In this episode of the Wisdom & Wanderlust Podcast, Michael and Robyn talk with Hannah Gresser, a soulful, audacious and compassionate traveler. Hannah was struck with wanderlust at the age of 15 during her first international travel experience in Brazil with her father. Since then, she has dedicated her life to transformation and helping people evolve and become the best versions of themselves through plant medicine and most recently, breathwork.

Hannah shares how her lifelong battle with anxiety and depression led her to plant medicine, which then helped her discover the power of breathwork for her healing. She walks us through some simple tricks to calm the mind and body in a few short seconds. She also discusses her new home in Hawaii and the wisdom she is learning from the indigenous cultures there.

"With breath and with creating these really short mini practices, that’s actually creating a more sustainable longer term change like domino effect than these huge breakthrough meditations that go on for a week. Those are great and I have so much fun and I have profound insights that come from them, but it’s the daily practice of breath and the daily practice of yoga and movement that really sinks in to a whole other level of being and embodying." - Hannah Gresser [05:56]

"I realized that breath can do exactly the same thing that all of these medicines can do, but almost… I don’t need to go and reach for anything. All I have to do is *takes a deep breath* and that’s the medicine." - Hannah Gresser [15:53]

"Breath is always available and always possible." - Hannah Gresser [20:13]

"I just want to tell everybody and share this simplicity of what I’ve learned: that it can go as simple or as complex as you like. And at least at this point in my journey, simplicity is what’s been the most helpful." - Hannah Gresser [23:41]

"The Hawaiian culture is deep. This culture is so deep and it’s so rich. And being here even just for the two months that I’ve been here, it’s taking me on this wild journey of realizing how much myth relates to the life." - Hannah Gresser [44:50]

What You Will Learn:

• [00:01] Intro
• [03:16] How to make it too small to fail
• [08:37] Meeting Hannah Gresser
• [09:46] Her different adventures and journeys before Hawaii
• [13:17] Where her interest in plant medicine came from
• [16:50] How breathwork superseded plant medicine to her
• [21:35] If there was a breathing technique she had a master
• [23:56] The simplest expression of breathing
• [32:39] Five qualities or breath
• [35:16] How to remember to breath
• [40:37] Correlating different personality types with different types of breath
• [41:55] Resources to learn more about these practices
• [43:38] Where to contact Hannah Gresser
• [47:32] How she’s changed her outlook about plant medicine
• [52:14] What is Holotropic Breathwork
• [55:27] Outro

Resources:

• Hannah Gresser’s website
• Email Hannah Gresser
• Master John Douglas
• Wim Hof
• Journey to the Heart: Daily Meditations on the Path to Freeing Your Soul by Melody Beattie
• Science of Breath: A Practical Guide by Rudolph Ballentine and Swami Rama
• Himalayan Institute
• Optimize.me
• Breathing on Optimize.met
• Grof Transpersonal Training’s Holotropic Breathwork