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I'm Dave Greenwood, and this is Overcoming Distractions. If you are an adult with adhd, a busy professional, an entrepreneur, a high achiever, or just need some strategies to navigate your adult adhd, you're in the right place. Who am I? I'm an entrepreneur with ADHD and the author of two books, Overcoming Distract and Overcoming Burnout. I coach and mentor people just like you, and together we navigate the ups and downs of adult adhd, from getting out of our own way to helping people just like you thrive in the workplace. That's what I do. Want more info on working with me? Hit overcoming distractions.com ready? Let's get to today's podcast. Hi, guys, we're back. It is Overcoming Distractions. You know that because you hit the download button. Thank you again for hanging out with us. And if you are that busy professional, demanding career entrepreneur, solopreneur, don't care what the industry is, and you just happen to get distracted from time to time, then you're in the right place. So I know many busy adults with ADHD have trouble hitting the pause button, myself included, even for a few minutes. But I also know how powerful it can be. And I don't care how you do it. It's like your to do list. I don't care if it's on a napkin or on a digital app. Okay. Practicing some type of pausing during our day is something that many of us with ADHD do not do, but highly recommended. So breath work, mindfulness, whatever you want to call that, pause in your day, in your week is a powerful tool for many of us with adhd. And I know many of you listening right now haven't hit the pause button in a while. I know I talk to you people one on one. I get it. So we're going to dig into this a little bit. So we have Curtis Lee Thomas. He's a corporate mindfulness trainer. He's the founder of Breathwork Detox, and his latest book is how to Thrive in the Age of Anxiety. Did I get that right?
B
Yes.
A
Cool. All right, awesome. So do us a favor, because I like to dig right into this so people don't go on to another podcast or do something else. Right? So explain breath work. Detox, first and foremost.
B
All right, we're gonna click bait, hook them in right now.
A
There we go. That's right. Don't leave people.
B
So first of all, breath work is an umbrella term, right? Like yoga. You hear yoga, but there's many different forms of yoga. There's very intense Kundalini type Yoga and this very chill and mellow such as yin type yoga and different yoga will give you different results. So breathwork's no different, it's an umbrella term and there's all different types of breathing. And now when people think of breathwork, they're thinking of, you know, okay, you know, in through the nose, out through the mouth. And the particular method of breathwork, detox is the most powerful somatic, cathartic breathing technique in the world. And it does pretty miraculous, multifaceted things that I'm more than happy to share. And I discovered it on my journey and I can also get, get into that as well.
A
So yeah, so, so what is your journey and how did you discover it? And I guess a follow up question to that would be is, is how is it different from other types of breath work or modalities if you will.
B
For sure. So I'll start with the, the context, right? So I was already coming from a world of getting certified as a life coach, hypnotherapist, NLP practitioner, Reiki master, sports science, fitness professionals. Collecting these pieces of paper, right. These made me feel great about myself. And in that journey I developed a stomach condition where doctors couldn't, they couldn't diagnose me, nevermind heal me. It's very frustrating if anyone's been to the doctors and you know, you can't figure out what's wrong and you know you're suffering. So I did every test that western medicine offered, you know, colonoscopies, endoscopies, swallowing pill cameras. I didn't even know they had pill cameras.
A
Yeah, they do.
B
Yeah, that traveled down your small intestine. So that was interesting. And nothing worked. So I became more desperate. So that made me be open minded to other alternative modalities and I started venturing to plant medicine some, you know, some very bizarre, bizarre things. And I eventually found this one ancient breathing technique that you know, I did not think was going to do anything. And I did the, an exercise which is an event actually where they do this one technique and I did it and within one session my stomach condition completely eradicated. That's amazing. My, my life changed, my health changed and I'm a very analytical, logical, practical type person. So I couldn't wrap my head around how the heck one silly little stupid breathing technique fixed my stomach condition, but then did all these other things in, in one. And you know, at that moment I'm like, wow, the world doesn't even know about this. So I made it my mission to go out and share it with the world.
A
You know, it's interesting you say that because my. My second book, Overcoming Burnout, we talked to many people who went through severe burnout. Everything from, you know, I had to, you know, change the role in my company to people who literally sold everything they had and moved across the country and just started new. But there was a woman by the name of Jen who was in a very demanding career, you know, up at three in the morning doing all she was doing marketing and finance and others for this growing company. But anyways, very similar story to yours where she started having digestive issues and stomach issues. And she went to this doctor and that doctor. She actually got on a plane and flew to specialists across the country because they were recommended. Yeah. They couldn't find anything wrong. And then her friends said, hey, go to this meditation class with me. And she's like, yeah, whatever, I'll go just to make you happy. And same type of thing where she came out of it, she goes, I didn't know I could feel like this.
