Episode 211: The Art of Breathwork: Mastering Self-Love and Living Fully with Erin Telford

 
 
 

The world we live in makes it easy to get caught up in—and stuck—in the small stuff. The overflowing inboxes, the relationships we outgrow, the fancy cars, the job titles...you get it. What would happen if we zoomed out from all of this? 

 

In today’s episode, Breathwork Facilitator & Trainer and 1:1 Mentor for Healers & Coaches, Erin Telford, tells all about one of her most essential lessons that zooms out from the world’s markers of success: what a gift it is to be alive, and I’m just going to go all in. 

 

If you're looking for a re-awakening of your spirit, a return to yourself, or a nudge to level up to the next highest version of yourself, this is the episode for you. 

 

ICYMI – Your Post-Episode Homework: Go to Erin Telford’s website and enter your email to receive her free 10-minute breathwork meditation. 

 

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Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief “Yes, And” officer of improve it! and host of the improve it! Podcast. She’s a performer, facilitator and professional risk-taker who lives by the mantra, “get comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin has created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn and grow. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Groupon, Deloitte, Motorola, Walgreens, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award. 

This graduate from Clemson University is a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theatre. 

When she is not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys running and beach dates with her husband and son, and their eight-pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl. 

You can follow the failed it! podcast on Instagram @learntoimproveit and facebook, and you can follow Erin personally on Instagram @keepinitrealdiehl here. You can also check out improve it! and how we can help your organization at www.learntoimproveit.com. We can’t wait to connect with you online! 

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Episode 211 Transcription

Erin T. (00:00): 

I'm gonna say what I need to say. I'm gonna move with intention. I'm gonna be brave. I'm gonna take risks. I'm not afraid of the unknown because I don't know how many more days I get. So I absolutely refuse to waste them being tentative. I refuse to waste them in a shrunken, hidden confusion space. I'm just gonna go all in. I'm gonna go all in as much as I can as much of the time as I can. And I'm just, I'm gonna live. I am. Improve it. 

Erin D. (00:51): 

Improve it podcast. Oh my gosh, improve it Peeps. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the show. I'm Erin Diehl. I am on paper, a founder and CEO of Improve It, an improv comedy expert, a top 1% podcast host and author and keynote speaker, blah, blah, blah. But on soul, I'm a mother. I am a recovering perfectionist turn feel Flur. And I am your new director because every day of your life, my friend, is an improv scene. If you are new to the show, welcome. If you are already an improve at Peep, welcome to version 4.0 of this podcast. And just know I am so happy to have you back. And if you're new, I'm so happy to have you here. So I want to let you know, first and foremost, a couple housekeeping items. My new book, I see You, A Leader's Guide to Energizing Your Team Through Radical Empathy is available for pre-order. 

Erin D. (01:59): 

You can find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or any other retailer of your choice. But the best news is because you are in exclusive improve it peep, you get a free gift, a digital workshop called Radical Empathy that is built as a partner to the book built in conjunction with the book, like I said, led by yours truly absolutely free. For pre-ordering, ICU, just go to our new website. She is fancy. It's erin deal.com and enter in your order number or your receipt number to claim this gift. This gift values at $59, but it's free for you when you pre-order the book. So go to it's erin deal.com today to claim yours. Here's one more exciting thing for you. I have created an eight track meditation album that is a lift from the core messages taught in this book. Okay? Can you believe that this nasal twang voice could be soothing? 

Erin D. (03:02): 

The funny thing is, it is, and I've got eight trucks to help you start your mornings with more intention, visualize your ideal day, give you positive vibes, and create more rest in your life. Again, go to Aaron, or sorry, it's aaron deal.com to get yours. And the best part is, it's only $11 and 11 cents. That's right numbers. So take this as your sign to get your meditation album now. Lastly, if you miss last week's episode, episode 210, work Less, achieve More Tales from the Four Day Work Week, I want you to go back and listen in because it has got some juicy tips for you all about our four day work week. We need all the self-love we can get. And just know that today's show is packed full of tangible tips to help you start a wonderful, wonderful journey of self-love. Because this month's theme is all about self-love. 

Erin D. (04:05): 

A four day work week is a way to show yourself some compassion and show yourself some, some self-care. But today we're taking it a little bit differently. Let's talk about today's guest, Erin Telford. Oh my gosh. Erin is a breathwork facilitator, a teacher trainer, a conscious business mentor, and intuitive guide. She began her healing career over a decade ago as an acupuncturist, Chinese herbalist and reiki master. She supports her clients in connecting to their innate wisdom so they can find the answers that already exist within their bodies and spirits grow, heal, and evolve. Her mentorship supports healers, coaches and teachers and expanding their impact, vision, voice, and consciousness. She has created breathwork experiences for free people. The SoulCycle Soul Legends Retreat in Goop Health, NYC, wanderlust Festival, NYPO. Her work has been featured in Vogue, in Style, shape Magazine, nylon, and New York Mag Magazine. She currently resides in Topan Canyon and is writing her first book. Y'all have this episode, the stories that she shares. The conversation is epic. Get ready, let's get to improving it with Erin Telford. Erin Telford, welcome to the Improve It Podcast. Okay. You and I have had some behind the scenes moments before we hit record, some technology moments on my end, some insecurities with a camera on my end. And you have been gracious enough to just give me the space to come back 

Erin T. (05:46): 

To you. 

