Breathwork, when done correctly, is one of the world’s most powerful healing modalities, period. And Lukis Mac and Hellé Weston are two of the most epic breathwork guides and stunning human beings I have ever met. In between offering their Owaken Breathwork method to A-list celebrities and biker gangs alike, they joined our Fit For Service community and led us through a journey. It was mind-blowing to say the least. In the deeply personal conversation you’re about to hear, we talk about their challenging backgrounds, which led them to develop their own breathwork healing modality, and receive the wisdom they have collected over thousands of @owakenbreathwork sessions. Stay tuned in to the podcast for when they offer a guided session and follow along for a taste of the experience.

AUBREY: Lukis and Hellé, so good to be sitting across from you, especially coming on the heels of one of the most incredible experiences we've ever had in Fit For Service. 100 people at a time with seven unbelievable facilitators there supporting everyone. And it was as powerful, I had so many people reflecting who had done plant medicine, done ayahuasca, they were saying, this was as powerful as any ayahuasca I've ever done. And it kicked in fast with our crew. I mean, it was so potent. So, I just want to reflect on both of you, thank you for showing up and offering that. Thank you for offering that to the world. And give people who are listening who underestimate breathwork. You may think you know breathwork a little bit, you may have done a little pranayama and yoga, you may have done some awesome breathwork. But with everything, there's just levels, there's levels to everything. And I just feel really honored that we got to meet and weave so I can see breathwork offered at the level, and in the style that you guys are offering, which really deeply resonates with me and so many of the people that I know.

LUKIS: Thank you, brother. Yeah, it was fun. It was awesome. It's one of our favorite things to do. My name is Lukis Mac. 

HELLÉ: And I'm Hellé Weston. 

LUKIS: And we're cofounders of Owaken Breathwork for everyone listening. We've been blessed enough to be traveling around the world for the last five years sharing breathwork. But like you said, it's more than breathwork. We're really here helping people to release suppressed emotions and trauma and work through their shit, and tap into their own inner guidance. One of the things we really love to remind people of is that they are their own healers. So, when we enter into that space, it's a direct experience of transformation and healing. And it's game on, it's all about giving yourself permission to feel your emotions, and tap into your own intuition, and open up beyond the veil. And for those who give themselves permission, shit. Shit gets real, like you said, zero to 100 real quick.

AUBREY: Yeah. One of my favorite sayings is, a healer can heal you, a master will teach you how to heal yourself, and a mystic reminds you that you're already healed. It's always been like this beautiful guide that okay, yeah, awesome, you can heal someone, great. But then they're going to be dependent upon you. But if you can teach them to heal themselves, just like the biblical saying, teach a man to fish rather than give them a fish. And that's what's so powerful about this breathwork is, we're not all able to go rush off and do plant medicine, nor is it even advisable. It's very much a trial by fire to go down that plant medicine route. And obviously, I'm a huge advocate. It's been a big part of my life, and I think it has amazing healing potential. But breathwork is something that's just available always, right there in front of us. There's all of these trillions of atoms of oxygen that each one if you split would create an atomic bomb of energy. And you can breathe them into your body, stack them up, and then they start moving around and pushing out anything that isn't that energy of lifeforce, right? I mean, it's fucking right here.

HELLÉ: It's right here. Your breath is right here. And I think that's been a theme that's been recurring over and over again, showing up amongst people that are drawn to us. Initially, there's skepticism that comes up. I know how to breathe. I mean, Lukis even heard it when I first heard about breathwork. And I felt like we needed to go and check it out. He was like, "I already know how to breathe, Hellé. I'm good. I don't need it."

AUBREY: "Been doing it for a long time."

LUKIS: Yeah, I know how to meditate, I know how to tune in, we don't need to go check this out. But I'm so glad we did, because that first breathwork session that we experienced changed our lives. It was the catalyst for so much healing and growth, and really became our obsession with breathwork. So, it was such a cool journey. And yeah, that's happened a few times in our relationship. Hellé and I have been together for over 14 years now. Hellé will suggest things and I'll be resistant to them. And then she'll say it again. I might be still resistant. And then maybe the third time, and it's starting to click, okay, maybe this is something that is going to be meaningful for us.

AUBREY: Have you ever been right one time, where you were like, "Hellé, I just don't think that's going to work." And then you actually do it, and it was like, see? That was a dud.

HELLÉ: Oh, yeah.

LUKIS: I'd say usually I'm wrong.

AUBREY: I'm with you. Usually I'm wrong too. But every once in a while, you'll be like, "I told you, that was some whack shit."

LUKIS: I 100% get those moments, yeah. Well, we lived in Ubud and Bali for three years, and we experienced many of those moments where things just weren't resonating with us. But also a lot of learning. 

AUBREY: And that's the thing. Have the courage and the curiosity to go try it out. Just try it out. Just see what it is. What is this? Okay, numerology reading. Well, I'm not really a Numerology guy. But fuck it, I'll check it out, see what's going on. Let your mind be open enough to just come in, experience something. You've got so little to lose, especially with something like breathwork. So little to lose, and so much to gain. Potentially a lifelong path that can help you heal, move energy, uncover things about yourself. The risk reward of this. What's the risk? Maybe you lose a little time, maybe it's a little uncomfortable. The reward is a lifelong, life-changing process. It's so in our favor to take a chance on some of these things. 

HELLÉ: It really is. I've seen so many people come into our sessions and expect very little. Or even on the other side of the spectrum, hear a rave review about breathwork, and be like, "Okay, I don't think this is possible for me, but I'm going to give it a go." And they try it, and you always get what you need. That's something that I believe deeply about this work, is your body is so intelligent, and you will get exactly what you need. So, even for anybody listening who has tried breathwork before, I would say if you didn't feel that it gave you what you expected, the experience or the judgments of that experience could be more to do with what you expected versus what you actually got out of it. And it's something that we can keep revisiting over and over again, and every experience is going to be different, there's more to discover. But you have your breath for a reason. And this ability to tap in and access these non-ordinary states of consciousness is there in our physiology for a reason. And the release that's possible is necessary in these times, with everything going on.

LUKIS: Yeah. Well, breath is one of our original medicines. And let's be clear what we're doing, because there's so many different types of breathwork. There's literally hundreds of different types of breathwork practices. So, we're laying down, and we're using connected breathing for a longer period of time, for at least 60 minutes, sometimes our journeys go into two hours. And we're diving deep. One of the first things that starts to happen is you start to feel a surge of lifeforce and energy moving through your body. Your whole body starts vibrating, and you start to open up. You can feel it and it's intense. And then you start to access more of your limbic brain, which is the part of your brain that processes memory and emotions. So memories are coming up, you're understanding yourself, you're feeling your emotions, you might be crying or laughing and moving through it. 

AUBREY: I mean, my crying ratio for breathwork is like 93%, if I had to just estimate based on instinct. If I go through a breathwork session, and I don't cry, I'm like, "Huh, interesting. That's weird." It's not even that I go in sad, and be like, "Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good today. I'm going to do some breathwork." Sometimes it's a few tears, sometimes it's like deep belly sobs. Like sobs for the pain of my whole existence, and the existence of every being in the world that's suffering. And it's like, fuck, wow, that was a release.

HELLÉ: Curious to know as well on that, are you a crier in your life?

AUBREY: It's interesting. Things that will get me to reliably cry is when I see someone willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. So, like if I watch "Braveheart" or "300", I'm a fucking mess. "Interstellar" even. That courage to sacrifice self for family, for some greater good, that's what always gets me. But I could probably watch some of those shows about the dog, the sweet dog that unfortunately passes away, and be a little bit bored in that. But like--

HELLÉ: You're like, "I can see how that was meant to happen." 

AUBREY: Yeah, exactly. It's like, all dogs go to heaven. But it's some things. I mean I've probably watched "Braveheart" I don't know, 10, 12 times. I'm 100% in tears in those moments.

LUKIS: Every time I get activated.

AUBREY: For sure. So, it's interesting. I definitely, and certainly people share. Obviously, we're in a lot of communities like Fit For Services, these shares will hit me. Facilitating, one of the things in the facilitation. So, as people are going through these journeys, I've been facilitating for three years now, and just had the pleasure to facilitate your breathwork, which is just stunning. But one of the things that I find really helpful is to create sympathetic resonance with the person who's going through something, and allow myself to go into what they're experiencing, to help them move it, and to let them know that they're not alone. So, I'll go in and I'll feel someone's pain. That happened with Erick, who's right there. I went over to his mat, and I could feel him just sobbing deeply. And I knew the resonance of those sobs. That was the sobs for the collective suffering of humanity. I just put my hand on his chest. And I said, "I know, brother. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. And I'm with you. And that's why we're here." 

LUKIS: Yeah, deep.

AUBREY: It's deep, and then I feel it, and then he's feeling it. And then you get in that. But you rise from that with the solidarity of, all right. It's just such a beautiful space to be in in this. It's magical and human at the same time.

LUKIS: Yeah, I work similar to you. I mean, Hellé works very differently. The way I work is very hands-on, very physical, and I allow people's emotions to process through me. I can feel everything that they're feeling, and I'm not attached to it. I just feel it, process it and let it go. We talked about that. And then just moving on. Yeah, it's so fucking powerful. One minute, I can be shedding deep tears, and then I can be laughing hysterically. Zero to 100, and we're just moving through it.

HELLÉ: You really do ride those waves with them. 

LUKIS: Yeah, it's so cool. Honestly, my favorite thing to do is just to see people unlocking and releasing and clearing anything that they've been holding on to on an unconscious level, and freeing themselves from it. It's so fucking liberating. And we all go through shit in life, whether you've been through some intense trauma. I think just being born onto this planet, we're all coming in with trauma. A lot of the work that we do is healing ancestral trauma. Ancestral trauma that's been handed down through the lineations of all our family. There's just so much there. And we get to walk through it and be courageous enough to step in and do the healing. It's limitless what you can access. And like you said, you can shed tears for humanity, you can work on your family, you're working on yourself, you're connecting to your ancestors, you're connecting to your guides. And it's all a direct experience, all felt. Man, shit's mindblowing. The first session I ever did, I was like this, my hands were up like this. T-Rexing. Yeah, it's called tetany. I was crying. My father passed away when I was young. I could feel his spirit coming in, and it was just this direct experience of connection with my pops. And my pops was just laying down the truth bombs. He was just letting me know that he was here. Even though he wasn't here in the physical, he was with me, he was guiding me, he was my guardian. And it was so deep, and it was so cool. And he was just like, look at all the shit you've been holding on to, son. Look at all my pain you've been holding on to. It's time to let this go. And together, we're just moving through it. But it was so cool, so liberating. And that's one of the things I hear over and over and over and over at our events is people tapping in, and connecting with loved ones that have passed over. Even someone who's never had that experience before, having it for the first time.

