Caitlyn Burkhardt - Transformational Breathwork

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Check out the new podcast with Caitlyn Burkhardt titled Transformational Breathwork. During this podcast we discuss topics like:

• How she became inspired to practice transformational breathwork?
• The pros and cons of Ayahuasca and breathwork.
• What is transformational breathing and how does it work?
• How breathwork helps with depression and anxiety.
• The four pillars of trauma release.
• Nutrition training and training.

Caitlyn has worked in the wellness industry for over 15 years and embodies whole health by nourishing her mind, body, and spirit using all of the same tools that she offers her clients. She is a Transformational Breathwork Facilitator, Polarity Therapist/energy medicine provider, massage therapist, and functional mobility coach. By offering these well rounded services, she seeks to empower people through knowledge, self discovery, and movement so that they may better care for their bodies and love themselves just as they are.

Visit Caitlyn's website at: https://www.bodacitysportandsoul.com
Follow her on Instagram at: @Bodacity_sportandsoul

Sign up for workshop here.

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(01:04):
name is Todd McLaughlin. And Ihave the pleasure of bringing
Caitlyn Burkhardt on to thechannel today. And so check
Caitlyn out at her website,bodacitysportandsoul.com. And
also her instagram name is at@bodacity_ sportandsoul. She's

(01:25):
going to be teaching atransformational breathwork
workshop here on Sunday, March5, just two days from now
listening, if you're listeningto this post March 5, don't
worry, I'm sure we'll be havingher back. You can join in via
zoom no matter where you are.

It's gonna be (01:40):
30pm Eastern. We cover all this to throughout the
conversation. So on that note,I'm so excited to have you here.
Caitlyn, how are you doing?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (01:49):
I'm so excited to be here. Thank you
for having me.

Todd McLaughlin (01:52):
You're welcome.
You know, today is this podcastrelease and in just two days on
Sunday, March 5 at 1:30pmEastern, you're going to be
offering a transformationalbreathwork workshop here at our
yoga studio. But it's also goingto be live streamed so that some
anyone can join anywhere in theworld. So I'm excited to have

(02:13):
you on the podcast today just tointroduce our listeners to you
and to you our listeners andlearn more about what you're
interested in. So I'm curious,can you first of all, tell me
how you got inspired to practicetransformational breathwork and

(02:35):
or study transformationalbreathwork?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (02:40):
Sure. In a nutshell, I basically was
suffering from really chronicsuicidal depression and nothing
worked. I had been in therapyfor like 25 plus years, I've
been on and off medication. AndI had always taken really good
care of myself like physically.
And so when I started to feelsuicidal and sad again last

(03:04):
year, I was like, This justdoesn't make any sense. Like I
shouldn't be feeling indifferentabout living. And so I tried, I
decided to do somethingdifferent. And I booked a
retreat down in Costa Rica,where I did ayahuasca, but they
also offered us two breathworkjourneys on the first day and

(03:26):
the Last Day. And so that was myfirst experience with
breathwork. And the second likethat, after that first class, I
was so blown away with theresults of it. I was like, I
have to learn how to do this togive this to my clients.

Todd McLaughlin (03:44):
Nice. Amazing.
Can you explain? There's a lotthere. So I'll get started on.
Let me let me first dig back alittle bit on into at what point
in your life was depression,something that was apparent that
you had? Like, are we going backto high school days? Are we

(04:07):
going back to like, eight yearsold? When do you remember having
that recognition that I havesomething that I'm trying to
deal with here? That's serious?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (04:21):
Yeah. Yeah.
It started well, it started witheating disorders when I was like
around 11. And then my behaviorstarted to also spiral. But the
depression probably reached itspeak in high school, and I was
hospitalized for that and myeating disorders three times.
During high school. I was putinto foster care because my

(04:46):
behavior was so uncontrollablethat my parents were like, we
can't keep her home. I wasengaging in very risky
behaviors. I never did drugsthat wasn't my thing. But I was
like hitchhiking and hanging outwith pretty bad people. And just
putting myself in harm's way,like pretty regularly. And so,

(05:09):
um, depression and anxiety justbecame like, a part of my life
forever. After that, Imaintained therapy with two
therapists. And it would kind ofcome and go, like, I would
manage it and be like, Okay, Ineed to make an appointment with

(05:30):
my therapist, and then it wouldjust, but it was never like
gone, it was always there. Andas an adult, I have suffered
from Adrenal Fatigue, which isbasically when like, you have a
nervous breakdown and your wholeyour nervous system gets so over
fried and overworked that yourbody kind of starts to shut

(05:50):
down. Yeah. And I just decidedback in 2020, to like, the
everything I've tried so far,isn't working, like why don't I
feel better yet. So going tothat retreat in Costa Rica is a
place called arrhythmia. It's amedically licensed retreat, and

(06:13):
they actually code a lot of dataon everybody that goes there.
And one of the most interestingfacts they told us is that they
turn away 22 people a day fromdoing Ayahuasca journeys, which
is a pretty hardcore psychedelicplant medicine. Yeah. So they
have to turn away people dailyfrom there, for whatever reason,

(06:35):
medical or whatever. And thosepeople, they gave them five
nights of breathwork instead,and all of them have the same
exact outcomes and comparableexperience that we all had
taking the Ayahuasca. Yeah, it'spowerful. And I can attest to
that. Yeah.

