ONEYOGAHOUSE

Brendon is a multi-modality practitioner and Nike wellness coach who helps his clients regain control by returning to their essence. His practice blends performance neurology with vibrational healing to help clients draw the connection between their wellbeing and their work. Brendon has sat in ceremony with healers from all over the world and works with reiki, sound, meditation, and mindful movement to help his clients repair psychological wounds, recirculate stagnant energy, and reunite with purpose. He studied Flow State neurology with the Flow Research Collective and is an active member of their community. Before offering wellness solutions, Brendon spent years as an award-winning media executive running content teams for brands like GQ, Google and Target.

We’re excited to share our Q+A with Brendon:

Q: How did you get connected with ONEYOGAHOUSE and what are you hoping to share with our community?

I got connected with OYH through Anna Haddad directly. We spoke on a panel together and I instantly connected to her energy. She was thoroughly prepared, and you could see her leadership showing up even in the small moments. I knew then that I would love to work in any space she has curated.

Q: In your bio, you write about your role in helping clients “return to their essence”. What does that mean and how do you help clients achieve this?

I always say that we are born aligned, loving, and blissful; healing is the act of helping people remember. In that way, my practice centers around recall and return and all the modalities are different alarms and reminders.

My philosophy is you have what you are, you are what you believe, you believe what you hear (or consume). If you are in a state of dissonance, we must restore your resonance in those 4 areas: have, be, believe, hear. Reiki is for the energy you have, Movement is for the energy you embody, Coaching is to reveal what you believe, and Sound is to recalibrate what you hear.

Q: What is Flow State Neurology and how do you integrate and apply the information into your work?

Flow State is the neurological term for what is commonly known as “the zone.” It’s a peak performance state of the brain where you are completely immersed in what you’re doing, time dilates, and you are executing at a high level. We often hear athletes talk about it, but it can be applied to any task in any profession.

Well, it turns out, the best way to enter Flow State is by slowing the brain waves down in the same way that you might when you chant, or meditate, or get into your flow in yoga. My work with neurologists on Flow State has allowed me to more directly tie wellness to performance, and create an entirely new expectation for the impact of practicing wellness.

Q: You’ve worked with many huge brands as a media executive and now as a wellness solutions provider. How has your value proposition changed in your roles? What are your corporate clients seeking to provide to their teams?

I am very blessed that I was able to have a great career in media and feel very grateful that I’m able to now forge a path in the wellness world years later. Even though those worlds sometimes feel very far apart, my value proposition has remained the same. What made my career sustain in media is that my leadership style put people first, I valued teaching over reprimanding, and I was never shy about incorporating my life experiences into work. In wellness, I am the same way: I lead with life experience, I center my practice around teaching, and I work hard to create space for people and everything that makes them human.

Q: What inspires you to do your work? What brought you into this space in the first place?

The thing that inspires me the most is that just by simply being me, I am creating an invitation for other people to join in.

As far as how I got into it, honestly, it has always been a part of me. At five years old I got my mom’s car to start through the power of belief. I knew then that when we connect to our source we are powerful, and that truth never left me. Over the years I had several nudges to not just know that truth but actually share it with others. Like any good story arc, I declined several times before I accepted the call. However, I now understand that gifts are meant to be given.

Q: What do you see as the biggest barriers to wellness in the spaces you have been called to lead? How do we provide solutions to surpass these barriers to make these practices more accessible?

I am fortunate enough to be able to bring my practice into many different environments. I lead circles in neighborhood yoga studios, inner city high schools, exclusive members’ clubs, locker rooms, specialty boutiques, you name it. Here is what I’ve noticed:

The idea of who these wellness modalities are for needs a complete re-calibration. The amount of effort I put into convincing people that wellness is not just for well-off white women is alarming. Even the notion that wellness, the state of being well, could only be for a certain group of people is troubling.

To combat this we need to tell better stories. To truly tap into and understand the power of these modalities, we have to talk about the history, not just the current application; the lineage of the medicine is key. We also need to embrace the yin and yang of our wellness journeys. This goes not just for movement and stillness, but in the language we use, the posture of giving and receiving and in the way we challenge ourselves to be better, to name a few.

Speaking of challenge, another key barrier to wellness is the pervasive belief that it should be comfortable and feel good. The truth is, it’s called “doing the work,” because it can be hard, and can require a willingness to be uncomfortable. If you are willing to fully let go, in any modality, your truth will start to surface. Facing your truth, and working through it, is the only path to actual wellness and sometimes that doesn’t feel good. That’s ok! A lot of times our healing is on the other side of our struggle.