AUBREY: I remember one of my first breathworks I connected with my grandma who passed. And we've connected in other ways, and I connect with her less now. And actually, there was a point where I kind of realized that she was passing that connection to my mother who's still living now. But it was like, your mom's now in this spot. I'm here but... And she actually, I had a rock that she held when she was passing, and I gave it to my little sister. And it was just kind of this beautiful transition. But I remember one of the first times I connected with her, Grandma Bonnie who's tattooed on my arm, was in breathwork, where she was right there and other times too in ayahuasca. This is crazy talk for some people, right? 

LUKIS: Yeah. 

AUBREY: And some people are like, it's just a memory and a projection of the mind. But I would challenge everybody to think maybe those things aren't different. Maybe the sum total of our conscious minds and all the universe is one, and our thoughts and the dimensional realities that could be associated externally. We try to make this big separation, but there's really not. That when we think enough about a Bigfoot, that there's a Bigfoot that exists in a dimensional thought reality. And dragons, are dragons real? Yeah, fuck yeah, they're real. They're just not, we can't touch their scales right now. But they're real.

LUKIS: Yeah, and also connecting with a loved one that's passed over could be very subtle. I remember my first experiences, they could be easily brushed off. It would be in picture form. My father used to ride motorcycles, so I could see pictures coming in, in my mind's eye of his motorcycles, and him on his motorcycles driving them, being free. And I could have easily just gone on to the next, in the breathwork session while I'm having that experience, but I tuned into it more. And as I tuned into it more, I could feel dad's presence there. And then you get the shivers up your spine, and you feel that direct connection. And then you're open to it. So, it's all about being curious, I think, and opening up with that curiosity.

HELLÉ: And, so many of us have been raised to not trust ourselves, and that innate intuition that's there. The psychic abilities--

AUBREY: The collective gaslighting of the world, being like, no, no, no, that's bullshit. It's just your imagination.

HELLÉ: That's something that's so important to us to reignite that childlike curiosity and ability to tap into these different realms, and to at least give it a chance. It's just like what we were saying with the breath, give it a chance. Give yourself a chance to experience your own intuition, to connect with that loved one who's passed over. And even a lot of the people that come into space with us, they used to say, working with a psychic or having someone else do that heavy lifting for them, and what excites us so much is empowering them to do it for themselves. Like you can be that psychic, you can have that relationship with that loved one, and those guides or whatever it is that you're wanting to connect into, that you believe is beyond you, it's right there. And it's about getting yourself into a state where you're open enough to receive it, to perceive it, to trust it. And then from there, you're building up an archive of evidence of, wow, here are all the times where I was guided, where I did connect, where I did have that experience that was so profound, that I could feel it, and I knew it was true. And it makes an imprint on you.

AUBREY: Changes everything. 

HELLÉ: Exactly. When you feel it for yourself, you know it's true.

AUBREY: I actually think, and this is just my opinion. It's a little bit dangerous to work with psychics and external people, because I've seen so many times. First of all, I think there are some people who can tap into some things and be really helpful, and I've experienced that. But I've also seen the majority of experiences that I've heard from other people, is, people maybe with limited connections, or maybe no connections at all, but just want to believe they have a connection. And they'll start telling people things and it'll put frames, it'll put frames on their reality that then become reinforced by the belief in that. It's also why I don't like astrology. I don't like things that put frames unnecessarily from another source. I like going in and finding my own source. I remember a story of a dear sister of mine. And she went to a psychic, and she was single. And the psychic said, "Oh, well, you're going to be single for another seven years." And she was like, "Oh, fuck. Well, here it goes. 

HELLÉ: Self-fulfilling prophecy. 

AUBREY: Exactly, right? And the psychic's probably going to be right. Why? Not because she intuited it, because she said it and the person believed her. My sister believed her, and now, that's going to create the reality. Whereas going into something experientially, you arrive at things and doesn't mean you're always right. Doesn't mean everything you see comes in to manifest. It's a possibility. But at least it's yours, and it's generated from you. And sometimes every once in a while, there'll be something that transcends your thought, and it just becomes knowing, like okay. I mean, that's something I can unanimously recommend is breathwork to find the answers, rather than going to find this psychic or this person or this astrology chart. That may be helpful, maybe not. It's risky. But breath is, I can fully and wholeheartedly endorse that.

HELLÉ: Well, it's all running through people's filters, isn't it? And when we start to explore all of the variabilities, whether it's timelines and the various timelines that we're able to access and build upon, in our experience, there's that aspect. Then there's also all of the symbolism that comes through in our intuition, and this is something that I see in the work that I do and with the breathwork as well. So many times we misinterpret the message, and it makes sense later. And so, if we can receive it, and take it with a grain of salt and be a bit flexible in the interpretation of it, I think we can gather more of that evidence and understand that it's there, and it's real. And our interpretation of it is where we need to develop.

AUBREY: Yeah, the literalization of things is a big problem. Literalizing the Bible, literalizing our dreams. Someone appears to you in your dream, and you're making love to them or getting angry at them. It doesn't mean it's that person. What does that person represent to you from an archetypal level? What projection is that? And I think we get so used to being like, is it real? Is it true? Well, yes, it is. But you have to look deeper, deeper to the subtle energies behind it and the representations and the symbolism behind it. So that's why a little bit of skepticism and a little bit of, I don't know, I'm not sure, that attitude of maybe, is very, very healthy.

LUKIS: Yeah, I think also being curious enough to just be openminded enough to try something, like you said at the beginning of the conversation. There's many things that I feel drawn to try, and there's other things that I feel completely not drawn to. And that could change as well. I think what you said is really important to be discerning around taking on board other people's opinions and beliefs. Because like you said, there's multiple timelines, and those timelines are forever changing. And we're co-creating our reality constantly, moment by moment with our thoughts, with our energy and actions. We live in an intelligent universe that's always responding to every thought, and every emotion, and every action that we take. So, we can't get too fixated on, it's going to be this, or it's going to be that. We're in this dance with life and co-creating as we go. And, yeah, we just have to follow our intuition, I think, like you said, and trust it. Trust ourselves. That's so important in these times. We've been so conditioned to give our power away. And I think now more than ever, we have to trust ourselves, come back home to our hearts, and lead from our hearts, lead from example.

AUBREY: I think one of the more profound experiences that we all had as coaches and facilitators here at Fit For Service, of course, we had our sister Blu here. And we've been a part of different breathworks. Everything is beautiful in its own style. But the one thing that we really appreciated about you guys getting us ready to jump in with you is, you were just saying, "We want your superpowers. We want to unlock your unique gifts. What can you offer?" And I think this is the permission that we all really need right now. Feeling what's possible, and then having somebody just say, hey, whatever your superpowers are, fucking go for it. 

LUKIS: Yeah, because we all have superpowers. We all do, and we love that. That's our favorite shift, activating our superpowers and permission slips for each and every single one of you listening to activate your superpowers in whatever way feels right for you. Because then we get to really do what we came here to do, and game on. 

AUBREY: Game on. And it gets so exciting. As you start to feel it, as you start to tug on the threads of what this thing is, it's like, alright. More and more rope comes, then all of a sudden, there's a huge basket of medicine, then you get to see like, wow, yeah, there it is. It might just start with a little thread, you might feel a little energy in your hands. So many people who I'm talking to right now have that experience where all the sudden, like some fingers will get hot, or their hands will get hot. And they're like, just a little clue of something that's possible. And now we're relegated to a world where, oh yeah, it's all bullshit. It's not scientifically validated. Reiki is a bunch of bullshit. Yeah, alright, and I've been through a lot of whack Reiki sessions with people, and I've been a part of it. I tell the story too. I told this on a podcast. I've been a part of these things where I'm doing the magical things, and I wasn't doing shit. And nothing. 

HELLÉ: Like, "I think..."

AUBREY: Yeah, exactly. I was pantomiming something. And then all of a sudden, after my apprenticeship with Porangui, I was like, oh, now this is what it feels like when I'm actually doing something. You know what I mean? But it's all good, it's all part of the process. Like pretend, experiment, feel things. And if the intuition was right, I was like, I think I can do something with my hands, and I think it's going to look like this. I'm going to spread it out, I'm going to swirl it up. I was doing nothing. Absolutely nothing. 

HELLÉ: "I'm tapping into a future timeline where it will all make sense.

AUBREY: Like someday, this will actually be doing something, just not today. 

LUKIS: We're just practicing.

AUBREY: Exactly.

HELLÉ: Shut up, everyone practicing.

AUBREY: It's like air sex. Just thrusting your hips into the air. I mean, like someday, yeah, my goddess is going to be underneath me, and it's going to be great. 

LUKIS: Yeah, there's so many people, I think that while watching this, can then relate to perceiving things that are outside the known reality. Like you might be going to sleep, having your eyes closed, and you can just perceive an energy in the room and you're not sure what it is, and it might feel negative or it might feel positive. So many of us have that constantly, but we just move on to the next. We decide to tune it out, or maybe we feel afraid to explore it, whatever the case might be. But we all have those gifts, we were born with them. We just lose them as an adult through our conditioning and programming. So it's really just permission to come back to them. Like you said, it's starting off slowly. It's subtle, it was subtle for me. And then it develops, it gets stronger and stronger and stronger. 

HELLÉ: Spiritual fitness, you've got to start somewhere and develop. 

AUBREY: And unfortunately, the world is not only not accepting typically, but it's also, there's forces that have been trying to suppress a lot of this knowledge. Like I remember one of the most profound experiences I had was with my girlfriend in high school. She was in a deeply Christian family. And she had a very profound experience where she was home alone with her mother, and she was just frantic, like, "Mom, we have to leave, we have to leave." Because the dad was gone. It's even tough to tell this story because I could feel her, and she was just a little girl, five, six-year-old girl. Like, "Mom, we have to go. Mom, we have to go." Mom's like, "No, no, no, sweetie, we're fine. We're fine. We're fine." Put her to bed. And she could see spirits, see things, see things happening. Someone broke into the house and violated her mother that night. And so, she was accessing something, but in that framework, that wasn't something that could happen. And that's something that's like, no, no, no, that can't happen. And all those gifts that she expressed, were then like, no, no, no, that's not real. That's not in our dogma. And that's just the dogma. It's not the family's fault. It's not anybody's fault. But that's the forces that have been in play for a long time, saying, like no, there's only one way and anything outside of this is wrong. And it's really been a shame, because there's so many things that are possible for people, and people have that. But I had an experience with her. She unlocked something for me. The very first magical thing that I experienced was with her. I was going to break up with her. And we were sitting across from each other. And I was like, "Look, it's just not working out." And she wasn't accepting it. Not in a mean way or anything. She was like, "No." And she was just looking at me in the eyes. I ran out of things to say. And so we were just staring. And it was the first eye gazing we had. But she wanted to get in so deep inside me to tell me that this was not right, that she was just like piercing me with her eyes. And then all of a sudden, the air got thick and white and heavy between us. And I was like, whoa, and I would look away. But I was so drawn back to it because I was so curious. I'd never felt that. And I looked back and looked back in. And then it got thicker and thicker. And then all of a sudden I could see her as an old woman, a crone, and I could see her as a baby and I could see her as a skeleton, and I could see all of these things. And then I felt my spirit. I didn't have a word for spirit. It was before my psychedelic journeys began. I thought this was all nonsense myself. I felt something rise out of my body and I fucking lost it. And I was like, "Oh my God, we've got to stop," and I just hugged her. I was like, alright, never mind. Never mind. You win, we're not going to break up. You're right. I clearly don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. 

