Become Superconscious with Monika Reimann and Stephen Renton

In this Episode

• [00:09]Stephan introduces today’s guests, Monika Reimann & Stephen Renton, co-founders of The Peak Flow Academy, which teaches high-performance business leaders and entrepreneurs how to use non-ordinary states of consciousness and take their business, health and personal life to new levels quickly.
• [02:17]Monika explains conscious breathing and its difference from breathwork.
• [04:26]Stephan wants to know about Pranayama and how Kundalini energy relates to yoga and Pranayama.
• [08:13]Stephen shares his experience, which made him decide that this is something to focus on and take to the world.
• [11:03]Stephan asks Stephen and Monika about the downloads they received for themselves.
• [20:35]Monika and Stephen communicate that their modality is also an immune-boosting type.
• [24:00]Stephan and Monika tell the benefits of being in an alpha brainwave state.
• [26:19]Monika and Stephen talk more about theta, where we go more into the healing frequencies.
• [30:57]Stephan asks about the concept of peak flow and its difference in the flow state.
• [32:09]After having sessions with Monika, Stephen shares what happened to his fear of death to address it.
• [37:53]Stephan asks about their thoughts about tapping into super-consciousness and also asks for some examples of dealing with anxiety, paranoia, or just debilitating mental illnesses and how their modality impacts those.
• [42:27]Stephen, Monika and Stephan discuss PTSD and books about trauma release.
• [49:45]Visit peakflow.life to talk with Stephen and Monica about the course they offer.

Jump to Links and Resources

Monika and Stephen, it’s great to have you on the show.

MR: Hi, nice to be here.

SR: Hi, Stephan.

All right. Well, let’s start by asking if you could share what conscious breathing is and how does it differ from breathwork?

Breathwork is part of conscious breathing.

MR: Well, conscious breathing is what we do if we are aware of how we breathe and if we can alter it. If we breathe normally during the day, we’re mostly not conscious of it. It is an automated function in our body. It is actually the only function that we can have running in the background and that we can also consciously alter. So that gives us access to all the other functions in the body.

Right, but then what is breathwork? Is that part of conscious breathing or is that a completely separate modality?

MR: Breathwork is part of conscious breathing. There are different ways of how you can do conscious breathing, how you can facilitate breathwork, or how it is facilitated. There are various brands, various groups, and various ways of how to utilize that capacity of conscious breathing, and it actually started with Pranayama.
Pranayama is very distinct from breathwork, as it is practiced today. Pranayama is something where you control your breath, where you really learn the distinct functions of the inhale, the exhale, and the pauses. It is practiced over the years. It really goes into the very fine detail of how energy works. Breathwork—how it is practiced today or how we are in the west familiar with breathwork—is some way of how to let the breath maximize and then let the breath really breeze you.

It becomes energy that’s available that runs through the body and that brings up anything that hasn’t been metabolized yet. That gives people the opportunity to really heal fast to realize what is not yet integrated with yourselves. It’s a really incredible tool that allows you to do what otherwise would take years to practice.

Pranayama is very distinct from breathwork, as it is practiced today.

Pranayama is part of yoga or is it distinct or different from yoga?

MR: Yeah, Pranayama is part of yoga where yoga normally in the West is referred to as the physical practice, but yoga means body, mind, and spirit united and the union of it. Pranayama is just one branch, it’s what relates to the breath. Prana is the life force and Yama is learning how to balance that lifeforce or how to direct it.

How come if you go to a yoga class, let’s say it’s hot yoga, you don’t hear about Pranayama? You just do these different yoga poses and get really hot and sweaty. I would think that this is pretty core to yoga and should be part of the yoga classes that are normally instructed here in the West.

MR: Well, somehow it is brought into it. It’s not really brought to the awareness of the practitioner, in my opinion, but it is used because they use mostly what they call the Chi Breath or Fire Breath. When you’re really practicing yoga, you’re using the breath, you’re using the postures where you’re going inverted, you’re exhaling; when you open up, you’re inhaling. It’s in all the yoga. It’s included. It’s part of it. You do it automatically, but it’s also addressed in a good yoga class.

Okay, got it. Where does the Kundalini come in like the Kundalini energy? How does that relate to yoga and Pranayama and perhaps how yoga is taught in the West versus East.

MR: Kundalini is really something that has been kept secret over the years, and it was taught for master to disciple. It is only now in the recent years where in the West, we can read anything in a book, where it is absorbed by the mind so we’re trying to understand it. It’s really something that goes very deeply into energy itself into how we operate and how we function. 

Prana is the life force, and Yama is learning how to balance that life force.