Erin D. (05:47): 

So welcome to the Improve It Podcast. Again, I did it before, but we're re redoing it. I'm just keeping it real for 

Erin T. (05:52): 

Everybody. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. And I'm here for the adventure. I'm here for the ride. So let's go. I 

Erin D. (05:59): 

Mean, you really are. You are. Yeah. So I want to ask you this question. If you could set an intention for today's show, what would it be? 

Erin T. (06:10): 

You know, it's funny. So she asked me that round one <laugh>, and there's a word starting with T that comes up and I'll, I'll say all the words, but there's something about tone. Tone feels important. And tone is not just like, I couldn't hear the word when you asked me the first time, but tone is, it's not only the our our tone or the frequency of our voice, but it's the tone that we bring into the container. It's the, the tone you set for the retreat. It's the tone you set for the meeting. It's the tone you set for the conversation. So tone could be something like the energy, the intention, the vibration, and I'm just thinking at this moment in time and all other moments in time, how taking the time to set the tone to be very clear about what the tone is that you wanna emanate who you're talking to, why you're saying what you, what you're saying. 

Erin T. (07:08): 

Saying what you mean, and meaning what you say. And being able to communicate an energetic tone. And that can be in the Uber, at the grocery store picking your kids up from school, family dinner, having a challenging, you know, conversation with a partner or a friend, a business partner. So tone, tone, being able to inject the field in a very specific, intentional, conscious, compassionate way so that all parties are able to receive and understand what's happening and are able to participate in a particular framework and structure and way for the highest in best of all. 

Erin D. (07:46): 

Oh my God. Okay. Well, there it is. The interview's done. We've gotten everything that we need. <Laugh>. No, that was amazing. Yes. I love that. And I think, you know, when I think of tone, I think of energy as well, and just bringing the energy that you want to every space. I love that you mentioned like an Uber ride bringing in energy you want. I mean, I came in with some, some, some frenetic energy at the top of this. 'cause My, I was like, oh, my, my setup's new Erin. I'm in a new space. And I think bringing it back down and setting a tone that you not only want to give, but also make sure that you're receiving is so important. So I'm super here for that. Well, okay, let's dive in because we have you on the show to talk about all the things. And this month we have a theme of self-love. And I told you this, that I wanna tell our listeners this. We call 'em the Improve it peeps. A girl, a a woman on my team, Nicole, found you on Instagram, listened to you on a podcast and said, Erin, we have to have Erin on our show. And you really did your breath work. Meditation changed her life. It changed the course of her day, her week. So you're doing amazing work. So thank you for the work that you're doing. 

Erin D. (09:15): 

You do so much work for leaders and facilitators and people who are out there healing. What do you do to give your own self, self love and self care so that you can bring that energy to others? 

Erin T. (09:35): 

Yeah, that's a great question. You know, it's really that work is embedded in my whole day. It's embedded in how I move in the world. So it's embedded in, you know, when I woke up this morning, I woke up around 6, 6 30. I like to go to bed early because I like to wake up early. I like to rise with the sun. And when I rise with the sun, I've got a great amount of stretchy space in front of me so that I, you know, part of me loving myself because I'm a high energy person who can be get very you know, I don't wanna say what's not true. Earlier in my life, there was a time in my life when I would get very overwhelmed when I was very overly adrenalized and I would get very anxious. I was very ungrounded. I would say that was probably for the majority of my life I was that way. 

Erin T. (10:26): 

I would go at full bore top speed at, I would just, I wouldn't like crash into burnout, but I, I would never, I would always feel like I was running a race and I was never getting ahead. And so one of my gifts to myself is to give myself a really stretchy space to get things done in a relaxed, easy pace. I, I take rushing out of the equation as much as possible. So I have time to write my newsletter, send a couple emails, you know comment back to some students that were in a training with me this weekend. I get to make a gr a good breakfast. I get to, you know, do my makeup and move my entire setup into a different room. So we're ready together. And I, I really wanna be able to be giving from that overflowing cup as much as possible, because I know what happens when I don't. 

Erin T. (11:21): 

I start to feel a little I get a little punchy, you know? Yeah. When, when I'm feeling under-resourced, I get a little punchy. My patience gets lower, my responses are a little, can be a little bit edgier. And I always wanna be moving in the same energy. And so, you know, after we get off this podcast, I'm going to lift weights. After I lift weights. I'm gonna make a good lunch for myself after I make a good lunch for myself. I'm gonna go get a massage. After I get a massage. I'm gonna go and hang out with some friends because community and friendship and laughter and enjoyment and playful is a resource. So I'm going to take care of my own body in the ways that I can take care of it. And then I'm gonna let other people take care of my body in the ways they can take care of it. 