HELLÉ: You've just bamboozled me. 

AUBREY: Exactly. But then from there, like I understood okay, eye gazing is a thing. It's something that we've done with the communities ever since. But little things like that can start to shake your reality tunnel. And when you feel it, when you experience it, then a new reality starts to set in that's far more magical and far more expansive, than the narrow frame that we have.

LUKIS: 100%. You've got an interesting story around that as a kid. I remember you telling me.

HELLÉ: Yeah, very similar. It didn't go that far. But before I say that, I just wanted to touch on the fact that I think eye gazing is one of those activities that puts us into a trance-like state where we're able to open up. And one of the things that one of my earlier mentors used to share with me is, how we're all in trance states all the time. And there's just different trance states that serve different purposes. And so, you need to explore what is the state that you're operating in, and what other states are available to you, and how might they serve you, and when do you get into states that are really not serving you, and can you wake yourself up within that. And I feel like eye gazing, breathwork, medicine, they are all different ways that we can put on a new filter, or take one off, and try on reality in a whole new way. And then let that dictate and inspire us in how we want to show up next. And then to your point, that was trippy when you were sharing that. When I was really young, I don't know how old, a similar type of thing. My family was going away, and we were going on a family trip. And I remember I was really emotional and distressed, and feeling a kind of panic about leaving. Didn't want to leave, did not feel good about it. And my mom was like, "Come on, we've got to go. We've got to go. Let's get on with it." And I remember writing in my little kid handwriting... Can I swear? 

AUBREY: Yeah, of course. Fuck. Shit. Piss.

HELLÉ: I wrote, fuck off, burglar, on these pieces of paper with my little crayons. And I put them on every bed in our house. And then we went away. And we came back from our family holiday, and those little notes were there and the house had been broken into. 

AUBREY: And for the skeptics out there, how many times did you write fuck off, burglar? Just because somebody might say, well, maybe every time you left, you wrote fuck off, burglar.

HELLÉ: No. And that was the one time. Yep, the one time. And I know that really hit my mom as well witnessing that happen. While she wasn't hardcore into fostering that in me, I know she was paying attention, and was open to allowing that to be there. And so, I kept engaging in my spiritual law, multi-dimensional explorations from there. And I feel like following what you were saying, we get so excited about helping people to activate those superpowers, because as children it's there. It's right there. And to minimize it and say that it's just imagination, it's just play, it's just for fun, it's just what kids do, is such a disservice to the little oracles that we are, and that we have access to. We were just having dinner with a friend of ours the other day, and the way that she was raising her children is in full respect of their wisdom. Like if her daughter says, “I don't want to do that”, she's like, "Okay, I don't know why, I don't get it but let's talk about it." Being open and respectful.

LUKIS: I think my mom fostered that in me. My mom's like this magical, enchanted little elemental being. 

HELLÉ: She is.

LUKIS: She's really cool. When I was growing up, she had so many books on the bookshelves with metaphysical topics, and interdimensional beings, and all types of things and energy and crystal healing. And she had different affirmations all around the house. So, it was really cool that mom would foster that from an early age in me. And I was having a lot of visitation experiences when I was a young kid. I didn't have the words to describe them. A lot of them felt terrifying and overwhelming, and I didn't really know what was going on at the moment. I just knew that there was something happening to me. And it was a really strange and bizarre lady. Later I would find out through journeying, through hypnotherapy and medicine, I'd understand those experiences. But yeah, from a young age, all of that was happening. And I think for a lot of people it is, but we block it out. We block it out.

AUBREY: And it's hard, and some people say, well, that's just not me, I never had one of these things. You maybe just don't know, or don't remember, or maybe that subtle thing, was just not nourished by yourself or maybe by your parents. Maybe it wasn't blocked by anybody. But starting to get into the work, get into the process will ultimately reveal it because it's not like because you had all those books, you went the easy route through life. And so, I think this is a great time for you is, I think another one of the beautiful aspects of the medicine that you bring is, both of you, is that you lived some hard, challenging childhoods and some lives that were difficult, that gave you this breadth of life experience where you're like, oh yeah, I've seen some shit. I've seen some shit. And, I know this other thing too. So, if you wouldn't mind, just share a little bit about your life growing up. Part of what made you who you are now.

LUKIS: Well, yeah, growing up for me, I was blessed. I had such a supportive mom. Shout out mom, love you.

HELLÉ: She will be watching. She's his number one fan.

LUKIS: But like everyone in life, my mom had her own traumas that she was dealing with, and I was a very sensitive empathic kid that could perceive all of that. I was an only child. I internalized all my struggles, I didn't speak about them. Dad was a free spirit. He rode motorcycles and grew marijuana, which was illegal in New Zealand. He just did his thing. Like most men, he was really strong. But he didn't know how to process his emotions. He suffered from depression and anxiety and used drugs and alcohol to cope with how he was truly feeling. And he was on a self-destructive path. So I was witness to that from a young age. There was a lot of violence and different things I was exposed to. And then he committed suicide when I was 10 years old. He shot himself in the stomach. And that was a pivotal point in my journey, because although I could feel everything that was happening, I didn't know how to process it. And I internalized it. I could feel so deeply, but I didn't know what to do with it. I spoke at the retreat here that I started to use emotional eating from an early age to self soothe, and numb out as a way to kind of cope with how I was feeling. I didn't really know how to access those emotions and process them. I would draw as well, for hours and hours. I just spend so much time by myself. I know mom was really worried about the path I was taking even from an early age. She could see how self-destructive. I had a lot of self-hatred, really low self-esteem and self-worth. And even though there were these positive affirmations all around the house, I was having my own experience of looking in the mirror and charging up everything negative. I was doing black magic on myself from an early age not knowing that that's what I was doing. And yeah, that led down a really self-destructive path of self-harm. A lot of my friends joined gangs and went to prison and committed suicide. And that path was always available to me, it was right there. And I was definitely on that path, but I realized that I was exactly where my father was. I had to make a decision. And the decision was, either take myself out, or start to figure out a way that I can start to feel my emotions and heal myself. And I had no fucking idea how to do that, or what that looked like. And I was terrified. I was terrified. But I remember, a lot of synchronicities happened when I made that decision, I wanted to heal. I put it out there to the universe, I prayed. My darkest days, there was just so much darkness, I felt it was a dark night of the soul continuously over and over and over. And I started working with traditional multi healers in New Zealand from a young age that do a lot of body work, myofascial release, getting into the body with the emotions of being held, working on you. I was crying and screaming and letting it out. There was a lot of abandonment, a lot of guilt, a lot of shame, a lot of frustration and sadness and pain, and it was all coming up. It was terrifying, but also extremely liberating. Every time I'd do those sessions, I'd feel more free, more like myself, more open, more connected to my heart, my spirit. And I just kept on that path. That led down a lot of studying. Yeah, enjoying studying different modalities, first and foremost for myself to understand, all this healing that I was experiencing, how I could be of service to my friends and family because they needed it the most. And, I really ultimately wanted to find a way to do it in a way that wasn't spiritual, in a way that I could show them how to heal themselves without these spiritual modalities that were having such a powerful impact on me because they weren't open to it. So, I was really curious, how can I find a way to help the people around me that aren't open to these modalities? And along that path, eventually, I found breathwork. And that was the catalyst. 

AUBREY: That's one of the great advantages of you as a bridge between people where they're at, and people where they're free. Freedom is the other end of the bridge. It's really our goal to really be free and enjoy this life to the fullest. But one of the great things about you as a bridge that's been so effective is, take our friend Jason Ellis, right? Like Jason Ellis can look at you--

LUKIS: Love you, Jason.

AUBREY: Yeah, I love Jason too. But you guys have a lot of similar things about your parents. You're covered head to toe in tattoos, which is sometimes I suppose people can do that just because they love the art of it. But as you've described, this was your armor.

LUKIS: Yeah.

AUBREY: Very much the same thing for Jason. So, you see the remnants of someone who's been deeply, deeply in need of protection and safety and an appearance of strength in this stay away from me, don't fuck with me kind of appearance. And then you come with that warm heart and that confidence. But people instantly trust oh wow, whatever I've felt and experienced, this guy's felt it too, so I trust him. So we'll go there. And it allows you, gives you permission, gives you access if you want to go back and work with the gang culture in New Zealand or any culture. You could go wherever you want. Chicago or South Central LA or wherever you want to say, you could walk in, and people would be like, alright, I'll listen to this dude. And that's such a gift. So, your whole life path has then now provided you the opportunity that, all those challenges and everything you went through the opportunity to reach people in a different way. 

LUKIS: Yeah, I spoke to dad today in spirit actually. Hellé brought him through. And he was just like, "Congratulations, son." And just, he's just with me at this whole experience this weekend, and just giving me a charge up. And it was cool. Everything that I've been through is 100% like you said, it's my training to do the work that I'm meant to do. And we're in it, we're doing it now. And it's a fucking blessing. It's my favorite thing to do. And I wouldn't have it any other way. And that's what dad said to me this morning. He was like, "I wouldn't have it any other way, son." 

AUBREY: That's beautiful, that's beautiful. Hellé, tell us a little bit of your story.