Kundalini energy is believed to be coiled at the base of the spine. It is like a dormant potential that can rise. As we rise in awareness, that energy can be brought into awareness to really be translated into whatever we want to facilitate as co-creators. It can be used in a sexual energy as sexual energy can be used as creative energy. It operates on a different reality. 

There’s the Yin and the Yang, the positive and the negative. We have the two channels that run through the body that address that. There’s always the inhale and the exhale, so everything is dual. Once that energy starts to rise, that duality fuses, that becomes the one, the potent energy that brings that into union. Then when that rises, that allows us to basically just surpass what our linear mind can facilitate.

Got you.

SR: I think, for the record, Stephan, what I would mention is that all these modalities we’re talking about—typical yoga classes, your Kundalini, meditation, all this kind of stuff—obviously, spending so many years in Santa Monica, I’ve gone to all these places, and surely, we’ve been to a few of the same together. Yoga mostly is more physical-based direction than anything else. But having done a lot of meditation, having done a lot of Kundalini in California, I then did a session with Monika and did this particular style of breathwork.

I had an experience, my first time that was like nothing that I’ve ever experienced in years of all these other practices before, and that’s when I decided, okay, this is something to focus on and take it to the world.

Was it a kind of a spiritual experience, an awakening, or was it like a psychedelic trip? What was that like, Stephen?

Kundalini energy is believed to be coiled at the base of the spine.

SR: One of the things that is very interesting with this is every experience is different. I’m almost reticent to say to people what this experience was in case you think, oh, I want to go and do it and have that. Even when people have specific intentions or specific direction, it’s a case of they’re accessing the subconscious and your subconscious, which is operating probably nine times more capacity than your conscious mind knows what you need. It gives it to you, that surfaces, or it manifests during the sessions.

There’s this very first one with Monika. I’ve been actually doing a Wim Hof-style breath course in Ubud in Bali. It was interesting, but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for. Then I had a friend who is a Green Beret Special Forces soldier from the US, retired now. He said, “You’ve got to do a session with Monika, she’s amazing. What you’ll experience with that is like nothing you’ve ever done before. She saved my life, turning my life around.”

This is coming from a Green Beret. It’s not some amorphous woo-woo recommendation from somebody so I gave that a try. Monika scheduled a private session and my experience on that very first session, I had about 20–25 minutes of pretty much, and Monika can probably talk to this more, like an out-of-body experience. There was a cosmic bliss that I just went into the body, all colors, all love, all light, everything for 25 minutes.

Without being too crass to explain it in terms of most people would explain it or understand it, and it would be, and again that I’ve traveled and I’ve done Ayahuasca and a lot of these plant ceremonies, medicines, and things. It was probably better than any other psychedelic experience ever. The bliss factor was probably also likened it to better than any sex you’ve ever had in life.

You’re just in this conscious stream of light utter bliss for 20–25 minutes. It didn’t stop, it didn’t go away, you’re getting downloads, and I can remember Monika saying, “Okay, Stephen, it’s time to come back now.” I’m not opening my eyes, I’m staying here. That was on session one, as opposed to years of arduous trying to feel, trying to yoga, meditation, Kundalini, you’re running around in white clothing. It’s like, okay, that’s the fast track, that’s what I’m going to do.

You have almost like a voice that you can even get a download or even get information from.

What would be an example of one of the downloads that you just received?

SR: Just to put it into perspective to some other people, I know a lot of your listeners will be very familiar with the likes of Ayahuasca. I did a very intensive Ayahuasca course in Mexico a few years back with some fantastic practitioners. It’s amazing and terrifying. It kind of tears you down, rips you apart, and rebuilds you. You have almost like a voice that you can even get a download or even get information from. I would say it was almost similar to that but much more subtle and much more refined, not threatening, not scary, it’s just very fine…

I guess because you’re really just getting in touch with yourself, it’s your own subconscious that you’re getting in touch with. Nobody knows you better than yourself. What I found with this is very interesting. There’s no guru, there’s nothing else if you’re supposed to get your input from, your mind, your body wants to connect. It gives you everything you need. For me, to be honest, I guess my first download was I want to work with this stuff.

If you could teach this to kids, there would never be a drug problem in the world. Nobody would go to taking drugs if you could do this naturally. How you could solve a lot of problems if you can get kids to start doing this stuff before they get in bad neighborhoods taking on this kind of thing. It was just a case of oh my God. I was amazed at 55 experiencing out of the blue without warning for the first time.