Erin T. (12:08): 

And I'm gonna make sure that I have enough playtime, enough nature time, enough joy, time and connection time, so that I get all of my needs met as much as possible so I can feel really like, inspired and alive and full internally. And that's, those are some of the ways that I love myself. And I also like boundaries around my time as well, you know, being very clear. I don't like to put, you know, I'm never gonna put like eight things in the day. I'm gonna put like, you know, three, four things max in the day. I'm not gonna overburden myself. Because I'm not operating from a scarcity or competition. I don't need to, I'm not running to win. You know, I'm not, I need to try harder than I need to try. I need to be very rich in every, every kind of channel and section and place and space in my life that I'm operating in. That's more important. Like quality over quantity, essentially, you know? 

Erin D. (13:02): 

Totally. I have 

Erin T. (13:03): 

So 

Erin D. (13:04): 

Many thoughts for you and questions <laugh>. Okay. So I, a thousand percent also operated at, I called it erratic errand. Yeah. For a long time. Like, oh, for 39 years, I'm 40. Okay. For, okay. Nine. 

Erin T. (13:24): 

Yeah. 48. But yeah, same amount of years. 

Erin D. (13:27): 

<Laugh>. Okay. So, like I tr and when I listened to you on this other podcast, I found this absolutely fascinating. I didn't even plan on talking to you about it today, but I want to, it just 'cause I feel like it's so appropriate because I know that you have had some major traumas in things in your life. What got you to take away the erratic errand? And I'm gonna use that for you 'cause we're both errands. How did you, how did you strip yourself of that and become this grounded, amazing, soulful being? How did you get there? 

Erin T. (14:10): 

Yeah, I think a lot of movements, you know, I, I think, you know, for most of us, we probably move when the discomfort gets so great, we can't do anything else. Because change is challenging, and so often we have to be pushed up to that edge or pushed into like, conflict or sickness or some kind of like, larger experience that we have in our life that says, you cannot do this anymore. This is not okay. This is not working. It's, it's in your face. It's so clear you can't avoid it or deny it anymore. And I think with you know, with different things for me, like with setting boundaries, I was an act of self preservation with protecting not protecting my energy, but with being more careful around the way that I am felt and am accessible to people. 

Erin T. (15:00): 

That was an act of self-preservation and the erraticness, I think it, it came to a head for me because I was, I've been living and working in Manhattan for 13 years. And I had just started, I'd started working with my breathwork teacher let's see, about four years after I moved to New York. And I love New York. I love the energy of New York. I loved, I had never felt more myself. I had never felt more at home than New York. That was just my place. That was a place for me to shine and grow and get to be all of me. But I think as people who know New York or who have lived in New York, you know, when you're riding the wave of New York energy, nothing can stop you. It is a place of high achievement and growth in all industries. You know, art, finance, real estate even healing. 

Erin T. (15:54): 

I mean, there's so many just like high functioning industries in that space. But when you fall, you are like flattened. You are getting pummeled by the waves. And I just got tired of being, of riding the highs and lows. I got really tired of that. And my experience with my breathwork teacher he is considered a, an earth guardian by the Moonwalker clan in New Mexico. And his deep reverence and respect and exchange and relationship with the Earth started started like seeding the field for me. And eventually, after I think probably a couple years of working with him, I realized that my highest desire and my highest need, and I kept echoing in my head and echoing in my head, was, all I wanna do is be able to walk out my door and put my feet on the earth. That's all I want. 

Erin T. (16:51): 

Yeah. I don't wanna live in a 33, you know, I don't wanna live on the 33rd floor. Yeah. I don't need a Range Rover. I don't need a second office space. Like all of these kind of all of these markers of success got very unimportant to me at that point in time. And my perspective shifted. I was just like, I am worn out. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, I'm worn out. I am, I felt emotionally malnourished. I was not sleeping well. I was tired kind of all the time. I mean, I was rejuvenated and my work was impactful and everything was sold out and everything was waitlisted and everything was full and everything was busy. And my work was giving me so much. But I was under-resourced internally. I was under-resourced in my personal life. And I knew that I could only grow so much more if I was full, if I was really like emotionally hydrated. 

Erin T. (17:46): 

And so I made the choice to sell everything I owned and take the show on the road for a couple years and just really spend time in like small towns and you know, beautiful places so that I could walk out the door every day and put my feet on the dirt and just be surrounded by nothing but beauty. Nothing but peace and nothing but quiet. And that was the turning point for me with that. And it's, that was 2017. And, you know, that's my life now. It might change again, but I, I think I'm, I don't think that an urban environment suits my personality anymore. So this feels good to me. 

Erin D. (18:22): 

Oh, okay. Where are you now? Colorado. Is that right?  