B
Yeah.
A
You know, but because she's been living a certain way for so long. And then she got certified in. In meditation and. And some other things. And now she got. But the point is, you know, and I don't bash modern medicine, there's obviously uses for it, but kind of bugs me sometimes when people have issues like this and a doctor doesn't say, hey, what's your work? Like, what's your. What's going on in your life? What's stressing you out? What's. Et cetera, et cetera. Do you find that when you kind of travel and talk to people that, that they like you, they couldn't get an answer or even have a, like a dialogue about other things going on in somebody's life?
B
Yeah, I mean, a lot of those things, like, you know, alternate modalities. Those doctors aren't allowed to prescribe those types of things. Right.
A
Well, yeah, yeah, but. But do they ask the question?
B
I guess, you know, do they care is the real question. Right, right. Yeah.
A
Because I had an endoscopy. You know, I had an endoscopy and I actually was recently the. And I. I had to. I had to offer that information up, you know, because I have an aging parent. I've got some other things going on. You know, I mean, my father's in his 90s, so. So there's a fair amount of stress and uncertainty going on in my life. I will share that. But I have. I had to kind of offer that up. So it wasn't asked of me like, hey, what's your life like?
B
Yeah, yeah, unfortunately. And if you look at the statistics, Harvard did a study and they that 60 to 90% of all doctor's visits are stress related.
A
I actually just saw something about that the other day.
B
Yeah, if you look at that number, like, that's astronomical. Because if you look at what happens in the doctor's office, right, the doctor's office is the one who's prescribing you to this specialist, that specialist giving you this pill, that pill. It's fueling a multi, multi billion dollar pharmaceutical industry. Now, I'm not trying to go against the pharmaceutical industry here, but I'm just saying that if you're looking for something to help eradicate, you know, your stress, I haven't found anything that works faster and more efficiently than this. And the reason why breath work, we can compare breath work to meditation because, you know, I do meditation, I do yoga. But unlike meditation and yoga, the results of breathwork detox are immediate and undeniable from one session. And that's important, especially in this world because we do live in a microwave society where people want to see results and they want to see fast. Right? And unfortunately, you don't go to the gym and then wake up with a six pack in the morning, you know? Yeah, things take time and you need to kind of get those compounded results after consistency, like yoga meditation. But when you immediately feel the powers of this, you're like, oh my God. You know, and you, you want to make it a part of your everyday life.
A
So walk us through briefly how somebody
B
would,
A
like you say breath work and meditation are, are kind of different modalities. I think I heard you say so. So what is involved in breath work? Just so people kind of have an understanding and then we can. I'd love to get into, you know, the benefits and how it can help that busy person with adhd.
B
Well, here's the thing. People with adhd, right, it's, it's sometimes hard to sit down and be quiet. And the problem is the world is stressed out. And if you try to get somebody who's already stressed out to sit down, sit still, and do not think a thought for the next 20 minutes, you're gonna get more stressed out. Because we have approximately 50,000 thoughts per day. 80% of those thoughts, unfortunately, are negative in nature and only 20% are positive.
A
Now take the person with ADHD running a business. I would double. Yeah, I would double that number. I don't know if any of you out here, that kind of this is resonating with you, but I think it does.
B
But the crazy part is 98 of the thoughts we had today were the same thoughts we had yesterday.
A
Yeah.
B
So what happens is we're on this hamster wheel recycling these. These crappy thoughts and unsolved problems and whatnot. And if you look at meditation, meditation is like taking your chaotic thoughts like the sea, right? The raging sea, and trying to use your breath and your focus to calm that sea into a still pond. That's meditation.
A
Yeah.
B
Breath work is we're like, okay, you have this chaotic sea, but we're not trying to comet to a still pond. We're doing something active. We're actively breathing. And it's pretty intense. It's very, you know, yang energy. And we're pushing all the crazy thoughts and all the stress out of our energy field rather than trying to calm what's already there. So to kind of give you an example of what the difference is and the difference between meditation and yoga and breathwork is the barrier to entry. People don't think about. We already talked about. It's hard for people to focus, especially today, because you know what meditation is. First and foremost is when you sit in silence and you focus on one thing. Yeah, that's meditation. Now it could be one mantra, it could be one song, it could be one thought, could be one symbol. Whatever it is, you're focusing on one thing to get all the other thoughts, you know, back down. So, you know what it's happening in this world is that we all have one of these, right? These phones. And with.
