes have altered, their body has adapted, and they\'re not getting the same highs as they were before. And so therefore they give up. And of course, that tells me that their only reason for doing it was because of the highs because of these amazing feelings, when really you should look at the intention deeper. And look at the spiritual benefits the inner work that you can get from doing this practice. So when you that will be tip number one, look at breathwork as a means of developing a better understanding of yourself of knowing that these practices will have a huge physiological benefit, you know, improving your immunity, improving your circulatory system, improving your your ability to sense others and sense things. Your ability to to tap into a meditative state without meditating. You know, there\'s, there\'s so many benefits. So you need to tune into that and understand those. So that when you\'re doing it, you know that this any at no point? Does it feel like a chore? You know? Because again, if you start to say these words to yourself, have you\'ve just woken up, I should do this, I ought to do this. Well, that\'s the wrong terminology. That\'s the wrong language. And that will lead you to giving up because already, you said yourself. I\'m doing this for other reasons, not because it resonates not because it feels good. And then the other thing is

Brandon Handley 27:31
my wake up. I wake up in the morning, and I find myself saying, oh, I should do this, I should do that. What should I be saying myself instead?

Dave Florence 27:41
Well, this is where you need to, first of all understand why you\'re doing it. So understand the intention. And this is this is the thing you need to look at, first of all, because that\'s the key to have the language that you use. So

Brandon Handley 28:02
what like what would be an example, then it\'s I guess, if my intention for the breath work is to become better in sports? What language would I use? And

Dave Florence 28:13
yeah, so Well, let me tell you the language that I use. So when I wake up in the morning, I say to myself, I intend to move, breathe, flow through this day, using all the tools that I have that make me feel good or something along those lines, you know. So I know instinctively through the practice, that there are many benefits to why I do the breathwork physiological and psychological. So therefore, I at no point do I say I should do this, I ought to do it. Because I\'ve got to a point now where my body and mind has accepted this practice. So it\'s, you don\'t even have to use the word breathwork. When you look at your intention setting in the morning, you know, I intend to flow through this day making use of all the practices I know that will enable me to do so you know, when you look at it from that external perspective of wanting to flow, reaching flow states or wanting to flow through the day, then you already know if you\'ve been practicing it that breathwork will be one of those tools. So we\'ll exercise so we\'ll movement flow, so we\'ll ritual so we\'ll, you know, a whole load of other things. You don\'t need to label them all. You just need to say to yourself, I intend to flow through this day, knowing that by the end of it, I can end the day with a smile on my face knowing that I\'ve achieved knowing that I\'ve done the things I want to do. So you know, don\'t be specific about it because your body knows. If you\'ve already connected and resonated with the breath work, then you know that that is who you are. That\'s what you do. You don\'t think before the action that is that is just who you are. So for example, when I roll

Brandon Handley 29:53
out of bed

Dave Florence 29:55
I roll onto the floor and I do a very easy flowing fight. Have Tibetan rites yoga routine, it\'s the simplest of all yoga, easy to do, and it wakes the whole body up, there\'s no significant stretches for you don\'t want to stretch too hard in the morning when you wake up anyway. And then because you breathe through that exercise that really leads me then into the breathwork. You know, at the end of the last Tibetan rites, I\'m on my back, I\'ve been breathing through every move. So I then seamlessly move from that yoga into starting off with a four, eight breathing pattern, sometimes listening to music, sometimes I don\'t know, just do it, you know, without any kind of influence or stimuli, I just do it. Before I then move into the cold shower and do all the other lovely things that I do.

Brandon Handley 30:49
Now. I like that. So you\'ve got you\'ve got a basically a mantra, you wake up an intention setting for the day, that is all inclusive of like, if you say, Hey, I intend to move and breathe and flow through the day, you\'ve already created that your mind already says, hey, that\'s attached to breathwork that\'s attached to the shower that\'s attached to the yoga. And if he sees himself, you know, doing this other line, right, I intend to breathe flow. And you see yourself ending that day, that way, you\'ve created the visualization, that system mind already in action first thing of the day.

Dave Florence 31:29
Exactly. So I also used initially another hat, another tool called habit stacking, I don\'t know if you\'ve come across that.

Brandon Handley 31:39
That\'s the beginning of my journey as well. It\'s kind of it\'s very funny. That was the very beginning, trying to think of the article, because I still remember the article doesn\'t exist anymore. But the article talks about habit stacking. And that\'s when I hadn\'t read books and like, decades, right? Like, well, if you just read like 20 pages a day, you know, get the hat, you know, and do this and do that ain\'t do this habit stacking. I\'ll let you share a little bit more about what it is. But that was that was became my journey. Have a second share more about that. David? I haven\'t shared it too much on this podcast at all.

