How to Quiet Your Mind in 3 Minutes with Samantha Skelly

If you’ve ever struggled with meditation or felt like you couldn’t “turn off” your brain, you’re not alone. But what if there’s a faster, simpler way to calm your mind and reset your energy? In this episode, I’m joined by Samantha Skelly, a leading expert in breathwork, to explore how this transformative practice can help you feel clear, calm, and focused in just three minutes.

Samantha shares her journey from overwhelm to alignment and explains why breathwork is a game-changing alternative to traditional meditation. Whether you’re a busy achiever, a chronic overthinker, or just looking for a quick way to de-stress, this episode will give you a powerful tool to create instant calm and clarity.

This is your invitation to breathe, reset, and take control of your energy—without the pressure of meditation.

What You’ll Learn:

• The science behind breathwork and why it’s so effective for calming the mind
• A step-by-step guide to a three-minute breathwork exercise you can try today
• How breathwork can transform transitions in your day and help you feel more grounded
• The difference between breathwork for relaxation and breathwork for transformation

Connect with Samantha:
www.instagram.com/pausebreathwork
www.pausebreathwork.com

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Transcript

[00:00:00] intro: Be honest with me. Has anyone ever told you that you need to bring meditation into your life? And the minute they do, you have that internal eye roll. That's always been my experience. I have been told about meditation time and time again. I believe in it. I understand the benefits of it, but every time I set foot into a meditation practice, I kind of fall flat on my face because I can't stop the distractions.

[00:00:23] intro: Now, here's what you're not expecting. I am not about to tell you that I have a guest for you that's going to change your mind about meditation. What I have to offer you today is amazing because it's an alternative solution that actually has better proven, better benefits than traditional meditation.

[00:00:44] intro: And it's something that if you are wired like me, where you'd like someone where there's a how to, you can do it in small amounts of time and reap instant benefits. You do not want to miss. this episode, and you are going to fall in love with Samantha and what she is about to share. So let's go ahead and jump in.

[00:01:05] Megan: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to work life harmony podcast. I have been kind of giddy all morning waiting to have this conversation with our new guest, Samantha Skelly here today. And I'm going to let her introduce herself in a minute, but here's what I'm really excited to learn. I have shared a very openly that, you know, one of the things I'm trying to bring into my practice is get better about journaling, get better about meditation.

[00:01:30] Megan: I understand the benefits, but man, meditation is something that I continually tell myself is really hard. My mind wanders. I, you know, I feel like I'm quote doing it wrong, all that stuff. So Samantha is going to be talking to us about meditation. an alternative that I believe I've read has even better benefits.

[00:01:50] Megan: So that's what we're going to be talking about today. So welcome to the show, Samantha. I am so excited you're here.

[00:01:55] Samantha: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

[00:01:58] Megan: Yeah. So why don't you introduce yourself? Tell everyone a little bit about the work that you do and kind of how you got into it.

[00:02:03] Megan: Cause I am fascinated by it.

[00:02:05] Samantha: I grew up as a dancer and a child actress. So my entire life I was on a stage in front of a camera. And because of the nature of that work, there was a lot of body image stuff that I developed a lot of anxiety that I developed.

[00:02:22] Samantha: I was living in this sort of low grade anxious state for my entire life and I didn't actually realize it.

[00:02:31] Samantha: And so I, I got to about like 18, 19 and I realized like, wow, my, my levels of anxiety are like beginning to get so high, like to the point where I would wake up in the morning and my heart would be beating. I would be, you know, Like feeling so anxious for, for no like reason, quote unquote, but my body, the experience of my body was so intense.

[00:02:53] Samantha: And so I began doing talk therapy and cognitive behavioral change and all of these sort of more like mindset type of modalities and therapies and it scratched the surface, but my body was still in the state of anxiety and overwhelmed. 

[00:03:11] Megan: That's really interesting because I don't think people, and I hadn't really thought about it before, we can have a disconnect with the mental and the physical, I think, but I think we'd expect that the mindset work will have a direct impact on the

[00:03:26] Samantha: totally, like my experience of that time was I was consuming all of this information and consuming all of this knowledge about how to feel better, but it wasn't integrating into my body. And so I knew better, but nothing was changing. And so in order to feel better, we have to be better feelers.