Erin T. (18:25): 

I'm actually, I'm in Topanga Canyon, right outside of la So it's, it's, oh my God, it's like a little forest, kind of, or it's a little high desert forest and it's I mean, it's the perfect location 'cause there's only 11,000 people that live here. And yet I can go to a new restaurant in la I can go get my hair done, I can get my nails done, I can do all the things I wanna do. Yeah. But I'm like, I'm surrounded by gorgeous mountains and the beach is 10 minutes away. So, 

Erin D. (18:50): 

Oh my God. I swear to you, I think you're one of those people I was meant to meet in my life. What's your middle name? Is it Erin Elizabeth? Please tell me. Is it? Oh, I wish I could say that. It's brown. It's brown. Brent. Aaron. Brent. How pretty, okay, mom, listen up. <Laugh>.  

Erin T. (19:06): 

Never met an Erin. I didn't like though. Me too. Never met an Erin. I didn't like me 

Erin D. (19:10): 

Too too. Me too, too always a vibe. Me always. Oh my God. But, okay. So here's the deal. I feel like we are so connected in so many ways because I lived in Chicago for 15 years. 

Erin T. (19:23): 

Hmm. 

Erin D. (19:24): 

I then moved out of Chicago in the height of Covid with my husband and one year old at the time. 

Erin T. (19:30): 

Wow. Because 

Erin D. (19:31): 

We drove overnight to my parents' house in South Carolina during May of 2020. I got out of the car and I was barefoot. 'cause I also lived in a condo building. I put my feet in the grass and I started bawling. 

Erin T. (19:45): 

Oh. 

Erin D. (19:46): 

Because I had no, I didn't have a patch of grass to my name in Chicago. I feel so deeply connected to the ocean and to nature. So after we visited my parents, we decided we're gonna pack up everything. We're gonna move to my parents, try to find a home in Charleston, South Carolina. And I now live for th I have lived for three years near the beach, near the ocean. 10 minutes one way. You know, my, I have grass, I have grass, I got grass. And like, I, I feel that I'm able to do the work that I was meant to do because of that environment. So like, I just love this story for you. I can feel it. You just radiate groundedness. You radiate calm. You are doing so much work for other people. I also, you know, know that we share. I don't, I listened to your accident. Mine is not as I feel like you had a lot of things going on there. I, I suffered a concussion, but I had ATBI this summer that drastically changed my life. Could you share with our community what you've been through and how that has impacted your work and your life? 

Erin T. (21:05): 

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Alright. This might be kind of a, a long answer, but We'll you can feel free 

Erin D. (21:11): 

To 

Erin T. (21:11): 

Interject. So I've had two I would say major traumas in my life and multiple minis, you know, along the way. Developmental trauma and all the things. Just being an adult person, you move through a lot. But there's been a consistent message with the two big whammies that have happened for me in my life. And it's, it's hard to describe what happened last year because I feel like it's still unfolding within me. And there are still some parts that have not kind of come all the way into my consciousness. But I'm gonna backtrack a little bit and I'm gonna go to in 2008 my little sister she was murdered in she was murdered. I'll just say that the location isn't important. That she was murdered and in a very well, murder is violent. 

Erin T. (22:12): 

I was gonna say she was murdered in a violent way. But she was, she was the, the details of we, we know the details of what happened and we know, we know how she participated and how she fought, and how she was in a kind of karmic swirl of lineage healing and undoing and balancing with this other person. And I had, I think I was, I was in my late thirties at that point in time. And it was a brutal a brutal experience to move through that with our, within our family. It turned everyone's worlds upside down in all different kinds of ways. And the one, the, the hugest piece of this, and this is how these two kind of connect with each other, is that my sister was a wild child. She was, you know, she was a train hopper, punk rock singer, artist, anarchist activist. 

Erin T. (23:18): 

She was wild. She was wild. And I always admired her for that. I admired, I admired her so much for living a life exactly the way that she wanted to. And of course that was painful for other people around her. When you live your life without any consideration for what anyone else thinks or or how they're impacted by your lifestyle, it's a little challenging. But she burned hot and hard. And when she died, I, I don't think I'd ever really realized what a gift it is to be alive that, that really needed to like, shoot me in the heart that needed to like, stab me in the gut. Like the, the brilliant gift that it is that we get to live another day. It is gigantic. And I don't want or wish everybody to have that lesson because the only way you learn that lesson is through the death of someone you deeply love or your own brush with mortality. 

Erin T. (24:22): 

It's not a lesson you just get, 'cause you read it in a book. It's impossible. There are so many things that you cannot you never understand until you move with them. And through them. You cannot learn them intellectually. They need to be encoded in yourselves through experience. And so I changed a lot of things. I changed a lot of things because of that. But one of the primary things it gave me was courage. Courage to live, courage to say f it, you know, who cares? I'm gonna say what I need to say. I'm gonna move with intention. I'm gonna be brave. I'm gonna take risks. I'm not afraid of the unknown because I don't know how many more days I get. So I absolutely refuse to waste them being tentative. I refuse to waste them in a shrunken, hidden confusion space. I'm just gonna go all in. 