Dave Florence 32:16
Yeah, I mean, it\'s the simplest of tools, but probably one of the most powerful for getting you to do the stuff you really want to do. So all it does is taps into a mind state in which you are in a state of acceptance. In doing that one task that you\'re doing at the time, and really what you\'re doing is you are hack hacking the mind, you might say. So let\'s say everybody has at least one thing they do every day without fail that they know will serve them from a health perspective. Let\'s say brushing your teeth, for example, everybody does it. And when they do it, they don\'t think before they do it, they don\'t think oh, I\'ve got to brush my teeth. I mean, they might do when they\'re a child, and they might need prodding, but when they\'re a child, or when they\'re an adult, you just do it, don\'t you? You don\'t think before you do it, you don\'t think whilst you\'re doing it, your body and mind have totally accepted that that is a good thing to do. Because it\'s healthy, it\'s good for your oral health, etc, etc. So all you do is when you\'re brushing your teeth, bearing in mind that at that point, your mind is in this wonderful state of acceptance. Oh, yeah, I\'m just doing it doesn\'t you\'re not even thinking about it. So all you do whilst you\'re brushing your teeth is you say, After I brush my teeth, I will dot dot dot whatever this thing is that you want to build into your life that you know, would be good for you. That would be healthy. So let\'s say for example, it might be a cold shower, it could be breathwork, depending on when you brush your teeth. And so you are making use of the brain state of this acceptance brain state. And you\'re being aware you\'re tricking it because you\'re, you\'re you\'re saying to yourself, oh, well, whilst I\'m at it, I might as well do this. You know, you\'re obviously in the right state at the moment, I won\'t tell you that I\'m trying to trick you in any way. But once you\'re in that state, well, let\'s just slip a cold shower in afterwards, or let\'s do some breath work. So it\'s almost like the brain is going yeah, cool, man, you know, whatever you say, because I\'m in the state of acceptance. And then you do that a few times. And that seems dialed in. Your brain doesn\'t then question it after a while. So and then of course, it\'s called habit stacking because what you then do is you go okay, let me see if I can slip another one in after this. And so you say after I brush my teeth, and after I\'ve had my cold shower, I will dot dot dot and you add the next thing that you want to build into your life. So simple. Yeah,

Brandon Handley 34:52
I think I think that what did we add in like we weren\'t my wife and I weren\'t great at making the bed. Right? I added that and and of course, you know, the admiral, whatever his name is to make your bed story. You know, I was like, Well, if I make my bed, like one of the easiest things I can do in the day, that\'s a win. Like, if I just start my day by winning like that, come on now. Right? So it became a game, it became part of the habit stack. So I love that. Love that you\'re using that now. You were able to, throughout your practices throughout all the benefits as you\'re optimizing yourself and your learning and your habit stacking. I don\'t know exactly how you came across it, but I did hear that you were able to, and I\'ve read plenty of it, who taiko method and others to cure your asthma. Can you share a little bit about, you know, kind of how that worked out?

Dave Florence 35:53
Yeah, it was, it was really cool, actually. Because when I was a child, I had a little bit of it, I definitely had a lot of things like hay fever. I became very allergic to horses, so I had to stop riding horses. And then it kind of dissipated. And I was fine as an adult until I moved to a town or city rather called bath, which is it sits in a bowl, it\'s surrounded by hills. And it collects all this dirty air. And whilst out running, I began to develop this exercise induced asthma. And it was getting worse and worse. And then I was given the medication and told that you know, I\'m going to have to continue using that for life etc, etc. With the breath work wet, the more I delved into the breath work. One of the the books that I read early on was called the oxygen advantage by Patrick McEwan. There\'s loads of good breathwork books out there now. And that is an amazing book, but it\'s a bit dry. For a beginner, you know, you want to read breath by James Nestor, because that\'s such an easy flowing read. Patrick McCune book is full of information. And in that book, he touched on boot taiko and the boot Aiko method. A Russian that had created this method of which one of its benefits is to heal or cure asthma. Now, what\'s wonderful in this country, and I say this with an element of sarcasm is that most GPS general practitioners, medical doctors, really still are relying on pharmaceuticals to aid anybody\'s health. And they don\'t really understand or want to understand anything that might be alternative. So through the use, and I don\'t know how many months it took me three or four months. Through the use of big taiko a lot of the and also the Wim Hof Method, I think is part reason for healing myself. The reason why those types of breath work work for asthma is all to do with breath holds. And it\'s all to do with gaining a tolerance to carbon dioxide. Which by the way, is interesting because if you develop a tolerance for higher levels of carbon dioxide that correlates with your tolerance to deal with high levels of stress. So you know, you learn you learn breathwork develop a tolerance to higher levels of carbon dioxide in the body. And you will hopefully find that you are better able to deal with stress. But anyway, the when you do certain breath work, not only are you playing with oxygen and carbon dioxide, but also nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, sorry, nitric oxide, not nitrous is not the stuff that makes you high nitric oxide, which also has this vasodilatory effect opens up the blood vessels again, making it easier for you to breathe. So these breathwork practices eventually optimize my my ability to breathe. And when I went back to the doctor and I said, Look, I don\'t think I need this medication anymore. And she said this is silly. And she\'s okay. Well, we\'ll run some tests. She said Mr. Florence, you\'re right. I don\'t know how you\'ve done it. But you\'re right. You don\'t need this medication unless it can you give me a letter that says that. You did. And obviously I proudly then presented this letter.

