<p>What if everything you’ve been chasing for happiness has been pointing you away from where it actually lives?</p><p>In this powerful conversation on LOA Today, host Walt and co‑host Jodie Lynn sit down with breathwork teacher and money coach Jon Paul to explore how a simple, uncomfortable breathing technique can unlock decades of trapped pain and reveal a life filled with purpose, joy, and self‑love.</p><p>Jon Paul begins by sharing his turbulent early life in the Irish enclaves outside Boston - violence, heavy drinking, and deep loss: “I lost six close friends before I was 21. I got stabbed when I was 19 and left for dead.”</p><p>He describes how <strong>alopecia</strong>, the sudden loss of his hair during his fitness and acting career, shattered his self‑worth: “My self-esteem, my self-worth, was wrapped up in my looks and that was being stripped away, and it really accelerated my alcohol and drug use.”</p><p>The pain that had no tools, no guidebook, finally drove him to therapy and 12‑step recovery - steps that got him sober, but still left old trauma buried in his nervous system.</p><p>Walt asks a question many listeners were likely thinking: <strong>“What actually happens in this breathwork stuff?”</strong></p><p>Jon Paul’s answer changes everything we think we know about “just breathing”: “People think breathwork is relaxing meditation. This isn’t relaxing. This is like saying ‘I do fitness.’ Okay, but do you do CrossFit or yoga? Breathwork is like that.”</p><p>He explains he teaches <strong>circular breathwork, </strong>a 30‑minute, mouth‑breathing practice done in a safe space that <strong>activates the sympathetic nervous system</strong> (fight or flight) specifically to reach stored trauma and emotional pain.</p><p>The first 10 minutes? Often awful. “Your brain really fights you. It doesn’t want you to shut it off, and you have to push through that to have this big transformational experience.”</p><p>One of the most striking moments is when Jon Paul describes what happens in the brain: “There’s a thing called transient hypofrontality. Part of the prefrontal cortex, where the critic lives, where the ego lives, can shut down.”</p><p>For the first time in his life, he felt <strong>“enough”</strong>: “The first time I ever felt like I was enough was the first time I did this breathwork.”</p><p>That quieting of the inner critic allowed a massive emotional release - years of grief, anger, and stored experiences finally moving out of his body.</p><p>Jodie Lynn admits she’s not a natural “yeller,” and shares how past toxic relationships made screaming feel unsafe. Jon Paul responds with an insight that lands deeply: “Men need permission to cry, and women need permission to yell or scream.”</p><p>At the end of his classes, he has everyone let out a <strong>massive yell, </strong>often with a gong crashing in the background. It’s raw, primal, and liberating: “When in life do we yell? There’s something there, it felt like years, maybe even other lifetimes of stuff letting out.”</p><p>Perhaps the most emotionally charged takeaway is John Paul’s reflection on career and purpose: “We have to give up our dreams to step into our destiny. We can keep pursuing something just because we’ve been pursuing it so long and miss something beautiful right in front of us.”</p><p>Jodie Lynn reframes it brilliantly, adding that we often must surrender our <strong>perceived</strong> dreams - the ones handed to us by culture, family, and social media - to finally discover a <strong>heart‑centered life worth living</strong>.</p><p>In the end, breathwork isn’t presented as a magic fix, but as an <strong>actionable, repeatable way to love yourself </strong>by doing the hard inner work you’ve been avoiding.</p><p>“The life that you’re looking for is in the work that you’ve been avoiding.” And this time, that work starts with one uncomfortable, conscious breath.</p><p>LOA Today Episode Page: <a href="https://www.loatoday.net/jon-paul-crimi">https://www.loatoday.net/jon-paul-crimi</a></p><p>Jon Paul Crimi&#39;s Website: <a href="https://breathewithjp.com/">https://breathewithjp.com/</a></p><p>Follow the LOA Today podcast: <a href="https://www.loatoday.net/follow">https://www.loatoday.net/follow</a></p><p>#lawofattraction<br>#manifesting<br>#vibration<br>#podcast<br>#deliberatecreators<br>#Q&amp;A<br>#waltthiessen<br>#jodielynncraven<br>#loatodayapp<br>#YourDailyDoseOfHappy</p><p>#Breathwork </p>