This Saturday I was booked to host a breathe with adhd workshop in Venice, LA. I was collaborating with an established breathwork facilitator who trained under the same teacher as me in Bali and introduced us both. We got on well and decided it would be fun to co-run a breathwork event together, so we found a venue and booked it in.
But the day before the workshop, we had only sold two tickets which was below the venues minimum threshold, so unfortunately had to cancel. My immediate reaction was one of self loathing. “Why didn’t I promote it more” etc etc. I apologised to Gianni who I was hosting it with and he immediately said “dude I should be the one apologising”. He had no reason to, but I get why he said it - it was his home turf and he knew the marketplace.
It was interesting in that moment to observe how quickly I had cast blame on myself, which is a classic ADHD manoeuvre. I’m so used to fucking something up that I immediately assume the blame lies with me. In this case, it was no-ones fault. We got offered the opportunity two weeks ago, it’s a new concept and didn’t have much time to get the word out. We agreed a 60/40 split with the venue in return for them promoting it to their database but unfortunately we didn’t get the take up. These things happen!
I wanted to write about it, because I spoke to my aunt on the phone today and she said that it looked like I was having an amazing time in LA (based on my instagram posts) and I told her that she was watching the highlight reel. Then it occurred to me that there’s no point only writing about breathwork workshops when they go well. I gotta keep it real! I have to remind myself that this is a new endeavour and these things take time, there will always be bumps in the road. Particularly when trying something out in a new city/country!
Fortunately I’m co-facilitating workshop this Saturday in Malibu and this one will be a breathwork and cold plunge offering. I’m collaborating with a facilitator I met at the Sacred Sons event I wrote about a few weeks ago. I haven’t run an ice bath workshop before but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, so this will be a great opportunity. When I did my facilitator training in Bali, we would have ice baths in the morning and breathwork sessions in the afternoon. The combination of both modalities was incredibly effective for nervous system regulation and the ice baths gave that all important dopamine/endorphins hit, which is so important for adhders. So here’s hoping, it’s a success.
Have you encountered any set backs on new projects, if so what happened and how did you respond? Let me know and keep on keeping on!
Click here for tickets.