Todd McLaughlin (06:57):
So you had the opportunity to participate in an
Ayahuasca ceremony, as well asthen when you were not under the
influence of the Ayahuasca youalso underwent these breathwork
sessions. And then if you wereto make a comparison of the
experiences from each, what werethe pros and cons.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (07:19):
So the way that plant medicine and breath
work, the way that they work onyour brain is actually very
similar. Because there'sbasically you have your
amygdala, which is like yourfear center of your brain that
holds a lot of your emotions.
And then you have your logicalcenter or prefrontal cortex. And
normally, they're not talking toeach other. They're just like

(07:40):
this one, the fear, one isgetting information first. And
then this one, the logical onegets information second. And
when you're doing ayahuasca, orplant medicine, or breathwork,
what happens is those two partsfinally converge. And so you're
kind of able to have aconversation with parts of

(08:01):
yourself, like as a third party,so you can go back into a moment
in your childhood and go, Oh, weI didn't have the capacity to
handle this as a child because Iwasn't in control. But now I'm
an adult, and I can see how thisstory no longer serves me. I'm
gonna let that go right now.

(08:24):
Yeah. And the other thing aboutplant medicine and breathwork,
the way that they're similar isthey're deeply somatic. So it's
a very visceral experience withboth of them. However, with
Ayahuasca, you'd you purge a lotdifferently, like there's
vomiting, there's, there'spooping, and you're stuck. So

(08:45):
when things start to get tooheavy, you're stuck on that trip
for like, who knows on 610 12hours sometimes. And with
breathwork, you are much more inthe driver's seat, because you
can just switch up yourbreathing. And you can take a
break if you need to, and thengo back into it when you're
ready.

Todd McLaughlin (09:05):
Are you open to speak about what your Ayahuasca
experience was like?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (09:13):
Sure. I did four of them. While we started
with breathwork on the firstnight, and I didn't know it at
the time, but I had threerheumatoid arthritis flare ups
in my wrist, hip and shoulder.
It was to the point where I waslimping. I couldn't lift my arm

(09:33):
up and I was kind of concerned.
I'm like, how am I going to beable to do anything this week?
How will I do yoga? And afterthat first breathwork class, all
three of my flares were prettymuch gone. And I was able then
they were gone forever,completely the next morning. So
the next morning I was fullyfunctional able to do yoga. It

(09:58):
was like they never happened.

Todd McLaughlin (10:03):
My amazing.
That's cool. Yeah,

Caitlyn Burkhardt (10:05):
yeah. Because what breathwork does is it makes
you so alkaline, temporarilythat all of your cells become
extra oxygenated. And diseasereally can't live in an alkaline
environment. Yeah. So it's likean incredible anti inflammatory.
Nice. And then on my Ayahuascajourneys, what I discovered was,

(10:31):
I mean, I just covered a lot ofstuff, but like the first place
we went to was back into thewomb. And I learned that my a
lot of my depression wasn't infact, mine. It had been passed
down to me, generationallythrough the womb. Yes. And so I
was able to purge that and getthat out. But the thing that a

(10:55):
lot of people often mistake withthings like Ayahuasca is that
it's gonna make all of yourproblems go away. And it doesn't
do that, because my life, infact, completely fell apart in
the next three months afterreturning home from that

Todd McLaughlin (11:12):
retreat. Well, because

Caitlyn Burkhardt (11:15):
and you think breathwork sorry, what'd you

Todd McLaughlin (11:17):
say? I was just gonna say, was it? Do you think
that was a outcome of the workthat you did during that
retreat? Or is it more justcircumstantial? Things that
occurred? Like, I don't know howto leave my apartment, I had to
or my house or I had to, I lostmy job or, like, do you think

(11:38):
that the those three months postthat experience were because you
were trying to get groundedafter that experience? Or like,
come to terms with what you feltunlearned? Or what did it feel
disconnect, like not necessarilyconnected to that?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (11:53):
It was 1,000% connected to it. And at the
time, I was really confused,because I was like, Okay, well,
my depression is gone, like lifeshould be good now. But I
actually ended up getting reallysick with the rheumatoid and
also PCOS, and I was running amassage therapists and personal
training business up north. ButI couldn't work because my hands

(12:17):
would flare. What else happen?
So I had to close my business. Iwas in so much pain, I couldn't
take care of myself. But whatthat was teaching me was that I
needed to make a change,basically. So I, oh, Oska. And
even breathwork. What they do isthey they change your frequency

(12:44):
and your vibration. And so afterI did all of that healing that
week, in Costa Rica, my entirevibration had changed and was
different like you are becauseyou're your true self after you
heal from things. And you can't,you can't remain well in the
same environment that made yousick

Todd McLaughlin (13:09):
to plant.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (13:11):
So basically, what my soul and what my body
was telling me was, you can'tstay here anymore. You need to
do something different. And Ihad always been wanting to move
to Florida, for California, andbasically the rheumatoid ended
up pushing me down here, becausethis is where my mom lives.

Todd McLaughlin (13:30):
Cool. Very nice. Yeah, I hear ya. I've
heard people say from the plantmedicine experiences, like, be
careful, because like it canhave this sort of effect of
like, what your what youexperienced, but I guess why I
guess maybe don't need to becareful of that is that if you

(13:50):
do make a positive change,that's a positive thing. But I
can see where that can be fairlytumultuous to really navigate or
to navigate through through thatterror. Yeah.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (14:04):
And they told us to and to, to continue
helping us integrate, because itis it's like doing 20 years of
therapy whenever you dosomething as hardcore as
psychedelics, and it takes yourbrain a long time to kind of
like reshape itself andreorganize, it doesn't happen
overnight. That's why they callit integration after you do

(14:26):
things like that. And doingbreathwork regularly after that
experience, not only helps youkind of like readjust and rewire
your brain, but it it helps youtake your own control back

(14:47):
because a lot of people end upchasing plant medicine as a
pill, like a magic pill. AndI've actually done several more
Ayahuasca ceremony He is anmushrooms. And they're not a
pill. They're not a pill. Theyare a tool. They're like your
teachers. And so what happenswhen you get taught something

(15:09):
you have to learn how toimplement that into your life?
Your teachers can't do it foryou.