Erin T. (25:19): 

I'm gonna go all in as much as I can as much of the time as I can. And I'm just gonna, I'm gonna live. I'm gonna live. I'm gonna choose. I, I broke up with someone that I was planning on marrying and having children with because I realized if this is my only life that I'm gonna remember, and I do remember other lives, but if this is the only one that I'm aware of right now, this is not enough. This is not enough. I need more. I want more. I wanna drink and more of life. 

Erin D. (25:49): 

Hmm. 

Erin T. (25:50): 

And so 

Erin D. (25:52): 

Fast forwarding 

Erin T. (25:53): 

To however many years that is, I don't know, 14 years later, 

Erin D. (25:57): 

I know math is not my strong suit. Erin. I'm not gonna, <laugh> math is not this. Erin cannot do math. Okay. Yeah. 

Erin T. (26:03): 

Timelines, especially around, I get very fuzzy around around dates. Yeah. 

Erin D. (26:07): 

Yes. Okay. Maybe 13, maybe. I think 

Erin T. (26:13): 

20, I think it's 14 

Erin D. (26:16): 

Timelines. 

Erin T. (26:16): 

Doesn't matter 

Erin D. (26:17): 

Last year, but I last year. Okay, keep going because this story is like, it's just incredible. And what you've, the lessons you've imparted from them. So continue, because I, I know this story and I want our listeners to hear it. I love 

Erin T. (26:31): 

That. You know it. I love that you Yeah, 

Erin D. (26:33): 

I love it. I love it. 

Erin T. (26:35): 

So last year, and this is kind of interesting because I ha okay, so this is February, 2022. I was on a hike with a man and we had met each other 20 years earlier. And he found me on Hinge. So we were you know, we had lost touch in between. And so it was a surprise that here we are on the dating app and we entered fast and furiously into a new relationship. And we were on a hike. It's like three months into a new relationship. We're on a hike with the dog and we're walking around a lake on a beautiful sunny day. But it was winter, so it was icy. And I'll just say he was one of the most I think like I don't wanna say traditionally masculine men that I'd ever been with, but he was very much the guy that like, if we were in another time, he would've like woken up, shot the firewood, started the fire, went out, shot the deer field, dressed it, brought it back to the house, and then gave it to me to cook. Or 

Erin D. (27:43): 

Can I tell you who he reminds me of? The, the, like the like hoodman guy in, in frozen. Have you ever seen frozen 

Erin T. (27:50): 

<Laugh>? 

Erin D. (27:51): 

That's what I picture him as. Like, he's like the guy in the 

Erin T. (27:54): 

Woods. Yeah. In 

Erin D. (27:55): 

The forest. Okay. Yeah. 

Erin T. (27:57): 

Yeah. 

Erin D. (27:57): 

Okay. 

Erin T. (27:58): 

But with really good style and like, 

Erin D. (28:01): 

Okay, not a rock and 

Erin T. (28:02): 

Roll kind of rock and roll. Right, 

Erin D. (28:03): 

Right, right. Okay. Alright. Not like from the, from like the old days. Okay. Alright, keep 

Erin T. (28:08): 

Going. So we're on a hike with the puppy, you know, and there's a certain point in the hike where I was like, this looks sketchy. And he was like, we got it. No problem. And I was like in a hundred percent trust of his direction. And we're walking and he actually slipped and fell down the hill. But because he'd been skateboarding and snowboarding for like 30 years, he fell with grace. He fell easily, landed on his feet. I got scared and I don't get scared of a lot of things. So I know that the fear that I was feeling was part of the ignition for me to fall. He says to me, let go of the dog. Just turn around. All you have to do is turn around. Our footsteps are already there. Just step back in our footsteps. It was like maybe three feet to get to more level ground. 

Erin T. (29:05): 

So close. My whole body started shaking. And I'm doing breath work on the hill. I'm like, use your tools, use your tools. Use your tools. This is fine. It's fine. Don't worry about it. Use your tools. Couldn't I couldn't override it. And I took one step and then I fell, but I hit a tree, knocked myself out, and then I fell on the frozen lake lake. And he said, again, out of 30 years of snowboarding and skateboarding, top two worst falls he's ever seen in his entire life, oh my God, I fell badly. He thought I was dead. He couldn't find my pulse or my breath. I don't have a remembrance of crossing to the other side. I don't have any remembrance of a near of like a, that near death experience. But you know, we're, we're out in the mountains. There's no cell service. He knows how to check me for broken bones. He knows how to assess for, you know, vitals. And I was completely unconscious and I had to walk out the two miles to get to the car. And he said, he said that I was pushing him away like a, like a drunk person at four in the morning and saying, I got it. I got it. You know? 

Erin D. (30:26): 

So you don't remember any of this? Like you 

Erin T. (30:27): 

Were I don't remember any of it. You're 

Erin D. (30:28): 

Totally unconscious. No. Yeah. 