HELLÉ: Yeah, so Lukis, and I grew up in the same city, Auckland in New Zealand. And I grew up in, I guess what you consider the sixth district. My parents were DJs, we lived in an apartment. And from a super young age, they were hardcore into their techno DJing. I had a little brother. And so, while they were out in this highly creative, wildly unpredictable, creation mode, I was like a little sponge possum in the headlights, a highly sensitive child, who was witnessing and learning so much through observation and feeling. So I was kind of like my brother's little guardian. I would look out for him and we would watch what was going on. Wednesday through till Sunday, there would be partying right through the night. Right beside my bedroom, there was a nightclub, literally a thin wall. And I remember just as a little child, feeling so much. There was so much stimulus all the time, and I was overwhelmed, and I didn't know what to do with it. And so, I became a master of reading energy and reading people's body language and emotions and needs, and catering to the demands of the environment. That led me to a dark place. I am grateful for now, I mean, it's like all of us, right? It all makes sense. And we wouldn't have it any other way. But by the time I was in my teens, I was severely depressed, highly, highly anxious, my nervous system was fried. I didn't feel like I could relate to anybody. I mean, I had friends around me, and we had these superficial relationships. At home, by that point, when I was a teen, I hadn't seen my dad for years. I cut off contact with him when I was about 9 or 10. Wrote him a letter. I think this is, it's a theme, I'm recognizing right now. I am prophetic with my writing. And I think that's something that is continuing to develop. I wrote him a letter, and I drew little punching fists on it. And I was like, I don't like all the fighting, and I'm done. I don't want you in my life. And he honored that request. And so I didn't have any relationship with my dad. And my mom was really not in a good place. Mentally, physically, there was a lot going on for her that was super difficult and dysfunctional. And she has an immense amount of trauma, more than any client I've ever met. My mom has the most trauma. She was severely abandoned and adopted from birth, like multiple times. It's just awful, awful stuff that she's gone through in her life. And she, with all of the wounding, did the best that she could to raise me to be a kind, good person. But it's unavoidable, right? People's trauma, when it's unresolved, it leaks out into everything. And it is that filter, that trance state that they're seeing reality through. And I became a bit like her mother. And we joke about this now. Years later, she's like, "You're my mother." I'm like, yeah, I feel that. I have always felt fiercely protective of her. And I remember from a young age, we would walk out on a Sunday morning and go on the street, and right in front of our house, there would be people who had been up all night being beaten. Like this one morning, I distinctly remember. We had this corridor, down from our apartment and it was the glass door. I looked out and right in front of our apartment, there was a man on the ground, Islander man, and just this guy being belted. My mom raised me to be a fighter, and someone who doesn't let injustice occur without intervening. And so, instead of us being whoa, this thing's going on, and this is not okay, go upstairs, she was like, "Come on, we've got to go and do something." And so we got right out there in the midst of it. And this is how I was raised, to speak up, and to be the small sensitive little fighter for the greater good, and for the underdog. And I've given her that same fierce level of love. I will fight for her to the death. And just recently, we went back to New Zealand and had this really, really powerful experience. She came in, experienced an event with us for the first time. I was able to get right down there, eye to eye with my mom, like a hand just stroking her head, and it really felt like I was mothering her. And this is some past life shit. We've done this before. And I just let her weep in my arms and let things go, let go, and know that she's so forgiven, and that she's safe, and she's okay. These are the moments that remind me of how the spiritual experience, it leaks into it, it seeps into every aspect of our lives. And for me, that was one of the most profound, important days of my life so far, because I know I've done the work on myself to let go and I'm okay. The trauma, the stuff that I've gone through, yeah, it was not ideal. It was difficult, it was unfortunate. I have had many, many years of daily crying, sobbing, feeling fucking hopeless, throwing fits of rage at Lukis, not having anywhere to turn to with my pain. Not feeling like anyone was there to hold space for me. But I think the wound that I had of being I am alone, I am so alone, I get to pull that level of love out into others, because I am like a laser beam that just scans for people who feel alone in this world.

AUBREY: It's such a deep pain. I was really, deeply meditating on our fundamental human desires. And the first one that I came to was, to be known, to be known. And that means to be seen. But beyond seen, seen oftentimes, in the avatar way, I think they mean it exactly as I mean it. Like I see you as the highest level. But to really see, you have to know them, you have to step inside. It's what we were talking about earlier with the breath, like step inside their pain, seeing through their eyes. To know them. And that's the intimacy that collapses the loneliness that we may not even know that we feel. But we don't want to be alone, we want to be known. And many times we don't know ourselves. We're looking at ourselves from a third person perspective, of a frame of reference of, oh yeah, this is me. We'll even write in our journals, like you need to do this. We'll put in the second person. Well, who is that thing looking down at the other thing? What is the relationship that you have with you? This elusive multiplicity of self that we're looking at. And sometimes we don't know, sometimes other people don't know. But what we crave is to know ourselves and to be known by others. That's the draw for the community. That's why loneliness is the number one predictor of early mortality in all of these cases of depression. But the breathwork allows that in a way that just talking doesn't. Like talking is the medium by which we try to fix everything. "Yeah, yeah, talk about it." Okay, great, great, but you're going to be talking just like a portion of yourself. It's all of your past. It's really your past talking, it's not even your present. It's everything you've been through, it's your frame of reference, it's the perspectives that have been shaped by a difficult world. Then you do something like medicine, or you do something like breathwork, and then you get behind that. And then Richard Schultz who runs Internal Family Systems, he just calls that the self. Like your real self, higher self, capital S self. That part of you comes through. And that part of you knows yourself and can be known. And when you reach that place, like you did with your mother, it's so much farther beyond words. Because you're really getting into the deeper levels of capital S self, knowing capital S self in another form. And that's where the real magic happens.

LUKIS: Yeah, that's the real healing, that systematic healing. That's what I love about Owaken breathwork, it is a somatic killing. We're moving, like you said out of the mind and into the body. And the body is the one that holds on to all those unexpressed emotions. 

AUBREY: The record keeper.

LUKIS: And the subconscious mind, it's a databank of everything we've ever been through. And when we can tap into that, and start to have a good look at how we've been operating, and all our limiting beliefs that might be holding us back, or all that pain that's beneath the surface, then we get to really move it. Like you said, it's super powerful. Yeah, I find that really interesting. Like around the limbic system, the part of the brain that processes memory and emotion, because it's nonlinear, so it processes the past, the present, and the future all simultaneously happening now. And a lot of us are carrying around the past, all the times that we've been hurt, or haven't been able to express our emotions. We carry it, we carry that baggage with us. And then we overlay it onto the present moment and see the present moment through the lens of the past. And through breath work, you get to wipe that lens clean, you get to redefine your relationship with your past, and how you feel about what you've been through, and you get to move through victim consciousness and reclaim your power, and have that direct experience. And then you get to see the future that you want to create, and then you get to condition your body to the future you want to create. And then that's when you start to really step into co-creating it. Because you see it, you believe it, and you know the action steps that you need to take. So you go out in the world and you get it done. And that's where the magic is, because I feel a lot of people feel so alone, and on many levels they don't feel good enough, and they don't feel like they have a support system, and they don't know how to work on themselves or heal themselves. So they just get stuck in these old habitual cycles that don't serve them. And they have no idea how to break it.

AUBREY: Yeah, that's absolutely it. There's a very interesting experience that happened on the second breathwork, and I've been on this property here in Sedona for eight years. I've never seen a snake, not once. I've been out here, and I've been on the land, I've hiked up all the land and all the different ways in summer, which is snake season. And now we're in fall, it's cool at night, and snakes are less active when it's cool. And right when we were doing this breathwork there was a rattlesnake right before we started that come across. And one of the Fit For Service members came up to me, he was like, "Hey, there's a snake over here." And I was thinking probably just one of those docile snakes. Nuh-uh, like full on like seven rattles deep rattlesnakes. And it was this interesting thing. It was very interesting when you sent me a message the next morning, because you sent me a picture of a card. And the card was the first. I didn't draw oracle cards or anything. Before I first came to Sedona and I went to Grace Grove, I met Anna Hatha, I met Porangui, I met a lot of like amazing allies in my life that day, Dr. Dan Engle, everybody was kind of gathered there at that point, and they had us pull a card. And the card I pulled, which was during the first, that was the first time I experienced breathwork too, Anna Hatha led me through a breathwork, was a card of a rattlesnake. And the rattlesnake, the thing that it said underneath it was, the experiences you're currently going through are part of your initiation as a healer. And I remember it was so profound, because then at that point, I was like, it's really exactly what we said. All of my life experiences to that point were leading me to a path. It's so interesting how this has now come full circle because I would have never thought of myself in the capacity as a healer, ever, until very recently, until my apprenticeship with Porangui, until I started facilitating breathwork where I understood that, oh, wow, yeah, I can say some interesting things philosophically, and I can put some cool ideas out in the world. But now, understanding that there's a possibility to heal. And there comes the rattlesnake a decade later coming through. 

HELLÉ: Wild.

AUBREY: It was really, really--

LUKIS: And you had your staff? 

AUBREY: Yeah, I got a beautiful staff from Chris Isner. And this is a very interesting experience too.

HELLÉ: There was that cycle completed. "You are ready."

AUBREY: Yeah, it was such an interesting thing. And you see that and the universe conspiring for these crazy coincidental things to happen. And yeah, so I had my staff. This story was kind of funny how it went. So, I have my staff and I'm looking out at the snake. I carve a little line in the sand. Well, first of all, I got Blu immediately. I was like--

HELLÉ: "We need the witch."

AUBREY: I was like, "Blu, come here. We have some magic to do." Because certainly I don't want any violence on this snake. But obviously that was an option. If the snake got aggressive, I was thinking, well, I have to use the staff. 

HELLÉ: You've got to protect your people.

AUBREY: To create the distance, I have to protect the people. But I was like we're going to use magic as the first option, and violence as the second option. So, I drew a line in the sand. And it was really like Gandalf. "You shall not pass!" And I somewhat regretted not saying that at the time. But I felt like that would have trivialized the actual experience if I did a Gandalf reference. But I drew a line in the sand. Porangui taught me, he did a vision quest in a place where there were a lot of snakes in Brazil. And he had to give, he put a tobacco circle around him to keep him safe. And the snakes wouldn't cross it, even though they were like all around him. They lived right in the place that he was. And so, from that reference, I was like, I'll draw the line. And then I'll have Blu come with the tobacco. She comes with the tobacco, and as soon as she gets in front of the snake, like we were in this conversation, it felt like me and the snake understood us, but I just wanted to be extra safe. So I was like, we're going to draw the tobacco line, take this piped tobacco and move it through the line. As soon as it did that, the snake turned around, and coiled and starts rattling. And we're just looking at each other. It was this very funny thing. The snake was basically looking at me like, "Oh, fuck you, man. Here I come for you as an oracle, and we're in this beautiful conversation, and you have to cast a real spell. Asshole." And I'm like, "Hey, sorry, man. I'm just saying, this is like a hard boundary here." And so we just had this very interesting thing. And eventually, it actually started to come around the back. So I had to bring the staff with me, and then eventually, we communicated enough and it started to go off the other way. This is just one small example. Sure, it could be just a radical coincidence. But if you open your mind to the magic and the conspiratorially beautiful nature of the divine working through everything, then you could see that. And another brother, Spencer reflected that, there's a prophecy that he'd heard about when the snake people and the human people can rewrite the history of snakes and humans. Where actually instead of fear and judgment of others, they can have a deep reverence and respect. The snake represents that Kundalini energy, that innate power that we have, that thing that we're accessing in breathwork. All of that power, that's a part of the snake too. And also, being aware that all right, yes, that might be dangerous, that might be something to be afraid of, but can you love that too? Can you really like love that and hold that and not other, that thing just because it's leaving its sacred purpose of having a rattle and having venom and being a part of this. Can you hold that in the same way that you would hold one of the rabbits that we see out here, and not say that rabbits are good, snakes are bad.