Todd McLaughlin (15:14):
Yeah. Yeah.
Good point. Yeah, I hear ya. SoI'm curious, then, with
transformational breathwork,what are the main
characteristics of thistechnique that make it quote
transformational breath work?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (15:34):
Okay. So there's many, many types of
breathwork. The one that I will,I'm going to teach us at the
workshop, a few different kinds,like, I'm going to teach people
how to breathe for a corestability and pelvic floor
strength. There's ways tobreathe to down regulate your
nervous system to upregulate,your nervous system and balance

(15:56):
or nervous system.
Transformational breathwork isunder the umbrella of what is
called Conscious connected orconscious circular breathing. So
what that means is you arebasically breathing in
succession, once one breathends, another begins, and it's
just continuous. So what it doesis it puts your body into a

(16:21):
state of stress. But you'redoing it consciously. So it's a
little different. If you get apanic attack, your breath is
controlling you and breathingyou and you're freaking out,
right? But if you go in to dotransformational breath work,
and you're like, I'm going tobreathe this fast on purpose,

(16:43):
you're taking your control back,and you're breathing the breath.

Todd McLaughlin (16:49):
Yes. Got it.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (16:51):
So the method that I use is a three part
breath. That's all done throughan open mouth. We basically
breathe deep into the belly, upinto the heart, and then the
exhale just falls away. Andthere's a lot of things
happening as you breed that waycontinuously for 40 minutes.

Todd McLaughlin (17:12):
Yes. That's so interesting, because, you know,
we had an opportunity to hostsomeone here teaching
breathwork, and it was under adifferent title. And it sounds
like it was exactly the samething as transformational
breathwork just that somebodychanged the name of it. Maybe
there's like a trademark thingwith it, or is that is that

(17:36):
something with this with thetransformational breath work
where it's like trademark, likeyou have to take a training
under a trademarktransformational breathwork
teacher to then be able to usethe words transformational
breathing.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (17:50):
Maybe, like Wim Hof, for example, is the
same kind of breathing. So he'sconscious circular breathing,
yeah. Um, Holotropic breathing,that's also conscious circular
breathing.

Todd McLaughlin (18:05):
So Holotropic and transformational is more or
less the same.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (18:11):
There's some differences. So with Holotropic
breathing, you can eitherbreathe through your nose or
your mouth. Sometimes they justuse a two part breath. So it
might be like a big inhale andexhale. So the music I think, is
a lot more intense withHolotropic. And they're longer

(18:34):
Holotropic breathwork sessionsgo for like two hours, and
you're just breathing like thatfor two hours. And I'll use art.
So a lot of times in the circlesafterwards, they'll have people
draw, or paint, and talk andthings like that to help like,
begin integrating from thebreathwork journey. The way that

(18:58):
I was taught, and I had twodifferent trainings that I went
through, I went through one withRebecca core Deki. And I went
through a second one that wasmuch more involved with breath
masters based out of Bali. Theybasically taught us the art of a
playlist. So the playlists thatI create for these journeys are

(19:24):
all done with intention andpurpose and the music itself
will actually take you on ajourney and support your journey
with the lyrics and the vibesand the melodies, the harmonies.
So I create a playlist for everysingle journey that I take
people on. And then there's alsomy facilitation. So while you're

(19:48):
breathing, I am guiding you andsaying things like, You are
worthy, you are enough and it'stime to forgive that person that
hurt you. It's time to forgiveyourself. Keep Going you've got
this and that helps you torewire your subconscious.

Todd McLaughlin (20:06):
Very cool.
Yeah. Have you had anyexperience with the what does
that call? There's no is therelike a specific term for like,
where the hands will like crabclaw up? Like sometimes the
extremities will get that likereally intense cramping
experience. Do you know whatthat what does that call that?
And there's like, yeah, thathappening? You? It has? Yeah.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (20:26):
Yeah.

Todd McLaughlin (20:28):
A little tense.
Like, it's, it's a bit like,Whoa, what a blood clot. Yeah,
what's gonna happen? Like mywhole body going to do this?
What have you what is your beenyour experience with that?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (20:41):
Yeah. Um, so that is completely normal. It's
called tetani. And the reasonthat that happens is it's
because we are messing with thegas exchange. So basically, we
are, we're building carbondioxide levels up in your body a
little bit. And we'reconstricting the way that we're

(21:03):
breathing is constricting all ofyour blood vessels. And so
sometimes it will make peoplecramp. But all it's not
permanent. And if it's too muchfor some people that I just tell
them, so get off the ride,change up your breath, let your
hands kind of come back and thengo right back in another reason

(21:26):
cribbing can happen during abreathwork journey is a vitamin
deficiency. So if you're likedehydrated, it could be like
magnesium, zinc, electrolytes,that can also add to any
cramping that happens, but it'stotally normal. And it's not

(21:47):
going to happen forever.

Todd McLaughlin (21:49):
Got it? There's no ill health effects from
having that happen.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (21:57):
No, it's really just because of your
blood vessels being constricted,and then also, you can slow down
to sort of people start to cramptoo much and it gets too
intense. Instead of going.
You can just slow down a littlebit. And that will kind of

(22:18):
lessen the intensity of it.