Erin T. (30:30): 

I, I don't remember it until we were, I was like being air. I woke up like in the airlift. Oh my God. So we get to the car, I go into shock. He drives me to the first hospital. And then they needed to airlift me to Reno. So I remember waking up in the airlift, and then I remember waking up and saying when I was getting a CT scan, like, I can't where is he? I can't do this without him. He's my person. I can't do this without him. Where is he? And he was like, he was driving, you know, because they 

Erin D. (31:01): 

Wouldn't, yeah. 

Erin T. (31:01): 

I dunno. It was probably another $90,000 to put him in the airlift as well. Oh. So anyway, that's the backstory. The, the end, the front end of the story is that I had a, I had a break. You know, I had a massive glitch in my own matrix. I had a massive break in reality. My soul kind of went offline for about 10 days. There was a tremendous amount of soul loss and deep physical pain and a lot of fear. My consciousness kind of went offline. The amount of nervous system kind of buffering and, and numbing that I had to do. And turning down the volume on my capacity to feel, to make it outta the mountains, it took me a significant amount of time to come back on online fully where I was like, there was a part where I was like, where did my personality go? 

Erin T. (31:53): 

Where am I, I can, I can't feel myself. I don't know where I'm like, I'm in my body, but where am I? And so ultimately, I mean the, the past life carmic doors that we both closed together in that instance, there was a lot of healing of the past for both of us in different lives. But it gave me, it redirected me back into again, thank God for life. You know, I am so deeply, and I mean, there's the intricacies of all the things that I received are still, I, I can't even really put words to them. I've made, you know, offerings and creations from them. But it really comes, it comes back to being like, if you're not afraid to live your life, who are you gonna be? If you're not afraid to live your life? Like, what parts of your, what conversations are you not having? 

Erin T. (32:48): 

What things are you not talking about? What are you not creating? And what are you tolerating in your life? Where have you kind of turned down the volume on things to such a low ebb that you have no expectations or you have low expectations? Where are you not voraciously and like generously and enthusiastically being grateful for your life force? And what are you gonna do with that? And so that, those are the two kind of like big threads around, like, I'm not afraid of the unknown because of that. I'm not afraid of being canceled because of that. I'm not afraid of saying I was hurt by this when this happened because of that. Like, I'm here, I'm here and I'm all the way here and I'm unwilling to do anything other than be all the way here in a way that makes sense for me. And so whatever is created from that space, whatever is inspired from that space, I feel like those two experiences and those two traumas just gave me that just profound gift of being. And I mean, it, I don't know. It's like, I don't even feel like I'm communicating it with as much strength as I would wanna, but a lot of people just kind of go along and go along and I don't think we get to do that, you know? 

Erin D. (34:05): 

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. 

Erin T. (34:06): 

This is, yeah. 

Erin D. (34:08): 

Can can I ask you something? Yeah. Because I obviously knew this story. I think you're communicating it beautifully. So don't don't second guess yourself there. I've heard you say this story on another show, and I was just, I was on a run and I was just like, oh my God, she just gets it. Because I feel like what you're saying is you basically this accident rewired you, would you say that, would you say that it rewired your entire being, your soul, your nervous system and caused you to have this higher consciousness that you're now emitting to your clients, to your, to your community, to the world? And in that rewiring, no, let me rephrase it. Do you think you would have ever been this rewired without that accident? 

Erin T. (35:04): 

You know, I'm gonna say no, because it was such a specific rewiring. I mean, the amount of grief that I went through, just like with my sister's death, it changed everything. I, I lost loss isn't quite the right word, but they're two of my very best friends are no longer in my life because of that accident. Because things came forward around our friendship and around their capacity that weren't a match anymore. There's a lot of things fell outta my life that were not a match for the energy that I was. And it's not like, oh, I was so much more conscious than these people. It's, it's not even like that. It was just like, it, it cleared the field for me in a lot of ways because I was inhabiting a new space. Some people around me had never actually seen me be terrified of anything. I had to have a surgery to repair one of the bones that broke. And people were I, I wasn't playing the role that I normally play. I was in a different, I was in a different tone and that tone was not well received. And it, it elevated my my ask for who is around me. And if I'm asking for more, I'm also becoming more and being more, I'm giving more. I'm never going to ask for more around me unless it's a match 

Erin D. (36:29): 

Yeah. 

Erin T. (36:30): 

For where I'm at. And so there was a lot of loss and a lot of clearing of the space that happened last year. And in that clearing, there was so much creativity and there were so many ideas that came through. But I think for all of us, like our consciousness and what we can see and hear and feel and know I don't know, i, i being on this path, I think if you're committed to growth and evolution, you get a lot of little, a lot of little jumps and plateaus. Like 2020 was a banger for a lot of people. Like, I got blown out in 2020 in a great way. I saw things in brand new ways, saw things in brand new ways from, from the brain injury. I saw things in brand new ways from who was left over. So I think it just, there's, there's so many different inroads. Like you don't need to have that big of a trauma to receive in that way. But I think I was ready for a blowout. 

