Xochitl Ashe (01:12)
Welcome, welcome to another episode of Future Proof Earth. I'm so happy. Today our guest is somebody that I just absolutely love. beautiful friend of mine and somebody that I can't wait to introduce you to. But if you've been with my work for the past three years, you know her because she's been part of our team.
and she's up to so many incredible things, but she really is such a powerful breath teacher. So I want to introduce you to Brittany Lillegard
Brittany Lillegard (01:59)
Hello, hello, I'm so excited to be here. It really is such a treat and such an honor, Xóchitl
Xochitl Ashe (02:05)
Well, Brittany is an international breath facilitator and founder of MoveBreath. She has a decade of training under renowned teachers such as Dr. Perry Nicholson, Wim Hof, and Dan Brule, alongside immersive study in India. Known for her approachable, playful, and trauma-informed teaching style, Brittany has shared her work at venues including the Esalen Institute, Sisters in Psychedelic Conference,
LA Psychedelic Conference and Unison Festival. Breathwork has been pivotal in her own healing from depression and anxiety, guiding her as both a compass and a source of inspiration. A modern nomad, Brittany travels North America in her truck, bringing accessible and transformative breathwork experiences to communities far and wide.
Brittany Lillegard (03:03)
I like the way that sounds.
Xochitl Ashe (03:09)
Well, I am so happy to have you here So I just want to give my own personal intro to Brittany so Brittany is I want to give Brittany a lot of love and appreciation because Brittany Comes in and out as a consultant for for us but Brittany for
I think it was like about two years approximately, was our operations manager. And really, I have to say helped me become more visible and put my work into a more accessible, orderly fashion. We were able to really create incredible curriculum together. And yeah, you know, if you have Brittany on your team,
You're all right, more than better, more than all right. you know, Brittany has been a breathwork facilitator and teacher for a long time, even when she was working with us and now has a facilitator training and
Brittany Lillegard (04:04)
Hey.
Thank
Xochitl Ashe (04:29)
If you hear noise in the background, don't worry. It's just her adorable, wise, dog named Polly, who I'm an auntie to. So she's allowed to be here on the podcast. And I wanted to bring Brittany on the podcast because actually Brittany was pivotal to us launching Sacred Psychedelics.
Brittany Lillegard (04:33)
Sorry that.
Xochitl Ashe (04:58)
And as the podcast has shifted and grown and now is future proof Earth, really the conversations that are really incredibly interesting to me are the conversations of like, what are the things we need to do in order to thrive during these very quickly changing times on Earth? And I believe
that way that Brittany teaches breath work, the way she holds these tools are so helpful to us being able to thrive at this time. So Brittany, how did you, like what's your journey with breath work? How did you come about?
Brittany Lillegard (05:47)
Yeah, thank you for the question. could see Polly's little snout popping in every now and then. My first foray into breath work was actually the result of me losing my breath, which is really interesting. So I had been living in Chicago, a very urban lifestyle. And I really thought at the time in my mid-20s that I had life figured out.
Xochitl Ashe (05:48)
to that.
Brittany Lillegard (06:17)
I had a career that I loved. I was a personal trainer. I thought I was the epitome of health. I worked out regularly. I ate well. But I started having panic attacks. And for people who have never experienced a panic attack before, one of the primary symptoms that a lot of people experience is it feels like you can't breathe.
And when it feels like you can't breathe, it literally, for a lot of people, can also feel like dying. And so, you know, I had been working with the breath at that point in a purely functional manner, teaching people how to breathe better so that they could move better. But I had never considered the breath in a spiritual space. I'd never considered the emotional space of the breath before.
And it really piqued my curiosity to want to learn more and more. But where my journey really, really, really starts was actually a teacher of mine, Dr. Perry Nicholson, who you mentioned at the start. And I was at a fitness conference with him a couple months into having these panic attacks. And he said something that has forever changed the course of my life, probably
the most pivotal thing anyone has ever shared with me before. during his session, he said, if you can't breathe somewhere, you don't belong there.
