Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Harsha Dharmana . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Harsha , appreciate you joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.
I relocated to Hong Kong in 2008 to further my career in high-end tech and finance recruitment.
in 2009, tragically my mother was diagnosed with MSA a rare degenerative neurological ilness with no cure or treatment.
I joined two friends in Hong Kong and co-started a business in 2010.
There were two ‘stories happening at the same time
1. My mum’s ilness was progressing and her health declining
2. I was achieving more and more success
with the success of the business came a lot of stress, anxiety, a few bad habits, lack of quality time with my family.
My Mum eventually passed in 2019
And it was at that point and i had to take a hard look at my life
on the outside i was successful
– Beautiful family
– Earning more than I ever thought I would
– Building a well know successful business
– Fancy holidays
But underneath it all, i was so stressed, on the edge of total burnout, had stress related health issues with my gut, was emotionally reactive and irritable
I realised that i needed to change
So i made a plan to exit the business and leave Hong Kong
During the grieving period I came across breathwork, practised it, it had an amazing impact, so delved more into it and decided to get certified and teach it to others
Money and material success just wasnt worth the stress, anxiety, poor health and lack of time with my family
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I fell into breathwork as i was grieving the passing of my mother.
It had an immediate impact on my mood, energy levels and motivation. As i explored more and more, it had such a profound impact on myself that i decided to teach it to others
I am certified in three different methodologies of breathwork
Oxygen Advantage Advanced Instructor
XPT Performance Breathing
Conscious Connected Breathwork – Alan Dolan (Breathguru)
And i’m in process deepening my knowledge in the science of breathing and sleep with the BSC (breath science certification)
I have one 8 week 1-1 online program, It’s a carefully structured breathwork program that helps people improve sleep, stress management, anxiety, overwhelm, burnout, overall health and wellbeing and physical and mental performance.
A lot breathwork coaches go straight into transformational style breathwork. There’s a time and place for that, but I only teach it to people once I fix their day to day breathing patterns (functional breathing) and helped them build a flexbile and resilient nervous system. Only then do I use techniques like Conscious Connected Breathwork. This is where we look into the subconcious, but again from a safe place. If you’re already anxious, have poor breathing habits and a dysregulated nervous system, these type of techniques can do more harm than good.
There’s nothing w00 woo about what i teach and the way i teach it. It’s all logical, and practical, based on research and basic physiology.
Breathwork in the context of my program is all about making changes to behaviour and physiology to get long-term positive outcomes and results.
It takes time and consistency like almost everything in life.
At the start of my program, we use various assessments and then track this data over time to measure progress
Each session I teach the concepts and exercises and we practice them together. Then I build a daily bespoke breathwork program that I upload to an app which they have access to. Each day they have a set of exercises which come with a guided audio prerecorded from me. When they complete the exercise, it’s logged and at the end of the week, we see a compliance score so we know how much of the program they have followed.
It’s all created to be as easy as possible for people to follow, execute and
build long-term habits.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
The biggest lesson i’ve learned is around the definition of success
I grew up in a family of academic and medics, there was lots of pressure to become and Doctor. This made me hate studying and basically rebel against it all.
I then ended up in recruitment, was good at it and starting to make money
Growing up it was like i didnt become a doctor i was not worthy and if did not become rich i was not worthy
When I became ‘financially succesful’ i realised that if that comes with the cost of my health, mental wellbeing and time with my family, it’s not worth it.
It’s all bull shit. Rich and success can be defined in so many ways now. And for me, it’s doing something that i enjoy that brings value to others, its being able to spend quality time with my family, and being able to spend time on habits and practices that keep me happy and healthy
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
As a coach it’s developing that relationship with your clients. Not preaching to them or setting them goals from your own egoic perspective. Always sitting in their shoes and understanding whats driving their behaviours and habits and thought process.
Then we can help them change, Starting small, showing them what it’s like to make small wins, then helping them build consistency. With small wins and consistency comes confidence and we can build from there. keeping them invested until that critical point where they feel and see tangible results. After that, it’s much easier to stay on track.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sfhbreathwork.com
- Instagram: sfh_breathwork
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshadharmana/