Todd McLaughlin (22:20):
Yeah. Yeah.
That makes sense. Yeah. Cool.
How do you explain the lesseningof depression, linked to going
into a breathwork session?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (22:43):
Okay, so our bodies, our bodies hold on to
everything, whether we realizeit or not. And even if you are
in a situation that let's sayyou you're in a like a
frightening situation, or you'reat it, you're in a place and

(23:05):
you're uncomfortable in thatplace, you might unconsciously
hold your breath, because you'reuncomfortable in that place.
While you're holding yourbreath, and your diaphragm is
constricting, you might even golike this with your shoulders to
kind of protect yourself. All ofthose emotions are being can be
stored in those places thatyou're constricting, if you

(23:28):
don't let them go. And whathappens with trauma is your the,
the event is either so large,that your nervous system hasn't
been able to discharge it fullyyet, or if it's complex trauma,
it's just getting assaulted likeconsistently, and you're not
able to shake it off. So the waythat breathwork helps with

(23:54):
depression is or anxiety orinsomnia or eating disorders or
anything. It really comes backto getting back in your body and
allowing yourself to really leaninto that discomfort and then
you're able to grieve during thebreath work and your body has

(24:15):
such a physical experience. Likethere's shaking, there's
vibrating, there's tingling.
People cry we do we do add insome yelling to get out any
residual anger. And that's howyou free yourself with the
breath.

Todd McLaughlin (24:35):
Got it? Have you noticed since sounds like
your first breath workexperience was a year ago. It
sounds like maybe 2022 Did yousay?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (24:48):
Yeah, it was a little over a year ago. Yeah.

Todd McLaughlin (24:51):
How has this year been practicing breath
work? What sort of ups and downsHave you noticed towards there
been a leveling out?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (25:03):
Wow. So actually my first weekend doing
my training, it was on Zoom. Andmy dog died in the middle of the
training. So he was with us onFriday. And then he was not
there with us on Saturday. And Idecided to go continue with the
training.

Todd McLaughlin (25:23):
Sorry to hear that.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (25:25):
Thank you.

Todd McLaughlin (25:27):
I know, I have a dog. So before I had, oh, when
people told me about their petpassing, I didn't understand.
And now I understand. Yeah,yeah,

Caitlyn Burkhardt (25:38):
it's one of the worst days of your life. I
mean, it was horrible. It washorrible. But I'm grateful for
the timing of it. Because I ithappened during my training. And
so I got to breathwork journeysthat weekend. And, and being
able to do breath work on theday that he passed away. And

(26:02):
again, the next day, I was ableto move through so much of my
grief. And I could actually feelhis energy with me in the room.
That's how transcendingbreathwork is. Because you you
do go to an altered state ofconsciousness, you can reach the

(26:22):
astral planes, and these higherplanes when you're doing breath
work.

Todd McLaughlin (26:26):
Yes.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (26:28):
I agree with you me immensely.

Todd McLaughlin (26:30):
The first time I did the breathwork class, like
what you're explaining with thetechnique, I was amazed at how
intense it was, like, I didn'tthink I practice pranayama. And
I've been practicing pranayamafor years. It's just a different
type of technique. So when Iwent into the transformational
style breathing, I just thought,I'll be fine. Like, what are

(26:51):
they talking about? Why iseverybody saying like, I mean,
and yeah, it's kind of it'samazing how powerful it is. So
then I didn't want to interruptyou, though. I'm sorry. So after
that experience in over thislast year, is it something that
you can do on your own? Or doyou have a deeper experience
when you're facilitated bysomebody, or with somebody,

Caitlyn Burkhardt (27:15):
you can do it on your own, I actually did it
by myself two days ago, um, andI was able to really work
through some shit.

Todd McLaughlin (27:24):
And I think I saw your Instagram post from
that day, we were like I was onthe floor sobbing. Here I am on
the beach, like,

Caitlyn Burkhardt (27:32):
rolled around in my own snot, like I was a
mess. Yeah. But you know what Iwas able to really get through
something that day. And it'sfunny, you asked me that,
because I, I did. And I've donebreathwork by myself before like
that a bunch of times to myplaylists, and the music will
kind of carry me. But it is sospecial to have another person

(27:57):
there with you, for you holdingspace for you, encouraging you
because I wanted to quit like awhole bunch of times. And so it
would have been really nice tohave another person there. A lot
of people I'm noticing they getreally shy and uncomfortable

(28:19):
about doing this in groups,because they're afraid of being
vulnerable like that in front ofstrangers. And one thing I can
tell you is the groupenvironment adds this whole
other layer of love andconnection that we as people
aren't getting in our livesanymore. And you really start to

(28:41):
notice like, Oh, I'm not alonein my journey. I'm not alone in
my struggles. Peep look at this,people do actually care. It's
just so beautiful. Like i That'swhy I'm so excited to be doing
this live live in studio withyou. I haven't been able to do a
live group since August up inBoston. Oh, cool.

Todd McLaughlin (29:03):
Yeah. That's awesome, Kayla.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (29:08):
And it's just a beautiful, you're kind of all
in ceremony together. That'sbasically exactly what it feels
like. And you're holding spacefor yourselves and each other
and to be vulnerable like that.
And to be brave like that withyour other humans is just so
incredibly beautiful. And I'mdeeply grateful that I get to
witness that kind of miracle inmy work.