I can say I’ve been around travel, tried most things, got adventurous, but because this was just like, wow, okay, this is something I got to figure out how to work with and bring to other people. It’s that powerful. The more that I’ve worked with Monika and the more we’ve talked about the results that she hasn’t got the people on a weekly basis. I hear about the updates weekly, but the results that people are having are just astounding. I would never have believed it if I hadn’t experienced that for myself.

Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, I’ve known you for a few years at least, Stephen. I take your recommendations seriously. For example, when you came back from Mexico and you recommended Dennis Notten to me, an Ayahuasca expert to be on this podcast, I had him on. That was a few years ago now, three years ago.

Also, Anne Marie Pizarro, you recommended to me and I had amazing Akashic Records sessions with her, and so has Orion, my wife, and I’ve had her on my podcast as well. It’s great that we can have Monika on to talk about this powerful breathwork type of modality.

Now, I’m curious to hear from you, Monika, what sort of downloads have you received through doing this for yourself? You not only put people through your processes, I’m sure you do this as a form of maintenance and connection to the fabric of creation yourself on, I would imagine, a daily basis. What would be some downloads that you’ve gotten?

MR: My first experience was really mind-blowing, to say the least. I went into a room full of people, and I was really uncomfortable actually with everybody making noises and being around me, breathing, trying to concentrate on what I’m doing. At some stage, I had to let go, because it was too painful to just dwell on what I didn’t like about it. So I went in, and somehow, I started breathing deeper. As my breath started to really be more fluid, I basically just turned into just light and the universe, and I could actually understand everything about everything.

It was that feeling of disconnecting, of going out of my body, of really leaving my body and having an experience in spirits or in the spirit world, let’s say. Then I got back into my body and it felt almost like, oh no, here I am again. This is exactly that point of what I’m working with, which is to really let that experience be in the body or be embodied again so we’re not disconnecting to connect to spirit, but we were embodying spirit. 

This is really what my work is about is that disconnect disappears after a while. We don’t have big experiences and then we’ve kind of come back. Then we seek that experience again outside of ourselves, but it becomes part of what we live. That, to me, is the value of what I really want to bring to people. It’s that remembering that actually we are that which we seek to really rediscover that within ourselves.

Yeah, very important. I learned this lesson last year. I was flying in the clouds. I was so blissed out and ecstatic over my connection with source, with the Creator. I lost track of the physical world, overseeing my staff, paying the bills, and all that sort of stuff kind of fell by the wayside.

The business went through a rough patch because I was not grounded. I wasn’t really showing up in a peak state. I was up in the clouds. So it is very important to draw the energy from the higher realms, higher dimensions, and ground into this dimension, and bring that and draw down that energy and manifest that in your daily life. Very important.

Breathing is an automated function in our body, and it is the only vital function that we can also consciously alter. This gives us access to co-creation, from automated re-actions to creative responses. Click To Tweet

MR: Exactly. This is what you need to hear. This is really what people need to be reminded of as well. It’s not like it doesn’t just happen out there. It is all in one experience. Now we can really learn how to bring that back or help really have that availability of the access to that at any time. Once we start to really express it, our life becomes that flow.

Rather than seeking the flow experience, we become the flow and the flow takes us and it’s just my life has been that flow on many levels. I really feel it when I’m out of it because things just happen. They align, they synchronize, it just becomes this incredible experience of wow, I didn’t know that was possible, rather than, oh, what’s the next thing I need to do now to get well. That’s the difference.

Right. When you’re doing this different type of modality than the kind of usual modalities that people might experience and it shows up for you in a way that you’re able to manifest that in daily life and not end up in the clouds floating about, do you stop having the out-of-body experiences, the astral projection? Or did those still happen for you and it’s just maybe less often? How does that affect your ability to go out of body?

MR: It becomes to weave in and out. I get much, much more adaptable in the way that I can come in and out of the states. I can raise my ability to be in states of expanded consciousness and bring in what is needed, sort of remember my intention, and then express that out. That becomes easier.

I need to be able to facilitate what they’ve gone through and navigate that space with them.

Before it was more like, these weighs like body and then spirit and body spirit, and now it becomes more of an interwoven experience. So obviously, true, being a breathworker, when I’m teaching or when I’m facilitating a session, I need to be able to get into that frequency with the client. I need to be able to facilitate what they’ve gone through and navigate that space with them.

It’s very difficult to explain or put into words, but it is through the body that I’m accessing it now. It changes because it becomes available, rather than being something out there then I can’t make sense of it. I did a lot of Ayahuasca before too. I had very incredible experiences. That taught me in that moment such a vast amount of information but to integrate it was very difficult. It was like, what am I supposed to do with this now?