Xochitl Ashe (07:58)
Hmm.
Brittany Lillegard (08:01)
And so here I was in an environment in which my breath was being taken away from me. And when Dr. Perry shared this, he was sharing it in respect to movement. If your body is in a twisted up position and you're having a challenging time breathing in that position, it probably implies that.
there's something about that position that your body doesn't love and so you need to do some work to earn that space. But when he said it, I literally was like, I can't breathe. Something in my environment is telling me that I don't belong here. So me being me, I took that to heart and I also took it to an extreme place and I sold everything I owned and I bought a one way ticket.
Xochitl Ashe (08:49)
Yeah.
Brittany Lillegard (08:53)
as far away from Chicago as I could, which was Australia. And I started backpacking. I backpacked around the world for about two years. And I really consider that the start of me learning to be guided by my breath. And I haven't looked back since, and that was about 10 years ago.
Xochitl Ashe (09:15)
Wow. So let's talk about breath because we all breathe. It's a tool that we have regardless of whether we're conscious of it or not. I think that there's a lot of unconsciousness around breath and yet every single wisdom tradition acknowledges breath as a way to get into our connection to spirit.
And so when you're talking about breath, you're talking about a specific way that it's helpful to breathe. So can you talk more about that?
Brittany Lillegard (09:58)
Yeah, so this is a really interesting question. I sometimes struggle with telling people that I teach people how to breathe. I don't actually teach people how to breathe. And where I've started shifting my language is I teach people to reconnect with their breath. We come out of the womb knowing exactly how to breathe.
And I think like many things in our current worlds, we've been taught to demonize or to, maybe that's not the best description, but to ignore or view certain elements or ways of breathing as good or bad. When in reality, our breath is always just responding to our environment. That's it.
So if I'm breathing in a way that is perceived as incorrect or bad, oftentimes that breath pattern is actually just a proper response to an environment that is not necessarily the best for us in the moment or the most supportive for us. It's a sign that something in the environment needs to shift, not a sign that.
eye or my body is doing something wrong or that my breath is failing me. So that's some language that I'm really trying to get breath workers and breath facilitators to shift is viewing the breath as breathing incorrectly or breathing correctly. There is really truly no
wrong or right way to breathe. There are better ways to breathe to facilitate the sensations and emotions and environment that we want. But our breath is always giving us little signals of whether or not our environment is safe or right for us in the moment. So when we can shift from, I breathing right or wrong? Or is this breathwork pattern right or wrong to what
information and what gifts are my breath giving me right now, we can learn to actually walk this collaborative path with it. So I hope that answered your question.
Xochitl Ashe (12:23)
Yeah, one of the things about breath work that I noticed when I started doing breath work about 20 years ago was that it was able to take me to places that are very similar to even what you would call now a psychedelic experience. Like I was able to, sometimes it was a little bit
scary as like I was able to like jump out of my body or I was able to have visions or I was just able to just be present with some of the intense emotions that were happening in my life that I perhaps was either in denial or had you know pushed pushed pushed pushed down so that I wouldn't deal with it.
So can you, why is breath able to do that? Like, why is breath psychedelic? Why is breath able to take us to these places where, you know, gets us out of our comfort zone and gets us to see with clarity what we must see.