[00:03:45] Samantha: We actually have to feel our emotionality and feel. feel what's arising. And for so many years of my life, I was kind of like running from it or like, I don't want to feel that. And so I was reading the book, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth

[00:03:58] Megan: by Alina Gilbert. Love that book, and I love her. Oh my goodness.

[00:04:01] Samantha: I love her. Like she's amazing. And she talked about going to Bali and finding this medicine man.

[00:04:09] Samantha: And There was something in my intuition when I was reading that chapter. I'm like, I got to go there. I got to go there. I got to find this guy. I got to have this breakthrough. Like I'm going, I, so I remember calling my mom just being like, I'm going to book a one way ticket to Bali. She's like, for what?

[00:04:24] Samantha: I'm like, I'm going to find this guy in this book. And she's like, okay. I was like 20 at the time. 

[00:04:30] Samantha: And so I booked a session with this guy from, from the Eat Pray Love book. And. After my session, he just looks at me and he goes, You think too much. Your brain is so busy. And I'm like, I don't know. I'm like ADHD, hyper creative, super sensitive. I know, dude. Like, I know.

[00:04:47] Megan: face it. I think probably almost, almost every woman listening to this can probably relate to that. You think too much, right? Like I want an off switch for my brain sometimes.

[00:04:56] Samantha: Yeah. Yeah. It's like, we're over thinkers and under feelers. You know, 

[00:05:00] Megan: know, and 

[00:05:00] Samantha: we shut off our emotions and our intuitions and we overthink and it drives us crazy. And so that's basically what I did for most of my life up until 20. And then, so, so he's like, he's like, you think too much. He's like, go meditate.

[00:05:14] Samantha: And I was like, I hate meditation so much. Like I have a really bad eating disorder at this time. I had so much anxiety. My brain was constantly on overdrive sitting, doing nothing. Feeling my emotions was excruciating. I'm like,

[00:05:29] Megan: did that trigger anxiety for you? Because I'm not one that typically, has reoccurring anxiety, but I find meditating makes me feel anxious because I can't shut down all the things I would like to be doing instead

[00:05:43] Samantha: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. At that point in time, I was like, Oh no. I'm like, did I fly all the way here? Did for you to tell me to do the one thing that I hate doing. So he, he said, there's a meditation school down the road. Go take your, I was like driving this little scooter. He's like, go take your scooter and go take a class.

[00:05:58] Samantha: I'm like, okay. So I get on my scooter. I go to this meditation yoga studio. It's called a yoga barn in Ubud for those of you guys who've been there. And there was actually no meditation class at the time, but there was a breathwork class. And I look at the time of that breathwork class and it was three hours.

[00:06:16] Samantha: And I'm like, what?

[00:06:18] Megan: Breathwork for

[00:06:19] Samantha: I, I, right. I'm like, I, I was like, I've, I've been breathing for 20 years, but like three hours of intentional conscious breathing. Crazy. But again, it was like that internal voice inside of me was like, you should probably go do this. And so

[00:06:32] Samantha: I

[00:06:32] Samantha: go and do this class. I walk, I walk in the door, I opened, I opened the door and there's this guy there, he's dressed all in white.

[00:06:38] Samantha: He looks like Jesus got this big long beard. He's actually a friend of mine today, which It's a wild story. But yeah. And he's this like beautiful breath worker who just has been in the work for so long. And he, he looks at me and he goes, you're about to go on the ride of your life. And I'm like what?

[00:06:57] Samantha: He's like, you are going to experience the entire range of. He's like, you're going to feel the highest states of joy and bliss and ecstasy and happiness and fulfillment. And you are going to release and let go of anything in your body that you're holding on to, any sadness, any fear, any worry. And I looked at him and I was like, dude, I can feel anxious and I can feel numb.

[00:07:18] Samantha: That's about it. this is a tall order. So I was like, I'm just going to give it a shot. So he, he started teaching the breath pattern and it was into the belly, up into the chest, out through the mouth and just like circulating that breath over and over and over again. And within three minutes, that off switch that we want, right.

[00:07:42] Samantha: I was 

[00:07:44] Samantha: like,

[00:07:45] Samantha: I'm not thinking anymore. 