The way that breathwork works for me is that when I’m not well, when I need to understand something, or I don’t know what to do, then if I breathe, I get the message, I understand, or I at least have a clue on how to proceed. It becomes more in each moment, I receive what’s needed in that moment and not this vast amount that I don’t know what to do with it.

With the Wim Hof method, one of the many benefits that’s touted is it boosts your immune system. Indeed, some of the studies that were done on Wim, because of his really strong immune system, were able to, for example, inject really harmful bacteria. I forget which ones, but just right into his bloodstream directly and he fought it off. He had maybe a little bit of a fever for a short while, but then he killed off all the really dangerous bacteria that was injected directly into his bloodstream. The modality that you work with, is that also an immune-boosting type of modality?

We think that healing means it suddenly disappears. Healing is a journey, and it can go deeper, wider, and more interesting. It moves through levels of understanding with whatever condition we're looking at. Click To Tweet

MR: Yes. I mean, the thing with Wim Hof is that he actually taught students and they got the same thing done. They also got the viruses or whatever it was injected. They could do exactly the same things. It was to show that it wasn’t that he had superpowers. It was just really something that people can learn, that something can facilitate for themselves, and be taught. So yeah, this is what I’m doing.

We did an experiment a week ago where we were testing the brainwave function before and during breathwork, and what it does to the system, the intelligence of the system of how it raises the bar. Maybe you talk about it?

SR: Yeah, as part of a new project we’re working on, we brought in (I choose my words carefully) a Russian scientist. He hooked Monika up to a heart rate variability monitor and an electromagnetic measuring device. We measured all her stats before she started breathwork and also during and at the end of the session. The results were pretty amazing.

In some of the readings on this work perhaps a little on the woo-woo side, so we can discard those ones, but it was looking at the brainwave function. It was looking at the energy in the body, the psychological state. It basically had doubled all the four levels within, I think it was an hour and five minutes you can see—I’ve actually sent one over to you. If you want to include that at all in the video at any point, you can add that in, but it was showing what brain waves…?

MR: Delta was down and alpha was up double. 

SR: Yeah, the brainwaves delta was 50% reduction after the breathwork, then alpha brain waves were doubled. It was looking at the energy levels of the body, the energy going out, and energy coming in, which again switched from being completed to actually charging the body by the end of that. Also, at the cycle, the emotional state. You can see the brainwaves and the colors. 

It went from a little bit, scatter is the wrong word, but active, I guess excited about being measured and hooked up to all these machines. Then at the end, it was completely calm, blue tranquil. That was within an hour and five minutes. It was pretty incredible to see actual scientifically measured results rather than just somebody talking about it. That was very interesting.

It was very interesting. I did see that before the interview. Now, the benefits of being in an alpha brainwave state—so that is also connected with the being in-flow or flow state so you can accomplish a massive amount of productive work in a short period of time. Maybe a day’s work or let’s say a week’s worth of work could be done in less than a day if you maintain that alpha brainwave state and crank through your deep work projects. Is this something that you find your clients and students are benefiting from? Are they doing a lot of deep work because of this?

MR: Of course. For example, one breathwork, I have one client. He works with some big foundations. I don’t really want to name things too much because it’s confidential when they come to me. He was creating a course where he teaches people and he’s a public speaker, and he teaches about minds and how to use your mind in a much better way. I was asking the group, is there anything you want to share? He was like, I can reread my course, I got the whole download. Sorry, I have to leave. I have to write it all down now. Sometimes, we can really get to that alpha state when we have the intention and we’re able to really write those waves, we allow ourselves to really receive the messages, and to really listen in, it’s not like we need to really learn so much. We need to just be able to be with what is wanting to be received.

We get into Alpha state every day, but it is when we’re sleeping.

It sounds so simple and it actually is, but it’s not that easy for us because we’re so busy in our minds. We think we have to do so much, but sometimes it’s just about being still, quiet, and listening. Alpha state is something we get into every day, but it is when we’re sleeping.

The beauty about breathwork is that we create so much energy that we can be in such a heightened energized state. When we can relax into it, this is when we access those states and that’s when we receive that creative flow.

How does that differ from theta and from gamma? My understanding of gamma is that it is pretty rare that you’re in a gamma brainwave state. When you are, you might have a spiritual awakening experience. Can you talk more about that?

MR: Theta is where we go more into the healing frequencies. This is more of a healing reset. I didn’t measure it, but I’m pretty sure that I know the distinction within myself when I’m breathing, which is where I’m at. Gamma, I think I’ve had it once.