A
Oh, it's like such the yin and the yang of people with adhd.
B
Right? Well, it is literally, if you want to. If you want to.
A
He's holding up a phone for you people listening to the audio version.
B
If you want to go out and buy a thousand dollar device that will help you defocus, right. And de meditate, it would be your phone. You know, especially social media, because what we're doing every day, we're actually practicing defocusing. So, you know, picture it like in old school. We're sitting on a couch, we're watching tv, you and your friends, and somebody has the remote. And every two to three seconds, sometimes five to eight seconds, this changing the channel for an hour straight, you would lose your mind.
A
Right, Right.
B
But the reason why you don't is because you're doing it to yourself and on your own phone every single day, you're doing the opposite of a meditation. So it's unwinding any of the bliss or peace that we even had left in our life, you know, so, so it's really hard for people with ADHD to sit down and meditate. There's the barrier to entry, breath, work, you know, actually, let me talk about yoga really quick because people with yoga, first of all, there's body shaming issues, right? Nobody wants to go into a leotard and start bending in weird ways in front of people. There's also performance anxiety. You go into a yoga class, you're brand new, you got the 30 year, Yogi is bending like a pretzel and you can't even bend down and touch your toes.
A
Oh, I know. And you know what, I go to a gym up the street and they have some yoga classes. But I actually, I went to the front desk recently and I said, are there any dudes in this yoga class? And she's like, oh yeah, don't worry about it. So, but I think that's a concern too, right?
B
There's a lot of, there's a lot of barriers to entry when it comes there, you know, and 54% of the world can't even bend down and touch their toes and there's all these issues. So. But you take breath, work, you could be £400, fully clothed, lay down on your back with injuries and just breathe and have one of the most profound experiences that you'll ever have. So, and, and you could have a chaotic mind. You could have adhd. And that is me. And that's why this works so effectively, you know, not just for me, but, you know, millions of other people.
A
Yeah, yeah. So we've heard about the nervous system being kind of like, like alert all the time when people are stressed out and in chaos and busy and going from one thing to the next and, and the nervous system never gets a chance to kind of quiet down. So can you explain what happens? Because I don't think people, I think a lot of people think stress is carried like in the mind. But I mean, the body's holding on to the stress. I mean, that much I do know. I'm, I can feel it, you know, but, but what, what happens to the nervous system when people embark on, on, you know, breath work techniques?
B
Yeah, well, I'm gonna agree with you first and foremost because, you know, the, the mind always tends to think into the future. Right. The soul always wants to be present, but the body holds on to the past. The body is a living library of all of our human experiences, which is why they say the body keeps score and why the Issues are in the tissues because that's where we hold chronic stress, unresolved emotions, trauma, you name it. So we have to learn how to release these things and let the body do what the mind cannot. The mind is great for certain things, but it's. It's not good for releasing what the body's holding on to. Like you said, you feel it in your body, which is also, you know, your nervous system, which is the. It's the operating system for how you feel. So when you do breath work, well, I want to say this, that 99.9% of the time, you should be breathing through your nose. That should be your default. However, with this breathwork detox technique, it is done through the mouth. It's all mouth breathing. Reason being is the nose breathing is more connected to your parasympathetic nervous system. Right. Your rest and digest where you want to be, and your sympathetic nervous system is connected to your mouth. So when we do this mouth breathing technique, it's clearing out all of the nervous energy and your sympathetic nervous system, all the stress, unresolved emotions, things that we're just carrying. That's heavy. And I think that's probably one of the most surprising things that people realize when they go through this breathwork detox technique is that I have about anywhere from 50 to 60% of people in my events or my virtual events or that cry. And. And I'm talking about. They weren't expecting this. They didn't come here for that. They came here just right. Peace. And I've led breath work for the most masculine men on the planet. I mean, prison inmates, war veterans, Navy Seals, NFL players, they all cry, including me, you know, and. And I'm like, what is. What is this? And it's because the body holds on to that stuff, and. And you release it. And when you do that, it frees up your nervous system, because it's not the weight of the baggage, it's how you carry it. And a lot of, you know, single mothers or mothers with four kids taking care, they have so much stress, and they have to stay strong for their kids. Right. I'm an entrepreneur since I was 16 years old, and I got employees I got to feed, you know, I got. I got a daughter, you know, that I've. I've raised as a single dad for, you know, up until she turned 18 and moved out the house. There's a lot of pressure that us as men put on ourselves, you know, to perform, so nobody sees our baggage and.