[00:07:47] Samantha: And I felt this. electricity ripple through my body. This just aliveness ripple through my body. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, like, this is amazing. There's this light, there's this energy, there's this power. I felt my heart like open for the first time in my whole life. I'm like, Whoa, this is amazing.

[00:08:07] Samantha: I was just like, This is

[00:08:08] Samantha: a gift. Like what the heck? And that three hours felt like 15 minutes. Cause time kind of collapsed as my woke up from that experience. And I was like, why does the whole world not know we can do this? why?

[00:08:18] Megan: people hear, like, I've heard people talk about, Oh, breath work or, you know, Oh, always, always start something with, with deep breaths. What is, what does breath work really mean? What does it entail? Yeah.

[00:08:32] Samantha: a form of meditation, right? So if meditation is like the passive sitting down, closing your eyes, watching your thoughts, trying not to go crazy, that's like a very passive practice. Breathwork is a form of meditation, but it's an active practice. So we're actually, there's an, there's an act of doing something and in that doing something, we get to the end result.

[00:08:54] Samantha: But it's quicker and more effective because here's what happens when we are breathing in a very conscious, continual way.

[00:09:01] Samantha: What it's doing is it's, is it stimulating the amygdala?

[00:09:04] Megan: the amygdala

[00:09:05] Samantha: The amygdala is our center for emotional control. It's also where our survival strategies 

[00:09:10] Megan: live, 

[00:09:10] Samantha: right? So we're, we're basically mitigating the response of the survival strategies that that's the part where it's like my brain feels like it's shutting 

[00:09:17] Megan: off 

[00:09:17] Samantha: because what What's, what's all the talk in our brain all, all day long.

[00:09:21] Samantha: It's our survival strategies going like, Oh my God, don't do this. Don't forget about this. Get this Christmas thing. Do do the, but like, it's that 

[00:09:28] Megan: It's like mild fight, flight, or you know, freeze kind of mode,

[00:09:33] Samantha: Yeah. And it's like the things that we're so concerned about, the conversation in our head is so irrelevant. It's not, it's not like right now, things that are.

[00:09:43] Samantha: Causing us to be in suffering or pain. It's like all about worrying about the future, right? That's what survival 

[00:09:49] Samantha: is like that mechanism in our brain The amygdala is like I'm gonna make sure that you're not you don't die and back in the day when we lived in caves And there is you know tigers around that was useful.

[00:10:01] Samantha: But now it's

[00:10:02] Megan: it's doing its job,

[00:10:03] Samantha: It's doing its job, but it's over functioning in our, in today's reality. So it's like, we get an email from a client and then that brain, that part of our brain goes, you're going to die. You should probably just burn everything down and go like work at state farm insurance or

[00:10:16] Samantha: whatever. 

[00:10:16] Megan: that email. I know that email.

[00:10:18] Samantha: You know what I mean? Yeah. We've all gotten that email. It's been like, if you're, I'm relating this to a female entrepreneur, or if you work at state farm insurance, maybe it's your boss saying like, Hey, you're not doing good enough, whatever it is. Right.

[00:10:28] Samantha: And it's like, you're dead. You're going to die. This is going to kill you. And so that kicks up all of this anxiety, all of this fear, all of this worry. And we're then viewing life through the lens of our survival strategies. And we can't think straight because we don't have access to our clear mind because we're constantly in fear mind.

[00:10:46] Samantha: And so what the breath does is it mitigates that response and it helps us, you See life clearly.

[00:10:53] Samantha: And

[00:10:53] Samantha: that first breathwork session I did was three hours. It was amazing. But in order to get the result that I'm speaking to at the moment, go three minutes of that breath with a top hold. 

[00:11:05] Megan: When you 

[00:11:05] Samantha: all day long. 

[00:11:06] Megan: top hold, can you 

[00:11:07] Samantha: Yeah. I'll explain it. Yeah. So I'm going to break down the breath for you guys because I want to give you something like really tangible that you can do today when you feel that stress response coming on or that anxiety coming on. So the breath pattern is called the tri active breath because it's, it's active and it's in a three part, right?

[00:11:24] Samantha: So we breathe into the belly through the mouth,

[00:11:27] Samantha: up into the chest, out through the mouth.