Once again, I can’t prove it, but these are the problems with zero points where everything just started to level. My breathing became less and less distinct as an inhale and exhale until it kind of almost flatlined. I’m still breathing but it wasn’t physically there. It was almost so slow, but I could feel that pulsing slowed down so intensely.

It almost leveled, but it was still there. I don’t know how to say it, but I sort of dropped into the center of that. That was just the most unbelievable bliss. It was nothing and everything at the same time. I would call that the gamma.

There can be lots of little emotional traumas that build over time.

SR: I think one of the things as well that’s quite interesting that Monika works with is trauma release also. If people are going to get into an optimal state, a lot of the time, the body is holding on to past experiences, which don’t necessarily have to be some huge, horrendous trauma incident that leaves you scarred for life. There can be lots of little emotional traumas that build over time.

With the work Monika is doing, it actually allows the body and allows people to release these energy blockages in the body without even being conscious, thinking about it, or talking about it for six months. It almost goes into spontaneous release. When these energy blockages and these things that are stored in the body are released, that allows you to go into this flow state a lot easier.

My Green Beret friend, for example, he had obviously quite a lot of stuff to release from all the war, death, and this and that. He does that. I’ve also had that as well. Again, the very first time I did this. Usually, I’ll go to these sessions and somebody will say, oh, come on, make a noise, growl, do this and I’m like, okay, whatever. I’m not one of the woo-woo people that will just jump into anything.

The very first session with Monika, I’m sitting there, because she’s got years and years of bodywork experience and energy work experience, she would come around and slightly adjust the way you’re sitting, hold your neck, or lift your legs into a different position. All of a sudden, I was like, what the hell is that growling noise? I was like, oh, it’s me. And I’m sitting there growling like a wolf without even being aware of it.

You go into these states where your body will shake or something will tremor and something is released. Another time, I had some problems with sleeping due to some childhood instances and fear of death, so we decided to work on that in a session. It actually took two sessions to get through it completely.

I ended up in this void, this almost in a cave under the ground kind of experience and this complete and utter black void. There was nothing, there wasn’t a noise, there was no sensation. For somebody with a fear of death and dying ingrained from childhood, that could be traumatic. But for me, I was just sitting there and there’s absolutely nothing. I’m completely relaxed and I became very comfortable with it.

The beauty of breathwork is that we create so much energy that we can be in a heightened, energized state. Click To Tweet

It’s very interesting the way that this modality integrates what you need. It releases things you don’t need and then it just starts aligning things so that you are much in better facility to get into that flow state. That’s actually what we’re working on together now, a course specifically for entrepreneurs and business people that address the big areas in your life.

Monika, over a six-week period, led them through these experiences or sessions on releasing what they don’t need, getting downloads, and aligning better to be into this flow state for better productivity in their work life, in their health, and the life at home. So that’s something very exciting in what we’re doing right now.

That’s great. What’s the course called?

SR: It’s going to be called Peak Flow.

How is peak flow different from a flow state, the concept of being in peak flow?

Set the intention so that something is working when you’re in this state.

SR: Peak flow is just, I guess, what we’re describing the course. That’s the name that we came up with to embody what we’re taking people towards. The goal of this is—through this six-week period—to introduce people to the modalities, the sessions. As Monika was touching on earlier, how to get into the state and not just lose yourself in the wooh and then come back with nothing is to actually have an intention. Set the intention so that when you’re in this state, there is something working.

Even if you don’t remember it, your body and your subconscious has got it. You’re going to be working and coming back. Then week by week, she’s building and showing people how to get into that flow state, how to raise the bar, how to recognize it. If you come out of it, how do you get back in again? And if you’re willing to work all together so by the end of this period, you’ll address the bigger areas of your life and be much more aware of how to navigate yourself in and out of that flow state.

Awesome. It sounds like a really great course. I’m curious to hear what happened with your fear of death? You did two sessions with Monika to address that. Is that completely obliterated or are you just mostly not fearful of death now? Where are you at?

SR: I would say it was probably combined. I had an uncle who died when I was fairly young. The family’s reaction to that at the time wasn’t so great. As a child, nothing was really explained to me well. I had a lot of sleeping issues, fear of going into a deep sleep that I wasn’t going to come out again.

I used to have a fear of getting grabbed and dragged by something if I went into a really deep sleep. I’m just logically working things out. I’m just kind of tied into that experience and a couple of other things.

We did a session to address this. In the first session, we kind of got into it, but for a few nights afterward, it almost rekindled that experience. I came out of it with quite an adrenaline kick. That’s when something hasn’t quite been integrated or dealt with yet.