Todd McLaughlin (29:32):
That's really neat. Caitlin, you made a
comment that we don't there'sthings in life that we aren't
getting that we need, or atleast that's what I understood
that you were saying is thatlike maybe there's certain
elements that I mean, obviouslyas a massage therapist, you're
aware of how important touch isand and we also I think probably

(29:55):
everybody in the globe right nowis really aware of what
isolation is can do from apersonal experience and relation
what happened with COVID? Howthat's not super healthy? And so
is that, what are some of thethings that you are witnessing
in our current culture that youthink we don't get enough of, in

(30:16):
addition to maybe those twothings that we mentioned, touch
and sense of community?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (30:23):
I know touches so huge to, um, in our
culture, you know, what I feellike our culture, in many ways
is going kind of backwards alittle bit. I think that, um,
you think that canceled cultureis actually pretty toxic. I
think that it leaves like noroom for error, and people. And

(30:45):
so people are now afraid tospeak up for fear of being
ridiculed or punished. It alsotells us that we have to be
perfect. We're not allowed tomake mistakes. And of course, we
are like, that's what we'resupposed to be doing here in
life is making mistakes andlearning from them.

Todd McLaughlin (31:07):
Yeah, that's a good point, I

Caitlyn Burkhardt (31:08):
think. Yeah.
The other thing, I think is,aside from what we just said,
like emotional awareness, andemotional intelligence, I think
critical thinking has kind ofgone out the window in the last
couple of decades. Oureducational system, I feel, has
really made us more of like,memorizers. Yeah, like, we're

(31:31):
not taught to think forourselves. We're taught to be
controlled, sit there. Don't sayanything. Don't argue with the
teacher. Don't argue with yourboss. And it's like, sometimes
they're wrong, though. Or like,what if there's a gray area
here, we're not allowed to eventalk about it. And so I think
critical thinking skills, andthe ability to receive and be

(31:55):
open to other people's opinionswithout getting like, fired up
about it or triggered. That'ssomething else I think we all
need to work on.

Todd McLaughlin (32:06):
Yeah. Great points. And even while you're
talking about that made me thinkabout the chat GPT Are you? Are
you hip to that with that? Chat.
GPT is an AI technology that nowfor example, you have to write a
paper in school. So you go intochat GPT and say you have to

(32:29):
write a paper about Mockingbird.
So you just write inmockingbirds, what are what are
the traits of a Mockingbird andthe AI takes all of the
information from the entireinternet world. And then it will
write a paper for you about themockingbird. And then you can
hit the reset button, and it'llcompletely rewrite a whole new

(32:53):
thing. So that no two papers arethe same. They're trying to
outlaw New York now because kidsin school I mean, like,
remember, back in the day whenwe had to read a book and write
a book report like, yeah, that'sjust like out the door now,
totally out the door. You don'tI mean, so on some levels. I
agree with you, because Iwatched with my own children in

(33:15):
terms of what they have to dofor schooling and the
memorization process. It'sgrueling for them. It's so dumb.
I mean, I understand Iunderstand that we need to study
in the process of using ourbrains and memorizing something
is a good thing for mentaldevelopment. So I'm 100% in
favor of memorization, but Iagree with you also, a lot that

(33:40):
it's just become rote limemorization, all memorization
So, but the chat GPT LMS isphenomenal. And I mean, even
what we need to start payingattention to now even as people
are using social media is thatyou can go in and you can have
chat GPT right, your socialmedia posts for you. So now
instead of actually being ahuman being, and writing what
your thoughts and feelings are,you can go in and say write

(34:03):
about transformationalbreathwork on chat TPT and it'll
write this really awesome littleparagraph for you and you can
just copy paste, put on yoursocial media and boom. So it's
from what I understand from allthe social media people what
they're saying is that it'sactually cool because you can
just build up what you alreadyhave. Like, it's, um, you know,
you can use it to help add intowhat you're trying to do, but

(34:27):
we, in essence, it's allowingfor us to never actually be
human like, we don't even haveto like write down our thoughts
or express our thoughts morehence why I do believe something
like this medium of where we'reactually having a conversation.
Like we're not able to type intothe computer and say, Here's
speak for me and act like me andask you the next you know what I

(34:47):
mean? Like we're still using ourbrains right now but right I
don't know it's crazy. I didn'twant you to take us too far off
into the weeds over there, butI'm never even heard of that.
Yeah, check it out. I think ifyou go online, and type in open
AI or open source AI, somethinglike that it's totally free. But
eventually they're gonna chargeyou to use it. But anyway, yeah.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (35:09):
The other thing I think we're missing is
our sense of agency. And in mybrand, what I'm trying to build
or attract is I'm trying toattract people who are willing
to do their work to becomehealthier, to become more
emotionally regulated, to becomemore successful in their lives.

(35:30):
I feel like, I feel like we justgive our power away so freely to
the medical community, to thepharmaceutical industry, to the
government. And I'm not tryingto sound like a wacko conspiracy
person. But like, um, you know,it's like, when you go to the
doctor for complaints, like Iwent to the doctor for my

(35:54):
rheumatoid, and they like,didn't do anything aside from
run, like for blood tests, andthen just offer me pills. And to
be honest with you, I have notonce taken one pharmaceutical
medication for my rheumatoid, Ihave done all of my own
treatment with trauma release,nutrition and movement. And it's

(36:19):
going away on its own.

Todd McLaughlin (36:21):
That's cool.
I'm glad you

Caitlyn Burkhardt (36:22):
bring it when you know what I mean. Like if
people are constantly seekingsomebody else to fix their
stuff.

Todd McLaughlin (36:30):
Yes.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (36:33):
Where does that get you?