[00:11:31] Samantha: that exhale. Needs to be longer than the two inhales because what that does is it stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system is our rest and digest. It's the like, calm, relaxed. It's like, you know, when you see tigers in the wild and they're just in the sun and their bellies are just slowly going up and down and they're just like resting and 

[00:11:52] Megan: and chilling.

[00:11:52] Megan: I look at my dogs do

[00:11:53] Samantha: Yeah. Totally.

[00:11:54] Megan: looks so

[00:11:55] Samantha: You're like, why can't I be as chill as you, Bentley? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So, so up and down. And then after three minutes, like literally just at a time you're on your iPhone, when you hit three minutes, take a deep breath in through the nose and pull, like pull the breath all the way up. And if you can kind of like squeeze the body, like engage the muscles a little bit.

[00:12:18] Samantha: And hold as much as you can. And then when your body says release, just release the breath and you'll notice a significant change in your energy, your view, your anxiety, everything, and just

[00:12:31] Megan: Now, when we release that last one, does it, is it through the nose or mouth or does it matter? Through the mouth. 

[00:12:36] Samantha: The amount of relaxation just from three minutes is pretty extraordinary. So there's two types of breathwork. There's breathwork for relaxation and there's breathwork for transformation. So breathwork for relaxation is basically continual conscious breath. That's under eight minutes.

[00:12:54] Megan: So like the pattern you just gave

[00:12:55] Samantha: The pattern I just gave, but the timing matters when it comes to like the zone that we're in.

[00:13:00] Samantha: So

[00:13:01] Samantha: meditative is under eight minutes. breathwork for relaxation is under eight minutes. That's when we're still sort of in our conscious mind. We're, we're present. We can do it while we're washing dishes or at our computer or whatever it is. After eight minutes, we enter a zone called breathwork for transformation.

[00:13:19] Samantha: Now in that zone Where the response of the amygdala is, is suppressed even more. And then we go into a different zone. I recommend doing this type of breath work. Lying down. Ideally with a facilitator. I love, I like, even myself, I've been doing breath work for 15 years and I love doing it with a facilitator.

[00:13:37] Samantha: It's just so healing and so beautiful and you can do it on zoom and all sorts of things. But after that eight minutes, then the body just completely goes into an altered state of consciousness. And that's when we can really begin to do some of like the deeper trauma healing, releasing, you know, the stuck energy.

[00:13:54] Samantha: That's in our body like every single one of us if we're human We have like micro traumas that have occurred throughout our life or or or big ones and if we don't release that energy It's just stored in our system. It's stored in our body We're essentially emotionally constipated and the breath allows us to like release some of that energy so that we can feel more of ourselves

[00:14:15] Megan: Wow.

[00:14:16] Megan: Now let me ask you with with the one that's under the eight minutes, you mentioned like, Oh, doing this while you're washing dishes. I mean, is this something you could do on like a walk or should you 

[00:14:24] Samantha: For sure 

[00:14:25] Megan: still? Okay.

[00:14:26] Samantha: Yeah, like under three minutes or like, like in that three minute range you can do it while you're on a walk. You can do it. Don't never do breathwork driving. Never do it when you're in water. That's my two. That's my two thing.

[00:14:36] Megan: Oh, cause you're just so relaxed in the water even.

[00:14:39] Megan: Yeah. 

[00:14:40] Samantha: can happen. You know, like if you're in a bath and doing it and like, you know, you get, I don't know.

[00:14:46] Samantha: I just like, I'm like, don't do it. Like there's some, there's some classes that I've taken where. It's in a pool and you're on an air mattress and it's facilitated and it's very safe and that you have like that feeling of like the water and the breath. It's, it's pretty cool. But if you're doing it by yourself and you're not being facilitated, I just don't recommend that.

[00:15:04] Samantha: And then when you're driving, like don't do it when you're driving. Like I've tested the waters while driving and just, I 

[00:15:10] Megan: recommend it.

[00:15:11] Megan: Yeah. I mean, probably the same thing. You wouldn't want to meditate while driving either. Like let's stay focused on the

[00:15:15] Samantha: Totally. Let's see. Exactly. 

[00:15:16] Megan: what I love about this is I think there are, I know for a fact there are other women out there like myself.