LUKIS: Yeah, 100%. Well, we it's interesting, A, because as that rattlesnake was there, then people were just getting ready, just preparing to open up and shine light on their own darkness and shed layers, shed a skin. So, it's like, it was all happening and going down, I remember at that moment, Hellé and I were just looking over and we were like, okay, something's happening. We're not sure what's happening. But let's activate the people.

HELLÉ: Turning it into a part of the experience. I'm like, "Notice all the ways you get distracted."

AUBREY: By a rattlesnake, and be like, "It's a fucking rattlesnake. Of course, I'm distracted." But you guys handled it beautifully. But just one of those interesting and magnificent things that happens when you open yourself to that magical space. And I mean, I'll tell you, for people who haven't experienced this type of breathwork, I mean, it goes so deep that it's unbelievable what people will be processing and going through. I mean, you'll see things that look like an exorcism. It looks like they're levitating off the ground and things are moving their body in strange ways. And it's not a thing to be afraid of, it's a beautiful thing. This is like part of a healing process. You don't have to create all the stories about demons and possessions and all of this. You can if you want, but this is all our shit. As within so without, as without so within, this is a part of our shit, that sometimes it comes out a little gnarly. Sometimes you go on the toilet, and it's nice and smooth. And sometimes you get one of those firm ones, and you're like, "Oh, God, that was a violation." Oh, my goodness. 

HELLÉ: And it's all the human experience.

AUBREY: Yes it is.

LUKIS: Most definitely. We have so much judgment around the human experience, and we're so conditioned around horror movies and different things to fear the unknown, to fear what we don't know, and understand. And yeah, a lot of really interesting things happen in these breathwork journeys. But like you said, there's nothing to fear.

HELLÉ: I remember when we first started bringing photographers and videographers into the work. There were a couple of years where we were like, okay, this is too intense for the public to view. If you want to be a part of it, you're drawn into it, call, you'll discover what's inside once you enter into the event itself. And then we made this decision that we were ready to start to share it. And so we began filming some of these experiences of people having these huge cathartic releases. And I know for myself when I've witnessed Kundalini activations, or cathartic release, or even what we could consider an entity clearing, when I didn't understand it, my natural reaction was fear. And I think this is really important for people to understand is, we fear what we don't understand. And once you start to appreciate the intelligence of what's actually occurring, it's not scary at all. It's beautiful. There's grace moving through it. And it's important, it's necessary. And by judging it, we keep ourselves locked up. And this is the very thing that we're trying to do, is unlock people's physiology, allow people to unlock these repressed emotions. And it's a part of why we love what you do as well, and the ways that you serve, the conversations that you've opened up over the years. I mean, we've tuned into countless conversations that you've shared on this podcast and deeply resonated, because spirituality is just not love and light. I mean, as you were describing that snake medicine, I'm seeing that snake and that Garden of Eden, and how much collective judgment there is on the role of the shadow in this human experience. But look, this is the experience, and there's contrast in all of it. There's learning in all of it. And that experience, actually, that we did right after that snake showed up, I had a moment where I had a very confronting interaction with an individual in the group. And it was the first time I'd ever kind of had this faceoff with someone that I'm supporting. I'm like, whoa, usually people are like, "Thank you, I appreciate you." And this individual that I was supporting was like, "Get out of my space." And in that moment, as the facilitator, I'm human, I've got feelings. And I was witnessing her and her process and simultaneously witnessing myself and my process around that. And I'm like, wow, okay, God, the universe, the divine, whatever we want to call it, gave us the triggers, the snakes, the discomfort, for a reason. To have a really interesting experience, and we're in it. What are we going to do with it?

LUKIS: I got "take the darkness" lightly tattooed on my head right now. Darkness, for me, has been one of my greatest medicines. It's been one of my greatest teachers. And there is so much rejection of darkness in the spiritual community. A lot of the spiritual community, all about love and light. But a lot of that love and light is false light as well. It has to be Integrated--

AUBREY: It's darkness masquerading as light, because it's that spiritual materialism, I am better than thou, because of all of these things that I've done. And because I am love and light, and you're in the darkness, or you're in your shadow, I'm better than you, which is the ultimate shadow. When it's a trap. 

LUKIS: 100%.

AUBREY: And I didn't realize how profound actually that saying is. Because it's not only take the darkness lightly, like yeah, it's all good. But take the darkness lightly. Like it is light. It's a beautiful reminder. One of my guides and teachers is Paul Selleck, who's a channel. And in his most recent book, he has a line where he says, when you understand that God is everywhere, and in everything, you also must understand that God is in the unknown. And when you recognize and realize God is the unknown, that is when you claim faith. It's still unknown, but you know, and you have faith that God is there too, even on the other side of what you're able to know. And that's what faith is. It's I believe, even though I don't know. That's a beautiful choice that we have, it's the antithesis of fear. Which is, there's something on the other side, and maybe it's awful and horrible and something dark. And it can be. I mean, lots of challenging, brutal things happen in this life. I'm not trying to say that everything is good, and it always works out because it doesn't. Except maybe in a perspective that's so far above our own single life experience that maybe it makes sense there. But the choice for faith is the most productive choice that we can have. The effect of that is going to have us live our life in a better way. And it doesn't mean not having discretion or prudence, the ability to see like, ultimately I wasn't like, "Hello, rattlesnake, brother. Come into our circle and breathe with us." No, you have to stay over there. I get it, thank you, but fucking stay over there. There's this interesting balance of how this all plays, but that choice for faith is going to just be the most beneficial choice you can have for your own psyche, for your own mindset. And it won't make you less prepared. It's just going to make you less anxious, less depressed, less hopeless, and give you far more possibility.

LUKIS: Yeah, well, we've been so disconnected from our relationship with God, source, the universe, right? A lot of us, we were saying, we feel so alone and separate from that. And I think that was one of the themes that we're bringing through, our divine union with God. And all the ways we feel unworthy of that connection, all the ways we were so skeptical, and don't believe that it's possible to have that connection. We're just lost in the darkness, wondering. And, for me, that's what it was. It took a lot of suffering before I opened up. That took a lot of suffering before I was like, okay, there's got to be something greater, there's got to be something that can pull me out of this darkness, because I have fucking no idea how to do it. I need help. Like, help me. And then through prayer, through curiosity, life just starts to open up possibilities to start to slowly glimpse into ways that you can be supported, ways that you can open up, ways that you can start to feel safe. Because I think at the end of the day, most people don't feel safe, they don't feel safe. 

AUBREY: Fundamentally, that's it. Safety and freedom on that continuum. This is something I've really been feeling into is that, in order to be free, and to feel free, you first have to feel safe. There's an amazing clinical study that was done, where they had preschoolers or kindergarteners, young kids, and they put them in a playground with no fence. And without having a fence, they didn't feel safe. And of course, that's natural, right? There's things that could come in, animals, people, whatever. It's not your safe container. And in that situation, they would all huddle around the teacher, and they would barely explore all of the different slides and things that were available in the playground. But then they put the fence around the playground. And then the kids were free to run around. And this is our life right now. This is our lockdown, pandemic, COVID culture that we're in right now, where it's just, how safe do you feel? And if you feel safe, all of these measures feel incredibly restrictive. But if you don't feel safe, well, then you want more measures to make you feel safe. And then when you feel safe, then you feel free. Everybody's wearing a mask. Okay, now I feel comfortable going out because I feel safe. Everybody vaccinated? Okay, I feel safe now. Now I can go out. But it's just people trying to claim safety. And then those who already feel more safe are like, "No, fuck this. This is a restriction of my freedom." And then on the other side, there's ways in which people are afraid of some powerful cabal and totalitarian dictatorship that's going to move in and take away everything. And, I'm not saying that one fear is reasonable, the other fear is not reasonable. People have different fears, different levels of safety and different things. And you start to see that and then you look out at the world and you can have compassion. Just be like, okay, I get it, you don't feel safe yet.

LUKIS: 100%. We're so divided at the moment. Like the war on consciousness is the division between loved ones and families, my belief system against your belief system. And I see that so much at the moment. We were recently in Australia, traveling around and running events. And in Australia and New Zealand, there is so much divide. It is insane the amount of pressure that the government is putting on people to get vaccinated. And some people are doing that out of choice. They believe that it's the right option for them. And then so it is. And then some people are making that choice out of fear, and then some people are just purely resistant to it. It is really dividing families, and it's sad to see. It's really, really sad to see because that tactic has been used for a long time to divide and conquer. And if it wasn't COVID, or a vaccine, it would be something else. We all kind of see where we can fall into that place of judging, taking one side or the other, and then being righteous. It may be right for us, so we believe it's the right choice, but it doesn't mean it's right for another person. My mom recently just got vaccinated. And for her, that was the right choice. She feels empowered, she feels good in that choice. 

AUBREY: And it made her feel more safe. 

LUKIS: And made her feel more safe. And that's what it comes down to. We're all ultimately afraid of dying. It's our greatest fear.

AUBREY: And that's an important place when I was talking, I mean, I had these deep conversations with Erick, how do we support the world? We're dreaming into this idea of united polarity, which isn't about changing people's minds or opinions, ultimately, other than the opinion that somebody else is completely separate from us. It's like, how do we recognize the shared humanity that we have, and understand that just because I feel safe, doesn't mean that I should suppose that somebody else is going to feel safe? No, that's not... But at the same time, can we start to soften the jagged edges around death? Which is the primordial fear, right? Like this is the thing. How do we soften the edges? And one of the great ways to soften the edges is to feel yourself as an energy that transcends our life. Breathwork is one of the ways to do it. You feel an energy and an essence, and this thing that you know has existed forever and will exist forever. You can put whatever word you want on that thing, but you know it and you feel it. And then it's all the sudden, oh, well, nothing's going to destroy this thing. Not a virus, not a bullet, nothing is going to destroy this thing. This thing is eternal, and I'm a part of it. And then that starts to just soften the edges of this monster that we have on the other side of the ultimate unknown, which is what happens when you die. But you start to understand that there is, maybe you don't know exactly, but you start to understand that there's something else there. And it just starts to soften the edges of the monster, and helps people feel more safe. But I think, until we start really going after these fundamental fears, and just trying to help people for themselves, not tell them about it. I can't say, hey, there's an aspect of you that is going to transcend life. And don't worry about it, you're going to exist forever. And that doesn't mean anything.