Todd McLaughlin (36:34):
That's a great point. And I liked it. You did
use the word agency and I justcame across that from reading
Gabor Ma Tei. His work? Are youare you. Oh, I figured you had
to already be reading him basedon everything you've already
said. But Isn't he amazing?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (36:50):
Yeah, he's an Ayahuasca too.

Todd McLaughlin (36:52):
Yeah. I just read mushrooms the myth of
normal by him. Have you read hisnew book? The Myth of normal?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (37:00):
It's on my list. But I am very aware of
what book Yeah, I love him.

Todd McLaughlin (37:04):
What about the Body Keeps the Score? I have not
read that one yet. Have you readthat? Yeah,

Caitlyn Burkhardt (37:10):
I've read that one. What

Todd McLaughlin (37:10):
are your thoughts on that book, someone
else told me they said I keepthat book by my nightstand like,
so good.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (37:17):
Yeah, that helped me a lot actually, with
Yeah, with just understandingeverything and how we and mainly
understand to like, why regularpsychotherapy never worked for
me. You can't explain your painaway. Like, if my dog dies, I

(37:39):
can't just say to myself, we'llget you of course, you're sad
your dog died. So just stopbeing sad about it. I have to
grieve, I have to cry. I have tosob and wail because that's how
it's gonna get out of my body.
You know what I mean? Like theBody Keeps the Score. It gives
you such a better understandingof how trauma affects our bodies

(38:02):
and our minds and how you needto get both of them together in
order to fully release it.

Todd McLaughlin (38:12):
How has your understanding of trauma aware
approach in relation to yourbody work and or your own
healing process evolved in thelast few years?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (38:29):
Wow, I feel like I'm becoming a polarity
therapist was really the thingthat changed how I viewed
massage and touch.

Todd McLaughlin (38:43):
Can you explain tension therapy because I keep
seeing that? I don't really knowwhat that is. Wow.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (38:52):
I think I'm going to try to put together a
polarity workshop that maybe Ican do at your place too,
because nobody knows what it isand it's like the best kept
thing.

Todd McLaughlin (39:03):
Now the great um, how do you explain it?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (39:08):
Polarity Therapy. I'll tell you the
history about it but it wasdeveloped by an osteopathic
chiropractor. Randolph stoneback in like the 60s. So it's
not that old. He basically hewas getting tired of treating
people and them not gettingresults. So he traveled the

(39:30):
world like 16 times and he justtrained hardcore with like every
guru in Asia, India, Westerndoctors, everybody and he pulled
aspects from from Buddhism andChinese medicine and Ayurveda
and yoga and put it all togetherinto one thing. So the pillars

(39:55):
that we use in polarity therapy,and it is considered an energy
medicine is we use dialogue orcounseling, then we have a body
work component and then we alsohave nutrition and movement
because you need to do all ofthose things to create change in
somebody's life in their fieldsand one of our things in there

(40:17):
is giving people back thereagency through dialogue

Todd McLaughlin (40:21):
very cool. Good explanation. Yeah.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (40:25):
Yeah, it's like a really hard thing to
explain

Todd McLaughlin (40:30):
there's four pillars You said so diet and
movement are those each aseparate one and then you said
dialogue agency what was the orthe the agent agency through
dialogue what was the fourth onebodywork bodywork and then in
relation to the bodywork elementwhat type of bodywork anything

(40:53):
and everything just touch ingeneral? Or is it have a
specific focus in relation tolike deep tissue? Or more like,
cranial sacral style? Like likereally light touch? Is there? Is
there like some specific bodywork method or technique that's
that's utilized?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (41:08):
There is so we utilize several different
kinds of touch based on IronVEDA. So we have rajasic
tomasik. Is any this familiar?
Because you have yoga?

Todd McLaughlin (41:22):
It is? Yeah, yeah. It has like the high
energy to Masik is the low salt.
Vic in the middle, lucid clear.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (41:31):
Yeah, so with our touch any with our dialogue,
like those three gunas are kindof like in everything that we
do. So in, in the communicationpiece, for example, depending on
who you are, or what you'regoing through, you might need me
to be tamasic, when I'm speakingto you, you might need to be

(41:51):
like, listen, Todd just said youwanted to get more inner peace,
but here you are doing XY and Z.
So you know, or that might notresonate with you, I might need
to be more sattvic with you andsay like, okay, you know, I'm
hearing that you're, you'restruggling with this, and we how
can we get you to where you wantto be. And it's the same thing

(42:12):
with our touch. So like,tamasic, we use kind of like a
deeper touch. Sofic is like verylight, comforting, and then
redraw sake is very, likestimulating. And depending on
what pressure points or fiveelements that I'm working with,
or what your field tells me,like no session is ever the

(42:33):
same. I kind of just implementwhatever your field does, wants
me to do.

Todd McLaughlin (42:43):
Very cool. What type of training did that
entail? Was that like an inhouse studio? in person
training, online training? Howdoes that work?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (42:51):
That training was both so it's on I did the
zoom for a lot of lectures. Butthen we also had two or three in
person practicums, where wecould really get more hands on.
I work pretty closely with myinstructor, Brian. And I might
be a teacher's assistant for hisupcoming class. And it's

(43:13):
actually it's kind of like abachelor's degree in medicine.
I'm not even done. I just I justcompleted like level one. I
still have two more years to go.