A
Right.
B
And the irony is you don't either. Because what I learned about, you know, being this work for almost two decades now is that you don't know what you're carrying until you release it.
A
I mean, that's a good point, because I think. And we'll take people who. Who go through burnout. They. They just become accustomed to feeling a certain way, you know, because burnout is just chronic stress. You know, it's death by a thousand cuts. As. As I like to say, you know, it's just like, you know, you could work your butt off for, you know, months or even, you know, a year to. You can get away with it. You can have other things going on in your life. You know, one of my pet peeves is, you know, you get on social media and people talk about, oh, you know, drink a bottle of water and, you know, tell your boss no and all this stuff. But, you know, you got what I just cited. You know, the people have other things going on in their life. Like you say, maybe it's a single mom with four kids. Maybe it's somebody who's caring for an aging parent. There's. There's. There's a complexity to what people are dealing with. Correct?
B
Yes. And, you know, and I think the point I want to hit on is that, you know, when we're going through it, we don't really know how much we're carrying. And what happens is it builds up, it accumulates, and unbeknownst to the conscious mind, it begins to wreak havoc on your nervous system, which affects how you feel. Most people don't feel comfortable in their own bodies, and they're not even aware, and they just. They just know. They don't feel good. So, you know, when I found out there's a tool that we all possess inside of us, and it has the power to do what it's done. Now, David, I want to give some context here. I've done plant medicines. I've done combo, which is like frog venoms, where the shaman burned you with a cigarette hole and puts frog venom in you and you projectile vomit. Like, I was so desperate I was doing anything. And I didn't just wake up one day like, oh, let's do this. No, I was desperate, and I wanted to fix myself. Been to the jungle with my mother, did ayahuasca.
A
I don't even know what that is.
B
It's a people, all right? People who do know what that is, that they'll. It's the most intense, psychedelic. Joe Rogan always talks about it. So I. I'm just saying this because I have. I have some pretty bizarre experiences that most people won't get to have to compare it to. And I just couldn't wrap my head around how this was possible when. When, you know, I was in that did my first session many, many years ago, and it can healed my stomach condition. I was sitting there and I just couldn't figure out how it's possible. But it did hit me. I was like, okay. The reason why these doctors couldn't tell me what was wrong with me because I did fly from New York to LA to the best doctors, and is because my issue wasn't physical. It was energetic, it was emotional. What I was dealing with anatomically. You couldn't cut me open and be like, oh, there's this issue. Right. So it was internal. It was. It was that stress, and stress is the killer. It actually wrote down what you said about burnout. It's like death by a thousand cuts. So true.
A
No, it is. It's. It's. Yeah. And. And sadly, some people feel like they. They do want to go that route, you know, because it does get so bad. They're just trapped in a situation. So. And I think that's why so many people. You know, there's a section of my book called Burn the Boats where people just. They literally had to sever friendships, relationships, job, identity, everything else to just completely start new. So, I mean, that's how bad, as you know, because you deal with these people every day in your work, that, that this is how bad it can get for. For people.
B
Oh, yeah. It can destroy families. I mean, it's, It's. There's no limit to what it can do. You know, there's a one event that I did where Dr. Michael Bruce was present, and he's the world's number one sleep doctor. I believe he's been on Oprah, Dr. Oz, like 39 times. And he sent me a testimonial, actually put on my website. And he's like, you know, my wife is thanking you right now. My kids are thanking you right now. Everyone's thanking you, you know, because I'm showing up differently. Because he didn't realize how much stress from his, his job and his new books coming out and all this. And, you know, it's. It's really detrimental what stress does to our health, our families, everything. And just how we react, we become very reactive.
