On this week’s episode of IMPACT, I had a powerful conversation with crypto, breathwork, and meditation guru, Robbie Bent. Robbie is the founder of the Othership app, an app that teaches people proper and effective breathing techniques, guided meditations, other strategies to control our nervous system, and much much more.
Robbie dives deep into the controversial topics of psychedelics and how they can be used to treat trauma we have stored in our bodies since we were children. Something as little as the first time our moms or teachers scolded us can have a detrimental effect on our bodies, and substances like psilocybin help to release that negative energy and make room for positive energy. In a world that’s addicted to constant stimuli, it’s very important to be able to plug out of that and embrace the wonders of the unknown.
Breathwork, meditation, ice baths, and psychedelics are not going to work for everyone right off the bat. Much like a sport or hobby, these things require practice in order to start having fun with them. Practice makes perfect. Nothing is done overnight, and Robbie makes sure his listeners and supporters know that. His journey is spectacularly remarkable. Tune in!
KEY TAKEAWAYS (with timestamps):
[4:25] How Robbie began his journey into crypto, breath work, and psychedelics
[12:41] Pattern interrupts – burnout for entrepreneurs
[20:00] Relationship between addiction, drugs, and psychedelics
[33:00] Nervous system regulation through baths and sauna
[36:29] Benefits of ice baths
[39:09] Importance of breathwork
[50:38] Robbie’s unwavering health commitment
WHERE TO FIND THE GUEST: Robbie Bent
How to Prevent Founder Burnout
MEMORABLE QUOTES:
“I moved to Israel and actually tried a 10-day retreat. A silent retreat. 100 hrs. Meditation is a skill. For the people listening and are saying I tried it, put it on my phone, but nothing is working. Now I feel guilty. I’m sitting down and now I’m just thinking about work. That’s the common response.”
~Robbie Bent
“It’s almost like, you know, if you pick up a guitar, or any instrument… a piano… you can’t play a song, so you know, it’s not fun. You go “this sucks” and “I’m no good at it”. That’s what you’re going through when you try meditation and can’t get into it.”
~Robbie Bent
“Meditation was really hard and so most people just couldn’t get into it. And then psychedelics medicine is great to create habit change. To sort of act as a catalyst.”
~Robbie Bent
“Even when you’re not working, you’re thinking about it. And then what happens is you start to get addicted to stimulation.”
~Robbie Bent
“I was so jacked up on my screens, and just like, consistent stimulation, so I’m like, I need a pattern interrupt. The one I did was a dark retreat, which is kind of the ultimate form of this. You live in a cave with no stimulation at all, and you reset your dopamine receptors.”
~Robbie Bent
“Things like psilocybin, ayahuasca, FIBO, DMT, there are no cases of people actually becoming addicted to these substances.”
~Robbie Bent
“There was this study by this professor, David Nutt, and they ranked destructiveness of substances, and they ranked alcohol was 50 orders of magnitude higher than psilocybin mushrooms.”
~Robbie Bent
“I’ve always been fascinated with Roman ingenuity, and one of the things I’ve found interesting… was how prevalent baths, sauna, and the use of temperature, and the incorporation of socialization was in the Roman culture.”
~Robbie Bent
“For me, being in the cold is actually like this safe, psychological space. It’s so fascinating.”
~Robbie Bent
“I would just say that if you’re struggling with willpower, with sleep, with fatigue, a really good place to look is, ‘am I foundationally breathing properly?’.”
~Robbie Bent