Brittany Lillegard (13:44)
So there's so many different directions that we could take this question. One of the things that I really enjoy doing is I really enjoy fusing scientific understanding with, let's say, more widely not currently accepted ancestral wisdom. And a lot of that part.
of the breath is actually a lot of information that I've learned from you or have gathered from you and a lot of the beautiful traditions that you've shared with us. But if we're looking at the purely scientific space, which I do think is a really cool space to start, when we're doing, let's say, conscious connected breathing or the type of breath work that can take us more towards that altered state of consciousness,
What we're actually doing often is minimizing the oxygen that's going to our brain. And I hesitate sometimes to share that with people because that can feel a little scary, like my brain's not getting enough oxygen. But what that does is it causes your brain to prioritize the more primal parts of your brain and to turn off the more modern parts of our brain. So it quiets your executive functioning, quiets the amygdala, and it allows you to more deeply connect.
with the emotional space are more primal spaces in our brain. Scientifically, that's one of the main reasons why when we're doing those styles of breath work, we are able to connect with and access emotional states that normally in our day-to-day life are overriding. Which is really cool. It's really cool that through something as simple as our breath,
we can engage with our brain in ways that we normally find challenging in our day-to-day modern lives. With that being said, there's so much connection between breath and spirit, which you alluded to in your very first question. So many different cultures, the word for breath and spirit are one in the same. So when we are choosing to intentionally connect with our breath,
that provides this immediate connection to spirit as well.
And because the breath is also such a beautiful portal to the present moment, if you're focused on your breath, there's absolutely no possible way for you to be dwelling on the past or looking for it towards the future. It's why the breath is also used so often as a foundation in a lot of traditional mindfulness practices. And so I think it's all of these things combined. It's that it's one of the most powerful tools to bring us into the present moment.
It is a direct connection to spirit, but also it allows us to quiet down those more modern parts of our brain that are constantly saying, did you forget to take the dishes out of the dishwasher? Did you send that email that you needed to send? You know, did you pay that bill on time? It literally allows us to go deep into emotional feeling, which is
really powerful.
Xochitl Ashe (17:22)
That's such a great explanation. That really helps. I think of my partner Kyle who needs the science
I don't need the science all the time. Like sometimes if I learn about something and it just intuitively feels like a total yes, I'm like, yeah, give me the science later. I love this. Like I'm just a yes. But there's people that really need the science to start, you know, dipping their toes into a practice. So this is really helpful. And tell me how do you see
breath work helping us, you know, when, when life just gets really challenging. And I was just on another podcast interview and I loved how she said like, it's the micro and the macro, right? Like the micro is like challenging in terms of our own personal lives, right? Like maybe there's a death in the family or a loss of a job or you're sick in some way. And then there's the macro of like,
what's happening politically, what's happening to nature, what's, you know, natural disasters, what's happening to animals that like really affects us. So how, how has, and this is more personal question to you, like how has breath work supported you as you see this world changing so fast, so rapidly?
Brittany Lillegard (19:03)
Yeah, I think there's a couple of different things coming to mind for me. And personally, and on more of a micro, using the terminology you just shared, in a more micro space.
The most beautiful thing about our breath is that it literally wants nothing more than for us to be alive. And not just alive as in taking my next breath, but like, alive. Like, so filled with life. And so if you can develop deep trust and surrender into that, then your breath becomes the most beautiful compass.
that you'll ever have in your entire life. And what I mean by that is when I personally have been faced with really challenging decisions, sometimes they can be super challenging to navigate in our current world simply because there's so much information and so much noise and you have so many different opinions and you can Google everything and you put everything into ChatGPT and there's so much external noise.
that we oftentimes turn to when we're faced with making challenging decisions. But if you can turn inward and connect with your breath, your breath will always give you the answer that's going to keep you the most alive. Point blank. It's like the most beautiful compass that you'll ever carry with you in your entire life. It doesn't always mean that the actions necessary to listen to your breath will be easy.
but your breath will never lie to you, ever. And I really think moving to a macro space, and this is something that I sat with significantly when I was thinking about creating my breathwork facilitator training, I kept in my head for many reasons finding resistance because there are so many breathwork trainings right now. There are so many different facilitator trainings. And so,
When I was sitting with it, it was like, what am I adding? What am I adding to the space? What am I adding to the noise? Am I really contributing to something greater? And the answer I kept coming back to was absolutely 100 % yes, because if everyone can learn to develop that relationship with their breath as a compass, I truly think the world would be a better place.