HELLÉ: That means nothing to this. 

AUBREY: Nothing. The whole body's like, yeah, all right, whatever, fucking weirdo. Go do more drugs. That's the response. But then all of a sudden, you give them a taste of it. Real gnosis. You give them that feeling, and they're like, alright, well, I still would prefer not to die. And I definitely prefer not to suffer. I'm with you. I don't want to die, and I don't want to suffer either. But the jagged, rough parts of that just start to soften a little bit. And then it starts to get a little easier to be more comfortable in your skin.

HELLÉ: It really does. I found through breathwork that my level of knowing and surrender into what you're describing, it's just become my whole state of being. It really is such a beautiful state of peace. And we work with people all over the world and hear things like, "But how do you trust?" And, "I know it up here, but I don't really fully believe it yet." And, "I'm just not sure, and I'm finding myself still in resistance," and yada, yada, yada. And even with purpose, people say, I believe it's possible that I have a purpose, but I don't know what that purpose is, I don't know how to find that purpose. And through the breath, or even through diligent meditation practice, different ways of communing with yourself, medicine is another way, so many different ways. It does become a felt knowing. And it's so personal. I remember a conversation I had with a very dear friend years ago. And he said to me, "You are your father's business." And this was a kind of, I guess, Christian mystic type of statement that he was making. And I don't personally identify God as a father, but I really got what he was saying at that moment. That it is between me and creation. It is between you and creation. It's between each individual, and this one mind, however we interpret it. And if we're not connected to that, and we're outsourcing that, no wonder we feel confused and skeptical. No wonder we're like, "I'm a bit uneasy, what is going on here?" Because we're ignoring the very thing that would give us that great exhale of relief and knowing.

LUKIS: And there's always going to have to be versions of ourselves or aspects of ourselves or parts of ourselves that are going to have to die to get to where we want to go. To be the person that we came here to be and live on purpose, we're going to have to go through ego deaths. And an ego death can feel at times, like you are physically dying, and you have to confront that fear and go through it. But on the other side of an ego death is a rebirth. You get to rebirth into a new version of you. And we all have to go through that, it's a part of the journey. It's uncomfortable, and it's scary, and it's terrifying, but it's extremely liberating. And it's a celebration of life.

AUBREY: People are so afraid of these ego deaths because they feel like a real death. When you condense all of the ideas of who you are, which is all of the references, of all of the perspectives, and all the conditioning and everything that's happened in the past, the ego is this representation of everything that's brought forward from the past that says, and is reinforced by the world of who you are. And if you're identified with that, these ego deaths are not trivial. Changing your mind, changing your perspective, changing the way you think about yourself, it requires some part of you or all part of that construct to die, and the ego will protect itself like any entity. It doesn't want to die. It's why there's so much resistance to breathwork, or resistance to these different things. Because the ego is just trying to survive intact, in the form that it knows itself, because it doesn't have the faith that as it gets melted down, and all of the constructs get melted down, and the fire of breath let's say, that the phoenix, that new part of you, that new bird that has new wings and new feathers, that can fly and soar through the sky, that thing is going to emerge from the ashes of your expired identity, and allow you to be who you really are. And you'll have to do it again. That phoenix will be flying around and it'll pick up a bunch of muck and mud and dirt, projections and conditioning. And all of a sudden, the wings won't work quite right.

HELLÉ: "I'm plummeting."

AUBREY: "Oh no, here we go."

HELLÉ: Offload, offload.

AUBREY: And then back down, melting down the constructs, into the ashes and then reemerging. It's almost like the respiration of life and identity. It's inhale, exhale, and the more comfortable you get with that, the more it's like, okay, well, here we go. Here's this part of me that's dying. And I know and I have faith, that in the unknown, this new thing will birth.

LUKIS: Yeah, that's the great surrender.

HELLÉ: I would love to actually open up a little bit more about that, because I feel that for some people listening, who may be are going through an ego death of sorts, and unsure if that's what it is, it might be helpful to just humanize it a little bit more, and share a bit about an experience that I had. So, I'll start with the end, and then I'll trace it back to how it went. Last year, in February, I broke up with Lukis. And I've never spoken publicly about this. We've been ride or dies.

AUBREY: 14 years. 

HELLÉ: 14 years, fully committed. We didn't ever break up at that time. There was never any like we break up, we get back together. No, we were rock solid for that entire time. What led up to that point where I broke up with him in a very real intense way, was about two years of receiving messages during my meditations and breathwork, and receiving just countless signs that I needed to leave the relationship. And the first time it happened, I remember I did a session with this healer. She is someone who I deeply trust. So when we talk about psychics and all of that, when someone gives you a message that is a shock to your system, it's wise to take it with a grain of salt. But with her, I knew that her intentions were very pure, and it was super left field for her to even say that and she knew it. So, she said, "You're afraid of leaving Lukis." And I was laying on the table when she said it. My whole body just started convulsing, and I started crying, sobbing. It was such a visceral somatic reaction for me. Then I felt like I was witnessing it with confusion. Because I was like, "Absolutely not." For one, I don't want to leave him. I'm in this. We're living our best lives. And so, therefore, I'm not afraid because there is nothing to be afraid of, because that's not happening. And that was where it really began to open up a dissent for me. That was when the phoenix started to plummet, down, down, down. And it was two years of getting the message again and again and fighting it and denying it. And there were times when it would come through for me in meditation. I would see a being in front of me saying, like with a big gate, like a gate in the cosmos, saying, "Are you ready to walk through? You can come but you have to come alone." And I'm like, no, no, no, no. I'm not leaving my best friend. I'm not leaving my beautiful life. I'm not leaving this contract. Absolutely not. And the suffering just became--

LUKIS: I  remember that was so painful for you. 

HELLÉ: It was the worst thing I've ever experienced. 

LUKIS: And it came with a lot of actual psychedelic experiences for you too. Because you were in so much resistance and so much fear. You were also just having these spontaneous, I remember you saying you felt like you were falling into the abyss, and no grounding.

HELLÉ: Just out of the blue, during the day, there were multiple times when it happened, and I'd come up to you and I'd be shaking. And I'd just say, the only way I can describe it is I feel like I'm falling down a tunnel, and I have nothing to grab on to. I told him what was coming through, which was difficult. "Okay, I'm feeling like I'm being told that we need to break up." What are you meant to do with that? That's bound to bring up all kinds of pain and confusion. And you were just steady and there, and like, "Okay, whatever you need, I'm here. I've got you. And I just want to see you happy and evolved and in alignment." And then it reached a peak point where I surrendered after all of the fighting. A

LUKIS: Mushrooms.

HELLÉ: It came a bit after that. Well, I'll say that actually, briefly. So, I did mushrooms. I had never done them before. And I got given this chocolate by a friend of mine. And he was like, "I heard that you said you wanted to do a micro dose. So here you go, I got you this." And I'm like, "Okay, cool." You gave me this, this must be a micro dose. So I go down to the beach, Venice Beach, of all places. The Burning Man of LA. 

AUBREY: It wishes.

HELLÉ: Yeah, right, the chaotic crazy, wild. Anyway, I don't tell anyone. I go down there and I'm sitting, and I eat this chocolate. I've got my headphones on. And all of a sudden, I'm like, this song has been playing for an eternity. And I opened my eyes. Everything's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. So fast forward, I find my way back to the house--

LUKIS: At that point you realize you hadn't taken a micro dose. 

HELLÉ: Yeah, I was in. I was so in. And I got back to the house. Lukis and I, we met at the door and he was like, okay, I'll take you upstairs and look after you. And I remember I stood there, just in my overwhelm. And he was flurrying around, doing Palo Santo, getting the blanket out, all the things that you do. And I--

AUBREY: Loving and magical things to support.

HELLÉ: Yeah. And I looked at him and I was like, "Why are you being so intense?" And he just looked at me, and he was like, "I'm just trying to make it nice for you." And it was like, oh. And I saw in that moment, that's a husband. That is family. That is someone who is just so devoted to my wellbeing in the most selfless way. And we went through a very deep, cathartic healing.

LUKIS: I remember you saying, I'm afraid of you.

HELLÉ: Yeah, I'm afraid of you. I'm afraid of you. And we sat face to face, and like looking at each other. And you said, "You're still in the old relationship. I'm in the new one. And you have to meet me here." It was a very time bending, tripped out moment. And a few weeks later, I think I finally had this recognition that I would not be in my integrity to stay, even though it was everything that my mind wanted. I needed to leap into that unknown, that scary, uncertain place and see what was there for me. And so I sat with Lukis and I said, "This is it. I'm terrified, but this is what I have to do, we need to break up." And we did a full uncoupling ceremony.

LUKIS: It was actually beautiful. I was on a water fast when Hellé told me this. So, I felt like I was more tapped in, I was more grounded, I was more connected in that space. And I just knew, if this is what's meant to happen, then it's what's meant to happen. And, we love each other so much that we're not, we can't control each other. We have to let each other be free. And I let you be free, fly, do your thing. And it was extremely painful, but extremely beautiful. And we--

AUBREY: Did you guys, when you were doing this process, did you know that you would ultimately come back together? Or did you do it for real?

HELLÉ: Fully believed it was it.

AUBREY: Because I think it's kind of necessary to do it for real. It's almost like that. The idea that you would come back together, which probably both of you have enough intuition to know, that almost shuts off on purpose, because you have to do it for real for it to be done in the right way. 

HELLÉ: Oh, yeah, it was off.

LUKIS: I've never even told Hellé this, but during that time, I was sitting in meditation a lot. And I was calling in her next partner, someone that I could trust, someone that I could perceive, someone that I could see, and I knew who they were in the physical. And I was just asking for that alignment to happen. So she'd be looked after. And it was really, really deep for me, and I just surrendered to the whole process. And yeah, it was a journey.

AUBREY: This is what you would call a death portal, like the relationship itself, which our egos, our identity constructs are so woven in, that the relationship itself, which almost becomes a third entity between you, like that had to release, so that those parts of you could release. And in some cases, that has to be for real. But obviously, the purpose of which, which you didn't know at the time, was ultimately to lead you into the new relationship. 