The second session, which I referred to earlier, was almost a guidance session, where Monika was taking me into a cave under the tree into the ground and I was supposed to go and visualize other stuff. It veered off in a different direction and just took me into this null, void, nothing state.

After that time, I’m just sitting there with absolutely nothing going, this is pretty good. There’s nothing distracting me. There’s no noise. There’s nothing to do. It’s just an utter relaxation. I would say, yeah, definitely.

I’ve actually recently just lost my father. I think that’s definitely one of the things that has been helping to deal with that, doing some of these modalities and becoming absolutely certain of things on the other side. It’s definitely been interesting. Yes, it’s definitely addressed my fear of death and it shifted the whole perception of that.

MR: I’ll speak to that too because it’s a very interesting subject. We think that healing means it suddenly disappears. It’s like, now we’re healed and we have no more issues. It’s really a journey and it can go deeper and deeper and deeper, wider, and more interesting. It moves through levels of understanding with whatever condition we’re looking at.

Within the duality, if we somehow have this disconnect through a trauma, then the first stages, we understand, oh, there is a duality and actually, it’s okay, rather than, oh no, there’s only one side and the other needs to be shunned. Somehow, that becomes our wisdom.

It’s almost like it becomes our teaching to the world when we start to really integrate those aspects that we then began to bring back in or it’s almost like fragment self stuff that we integrate into ourselves. That becomes the picture that makes us different from others in a good way. We don’t become the yes-no but become the yes everything, but I choose this. Does that make sense?

Yeah. It made me think about—when you were talking, both of you—this void and also the duality. I was thinking, it’s kind of like you have an opinion and you think that that’s the only right opinion and everything else is wrong. It’s like, that’s it, my way or the highway.

This intelligence of the body is so incredible that it can just learn to easily facilitate self-regulation and self-healing much easier. Click To Tweet

You don’t even see the duality that there’s contrast and two different positions, and so forth. You only see your own position. But then if you start seeing the duality over the contrast, you can appreciate the light because you see the darkness. You can appreciate the sun because you experienced the rain.

Without one, you can’t really, truly appreciate the other. But then when you get into that void that Stephen experienced to become nobody, no thing, no time, no place, no where, then you become part of the quantum field. You become part of the one, the all. It reminds me of Ram Dass. It also reminds me of Dr. Joe Dispenza.

I wanted to hear what your thoughts were on Ram Dass and Joe Dispenza. Any experiences or thoughts around their teachings? Have you studied under them or anything?

MR: No, I haven’t studied under them. I have listened to Ram Dass. I’ve listened to Joe Dispenza. I think they’re awesome. They both speak from a different perspective but come to the same conclusions like everybody else that explores consciousness on a deeper level.

They all have their take on it. They all have their access to it. But in the end, it’s the same field that they access. It’s the same realizations and the same wisdom that they draw from it. One is more from scientific background and one is more from experiential background.

There’s the superconscious. There was what Carl Jung studied and wrote about. He made it a core focus. It was understanding how we can tap into super-consciousness. What are your thoughts about the superconscious?

Take it one step and one breath at a time instead of trying to solve all of your problems and the world's problems all at once. Click To Tweet

MR: In breathwork, first we breathe. We have the inhale and the exhale and then we’re conscious of it. Then we tap into our unconscious, which to me is the expression of the body. It’s the expression of the unconscious. Once we tap into this, we become aware of our body. The breath fuses with the bodily expressions.

Basically, when we then fuse the inhale and the exhale together, it becomes one circular breath. There’s no more break. There’s no more this and that. Then we have that access to the superconscious. To me, the fusion of the duality becomes the access to the superconscious. That’s how I see it.

Awesome. I’m curious to hear some examples of dealing with anxiety, paranoia, or just debilitating mental illnesses and how would this kind of modality potentially impact that?

MR: I’ve worked in this retreat where there are a lot of clients that suffer from severe conditions of the mind that are polarized. There are a lot of people with depression, with really severe cases of anxiety. Sure, one breathwork, it brings them into a flow, into feeling great, into this reconnect of, wow, actually, I’m okay and I can feel happy. Yet, then they fall back.

There’s this revisit of, oh no, I’m not okay anymore and, oh no, nothing helps. It’s really learning to also understand that life is an experience within duality. There are all these states that we experience and to really learn to relax with it. It’s not just like one modality can heal or one mortality can do all. It is learning to also take that modality and then bring it really into life on a conscious level.