Erin D. (37:24): 

Yeah. Yeah. Oh my god. That, that tracks Aaron and I swear were like, meant to talk because I love it. <Laugh>. I, I, it's, it's, so it did, I felt very similarly this summer because I think a lot of, especially, I don't know if you had like, physical casts. 'cause I know you broke some ribs. I know there was some, some things broken from that, but a brain injury is invisible. And so a lot of people don't recognize that you're not able to show up in a certain way. Like if I was wearing a bandage around my head, you might feel differently, but because, you know, you're, you're just showing up as people expect you to, when you don't meet that expectation, it's actually an eye-opener to the role that you play in people's lives. Yes, absolutely. And oh, I'm just, I'm so here for this and I wanna, I wanna circle back because I don't know if I even shared with our Improve it peeps, how your work can also help people heal. So did breath work play a part in the healing process for you in this? 

Erin T. (38:28): 

Absolutely. And I'll just say I, I received a miracle, and I think I'm, I'm not entirely sure of how large that miracle was. My brain healed very quickly and I didn't get a chance. I had to do I, I got to do, I didn't have to do, I, I needed to go to the brain surgeon to do a, like a double check on me. And when I was in the when I was in the Brain Surgeon's office I was very I was in a different place than most of the people in the waiting room, you know? And when I went into his office, you know, first time I'm meeting this man our first, first and only meeting. But, and I might've said this on this other podcast, but this is very significant to me because I didn't know until I had this appointment what the severity of the impact was. I wasn't fully aware of it. And so he pulled up my brain scan on his computer, and he immediately, he didn't even look at me. He immediately put his hands in prayer and he looked up to the ceiling and I just looked at him and I said, oh, it was that bad. And he said, yeah, could have been that bad. 

Erin T. (39:47): 

And for me to hear that, you know, you hit your head, you could, you could be incapacitated for the rest of your life. You could, you could die. You could need to be in a home. You could be unable to walk. You could be unable to feed yourself. You could be unable to speak, you could be unable to see. There were so many things that did not happen to me from that brain injury. And for that, I am, my job is to live. My job is to live and be brave. That's what my job is, to live and be brave because I was given more days. And so I need to, I need to use them well. And with the you know, my mom is a registered nurse and part of her job was working in case management for insurance cases where people had had accidents that were changed their life. 

Erin T. (40:44): 

And so with her knowledge, with her nursing background, she was looking at me and she didn't tell me until afterwards. 'cause She stayed with me and took care of me for a couple weeks. She lived with me. She didn't think I was gonna be able to like, walk for at least three months. And so I used, I got, you know, instructions from spirit, instructions from, from source, from God, whatever name you wanna use. And that was the three instructions that I got were breathwork because it, it's gonna create new synapses and new connections and new portals in your brain. You need to oxygenate and you need to be able to create those neural pathways. And breath work is one of the ways you can do that because you're working with your, your nervous system, you're working with energy. The second instruction was solfeggio frequencies. And so Solfeggio frequencies, I cannot define them but there are many different frequencies that hold energies of different like holding the energy of love, holding the energy of pain dissolution, holding the energy of, you know, angelic frequencies and you know, cosmic vibration. So I listen to Solfeggio frequencies for hours every day 

Erin D. (42:01): 

Time. I did too. <Laugh>, yeah. Love it so much. 

Erin T. (42:04): 

And it would just always be in the background. And then the third instruction that I had was around consumption and what energy I was seeing, listening to and taking in. So I needed everything to be of a very positive bend. I couldn't watch any violence on television. I couldn't watch anything that was like you know, no torture, no murder, no gang violence, no no degradation of women, no no despair, no suicide, no killing. Like I had to like ex and it's phenomenal what's on the media. 

Erin D. (42:42): 

Oh my God. I know. We try to find 

Erin T. (42:43): 

Something that's just like fun to watch. It's really hard to do that. So 

Erin D. (42:48): 

I agree with that. I, I like on a day-to-Day, can't do it even before the head injury I was, but it's like that. So all three of those things were downloads that I think you applied and that happened in 2022, and now we're in 2023 and you're here kicking, doing the most while also trying to do the least and giving so much good to people. It's like, it's amazing. And you're, you are supposed to be here, you're supposed to live, you're supposed to be here to teach. So, okay, I could talk to you for literally like seven hours. Great. But I, I want you to tell our audience how they can find you and if, how you can help them. 

Erin T. (43:35): 

Yeah, yeah. I am constantly in creation as a human being. I'll say that. So one thing that came through, through the head injury was I started getting whispers around leadership. And that was one significant change for me is that for the other 12 years of my business and 12 years of my practice, I've been working with people doing much more emotional internal healing, working with self-love, working with insecurity, working with all of the, all of the like relational trauma that we develop when people are not attuned to us when we're kids. And working with people who are kind of at like step 1, 2, 3 of the journey. And yeah, working with trauma, working with all the things, emotional release and the whispers in my ear were really around stepping into working with people that are, that had maybe done a, a little bit more amount of internal work, personal work, and that we're, we're, we're ready to grow in a different way. 