We have been so disconnected from this gift that we're born with, and that is with us literally every breath of our life. We're so disconnected from it and reconnecting to it is one of the most empowering things that we can gift both individuals but also communities.
And so on a macro level, really do think that more people having that wisdom can never be a bad thing.
Xochitl Ashe (22:34)
I love that. I love that you said, because I think about this often when I fly, you know, like your breath cannot lie. And sometimes we we've been in so much denial or trauma has built self-defense mechanisms that make us believe in a certain way, but it might not be the truth.
Right? So for example, I've noticed that there are times when I'm uncomfortable, but you know, I push through and I'm like, I'm fine. Everything's okay. And it's actually like paying attention to my breath that allows me to recognize, ⁓ like I'm actually really uncomfortable, even though I'm pretending that everything's okay. And
So my breath actually brings me back to that space of compassion to come back and say, okay, I'm uncomfortable. So let's look at like what part is uncomfortable. And actually breath, like you said, is the compass that can help us come back to awareness of ourselves, right? Know that know thyself is really like everything. If we know ourselves, then the world just shows up and
in such a beautiful way versus when we don't know ourselves. One of the things about Brittany that some of you might not know that I love about you, Brittany, is that you've been a nomad for a long time. So it's been how many years since you've been living at a first-year van and now this new rig.
Brittany Lillegard (24:31)
Yeah, so my nomadic journey actually started living out of a backpack. And I left the US and started traveling. It'll be 10 years this November.
Xochitl Ashe (24:49)
Happy 10 year almost anniversary.
Brittany Lillegard (24:52)
Thank you. Yeah.
Xochitl Ashe (24:54)
Wow.
So one of the things that I want to say about Brittany, because, she's a friend and I've not only worked with her, we've also played together. My return to Burning Man was actually with Brittany after, I think, 17 years of not going to Burning Man. So we work and play together well, Brittany and I. And one of the things that
I find myself, you know, I'm living in this beautiful little casita in Santa Monica, but I'm always thinking like, God, I wish I had more space. I'm noticing myself saying like, I wish we had more space. I need another room. Like, and just going on Zillow looking for a two bedroom and, you know, not finding the exact two bedroom of my dreams and get like.
We live in a really beautiful, beautiful one bedroom. And so I think of you often because it takes a level of grounding and conscious skill to one, live out of a backpack and then live out of a van. You know, because I think that naturally some of us, I know it's not everyone.
but some of us really enjoy having a lot of stuff and having a lot of space. I'm one of those. And yet I find myself when, you know, I'm not living in a van, but I'm living in the smallest place I've probably ever lived in my life. And it's not small. But I find myself having to be
Like I have to develop and a whole new way of approaching my life. Like every time I buy something new, the rule that I've given myself is like, okay, if you're to buy something new, you have to also give away the same amount of things that I'm buying new. Right? So that way I can thrive in a small space. So.
I'm just saying that because I noticed that you've really thrived in a small space. And I'm not saying that like, I mean, you have the world, you know, when you live in a van, so it's a different kind of living. But there's so many people who have that dream of like, one day I want to live in a van and travel the world or travel through America. And they just don't do it because there's so many fears.
But I've just seen you do it in such a beautiful way. So I'd love for you to just share, like, how's that been? Especially as we're coming to your 10 year anniversary.