A
Right. Yeah. So I had mentioned to you before, I think people with ADHD are, I think, are natural problem solvers. I truly believe that we do say things that others don't or we find a solution that others don't. However, there's a yin and the yang to that too is I think we ruminate on a lot on things going on in our lives. It could be work related, it could be problems that need to be solved. In your personal life, it could be how do I, how do I grow my business or you know, etc. Etc. And one thing I've learned over time is that we've never, you know, we've never solved that problem. Rumination is like, just like repeating, right? It's, it's repeating the same problem over and over again in the same loop, so to speak. Right? Over and over again without solving the problem and releasing that loop. I'm dumbing it down quite frankly. But, you know, I think you know what I'm saying. But rumination, overthinking, these are, these are classic for busy people with adhd. So how can your technique through breathwork, can that interrupt those patterns? How can that help in some way?
B
I'm going to answer you this question. It is actually the best way that I found to do so and it wasn't in the way that I believed. So when you're doing this technique, I will admit in the first five to eight minutes of doing this technique, you're cursing me out in your head. All, all of your mind frick is coming to the surface and you have all.
A
It's like the first time going to see the personal trainer, right? It's like, I hate you.
B
Yeah, yeah. It's like, you know, but what's happening is all your internal, let's call it resistance inside of you that's already been living there begins to come to the forefront and you begin to see these things, kind of some of them go past the veil of your awareness and. But something magical happens between the 8 and 12 mark in breathwork and you hit your peak resistance. And then on the opposite side of that, all of a sudden you enter into something called transient hypofrontality. And it's a fancy word for flow state. But what happens in the brain is that while you're waking and conscious, your prefrontal cortex begins to quiet down. And that's important because that is your executive decision maker, it's your CEO. It also judges and separates things. Meaning it says, you're you, I'm me, this is good, this is bad. And when that begins to quiet down, all of a sudden I call it like the quantum realm, right? But you enter into the space where you feel connected to everything. And you can see all the pieces and aspects of your life that were always there. And now you begin to connect the dots like major problems. All of a sudden, the simplest solutions just drop in your head like a. Like a download on a computer. And that's like when, you know, Kobe Bryant goes into flow state and hits 81 points. It's like. Like miraculous things can happen when you're in flow state. And the clarity, the level of clarity, this is the reason why I do breath work every day. First of all, the opposite of clarity is confusion. And I believe confusion is temporary insanity. Nobody likes to be confused. You know, should I stay in this job? What's my mission? What's my purpose? You know, should I stay in this relationship? Should I leave? Whatever it may be, Having clarity gives you energy, you know, no.
A
And I think you. You. That is. I'm not going to say a buzzword, but it is something busy people with ADHD do need to constantly remind themselves of is. Is clarity. Clarity. And in. In a whole host of situations, clarity of what my client wants, expected from my boss, you know, and the list goes on. But clarity and where we're going in life and our values and everything else. Lack of clarity, as you say, is where. Where we don't do well.
B
Yeah. And, you know, I love what they. When they asked Tony Robbins about, you know, Tony, how do you stay so motivated? You're such a motivated person. He goes, motivation. I don't need motivation. He goes, my vision is so clear that it pulls me towards my goals.
A
Yeah.
B
You know, and that's the power of. Of having clarity in your life. And that's one of the things that it does, you know, for the mind. So you can go in with the most chaotic, disorganized mind where nothing works for you, and do one of these sessions, this technique, and reach a place that you've probably been trying to reach for 20 years. And that is what made me a believer, because I was that guy, you know, I was, you know, very. I was always a serial entrepreneur. So I said, this going on, that going on, this going on. And, you know, I was diagnosed with ADHD. I was taking anywhere from 30 to 90 milligrams per day, and, you know, was able to get out of that loop. So I have compassion for whatever situation, you know, people may be in. So, you know, as far as a natural technique that can help people, I haven't came across anything better.
A
Yeah. So I always want people to listen to these discussions and walk away with something actionable, something they can Try. I don't care if it's like, oh, I'm gonna try and, you know, do this to my to do list, or I'm gonna try and, you know, manage my time better or whatever the situation is that we're discussing. So give us a kind of a quick little sample of somebody that wants to embark. You know, what. What kind of advice would you give them about what they can expect in the beginning? Maybe it's like, maybe they have two, three, five minutes to maybe get started with this in some way on their own. How. How can they do that? And. And then hopefully get to the next level and speak to somebody like yourself.
B
Yeah. So I would say, first of all, my disclaimer is trying to describe this particular method of breath work is like trying to describe a kaleidoscope to a blind person. It is virtually.
A
That's fair.
B
Impossible. And it cannot be explained. It can only be experienced. I do my best to, you know, not convert people into my breath religion. My intention for going on, you know, podcast runs and tours is to simply spark curiosity.