[00:15:22] Megan: Cause I hear them. I talk to them where it's like, I believe in the benefits of meditation and I hate using limiting words such as like, but I just can't do that. But I mean, I'm gonna be honest. I'm always, every time I try a meditation practice, it just, it fizzles quick because I'm, I just, I think by the end of it, I don't feel like I'm experiencing the benefits.

[00:15:42] Megan: I know others do because I can't shut off the, I would just, I just want to get into action,

[00:15:49] Megan: Now I will say, if I do it at the end, end of the day, I have much better success because I'm not feeling like all the, you know, I wake up with energy and ready to go, but I love this even at the beginning of a day.

[00:16:00] Megan: Cause I'm like, it's a process. I'm, my brain is focusing on the process. Like I can imagine me thinking, okay, let's go through the three and out. So my mind's not wandering. It's an actual, like to do not just sit quiet. And I mean, three minutes, even I can't like, I can go, yeah, I can give three, three minutes to help do that. 

[00:16:22] Samantha: if you're like, Hey, I'm going to try this meditation thing out again. Do it on the back end of breath work, because when you're, when, after you do that three minutes or eight minutes or whatever it is,

[00:16:32] Samantha: you're not fighting your mind. You're already, your mind's already offline. So you're just in your body.

[00:16:37] Samantha: So the meditation practice is longer, deeper, richer, and more effective. So sometimes I'll do 20 minutes straight breath work with no meditation at the end, sometimes I'll do three minutes of breath work and then finish it off with 15 minutes of meditation or whatever. I mix it up just depending on like what my body needs for that day.

[00:16:55] Samantha: But if I am going from. working and like in, in a PNL talking to my team, doing something, I've got a million things on my brain. I'm like, what am I going to cook tonight? Oh my goodness. I need to get my car washed. Shoot. I need to take that thing to the blah, blah, blah. And then I'm like, let's meditate.

[00:17:11] Samantha: There's no way, like the amount of like the amount of like filtering, I need to get through all of

[00:17:17] Megan: That will plus it. That just feels like another to do on your list. Right. Oh, now I have that. Now I need to meditate. Now I 

[00:17:22] Samantha: That's it. That's it. That's it. 

[00:17:24] Megan: now I know a lot of listeners have. are probably familiar with my three step ditch the overwhelm process that I teach. That is, you know, I always am on the tactical, pragmatic, like stuff side of things, but I am seeing, like, I am already really excited to maybe shift this to a four step ditch the overwhelm process that step one is do this three minutes and now go to my traditional step one of now let's get out the post it notes then, because I can even see the.

[00:17:56] Megan: How much mental calmness and energy shift could happen before we then go, okay, let's get tactical and figure out how we get back into action here. Well, when we're not in a hyper anxious

[00:18:09] Samantha: for sure. And it makes the action so 

[00:18:12] Samantha: much 

[00:18:12] Samantha: more 

[00:18:12] Samantha: productive.

[00:18:14] Samantha: When we are taking action from a place of overwhelm, when we're taking action from a place of fear or, Whatever it is, the product, the outcome is not good. Like when I'm, when I'm on a leadership meeting and maybe we're the previous month, the numbers were down and I'm feeling stressed and I'm feeling anxious and I'm trying to problem solve and I'm in that state, nothing good comes out of my mouth,

[00:18:37] Samantha: right?

[00:18:38] Samantha: But if I take three minutes and I, Release the stress. I released the overwhelm. I got back into my body. I got back into my heart that my come from, like where my thoughts are coming from, where my energy is coming from. It's just a different place. It's a, it's a more embodied place. And so the creativity that comes from that place is way better.

[00:18:57] Samantha: The problem solving is way better. I'm in a very clear mind. It's just the ripple effect of releasing the anxiety and really being mindful of where your behaviors are coming from changes everything, right? It's like,

[00:19:11] Samantha: Your partner, right? They can say the same sentence to you, but if it comes from a place of like frustration or it comes from a place of love, it has a completely 

[00:19:19] Samantha: different impact. 

[00:19:19] Megan: completely different impact.

[00:19:20] Megan: Yeah. And even your, your mental state at the time, something is said to you can be received in two totally. I mean, I just, yeah, I was not mom of the year last night. I was just sharing this with a friend. Cause I was like, my daughter asked me a very simple question. request at the end of the evening last night.