Brandon Handley 39:39
You\'re certified healthy. What is talk a little bit about what the blue taiko method is if somebody\'s not familiar with it. Like what what does that practice look like?

Dave Florence 39:53
Yeah, so a lot of it is to do with breath hold as I say. You\'ve got various different practices. such as walking and holding your nose. There\'s just various methods of holding your breath whilst either moving. There\'s also various different techniques where, in fact, they teach this with Soma breath as well, where

you are deliberately clenching your nose and moving your head around. So it\'s overall, it\'s all about increasing your awareness of your breath, but also improving your ability to ventilate. And be I suppose that\'s probably the I mean boutique would probably give you a much better description, but I suppose that\'s the right way of describing it.

Brandon Handley 41:01
For sure, for sure. Thanks for Thanks for sharing that. Because it\'s interesting, like you said, you get so excited about everything that can be done with the breath work, do you like Oh, tell me what your problems are. And we can probably cure that with breath work, we can probably get you started down the right path with some Have you tried breathwork have you. So when you get down and you get get down to it, there\'s not a lot of our everyday maladies that can\'t be improved in some way or another, by the way that we breathe.

Dave Florence 41:38
Yeah, especially because you\'ve got inhale, breath holds, and you\'ve got exhale, breath holds. And one of the things that bootmaker breathing does is makes use of the exhale breath hold. It\'s not quite as intense as say, the Wim Hof Method or so McGrath, where you\'re doing lots of hyperventilating first, with the bootmaker method, for example. You just simply breathe normally three or four times, and then you do a relaxed exhale, and then you hold your breath. And the key to it is when you get that first urge to breathe, you then inhale through your nose. If at that first surge, you breathe through the nose, and you find it really difficult, and you have to breathe through the mouth, then you\'ve helped you\'ve held your breath for too longer. So you\'ve held your breath for too long rather. So we\'ve taken the actual method itself is quite simple. But like I said, it is all to do with breath holds. And you\'re right. It\'s interesting how you can just through the process of holding your breath, either on an inhale breath hold or an exhale, breath hold or deliberately hyperventilating, which for a lot of people sounds like it\'s counterintuitive, counterproductive, but actually, that can super enhance the benefits of breathwork. And you start to experience and play with levels of hypoxia reducing the oxygen in your body for brief, brief periods. And in fact, a friend of mine who I\'ve gotten to know have not met in the real world only online. A lovely lady, I\'ve appeared on her channel a couple of times called AJ, she\'s doing some research at the moment, where the breathwork the you and I know and that is Wim Hof Soma breath where you are effectively causing or deliberately experiencing hypoxic or hypoxic environment. She\'s doing some research to see whether the results of that could be the equivalent to doing high altitude training. So you know, most athletes will do high altitude training, as we know what what she\'s trying to ascertain is do they need to do that? Could they achieve the same results through learning? Hypoxia based breathwork?

Brandon Handley 43:48
Yeah. What are your thoughts? What have you found so far?

Dave Florence 43:52
I would say yes, I My opinion is I think she will probably discover as I think she believes already anyway, that the you can achieve the same results. Because really, when you think about it, high altitude training, you\'re working in a low oxygen environment. When you\'re practicing intermittent hypoxia, you are doing exactly the same thing. So I suspect the results will be similar.