Erin T. (44:40): 

So I'm still available for everybody because I've got virtual monthly breath work groups that are, you know, very very accessible price-wise and time-wise and, and investment-wise as far as, you know, time, money, energy, all of that. So they're able to, to just jump in and do some breath work with other like-minded, like-hearted people, no matter where they're at, if it's their first time doing breath work, if they've never kind of stepped into a personal work space. So that's always there. I'm here for people. But what I'm, what I'm moving into now and what feels really important to me at this moment in time is voice and courageous voices and supporting people and being able to stretch their edge around the things that they wanna say, the creative solutions that they have, the art that they wanna share, the the ideas and the downloads that are coming through them. 

Erin T. (45:39): 

Because we've got this kind of restriction on, on human growth and evolution in the place where belonging is sometimes more important than self-actualization, feeling safe in the group for many people is a place that, that they won't, they don't wanna sacrifice, but when they don't sacrifice belonging, there's this great great phrase trading Truth for membership, where I know a lot of people have a lot of wisdom that lives within them. They've got a lot of ideas, they've got a lot of ideas around consciousness, around healing. Things that they wanna create, ways like lenses that they're looking at the world through that might not be popular, that might sound a little wacky, that might sound a little bit outside the box, but whatever they wanna say that they feel a little scared or a little nervous to say is something that could change someone's life and someone that might, that might even save someone's life. 

Erin T. (46:38): 

Because our wacky idea, or our expression and our story about what's possible for us might make something possible for you. And if you feel too nervous or like you're gonna be judged or criticized for creating that company, proposing that idea, leading a meeting in a new way you know, writing a particular post or a newsletter, getting on YouTube, you know, starting a sharing something in public space and using your own voice. When we are afraid to speak, what lives within us, the world loses out, the world loses because we've all got stuff within us that we that's sparking. And I think it's gonna be of like great benefit for our human family, for our consciousness. And so I wanna support people in bringing that out. And I also wanna support, you know, working with spiritual businesses, healing businesses, I really wanna support those leaders and those people that know that they've got more that lives within them and they want to be well resourced. And they just need a little bit of, they need a little bit of strategy. They need a little bit of of structure to be able to bring that like massive you know, load of wisdom that they, that they have in their heads and their hearts out into the field and benefit and influence more people. So Erin telford.com and yes. At Erin Telford under, that's where I'm at. 

Erin D. (48:02): 

Yes. And if you send it for the newsletter, you get a 10 minute breath work meditation. And I'm gonna do it tonight. It's in my inbox. I'm ready. Okay. So beautiful. Erin, you are a light. Literally. You are, you are doing such great work in this world, and I think that our listeners, myself included, like I needed this today. I think you sharing your vulnerabilities and the stories and the, and the trauma that you've been through to get you here is so impactful because I know, like even myself, I'm sitting here nodding about some of the revelations I've had through my own experience. And it's just wonderful that you're sharing and giving this to, to your community, to our community. I'm so grateful that you came on this show and that I know you, because I promise you this won't be the last you've heard of 

Erin T. (48:49): 

From me. Oh, good. I am. I feel such a beautiful kinship with you. And I think that that is just like, just that the pure example of stellar connection and how when people are guided to each other, it is truly meant for a chemistry combustion that is of great benefit for all the people you know, all the people I know, all the people we don't know that will be able to listen to this and be able to receive something from it. So thank you so much for having me. This is a deeply beautiful conversation and I can't wait to start with people. 

Erin D. (49:22): 

Oh my gosh, you're the best. Thank you, Erin. You're 

Erin T. (49:25): 

The best. 

Erin D. (49:27): 

Okay, what a woman. What a world. I could have literally talked to Erin for 500 years. I don't have 500 years of life. Probably lived them in another one. But let me just say this. She is a light. And here is your homework from today's show. I want you to go to her website, get this 10 minute breath work meditation. So you have to sign up for her newsletter, okay. And get this meditation. And I want you to try the breath work that she does because this is another form of self-healing and self-love trying different modalities. If you've never tried breath work to help you feel yourself in your body can help transform the way that you show up in your life and the way that you show up for others. So that's your homework. I wanna make sure you go back and listen to episode two 10, all about our four day work week. 

Erin D. (50:23): 

We're giving you the insights as we trial and experiment this four day work week, all of Q four here in 2023. And lastly, here's what I wanna ask. If today's show spoke to you, please share it, share it on your Instagram stories, share it with a friend, and leave a five star iTunes review. It really goes a long way to help us bring more people to this evolving, vibrant, amazing community of improve It peeps. Check out the show notes for all the links that I've mentioned to pre-Order your book to get on Erin's email list, to check out last week's episode. And know my friends that I am here rooting for you. I want you to keep failing, keep improving because this world needs that very special it that only you can bring. I'll see you next time. Improve it, improve it. 

 

 

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