Achieve More, Grind Less & Increase Your Aliveness with Michael Ashcroft

09/01/22 • 96 min

It's always fun to have conversations with friends and this one, in particular, has been several years in the making. If you're interested in meditation, breathwork or getting more done with more joy then this episode is a must-listen.

Some of the themes we unpack include: what it means to 'expand your awareness', exploring the space and freedom between stimulus + response, what it means practically to 'escape grind mode' and what we both mean when we talk about increasing our sense of 'aliveness'.

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🔗 Resources & Links

👋 Follow Michael over on Twitter @m_ashcroft👨‍🎓 Learn more about Michael's Course at expandingawareness.org✍️ Read Michael's Essays on Every

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🫁 Episode Sponsor // NSM

This episode of Curious Humans is brought to you by the one and only 'Nervous System Mastery' ~ which is my flagship 5-week bootcamp designed to equip you with evidence-backed Protocols to Cultivate Greater Agency Over Your Physical, Mental & Emotional State.

The 2022 cohort will be running this November ~, and my sense is that if this conversation resonates with you then you'd likely be a great fit for our upcoming cohort. This NSM curriculum represents my attempt to distil everything that I've learnt in recent years about how to create the conditions for our nervous system's flourishing & previous students have shared how partaking not only improved their sleep and quality of relationships but also tap into deeper states of joy, clarity and confidence in their lives.

So, with all that said, I'm proud of the way this is coming together ~ and it's also by far the best way you can help to support this podcast ~ so if you're intrigued at all you can find more details and apply to join this year's cohort over at >> nsmastery.com <<

“Nervous System Mastery is the most powerful thing I've ever done for personal growth. I had previously explored breathwork, meditation, therapy, and other approaches, but always felt like something was missing..." – Sam Sager, NSM Alumni

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🔗 Resources & Links

👋 Follow Michael over on Twitter @m_ashcroft👨‍🎓 Learn more about Michael's Course at expandingawareness.org✍️ Read Michael's Essays on Every

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🫁 Episode Sponsor // NSM

Previous Episode

New Frontiers of Breathwork: Translating the Language of the Breath & Cultivating Nervous System Resilience with Ed Dangerfield

In this episode, Edward Dangerfield and I do a deep dive on a new modality of breathwork, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Facilitated Breath Repatterning ~ or FBR for short ~ will be globally recognised in 4-5 years' time and that the research that is beginning here in Bali will go on to make some significant discoveries about the connection between breathing patterns + patterns of behaviour.

As you'll hear in this conversation, what I believe is truly unique about this mode of breathwork ~ is that it is both scientific in its approach, involving the practitioner 'reading the breath' of the client, and then making facilitations that often elicit profound shifts. I'll also add that my capacity to hold myself through intense experiences and feel comfortable expressing emotions has been transformed by this work.

Since recording the initial conversation with Ed (link) I completed a 400hr training with him and the team here in Bali. But despite having literally hundreds of hours of conversations with him, I learnt so many new things myself from this conversation.
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Some of the highlights were:

🕵️‍♂️ Ed describes what I consider to be his superpower for paying attention to subtle cues that he's noticing and tracking in clients ~ like a real-life Sherlock Holmes ~ everything from their posture to their tone of voice and the words they choose ~ which then allows him to make generally highly accurate hypotheses about their breathing patterns and how this shows up in their lives.

🫁 He walks us through an imaginary breath translation ~ so that you as a listener will get a sense for this art of reading and interpreting the language of breath. I also loved hearing him articulate the connection between capacity for dynamic breathing and dynamic thinking ~ the very tangible effects on health and lived experience of having Maladaptive breathing patterns.

🚀 And finally some of his bold ideas for the broader impact that this emerging modality of FBR might have ~ running large-scale studies, working with leaders of organisations to move them from moving overachievers to high achievers & an idea to design a breathwork-specific wearable device that could enable self-guided journeys to be run safely.

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🫁 Episode Sponsor // NSM

This episode of Curious Humans is once again sponsored by Nervous System Mastery ~ and the second experimental cohort that I will be running later this year. If you are even curious enough about this work to begin listening to a podcast episode titled 'New Frontiers of Breathwork' ~ then my sense is that you would be a great fit for the upcoming cohort of Nervous System Mastery that I'll be running in the Autumn (or Fall as Americans like to say) later this year.

This is where I'm pouring the majority of my creative energy these days and I'm proud of the way it's coming together. You can find more details about the unique curriculum here >> nsmastery.com <<

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🔗 Resources & Links

🎙️ Listen to my first conversation with Ed back in 2019 (link)
📚 'Nurturing Resilience' by Kathy Kain (link)
📸 Ed's Instagram: @edwarddangerfield
🖥️ Breathwork Bali Website (link)
🎙️ Related conversation on Functional Breathwork with Conni Biesalski (link)

🌎 Recommended International Breathwork Practitioners

SF/Bay Area – Jonny Miller (

Next Episode

The Art & Science of Leveraging Your Physiology with Aaron Alexander

Aaron is a pioneering manual therapist and movement coach, founder and creator of the Align Method.

I'm currently looking at Aaron's book (The Align Method) & it's one of the books that has most impacted my relationship with not just fitness and movement, but a new philosophy of seeing the world as a playground and the fact that I'm recording this whilst squatting ~ is in part thanks to the wisdom and research that he shares.

This is one hell of a fun conversation packed with big ideas and super practical takeaways ~ we range from talking about the value of play and emotional fluidity ~ to post-ejaculatory experiences and a mini-masterclass in how to leverage your physiology & posture to change how you feel.

“I believe the way to obtain true, optimal health is through aligning our mind, body, and movement. The fundamentals are simple and I’m here to help.”
– Aaron Alexander

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🔗 Resources & Links to Aaron's Work

👋 Follow Aaron over on Instagram @alignpodcast
🎙️ Listen to his phenomenal podcast 'Align Podcast'📚 Grab a copy of Aaron's book The Align Method👨‍🎓 Explore Aaron's upcoming 6-week course
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🫁 Episode Sponsor // Nervous System Mastery

This episode of Curious Humans is brought to you by the one and only 'Nervous System Mastery' ~ which is my flagship 5-week bootcamp designed to equip you with evidence-backed Protocols to Cultivate Greater Agency Over Your Physical, Mental & Emotional State.

The 2022 cohort will be running this November ~, and my sense is that if this conversation resonates with you, then you'd likely be a great fit for our upcoming cohort. This NSM curriculum represents my attempt to distil everything that I've learnt in recent years about how to create the conditions for our nervous system's flourishing & previous students have shared how partaking not only improved their sleep and quality of relationships but also tap into deeper states of joy, clarity and confidence in their lives.

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