Brittany Lillegard (28:54)
Yeah. ⁓ so many stories are popping up for me and I'm trying to decide which ones are most worthwhile to pull out of the closet. You know, it's really interesting because when I first became nomadic, I distilled everything down to a singular backpack because I wanted to travel the world as much as I could. And everything that didn't fit in that backpack
either got sold or I had a friend who had, know, her and her husband had just bought like a five bedroom massive house in Chicago and they were like, we have a spare closet. And you know, if you want to store anything in that closet, by all means, store some boxes there. So I gave myself four boxes of, you know,
whatever I wanted to keep, and then my backpack that I was gonna travel with and everything else I sold or donated. And I remember like a week before leaving Chicago, sitting in my apartment, surrounded by the last bits of things that I had, and not everything would fit into those four boxes. And I remember feeling so overwhelmed and frustrated with myself and questioning whether or not I was making the right decision. Like literally just like,
my gosh, I'm looking at all of these beautiful things that I've amassed, but I've given myself four boxes and I can't fit it all in there and I can't, I would take one thing out and put something else in and then I'd look at what was left and be like, no, no, no, I can't get rid of some of that. So then I'd like, pick something else, take it out of the box and put something else in. Fast forward, these boxes go in my friend's closet and
I traveled for about two years before I came back to the US for the first time. And I was so excited to go to the closet because I was like, ⁓ I know I have some extra clothes in there. I've been living with literally, I think I had one pair of jeans, a long sleeve t-shirt, two tank tops, yoga pants, like 15 clothing items. And so I was excited to switch some stuff out. But for the life of me, couldn't.
actually remember what was in the boxes. And I remember when I finally got there and was able to go through these boxes two years later, I was like pulling stuff out and literally was like, I saved this of all like that's why would I save this like my things had such a different. I had changed so much that those things that had once been such an important part of me, I didn't even remember.
and I had zero connection to and it was a really interesting
experience for me because it's really shifted how I feel about things. This is, you know, this would have been about eight years ago now and here I am eight years later and that moment still significantly guides how I choose to consume things.
And oftentimes if I'm really struggling, you know, I lived overseas for eight, seven of those years. I've been back in the U.S. for a few years now. And I will say being back in the U.S., I have struggled with not letting myself go deeper into that over consumption space, if you will. And anytime I'm feeling that urge to
for the sake of buying, all I have to do is put myself back in my tiny Chicago apartment with those four boxes and be like, okay, two years later, would I be proud if this ended up in a box or not? And most of the time the answer is literally no. And just to tie this in, my breath also tells me.
You know, I can literally sit with something in a store and take a couple of deep breaths, transport myself into that room. And my breath is going to tell me like, is this a worthwhile thing for me to spend my money on? Is this going to give me the joy that I think it's going to give me beyond that initial dopamine hit of handing over some cash for it? And so, you know, I think tiny living ultimately
It's just made me a lot more mindful of how I...
how I consume and that goes beyond material things as well. Yeah, and I think just the last little thing I wanna throw in there, because you were saying such a small space, such a small space, but I think a lot of people don't realize about the type of lifestyle that I lead or a lot of us who live in vans or even backpack. I have way more space than the average person. Like I am currently sitting in my truck.
And if I extend my arms, my arms hit side to side. However, I have spent a grand total of one hour inside my truck in the last week. My dog and I have been outside, you know, rolling in the grass, on the ground, on hikes, breathing fresh air. I have way more space because my world is so much more integrated into nature than most people with a six-bedroom house.
Xochitl Ashe (34:45)
Yeah, that's powerful. That's so powerful. So how do you approach?
the world, like how does your lifestyle allow you to be ready for the massive changes that are happening?
Brittany Lillegard (35:12)
Yeah.
What's really beautiful about...
This lifestyle is...
You have to be, it's forced resilience, but it's also forced resourcefulness. Stuff, especially living in a rig, so moving beyond backpacking. Vehicles are not meant to be lived in. And stuff breaks all of the time. And right now I'm also in Mexico, so.
Xochitl Ashe (35:34)
Hmm.
Brittany Lillegard (35:55)
what I'm used to be able to get. You there aren't Amazon lockers down here. I can't just immediately go onto the internet, order something and have it shipped to Whole Foods in two days like I can in the US. And so if something breaks and I don't have something to replace it that fits immediately, you have to get really creative. And it also reminds me too, I lived in India for about a year