Brandon Handley 44:20
Nice, nice. So I mean, look, that\'d be great if you don\'t have to climb a mountain that kind of training. Yeah, well, that can be which is always cool, right? Yeah, absolutely. I\'m not saying you don\'t want to but you know, maybe you don\'t have the time today to go do that. So you also offer you know, corporate wellness with breath work. And you know, one on ones. What\'s, what\'s the reception been like for the corporate wellness breathwork and how are you going about approaching people and sharing it to offer use in that space?

Dave Florence 44:53
Yeah, so two ways either going out there and banging on doors, which I don\'t like doing but you Do you have to do that, don\'t you? Or I\'ve made use of other well being businesses to get me in the door. And in terms of the response breathwork has now reached a point where most people have heard of it. They don\'t all know what it is no, have they tried it, but most people have heard of it. And they\'re beginning to hear about some of the benefits. And when you think about the corporate space, both in your country and mine, it is bereft with high stress, anxiety. People are worried about their jobs, whether they\'re going to lose their jobs, people are worried about overworking people are experiencing burnout. I think right now, most people are open to anything that will ease the pressure of their job, and their work experience. So I had a really interesting corporate workshop not too long ago with Exxon, Exxon Mobil, and a whole load of these techies, who were lovely folk. But before the workshop, I had been told that I really need to be on my game. Because these people are going to want scientific evidence, they\'re going to, you know, for every bit of woowoo, fluffy stuff that I\'m going to teach them, they\'ll, they\'re going to question it. So on the car journey, which took me two hours to get there, I deliberately armed, so I thought for two hours, inhale, or long exhale on sounds just did that the whole journey. By the time I got there, I was floating on air. And I knew nothing could have taken me out of that state. The good thing was, these people were nothing like that was described to me, they were totally open, and already a bit do some of these practices anywhere is amazing. And they were all from different parts of the world as well, they\'d all been brought into this one group to experience this two hour workshop. So I was having them, you know, I was teaching them other stuff. And I\'d teach flow, state practice, clinical hypnotherapeutic, Positive Intelligence, a whole lot of different things. And, but by the end of it, I was having them moving doing something called the Zen swing, I was having them on the floor breathing, even doing arm sounds, you know, they were doing the whole works. And they were totally open to it, and loved it. So yeah, I think the corporate space needs us, they need us to come in there. It shouldn\'t be too much of a sell job to get us in there. And maybe we need to just do more promotional work via YouTube, in podcasts to help get the message out there so that we don\'t need to bang down doors.

Brandon Handley 47:48
Not for sure I get it. And that\'s great. It\'s great that you\'re getting that kind of response, it\'s good that you\'re reaching out and sharing that work. And in that space. Where can somebody find out more information about your like kind of one on one work, and if they were interested, and your corporate information work, and they work together, they get that

Dave Florence 48:11
all on my website, Dave florence.com. So da ve florence.com. If you want to get a feel for the stuff that I do, then check out my YouTube channel. And you\'re going to see lots of me on there talking about a whole load of different stuff, but you\'ll get a feel for the stuff that I teach. But yeah, my website, Dave, Florence has everything you need. My 10 Day Program, which starts on the 23rd of January is in there. You can book one to one sessions with me, you can book my corporate stuff as well, all on that one website.

Brandon Handley 48:47
We\'ll do as I said at the beginning here, I love the YouTube content that you\'ve put out there, I use it myself all the time. Great that we\'re wouldn\'t lose. I had to laugh when when I saw that you were in some of the Facebook groups. I was like it was frickin Dave is here. I was like, This is awesome. This is it was it was amazing. It was pretty exciting. So that\'s just kind of I think how the space works as well, like you find somebody that you can relate to. You\'re very relatable you give very professional, but I think approachable. And I appreciate the work that you\'ve been putting out there. Thank you for showing up today, Dave.

Dave Florence 49:26
Well, thank you. Like I said at the beginning, I\'m very grateful. I really appreciate it. I love the stuff you\'re putting out there too. So we are connected. I

Intro Guy 49:36
really hope you enjoyed this episode of the spiritual dove podcast. Stay connected with us directly through spiritual dove.co. You can also join the discussion on Facebook spiritual though, and Instagram at spiritual underscore dope. If you would like to speak with us, send us an email there Brandon at spiritual dough.co And as always, thank you for cultivating your mindset and creating a better reality. This includes the most thought provoking part of your day. Don\'t forget to like and subscribe to stay fully up to date until next time be kind to yourself and trust your intuition

Transcribed by https://otter.ai