[00:19:37] Megan: And I, I lost it. Cause I'm like, Oh my gosh, like one more thing. If that same question had been asked of me at eight o'clock in the morning, it would have been no big deal. Right. But my, where my head was, was in a completely different place. Cause it was the end of the day and my reaction and response to it.

[00:19:54] Samantha: we were creating reality with our thoughts and with our energy all day long. 

[00:19:59] Samantha: And so the thing that I love about breath work is I can shift my reality in real time. I don't have to wait for the thing to happen. I don't have to wait for the numbers to go up.

[00:20:08] Samantha: I don't have to wait for that employee to perform better. I don't have to wait for my husband to whatever fill in the blank. It's like, I can, I'm the one responsible for that. And if I notice, like I can get. Like just this feeling of like agitation in my system. We're like, oh, here's what it is. It's 

[00:20:26] Megan: It's patience.

[00:20:27] Megan: I was just gonna say for me, it's when my patience starts running real

[00:20:30] Samantha: Yes, Breathwork helps me be more patient because my pacing through life Is quite quick as it is yours.

[00:20:37] Samantha: And I'm sure a lot of our listeners, right? Cause it's like, we're high achievers. We're like, let's freaking go. So my patience is quite low because my quick start is 

[00:20:45] Samantha: very high. 

[00:20:46] Samantha: And so I have like my edge in this life is to be more patient with my husband, more patient with my team members. Cause I'm like, wait, you guys, Rome was built in a day.

[00:20:56] Samantha: Like, let's go. And we can do this by 6 PM. Like, I don't know what you're, you're farting around. And so that's my work right now is like learning patience. And I do that through breath because the breath is in the present moment. And so when I breathe, it's like all of like my ego, destination, addiction, speed, stuff just falls away.

[00:21:18] Samantha: And I get so present to the, like, what's the rush,

[00:21:22] Megan: And I could really see this being beneficial. I'm trying to like, I kind of have a couple big transitions of my day every day. So there's like the, I'm sitting down to start my work transition, like out of mom and morning routine and all that. I have my transition of, you know, wrapping up here and then going to pick my daughter up from school and going back into mom mode.

[00:21:44] Megan: Then there's kind of the, Post dinner hour before family time transition, and I'm seeing that I bet if I were to just take three minutes During those three transitions each day and do this that it would likely make that because right now my solution is always like I just try and create 20 minutes of Not doing something before the next transition, but that's not as Proactive is saying, I am taking three minutes for this breath work and then maybe I don't need the 20 minutes of transition

[00:22:18] Samantha: You won't. I promise. You won't. And even like, when we have the 20 minute transition and it's not intentional, we feel it. I 

[00:22:26] Megan: I mean, 

[00:22:27] Megan: I 

[00:22:27] Megan: do.

[00:22:27] Megan: Yes. I mean, and I don't know what I'm doing with it, but I'm proactively going, I'm not trying to wrap up a task and run out the door, right? I'm giving myself space, but it's not very intentional space. And so I love, I love thinking about maybe using it for that as 

[00:22:41] Samantha: It's, yeah, you'll, you'll,

[00:22:42] Megan: know, three

[00:22:43] Samantha: three minutes on it with a top hold and like, maybe like a one minute just like pausing after the breath work. It'll be such a shift. Like when I, we have home offices, my husband and I, and so when I got out of this office, I do that three minutes because when I'm in CEO go mode, like more of like my masculine, and then I meet him in that, he's like, why am I living with a dude?

[00:23:04] Samantha: Like what's happening? Right. So like, 

[00:23:06] Samantha: I, 

[00:23:06] Samantha: I'll. 

[00:23:07] Megan: are very

[00:23:08] Samantha: Yeah. And so I, I do my breath work. I get back into my heart. I like, I'm like, leave the work in the office. And then I go out and then I'm in like, more like wife mode. 

[00:23:21] Megan: Oh, I'm so excited to try this. And I know for our listeners that have, you know, shared, you know, maybe the meditation, the yoga, whatever, just they're, they're not finding their, their jam with it. I think this is going to be something anyone can commit to saying, well, I mean, I can try anything for three minutes, right?