A
Yeah.
B
If there's anything that I said, you're like, I don't know about that. Go research it or. That seems interesting. Double click it. Go down the rabbit hole, you know, because I have. It's. I dedicated my life to it, and this is. This is what I discovered. So now there's many different techniques, right? There's box breathing that I think people should take up. There's physiological psi, which Andrew Huberman talks about a lot. And then there's a 4, 7, 8 method with Navy SEALs use, and I just stuck with those. I don't like giving people too many things because then they don't do anything. But I'll say this for the technique that we do. It is. It is the mouth breathing. And if you want to just get a tastelet, let's say they don't have five minutes. Let's say they have 15 seconds.
A
Right.
B
Or one minute. The most underrated breathing technique, I believe, is the sigh. And if you take the sigh, right, what is. Now, the body is the most advanced biomechanical machine on the planet. And if you look at what the body does naturally, when the body gets really, really stressed and it begins to pin up so much where it can't take it anymore, the body goes like this. And then it does one of these. It does a sigh of what? Relief.
A
Right.
B
Because that is the body's natural way of relieving stress, tension, and pain is through a sigh. So if you mimic a sigh Right. You take a big inhale, right? You don't hold it in. As soon as you hit the top, it goes and you release through the mouth. Your mouth is an energetic exodus. You cannot achieve the level of detox and stress relief by simply nose breathing. You need to release through the mouth. You know, keep a closed circuit with the nose and you'll go into parasympathetic. But I'm talking of release a detox that could be very cathartic. So that side, do three of them in a row, three conscious size in a row. And before you start the first one, check in and see how you feel. Do three in a row. And I'm talking about big inhales. And when you release that breath, I want you to release something else along with the breath, something that you've been holding on to, something that you've been weighing you down, something that no longer serves you. And that is a 15 to 25 second exercise. That is a great starting place where if you can just do three sets of those, you know, per day, and then do three sets of three, and then you're doing nine of those, it'll take you, you know, under three minutes to do all that. I like to start people out slow. Now, that would give you a taste, maybe 1% of the power of going into a breathwork detox now.
A
No, but I think that's what a lot of people just need is just that, you know, just because, you know, many of us with ADHD aren't good at getting started on things, let's put it that way, you know, and I think what you just said was, was, was great because it can just give somebody just a quick little, little like stepping off the curb, right?
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, I just want to say this is also what I noticed. So adhd, it's not just about focus, right? It's about nervous system dysregulation. Also dopamine imbalance in the, you know, in the body, and a difficulty transitioning between mental states, meaning switching from task to task, stillness, attention. And people with adhd, they carry pent up nervous energy, often mistaken for restlessness or anxiety. So what breath work does is it burns off the excess energy that is stored in the sympathetic nervous system. And it also creates. We didn't really, I didn't plan on getting into this, but it also creates a psychedelic window. And this is, you know, it's cool and fancy, but the reason why it can help is it can enhance introspection, emotional release and pattern awareness. And I believe since adhd, you know, they're often. These folks are often dopamine seeking. Right. So this becomes a healthy euphoric high. Right. That can actually reset us, you know, rather than numb us.
A
Yeah. And I think a lot of people, and again, I'm the furthest thing from a doctor, but I think a lot of adults, I know we see this in younger, you know, kids and young adults, but they find out they have adhd, and the first thing they think of is medication. And I'm going to say, if you. If medication works for you, totally cool. Try it, see what happens. But I also think there's a lot of people out there that don't want to go that route and are willing to experiment with other types of modalities to get where they need to be. So, I mean, medication is only gonna help you focus to get that to do list done or that project or that quote for the client, and it isn't gonna give you the mechanics actually do it. Correct.
B
There's another pill for that. No, I'm joking.
A
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So this was awesome. Anything that I forgot to ask that the busy adult, demanding career, a lot of things going on in their life just happen to have ADHD or I think they have adhd. Is there something I didn't ask you that you want to make sure people know about?
B
You know, I just. I know. I understand. Everyone's busy, right? And there's a saying that goes. And it's like, you know, the whole master and the guru have the conversation is that, you know, everyone should meditate for at least 20 minutes per day. Unless you're too busy, then make it an hour.
A
Yeah.