Like breathing, it’s not like, oh, I go to breathwork, I’ll be healed. It’s like, I go to breathwork, I’ll be healed and then I can apply what I’ve learned in breathwork and bring that to life. So whenever I feel distressed, whenever I feel anxious, all I need to do is take one breath. Just let that exhale go and boom, anxiety is gone. But people mostly don’t remember it then.

Any anxiety attack can be healed immediately.

It’s really having a practice, having an ability to stay in a pretty stable way enough that we can remember. Really, extreme states take that regulation first before they can really go into expansion. It’s very individual. It’s very relative to the circumstances, but it’s a practice that can help through any circumstance. Any anxiety attack can be healed immediately.

When I wasn’t even a facilitator yet, I was in a breathwork session with another facilitator and I was assisting, there was a guy having an asthma attack. I didn’t know that was an asthma attack, I had no clue. I just saw him suffering. I just went over and he could not breathe. He was suffocating and he didn’t have his inhaler or whatever you call it, his breathing device.

I was sitting in front of him and basically, he could not let the breath go. He was trying to breathe in, but he was already breathed in and then he could just not talk. I just looked into his eyes and said, “Breathe with me. Just do what I do.”

He’s even like, “I can’t, I can’t.” I’m like, “Yes, you can.” It just took one breath with him and he started laughing. It was out of him. Really, it’s just one breath. Just remember it. Just take it and boom, it resets immediately. It’s that powerful.

Take it one step at a time, one breath at a time instead of trying to solve all of your problems and the world’s problems all at once.

MR: That’s right. There you go, yes.

How about PTSD? How does that differ from other maladies or issues? Is that something that can be also addressed? I’m sure it can be. Maybe you could share an example? Anonymize it, of course, if you could just give us a window into this.

MR: PTSD obviously relates to trauma. This really when in the body, there’s a reactivity that’s highly triggered and that keeps running its course. When you tap into it, it’s almost like something triggers it and then you tap into this whole cycle of events. All the chemistry starts to flow up. All these reactions start to kind of explode in the body and it’s very difficult to find a way out of it once you’re in it.

The way out of it is really to clear that intensity to clear the charge.

What happens is the mind perpetuates it. It starts to go into a story, it tells itself the story about what is happening, and it just deepens and worsens. The way out of it is really to clear that intensity to clear the charge. That is really simple with breathwork.

You just allow yourself to clear the charge without having to go into the story, without having to remember any of it, without having to understand any of it. You just allow the nervous system to basically release all the dysfunctional connections and allow it to heal and just basically reset.

Stephen, have you experienced any PTSD? And if so, was that something that you managed to shed through the work with Monika?

SR: I’m not sure if I would call it PTSD, but a lot of my friends from back in the States now, when I’m talking to them, they’re like who is this person? Because they seem to think that I’m a lot more calm and a lot more peaceful than I was in the States when I was having some dramatic stuff going on.

A better example would be my friend I mentioned earlier. He was a Green Beret who recommended me to Monika. He actually gave us a really good summary of the work that he has been doing and how it really calmed him down. It released his anger issues and allowed him to be able to breathe and not react quickly as he would when he was triggered by some of these experiences of the past.

I think his quote was, “You should save my life.” When I hear things like that from somebody like a Green Beret with multiple years of combat experience, it’s like, okay, there’s definitely something to experience and check into.

MR: It’s beautiful to see because he comes off into breathwork to see how the body becomes more resilient and becomes much, much more easily adaptable. First, trauma release is kind of painful. The body is fighting itself, not knowing what to do, and now it becomes much more fluid, much more easy. It’s not so dramatic. It’s like, wooh, okay, now it’s released. Life is much better and I can breathe deeper. 

That’s the beauty. This intelligence of the body is so incredible that it can just learn so easily to facilitate itself to self-regulate, to self-heal much easier.

Are you guys familiar with the book, The Body Keeps the Score?

MR: Yes.

SR: Yeah.

What are your thoughts on that? I have not read it, but I’ve heard good things about it.

MR: I can’t spell the name, it’s Dutch, but I read the book. Yes, it’s about trauma release. Cellular memory we’re asking about before, it really addresses that. It’s how experiences stay in the cells of the body. There are many books about this and I’ve read many about them.

I’ve read many books about trauma release, about trauma, and how it embeds, but it’s so complex. It’s so incredible. You can look at it on so many levels because we have the brain cells, we have the nervous system, we have the actual flesh, we have the connective tissue. All these are cells.

This is almost like this intelligent system that has systems within the systems that have their own way of storing information, and that can communicate with each other in order to facilitate all of that information. The brain, obviously, it’s the central station that then allows the information to be distributed.