Todd McLaughlin (43:23):
Got it. Yeah, it's an intense program. Yeah,
that's good. I was just thinkingtoo, but when you mentioned the
nutrition, I mean, that's such ahuge subject in and of itself.
So, too, I'm happy to hear that.
It's not like it's like a singleweekend. And then like, a master
nutrition is body worker,counselor and physical fitness

(43:44):
instructor all in one day. Yeah,sounds like something that
obviously takes some time to, toharness.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (43:55):
Yoga actually complements it, like super super
well. Um, so like the movementcomponent, and a lot of it is
esoteric, and you can kind ofmake it your own thing. So like,
I'm, I'm a nutrition certified.
Sorry, my dog.

Todd McLaughlin (44:14):
That's all right.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (44:17):
I'm a nutrition certified through
precision nutrition. And so alot of the concepts that I use
with nutrition are based onthat. Sometimes I might tell
somebody like okay, like tosupport your water element. I
suggest you eat like wateryfoods, like cabbage or lettuce.

(44:39):
Yes. But you can kind of makeall of that your own thing. He
does use yoga movements andposes to also support people's
energy shifts.

Todd McLaughlin (44:51):
Yeah, yeah.
Very cool. Yeah. And you alsomentioned functional mobility,
training and war that you coachpeople And in that world of
fitness, what is your preferred?
Or maybe you, you'd like toutilize a ton of different
approaches, but do you have apreferred method of working out?

(45:15):
Exercising? Yeah,

Caitlyn Burkhardt (45:16):
I left. I lift weights.

Todd McLaughlin (45:19):
I weighed heavy stuff. You're a heavy
weightlifter. Yeah. How didthat? Where did that come in?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (45:26):
Weightlifting actually was like the first
thing to get me on my healingjourney. Believe it or not, the
thing about weightlifting is youlearn so much about life. And
this has been scientificallyproven actually, like there's
studies that show a heavycrossover between people who do

(45:48):
resistance training, and how itteaches them discipline, self
competence, consistency,resiliency, and even body
awareness. Because, you know, Ialways check in with myself
like, Okay, how is my bodytoday? Do I have it in me to go

(46:09):
for this personal record? Or doI need to like, stay where I'm
at?

Todd McLaughlin (46:14):
Yeah. Cool.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (46:17):
And when you were, like 400 pounds, you can't
help but feel like a totalbadass. And that's gonna come up
out in your life.

Todd McLaughlin (46:26):
Yeah. Yeah. I, I like that. Because in the yoga
world, where we get really, wecan get like Clicky. And snobby
kinda like, maybe a weightliftermight be like, I'm not doing
yoga, or a yoga person. I'mlike, I'm not doing weights. And
I like the fact that you'rebrought up that you can learn a

(46:46):
lot about yourself. And it makessense. Because no matter what we
do physically, if we're like,really getting into the dynamic
of physics and the experience oflike, getting our mind and body
connected to actually pull thesport off that we're doing, I
can see where like, obviously,whether you're a skateboarder
surfer figure skater byweightlifter Yogi gymnasts, like

(47:08):
it's it kind of all does havethe same essence in a way. Would
you agree?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (47:15):
Yeah, I love yoga, too. I do yoga. I do.
Well, yeah, I've done yoga therewith you guys.
That I love yoga, because itallows you to get into your body
in a different way than strengthtraining. Yeah, it allows you to

(47:36):
be soft with yourself. And tolisten more to like pieces of
your body, and actually in theBody Keeps the Score, he
strongly recommends that peopledo yoga, especially people who
are disassociated from theirbodies. Because it will help
bring you back to that.

Todd McLaughlin (47:58):
That makes sense. Yeah, that book is on my
list, like maybe two or threebooks away. So I can't wait to
do that one. So many booksright. Enough time? Not enough
time. Would it be great to likejust win like a one week
lottery. And then like you'rethen they said like, the only
way you can cash this one weeklottery chip in is you have to

(48:20):
read for the whole week. Likeyou got to read eight hours a
day. That'd be like, a dreamcome true for me. Yes.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (48:28):
Didn't Bill Gates say something? Like, if I
could have one superpower, itwould be to absorb information
from books in seconds. Oh, man,

Todd McLaughlin (48:36):
right. You know, I knew some I had a
massage client that I was toldprior to working with him. Don't
ask him any questions, becausehe knows everything. And I
thought, Oh, that's such aegotistical outlook on life. And

(49:00):
so I he was a very wealthyindividual. And so I decided,
let me all abide. I'll play bythe rules. So I just didn't say
anything. And during thesessions, the TV was on, there
was a newspaper, and thetelephone, and so he would be
like, listening, reading andthen taking phone calls all

(49:24):
during and so at first I wasturned off, I was kind of like,
geez, you know, becausesometimes the body workers were
like, This is a chance for youto actually turn off all that
extraneous stuff and actuallypay attention to like what
you're feeling and right so I'llthink like that's maybe the
ideal and but then when hestarted ask questions, and the
doorway opened up, and then Istarted to ask questions. He

(49:46):
actually is one of the smartestpeople I've ever met in terms of
knowing information abouteverything I couldn't even
believe it like, and I realizedlike the guy wasn't joking when
he said to me, Tony, ask himanything because he already he's
already read about, you know. SoI'm not saying that that's my
deal. And that's a littleintense. I want to try to be

(50:08):
present and not always engagedin, you know, my mind somewhere
else. But I just thought thatwas interesting. But you know

Caitlyn Burkhardt (50:15):
what, like, here's something that one of my
coaches told me. So like, ifthis is everything there is to
know in the whole universe,right, you're

Todd McLaughlin (50:27):
holding up a circle on a piece of paper,
because some of this will beaudio. Some people might not be
watching us, but I just wantedto all narrate the visual.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (50:34):
Yeah. So here's my circle. Here's
everything in the whole universeto know. And then we have what
we know that we know. Here, alittle circle inside the circle.
Yeah. So like, I know that Iknow how to give a massage. I
know that I know how to ride abike, then we have what we don't

(50:59):
know, or what we know that wedon't know.