B
So the point being is that, you know, everyone's busy. But what I noticed about, you know, busy people is that the more stressed you are, the more. The more busy you feel. You can feel busy and not be productive. Like, I don't. I. I stop myself from saying that people. What do you. Oh, I've been busy. No, I've been productive because I've been busy and haven't got anything done. No progress. You know, so I understand that people are busy. There's a lot on their plate, and I bring in that kind of. That joke. And that saying is, because you have to. It is mandatory for you to do something in your life that's going to help regulate your nervous system. Right. And. And. And de. Stress you, you know, and I'm somebody. I've been going to the gym since I was 16 years old. The gym's great. You know, it does help. It knocks off the edge, but it doesn't help with your emotional body.
A
Yeah.
B
And, and that's the difference that, you know, that I've noticed from, you know, going to the gym, not going to the gym, slacking, you know, doing breathwork, slacking on breath work. I was my own case study. So if someone's listening, you know, what are you doing to, you know, help with your. Your stress? Because that is going to be the biggest difference that you can make in your life, is that when you reset your nervous system and you de stress, everything's going to change. You know, things are going to get clearer, things are going to feel easier now. You're going to feel less busy, more productive. So if I can help you feel that the way that I shifted in my life, then, you know, I. I'd love to do so.
A
Cool. How can people find you, connect with you?
B
Yeah. So if they want to go and experience breath work, they can go on breathwork detox.com, just type in breathworkdetox.com and on there, I offer a free master class if somebody wants to get certified and start teaching this, which is where I put most of my energy for the past few years. If you're a CEO and you want to bring this to your company, you know, we could do free consultations. I also do virtual live events. We do them every two weeks, deep sessions. And then we actually have something called the Breathfast Club, which is daily morning live breath work. We're one of the only companies that do that. If somebody wants to try this, you know, I always recommend for your first one, you're going to want to try it, because what's going to happen is you're going to go on YouTube, you're going to see a thousand breathing techniques. You're not going to know which one we talked about today. And it's just like me going to the gym. I know I'm pretty disciplined. I can go to the gym, I can get stuff done. Right. But I also know when it comes to leg day, I'm a little slacker.
A
I'm not.
B
I'm not gonna go all into, like, failure on every. So what do I do for legs for leg day? I get a trainer because I know it's gonna push me and I know I need that guidance and I'm gonna get better results, you know. So if you're starting off, get a trainer, go to one of our guided breathwork events, and I'm going to give you a code called podcast 50, and that's going to give you 50 off the virtual events, and they're very inexpensive. They'll come to, like, 17 bucks.
A
We're gonna we're gonna put that. I'm writing it down right now so we make sure we get it in the show notes, as our podcast. Podcast pro say. Yeah, yeah.
B
And also happy to answer any questions that people may have from the podcast. You know, I'm on Instagram, man from the stars. You can DM me. I'm pretty, pretty responsive. So any way I can be of service? This is why I'm here.
A
Cool. Awesome. Thank you again. Come back anytime. I know the things you discussed are what a lot of people who listen to this are craving for, so they might just not know it yet. But thanks again for all your advice and expertise on this. Sam.
Host: David A. Greenwood
Guest: Curtis Lee Thomas, Corporate Mindfulness Trainer & Founder of Breathwork Detox
Date: April 11, 2026
This episode dives into the transformative role of breathwork for busy adults with ADHD—especially professionals juggling demanding workloads or feeling overwhelmed by daily life. David Greenwood talks with Curtis Lee Thomas about why breathwork is uniquely effective for ADHD brains, how it compares to meditation or yoga, and what actionable steps listeners can start taking immediately. The tone is practical, conversational, and nonjudgmental, aiming to help adults with ADHD regulate stress, gain clarity, and improve productivity.
[03:06] Curtis Lee Thomas:
[04:12] Curtis:
[08:01] David & Curtis:
[10:42] Curtis:
[13:04] Curtis:
[16:17] Curtis:
[20:15] Curtis:
[25:10] Curtis:
[27:31] David & Curtis:
[31:28] Curtis:
[33:42] Curtis:
This episode offers an accessible, stigma-free introduction to breathwork for adult ADHD. Curtis demystifies breathwork as an actionable, science-backed, rapid-reward tool—one that anyone can try in under a minute. Listeners are encouraged to get curious, experiment with the sigh exercise, and reflect on the transformative power of simple, deliberate pauses in their daily routines.
“You don’t know what you’re carrying until you release it.” — Curtis Lee Thomas [19:04]