I see it more like when something is blocked, the system becomes sort of self-sufficient, but obviously, it’s not sufficient because it’s not connected to the rest. It’s like us. When trying to self-isolate, it becomes dysfunctional because everything else starts to break down around us and the communication. Everything just starts to go off.

When the system is in flow and everything is connected, it makes a lot more sense and it’s much easier to regulate. Trauma release or the release of that cellular memory, I mean, I can go into microbiology and the ligands, how chemistry connects and how it locks in through the little slots that only go for one emotion into a certain organ, but I won’t go there because it’s going too far.

It’s really to allow the system to self-regulate by actually breathing. You don’t need to know all of that. What you do is you just breathe in and out and you see what the body comes up with. What comes up is what hasn’t been integrated, what wants to heal.

If there’s an injury, the body holds that memory until it’s healed.

Whatever arises from the depth of our system is somehow a memory that has been stored in the cells. It’s not just the memory in the brain. Actually, the brain doesn’t hold that much memory. It’s in the body itself. If there’s an injury, the body holds that memory until it’s healed.

Even scar tissue, it destroys the memory on some level where things cannot flow that easily anymore. Your memory and cellular memories are very, very complex. It can be super interesting to dive into it. But I find that if we can get lost in information, it’s so much easier to come back to that simplicity, which I love. It’s this just inhale and exhale, watch, allow, and see where you get triggered. This is exactly what you need to just neutralize and allow to come back into harmony.

Do you think there is a spiritual root to every physical ailment or malady?

MR: Yeah, I think there is a connection between physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, yes. We can look at it as layers of ways of how we can experience it. Yes. Definitely, yes. But our understanding of it is slightly limited. Our way of being able to express it to words is very trapeze so I won’t go there.

All right, I know we’re out of time. Again, for our listeners or viewers who are interested in taking your course or working one-on-one with you guys, what is the best website address for them to go to? How do they follow you on social media and all that?

SR: As I mentioned, we’re launching the pilot program this month, so the easiest thing for them to do is just go to peakflow.life. That’s going to redirect them to me on social media. We can just have a chat and see if things fit and what they would like help for or help with.

If it’s going to be something relevant, it’s going to be included and covered in the course. We can just have a chat, see if it’s something that we can potentially help with, and just take it from there.

All right, sounds great. Thank you, Monika and Stephen. This was inspiring. I think that you’re doing God’s work in the world, so keep it up.

MR: Thank you so much. Also, thank you for what you’re doing. I definitely found this expression through you. Thank you.

Thank you and thank you, listeners. Now, reveal some light in the world and we’ll catch you on next week’s episode. I’m Stephan Spencer, your host, signing off.

Important Links

About Monika Reimann and Stephen Renton

Monika Reimann, from German/Czech heritage.For over 3 decades Monika has trained in Conscious Breathing, from being a singer of the Children’s Radio Choir Berlin, a practitioner of Yoga and Pranayama, and as part of an Indonesian martial art called Satria Nusantara. She worked as a professional Bodyworker in various countries, and is now combining these skills as Breathwork Facilitator in the highest ranked wellness retreat in Bali catering to the world’s financial elite. Traveling the world, she has kept her attention on what connects us all, is available to everyone, and on what works fast and reliably. Unlocking innate intelligence and healing ability through the art of breathing consciously, she individualizes the process for the development of human potential. This allows for entirely new or more suitable solutions to emerge. Monika helps people to deepen their ability to perceive the body as an ally, catalyzing the shift from working hard to thriving by letting life unfold with more ease. Monika has introduced Breathwork to a variety of modalities, co-creating with visionaries, musicians, body workers, yoga teachers and detox specialists at workshops, retreats, facilitator trainings, as well as leadership trainings and the Bali Spirit Festival. The profound health benefits and astonishing results from Breathwork fuel her passion and dedication to share this gift with others.

Stephen Renton is an acclaimed business and technology consultant, author and speaker who has helped international organizations, NGOs and private clients across the globe accomplish their mission. Past clients across multiple industries include the United Nations, the World Health Organization, blue chips such as Price Waterhouse and Hewlett Packard, investment banks such as Barclays Capital and Sarasin Chiswell, and government organizations such as The Scottish Executive and the National Health Service. Stephen is also highly trained in media, having attended the National Film School in the UK, Vancouver Film School, and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.

Monika and Stephen are the co-founders of The Peak Flow Academy, that teacher hi-performance business leaders and entrepreneurs how to use non-ordinary states of consciousness how to take their business, health and personal life to new levels quickly and effectively, with guaranteed results.

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