Todd McLaughlin (51:02):
Slightly bigger circle inside the circle. So I

Caitlyn Burkhardt (51:05):
know that I don't know how to give brain
surgery. Yeah, I know that. Idon't know how to fly a plane.
Then we have all of this. Here'severything that we don't even
know that we don't know. Youknow what I mean? Is over that

(51:25):
guy, even though he's supersmart. Yes.

Todd McLaughlin (51:29):
Still. Great answer, Caitlin. And I like the
visual. I like that. You pulledout a nice, blank blue marker as
well. You got some colors on?
Yeah. Yeah, so So rule numberone never say, don't ask me a
question. Because I already knowthe answer. It's just a very,

(51:53):
that's a slippery slope, isn'tit?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (51:59):
Yeah. And it's like, why aren't you open
to receiving new information?
Yeah. Or? Yeah. How do you knowwhat you know, is true or
correct? Well, good, greatpoint.
He doesn't know. Yeah.

Todd McLaughlin (52:17):
Well, on that line of thinking. When you're
feeling like, I'm just gatheringbased on what you've said to me,
and then I've also, you know,I've I've had my bouts with
depression. So I feel like I canrelate. So when you're in those
dark nights of the soul momentswhere those questions are coming

(52:37):
up? What do I even know? How doI even you know what I mean?
Where you're really in thisweird place of like, questioning
everything. Nothing makes sense.
What is your current techniquefor reeling yourself back in? I
know you and I know, you gave metons of different things that

(52:57):
you're doing. I love that, likeyour life has informed your
career choices in relation tolearning and teaching, bodywork
breathwork physical fitness andtraining for polarity therapy.
But um, like, for some of us,like questioning, and we're
becoming aware of all the thingsthat we don't know, sometimes it

(53:20):
almost gets overwhelming. And wedon't need to even think about
anything. Like, don't ask anydeep questions when you're in
that place. Right? Like, yeah,what have you noticed with all
that?

Caitlyn Burkhardt (53:33):
I feel like my best friend said this to me
once she was like, there is avery fine line between
spirituality and insanity. And II feel like I ride that line
every day. What I think about,like, all the stuff that I know
now, even about myself, I'mlike, wow, that's a lot of stuff

(53:58):
to know. I kind of wish I didn'tknow it, but I can't unknow it.
Good point. And then you'relike, Man, I don't eat. Why are
we here? Who put me here? What'sout there? Who's out there? I
don't know. It's too much. So Iget it. I get very overwhelmed
too.

Todd McLaughlin (54:18):
Yeah. Cool.
Well, it seems like you're in apretty grounded place right now,
though.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (54:25):
I'm trying.
I'm trying to do a lot, youknow, down here a year ago. So
I'm restarting my whole businessup from scratch. Yeah. I don't
know anybody down here. And so Iam like, so extremely grateful
for you extending thisopportunity to me. Okay. I'm
like, truly I'm so excited anddeeply grateful.

Todd McLaughlin (54:51):
All right. Well heard. And thank you so much for
for for being here now and forsharing, and I really enjoyed
this conversation. I liked you.
Yeah. So in on that note, we'recoming in close on our hour
mark. And I know we bothscheduled in about an hour to

(55:13):
chat with each other. And sosuper excited to have you hear
that. You listening, if you wantto join in, you'll see the link
on our website native yogacenter.com, you'll see on their
transformational breathworkworkshop with Caitlin Burkhart.
So it should be pretty easy. Um,any other? Anything you want to

(55:34):
leave us with Caitlin, any otherthoughts? Yeah, please.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (55:41):
Um, well, in addition to offering all of
these things that I do here inFlorida, I am also launching a
retreat business of my own.
Because I felt like after goingto several retreats, there was
just some things that I lovedand didn't love. And about each
one, even the one in Costa Rica,like, super great, but it was

(56:05):
way too structured. And I wouldhave liked to have a little more
downtime. So I'm starting myfirst retreat up in April, in
Cape Cod in Boston. It's threedays, two nights, we're going to
be offering body work withenergy work, nutritious organic
food, mobility workshops,breathwork journeys, there's

(56:30):
also going to be somepsilocybin. What else? I have
several workshops planned togive people back their agency
and how to take care ofthemselves better moving forward
after the retreat. But my goalis to really just like blow
people's minds and help themfind their way back to

(56:52):
themselves so that they can livea fuller life.

Todd McLaughlin (56:57):
Is Kailen.
Cool. Yeah. Yeah. All right,excited. Well, that sounds
amazing. I know you said that,that retreat informations can be
on a separate website that willbe available very soon. Remind
me the name of your currentwebsite.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (57:24):
My website's name is badass city, sport and
soul, giving you the badass cityto transform your life. But it's
spelled Bo D acity. Sport andsoul. Yeah, I'm really happy to
be there and awesome. Maybe meetsome people and change some

(57:45):
lives.

Todd McLaughlin (57:47):
Cool. Caitlin.
Well, thank you so much. AndI'll see you on Sunday.

Caitlyn Burkhardt (57:53):
Yeah, I'll see you Sunday. Thank you.

Todd McLaughlin (57:55):
All right. I'll see you soon. Take care. Bye.
Native yoga podcast is producedby myself. The theme music is
dreamed up by Bryce Allen. Ifyou liked this show, let me
know. If there's room forimprovement. I want to hear that

(58:17):
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(58:40):
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