[00:23:39] Megan: And at least the research I've done prior to our chat here today and talking with people that I know have used Breathwork, they have all said that they had the same experience you did, which was the very first time they did it after a couple of minutes, they instantly noticed something. So I don't think this is something where we have to commit to going, well, I'm going to try it for 30 days and see if I feel any different, you know,

[00:23:58] Samantha: So my favorite story about this, the efficiency and the immediacy of breathwork is this story. I was teaching breathwork at a maximum security prison in Northern California about four years ago. And I was brought in to teach breathwork to the inmates who are going to be in prison for life.

[00:24:15] Samantha: And it was myself and 30 men. And I got in there and they sort of looked at me and they're like, 

[00:24:22] Megan: What's this 

[00:24:23] Samantha: this? What's this shit from Southern California gonna teach me about shit? Right. So I, I, yeah, I sort of like set the scene and I did the breathwork and we, we did about 20 minutes. So it was like quite a deep one at like the eight to 10 minute mark.

[00:24:38] Samantha: Every single one of them 

[00:24:39] Samantha: was crying. Like there was 

[00:24:40] Samantha: tears down their face and at the 20 minute mark, once we like completed and I brought everyone back, the it just makes me emotional every single time I tell a story, but like the look on their face and like the connection between each of them was.

[00:24:55] Samantha: Insane. It was extraordinary. And this one man came up to me and he just looks at me. He was bald with tattoos all over his face and he's like crystal blue eyes. And I'll never forget this. And he just looks at me and he says, if I knew how to do that, I wouldn't be here right now. 

[00:25:11] Samantha: He's like, I, that's the first time that I've ever felt my heart. And so it just speaks to the immediacy and the efficiency of this practice. You don't need to have any prerequisite. You don't need to wait for it to work. It doesn't have to be

[00:25:23] Megan: Guys, you don't have to buy an app or a tool or a journal 

[00:25:26] Samantha: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:25:28] Megan: No purchase required.

[00:25:30] Samantha: Yeah. Like just. Breathe. Like even just taking one, even that, you know, we got married a couple of months ago. And one of the things that I did throughout the entire, we had like this crazy four day wedding. And one of the things I did throughout the entire four days, cause everyone was like, it goes so quick. I'm like, I want to take these deep intentional breaths.

[00:25:48] Samantha: And I want to like, soak the energy into every single one of my cells. And I just want to like, Feel the experience and let it like really land in my body. And it just took like one deep breath and like soaking in that energy. And it just like, it helps us not miss the point.

[00:26:03] Megan: Oh my goodness, I am so, I am, I am genuinely like ecstatic to bring this practice into my life because I'm like, I know I can do that. And I 

[00:26:13] Megan: think for a lot of our listeners, if you relate to the go, go, go high achieving, I like to get stuff done. I think even you can be nodding in your head right now and going, okay, I can do that.

[00:26:23] Megan: Um, I just, I cannot thank you enough for being here and sharing this with us today. I think this is a, a proven tool for truly bringing harmony into our lives. 100%. Now, where can people, if they are interested in learning more and diving deeper into this, where can people connect with you and learn more?

[00:26:44] Samantha: Yeah. Come, come say hi to me on Instagram. Let me know that you found me here and I answer all of my DMs. I check them every single day and then I can sort of guide you. Give me a little insight on like what you want. I can guide you to breathwork tracks. I can guide you to like a, Just deeper learning. We do live events all the time.

[00:27:03] Samantha: So if you want to come to like an online live event or an in person live event, our, the main thing that we do at Paws is we train people to become breathwork facilitators. So if you are someone who wants to bring this practice into your work let me know and I'm, I can direct you there, but come say hi.

[00:27:17] Samantha: And 

[00:27:18] Megan: And I'll put your link in the show notes, but what is your Instagram handle for

[00:27:21] Samantha: Skelly, just my 

[00:27:22] Samantha: first and 

[00:27:22] Samantha: last 

[00:27:23] Megan: Samantha Skelly. Easy peasy. All right. And it's Skelly with a K everyone. S K E L 

[00:27:27] Samantha: S 

[00:27:28] Megan: So, well, thank you so much, Samantha. It has been a real pleasure.