HELLÉ: Yeah, it happened quickly.

AUBREY: Which I can reflect, I can reflect, I'm around people all the time in relationships and your relationship, as I perceive it, and I've only perceived you post February or whatever, because I've only met you guys recently. This is actually the first time we've seen you both together this week. I've seen you separately earlier than this, but just such a beautiful, such a beautiful expression of relationship. But it had to die. One had to die for the new to be born. 

HELLÉ: Yeah, I feel that what had to die was a story that I needed him to be okay. That I needed anything to be okay. And we got that and it was rapid. It's wild, because in the lead up to it, there's such an exertion of energy. And this is why I wanted to open up and share it, because when you don't know why this ego death is happening, it can feel like your life has been ripped apart. Like totally ripped to shreds. And there can be so much energy put into fighting it. But once you surrender, things tend to fall into their right place quite quickly. It's the lead up there that takes the most time and energy. And for us, it was actually only about 10 days. And it's taught me, also so much about relationships, because I think in personal growth, some people and even in life in general, not just personal growth. We can have expectations and stories around what a healthy relationship is going to look like, and how maybe it's meant to be together for life. And you're meant to work through these things. And if someone flakes out or gives up or walks away, then were they really at a stage of growth that they have said they were, or whatever assumption we might make. And it taught me from such a direct experience that sometimes the most conscious thing to do is to walk away, and to end something, to end a cycle so that something more aligned can be birthed. You only have to look outside to see the seasons that come and go and everything is forever changing. In relationships, businesses, whatever the thing is, they have their season in the way that they are, and then life wants to express something new. And I'm grateful that we're able to express something new together.

LUKIS: Yeah, me too.

AUBREY: You have to be mindful of the difference between walking away consciously and running away. Because I've done the latter, running away, in so many different relationships. Things get a little squirrely or off, like, "Fuck it, I'm out." Like, "This isn't working, I'm gone." And that energy of running away because I'm running away from something instead of consciously walking, I would always get sucked right back in. And it's a deep regret. Even though everything was perfect and worked out with my former partnership, was like, man, I did that a lot. I was like, "No, fuck it, I'm out." It was very difficult. We were in a polyamorous relationship, trying to figure that whole thing out. Not a lot of guidance and support in that because there's not a lot of people we knew like us who were going through it. So, it was beautiful. But I would run away. And then ultimately come back because I was running away from something instead of moving consciously towards that new thing. And in my relationship with Vylana, I recognized that this is a different paradigm. And yeah, suppose that hypothetically, there could be an experience where we would need to walk away for a similar type of thing. But I knew that I would never run away. Like no matter what, I would never run away. Our death portals, we had one recently in the ayahuasca journey that we had with El Dragon, and where lots of things were coming up, and there was a lot of mistrust that was there from old timelines of old relationships that she had. Every part of my old self would have been like, "You don't fucking trust me already, after all this? I'm fucking out. You don't trust me, I'm out." And I would have gotten all flustered and I would have run away. Well, of course, I would run back and there was just all this trauma. But I just stood in it and was like, "No, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere." And knowing that if she needed to go, that's okay, I'm not going to hold on to her. But I'm here. And I would just have said, no matter how painful it was, I'm here, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. I'm here for all of it. However long this takes. If this takes years, l'm here for it. I'm here for it. And that was also the thing in our relationship that was so necessary for her to know, like no, no, I will never run away. If we walk in different paths, the only way that'll ever go is still holding hands. Just on our own sovereign journey. So it's just an interesting balance of when it's time to listen to that, because it's a walking, and it's a walking towards another reality or when it's time to just say no, no, I'm here. I'm here. Both are necessary.

LUKIS: 100%. And even relationships are so challenging because the pain, body, the ego is coming up all the time. And I remember one of my styles with my armoring was I just closed off my heart and wall up.

AUBREY: Oh, I know that one too. I can get real psychological. "I'm just mind."

LUKIS: Yeah, I'm a master at walling up. And Hellé would always just bring me out of it. But she had such a gentle way to bring me out of that. It was a coping mechanism I used from a child, to go inwards, process my emotions, become aloof, and just figure things out on my own. But Hellé would just reel me out of it, reel me out of it. This was early on in our relationship. And then through doing that, it changed our communication. It changed everything. There was an important time where I wouldn't share my thoughts and feelings with Hellé.

HELLÉ: Hadn't seen you cry for the first few years of our relationship.

LUKIS: Yeah, I was so locked up. And then that shifting to communicating everything, like overcommunicating, like sharing every fucking thing. Like we don't even have the door closed when we go to the toilet, take a shit, we have the door open. It's like everything is being shared. That process has been really healing for us because, yeah, we get to understand each other on such a deep level.

HELLÉ: And it's safe. 

LUKIS: Yeah. Shout out all the couples out there doing their thing. 

AUBREY: That's it. That's it. And, one thing that I think, on the topic of couples is, I think it's very important for everyone to have their own journey. But I also see in many cases, when one partner says yes to something like breathwork, and their partner is not ready for that, isn't willing, that creates a lot of tension and a lot of dissonance, if one person goes on a transformational journey, and quest, and the other isn't ready. And it's this delicate balance of I honor you where you are, and I can't force you into this. But it creates more and more distance, and lack of relatability. Even the Fit For Service members who came here and many of which weren't with their partners. And they've got to go home and describe what happened in that breathwork. But they know that their partner won't know, and won't get it, and wouldn't have felt it. And that becomes difficult. And so, it's this interesting balance of, yes, honor them where they are, but also you kind of need someone who you can walk hand in hand with down these paths, and maybe a different path. But it's an interesting thing that happens on the journey. You start to find, like who's going to go with you all the way into the deep, into the shadows, willing to do the hard, messy work together. And I think that is really important for the long lasting couples that I know, is that both are willing in their own way, whatever that way is, to go into the deep, to go into the depth.

LUKIS: And sometimes, it takes time. Sometimes you have to just unconditionally love on that person, and they will come around at their own time. And you can't force them, and you cannot change them. And you just have to hold that space and take away all judgments of their journey. I remember for a long time I would force people I loved around me. I would try to force them into personal growth and, hey, read this book, or hey, do this. And it was just rejected. And the more it was rejected, the more painful. I thought I was being rejected. And the more separation it caused because I could see where they were at and I could see where I was going, and it was just a dissonance. But unconditional love is the thing that transforms all things. So, that time and that patience with someone that you really love about, that might be on a self-destructive path, that might be doing things that you know aren't in their highest alignment, and they might not be ready to change. Unconditional love and patience, and setting boundaries and speaking your truth. All of it. But it's a part of the journey. We all take our own steps towards this path, very different times, and those times are all in divine Alignment. So we have to honor that.

AUBREY: Yeah, and it's not anything that anybody can answer for you. Should I just stay and unconditionally love and learn the lessons of how to unconditionally love, even though it's challenging? Yes, maybe. That might be the most productive thing. Or should I go out on my own and find something else that's different? I don't know. Nobody knows. And, it's so difficult to know, because both paths have learning. And I think when you adopt that mindset of, I can learn in any situation, from any situation, then the practical advice, what should I do, becomes very difficult. Because you see the learning that's available on both paths. Radically, unconditionally loving is a portal that goes as deep as you could possibly go.

HELLÉ: For sure. 

LUKIS: And the soul knows, the heart knows ultimately. So, you have to be tuned into your heart, and you have to know, on that soul level, what's right for you.

HELLÉ: Right. I feel that a really important part of that process for anyone who's going through it is to be very honest about whether the relationship is still allowing the person to be present with themselves, and proactively on the path for themselves. Or if there's an abandonment of self going on. Because as soon as there's an abandonment of self and abandonment of one's own needs, that is harmful. And for example, for certain individuals being in a relationship with someone who's like, "I don't want you to go to that retreat," "I don't want you to do that thing," that's very different to someone who's saying, "I don't want to go, but you go and I'm excited to hear all about it when you get back." And there's other ways that you grow together. Those fundamental values are really important. Wanting to grow together, that's important. If you're recognizing in a partner, and you're honest with yourself, if you're willing to look at the scary stuff, and you're like, this person is not wanting to grow in the way that I know my soul is wholeheartedly committed to and needs, in order for this life to feel like it was lived fully, honestly, in alignment with myself. So, that's the hard conversation that needs to be had within.

AUBREY: Yeah. And it can be scary. I mean, if people don't have that deep sense of self-worth and self-confidence, your partner growing, your partner being free and really exploring their magical potential and all the ways can be like, ah, stay a little smaller, like fucking don't go supernova on me. I don't have the hands to hold that. These are made of soft little flesh. The core of meteorites to hold you as your burning star. That's really what's going on. But ultimately, they'll project it in other ways, find other excuses, find a way to denigrate the practice itself. But really what they're saying is fuck, I'm afraid that if you get too big, you're going to leave me because I'm not able to meet you in your bigness.

HELLÉ: Yeah, and also, maybe they don't understand. Like what we were talking about earlier with witnessing someone in a strange process. We're like, that's weird, I don't like it, I want to go with what I understand, what feels inspiring and exciting and sparkly and attractive to me.

AUBREY: Yeah, for sure. If someone was watching the breathwork, watching their partner go through it, and not breathing at all, they'd be like, "What the fuck! What the fuck are you guys doing? That is not cool, nor safe, nor advisable. Stop immediately."

HELLÉ: "What have you done to them?" But I've seen this even with Lukis, in his look, being such a tattooed guy. I can't even count the number of women who have contacted me and been like, "Babe, thank you for sharing the work that you do with your man, because my partner would never have given any of these hippie dudes a chance. But when they saw Lukis they were like, alright."

LUKIS: Yeah, that's what I saw when I came to, when we served on the weekend, there was so many men out there and they were all curious, and they were all open. They might have been skeptical but they were here, and they were willing. And that's the same thing that I see at our events. When we first started, it was all women. We could be lucky to have like one man in the audience that would show up. And then over time, more and more men are showing up to do the work. And now, all the men that are coming to our events, they're all heavily tattooed men that are not really into any form of personal growth, but they're there. They're showing up and doing the work. And it's fucking cool.

HELLÉ: We had a guy just at the last event that we did a couple of months back, and he was this big pro bodybuilder. And he called for the mic and shared at the end, and he was like, "I've got my partner here, and she's a hippie, and I've loved her in spite of being a hippie, all of these years and let her do her thing. But now that's not my shit. I'm into fitness, I'm into my body building, all of that." And he was like, "Well, today, I've realized, I guess I am a hippie too.

AUBREY: That permission, and I think that's something that I try to bring forward too is like, the physicality like lifting kettlebells, and maces and training. And then of course, Kyle's a part of the program and he looks like fucking Zeus. Yeah, just coming through. Ex-pro fighter. And we're sitting there crying and talking about breathwork and medicine and things like that. And people are like, "Well... Alright, I guess–”

HELLÉ: If they can do it, I could.

AUBREY: Yeah, and they know. Like, alright, what do you want to talk about? Business? You want to talk about hoops? You want to talk some shit on the court? We'll fucking go get it, we'll see what happens. But right now we're going to talk about soft stuff underneath the surface. And people are like, "Okay, well, I guess I can do that too." It's just permission. Everybody's just looking for that permission. And Vylana offers that in so many ways as well. She can get out on the dance floor and fucking twerk in a way that is like a hypnotizing trance, where you're like, fucking what just happened? And bring all of that energy. And, women will be like, "Fuck, I want that too." And then she's like--

HELLÉ: Yeah, they're like, "This is allowed." 

AUBREY: Yeah. Then she's singing in her angelic presence and being like, "Oh, wow, you can do both?" 

LUKIS: I love that shit. That's my favorite shit. I love to ride motorcycles, I love fighting, like kickboxing and boxing, and I love watching UFC, and then I love playing crystal balls. I fucking love all of that.

AUBREY: Yeah, totally. That's our birthright. That's why we're here. It's not to be one thing. It's like, let's taste it all. This idea of the warrior poet was one of the first ideas I latched on to, which is these two opposite concepts of, no, let's merge those together, and be all of it. Allow ourselves to express in the fullest way possible. Doesn't mean you have to, but you can, and you have permission. And just handing out those massive permission slips, makes me just honored to be aligned with people of the same mind, in the same spirits. So, I'd like to close this here with an opportunity. So we haven't talked about the technique of how you teach breathing, because it's a little bit different. Similar, but a little bit different. And so maybe go through a quick breathwork. And then let's just channel whatever messages come through. We'll just go around in a circle, we'll do a little breathwork, we'll teach people how to do it. And then channel whatever messages come through. 

HELLÉ: Love it. 

LUKIS: So, Owaken Breathwork, we use a connected breath. It's a full body breath. So we're breathing from our belly, up through our diaphragm, up into our heart space, into our clavicle. Full power, baby. All the way in. And then a nice soft exhale. That's what we're doing. We have a signature practice called Owaken Daily, which takes about five minutes to do. It's a small sequence. And then at the end of the sequence, you're tuning into your intuition by asking yourself the question, what does my inner guidance want me to know right now? And Hellé and I do that every single day. And if someone--

HELLÉ: Sometimes multiple times. 

LUKIS: Most definitely, yeah. 

AUBREY: I did it this morning.

LUKIS: Let's go! If anyone wants to try out that practice, if you've been looking for a breathwork practice, but you don't know where to begin, check out Owaken Daily. You can learn it for free on our website, owaken.com and get amongst it. And if you fuck with it, do it every day. It's a great way to let go of stress and tension. It's a great way to get all the health benefits of a breathwork practice, which is there's many. But for today, I think we just take 30 deep connected breaths.

AUBREY: And teach the style of breath when you first came to teach me at the house, it's a softer breath almost through almost like the back of the throat. And of course, we all know that the way that a human being should breathe through daily life is in through the nose, out through the nose. That's nose breathing. Matias de Stefano came and explained, like this is the essence of spirituality coming from spirali, the Latin, which is to breathe. And so, that type of breathing through the nose is the type of breathing that you do. But when you want to really build prana, build energy and start to create a shift in the body, then activating that, breathing through the mouth is the most powerful way to actually build that in the quickest way possible. But the way you taught it, it's even faster than any way that I've known, because you're incorporating the body and allowing your structure to open more space all the way through your belly. And the softness of the breath is also something interesting. So, if you want to just demonstrate that a few times, I know people will be listening, but maybe even they can hear what it sounds like. There's no theatrics or pushing to the breath. 

HELLÉ: There's effort on the inhale, and then easy exhale. So, exactly like you described, we don't do straw breathing. We just allow the whole face to relax as much as possible and let your throat and your lungs do that work to draw in and let go. And so, if you pull the breath in, every inhale is with effort. The exhale will actually just take care of itself. And we've been speaking throughout this conversation, the breath is a reflection of the cyclic nature of life. And there's a time to put an effort, there's a time to pull, to draw, to use that force. And then there's a time to let go. And so, we mirror that in this practice to fully, fully surrender on the exhale. Just like you have a tissue that's drifting, dropping, and it just flows out of the body.

LUKIS: Breathwork, baby, there's a component of work. Y

HELLÉ: Yes. 

LUKIS: So, shall we demonstrate now? We'll close down our eyes. Hellé and I will just take 10 breaths, and you can kind of see how we're breathing, and hear how we're breathing. Hellé and I will be breathing differently. We have a different lung capacity. And every single person at home watching this, you have your own different lung capacity and the way that your body will respond to breathing, with connected breathing. So we're taking away the pause between our inhale and exhale. In everyday life, we have a pause which is natural, but for this technique, we're getting into a flow state. So, we can begin in 3, 2, 1. As you do this practice, you'll feel maybe some lightheadedness and tingling, some vibration in your body. So, we recommend doing this practice seated.

AUBREY: Or lying. 

HELLÉ: No driving, fam.

LUKIS: Keep it safe, y'all.

AUBREY: No sitting like Humpty Dumpty on top of a wall.

HELLÉ: Yes, exactly. Keep it grounded and cozy.

LUKIS: Yeah, this is an activating breathwork. So, you will feel energy moving in your body. You're stimulating and energizing and activating and tapping into your lifeforce. So it's powerful.

HELLÉ: Yeah, and in the practice that we teach, Owaken Daily, which you can go and access, we're doing rounds of that breathing. And then really the most important part is what we're building into. We access this non-ordinary state of consciousness super quickly through the breathwork. And then you're ripe and ready to ask what does my inner guidance want me to know right now, and to feel in the most subtle ways, how your inner intelligence is communicating with you in a way that if you were in your waking consciousness, busy, stimulated, focused on all of the outside things, you might miss it. And this practice every day is just such an awesome way to increase your intuition. And we get all kinds of ideas. I mean, we get messages from clients all the time, and people who are in our events who are like, "I did that practice, I got this amazing idea. It was so random, I never would have thought of it in my daily life. It was just left field and went and took action on it. And now, I've moved to this other place, and I'm living in this big house. All kinds of things. 

AUBREY: The universe or your higher self, it whispers in the stillness, and the stillness can come in the silence after moving through some of these layers of distraction, and these things that come up. So, I'd like to invite everybody here in the room to join us in. The number that's coming to me if you guys feel resonant with it is 51 breaths. 

LUKIS: Nice.

HELLÉ: Love it.

AUBREY: 51 breaths. And again, if you're driving, push pause on this podcast, or just listen through it. Make sure that you're safe when you're doing it. But everybody here in the room and then us, I'd say we go through these breaths, and then just offer. Offer any message that wants to come through, trust your own intuition, and see what transpires as we just share from our hearts.

LUKIS: Okay, I'll keep us on track by counting. Because one of the things when you starting off with this breathwork practice is, you can lose count, you can just kind of drift off and forget to breathe. So, everyone at home, let's just tap in together and yeah, try to keep up. We'll be breathing at a reasonable pace. So, if you feel lightheaded or tingling or anything like that, just know that it's a part of the journey and you're safe. It's safe to breathe, and it's safe to feel. If emotions come up, even through this little practice that we're about to do, embrace your emotions. Give yourself permission to feel your emotions. So, we'll go for our 51 breaths in 3, 2, 1. Let's get it. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. And slowing down ever so slightly. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40. Slowing down even more. Nice and deep. That's it. 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50. Going through your last nice deep inhale, and a nice big exhale, 51, letting everything go and we're holding our breath empty for whatever amount of time feels good for you and your body. Whenever you're ready to breathe again, whenever it feels right for you, you can bring your breath back to how you breathe in everyday life, breathing in through your nose and out through your nose if that feels good for you. What does my inner guidance want me to know right now?

AUBREY: Feel into your hands. In the hands you feel the energy, energy of what you've been holding on to, clinging so tightly. Time in our life is always like a rushing river. And, as we try to cling to experiences, to things in this river, our hands get exhausted on the rocks. Cut by the jagged pieces as the river of time flows away. Attached to our youth, attached to what we once were, holding tightly to an idea of who we should be, to be loved, to be worthy of love. Know that if you let go into that river of life, guided by the source, leading to the ocean of the divine, you will experience everything without grasping, without clinging to the joy of every moment on that river, the sun kissing your face. A face that will weather in time, but will radiate the light within, and your hands can just start to let go. Let go of that which you've held for so long. Knowing that you are loved, knowing that you are held, that you are forgiven always. And there is only one destination shooting for that river. And that is into the sea of love, capital L love. And no matter what, this is where we're all headed. So, can you enjoy your time spent in that river? Can you savor it? And you let your shoulders drop and your jaw unclench, and find the travelers of the way. Share a laugh, share a smile, share an embrace. Taste and breathe and smell. Live. May it be so.

LUKIS: Shout out to everyone in the struggle, feeling like they're never going to make it out. Trust yourself, trust your vision. Take aligned and inspired action. And just know that whatever you want to create in this world, if it lights you up and inspires you is your birthright. Don't listen to the doubters or the haters, or people that don't see your vision. The reason they don't see your vision is because it's your vision. Trust your vision, take action on it, you are guided, you are loved, you are supported, and the universe has your motherfucking back. Let's get it, y'all.

HELLÉ: Gotta click to that. I entered this world as a tourist, a child with a plan who didn't need molding or shaping. Only guiding. I've realized along the way that I've made myself uncomfortable trying to make others comfortable, giving them more space, more real estate in my mind. Then it is serving me to adventure through this world in the free way that I always intended. As I clear out what I let in, I make space to remember. It's a plan so innate, I don't even understand it when I use my mind to analyze over something that came from so far beyond this place, but to attempt to grasp it would only be a distraction from the great tour I entered into this place to experience. And so, here and now I give myself permission to enjoy the trip, and to gently set myself and others up to tour with space, to share experiences and connection without getting in the way of myself or others anymore. I choose to enjoy it, not to understand it. I choose to trust it and be present with it knowing that I chose this, I'm here for this, and I am safe in this.

AUBREY: Lukis and Hellé, you're gifts to this planet. You're gifts to me and my family. Thank you.

LUKIS: Thank you for having us, brother. We love you.

AUBREY: I love you guys too. And we love you. Have a beautiful day, everyone. We love you. Bye bye.