Today we’d like to introduce you to Rob Starbuck.
Rob, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
There’s a podcast I recorded on my website with a dear brother of mine, Caleb Campbell, that really gets into the whole story… but I can touch on the highlights so far.
I played football at Georgetown University until 2010 and up until then, my life was built around this identity that had been created over many years of playing the sport I loved. When I stopped playing in 2010, my world came crashing down because I no longer had this identity propping up who I was anymore. It sucked big time. I felt the emptiest I had ever felt.. but this experience was the catalyst for this wild journey inwards to discover who I really am, that I am still on today.
After eight years of trying the 9-5 thing, I knew something had to change (it was me that needed to change). In April of 2017, I reached a point where I just got tired of working these stale, monotonous jobs in corporate America. They were seriously affecting my mental health and stressing me out. So I called it quits and moved to LA, a place I’ve always wanted to be.
When I got here, I was introduced to Breathwork, a powerful form of active meditation done laying on your back breathing to music. By making this a practice over the course of the past 2+ years, Breathwork radically transformed my life and the relationship I have with Self. The most impactful thing the breath has done for me is it rewired subconscious belief systems and pulled out the deep-rooted fears stemming from a sexual assault back in 2007. When that happened, I knew everyone needed this medicine like yesterday.
With how much Breathwork transformed my life from the inside-out, I am grateful to have the opportunity to share this practice with others around the world… and locally in Venice at the beautiful Breathwork studio Sanctum.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
This hasn’t been the smoothest road, thankfully. The most difficult parts of growth and change have come between the transition periods… not knowing what is happening, not knowing where you are going, questioning everything that you are doing, yet still being guided by something inside of you that you can’t explain.
One of the biggest things that Breathwork does is it strips out old beliefs, stories and identity. So the concept of who you are can completely change, meaning you have a new Self to express that has never been expressed before. People have never seen it before. Maybe you’ve never seen it before. Maybe it’s been buried underneath the mask you wear at the 9-5 job you hate. Maybe it’s been there this whole time when you’re alone dancing in your bedroom, but no one knows. The toughest part is expressing these “new” parts of you, even though they aren’t new because they’ve always been there… but it can feel like you are stepping out on stage naked… fear of judgment comes up, all sorts of positive difficulties can come up when we start doing what’s best for us and being who we really are.
These struggles force us to grow so that we can fly.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I specialize in creating Breathwork Journey experiences primarily for larger groups of people where everyone feels safe to transcend.
This 3-stage active breath (inhale/inhale/exhale) is done through the mouth while lying down… and the music is turned way up. This form of active breathing hyper-oxygenates the bloodstream, improves overall physiological functions, engages the parasympathetic nervous system, and turns down the linear/ego mind — ultimately optimizing your entire being. Creativity goes through the roof too. The entire experience is very difficult to put into words, but I hear “life-changing” a lot… I understand why considering what this has done for my life in releasing stuck emotions and trauma.
This practice is like power-washing a driveway that hasn’t been washed in 30 years.
My intention in each journey is to create a safe and powerful space for breathers to truly experience the limitless aspects of themselves so we all can get on with living our biggest lives imaginable.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
There is a quote that comes to mind when you ask this: “Man plans, God laughs”. If I would have tried to plan what has transpired in the past 31 years, but specifically the last three, it wouldn’t have happened. I’m learning how limited the mind can be because it can only see and plan for based on what it has experienced. There is so much we haven’t experienced yet! So how do we plan for that? I don’t think we can. I find myself carrying the intention (with an open heart on how that happens) to share the power of Breathwork with more people across the world while also exploring myself as an artist across different mediums.
In the future, I am most excited about all the opportunities and people I get to meet that are currently off my radar screen that I have no clue about.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.robstarbuck.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/starbuck.rob
Image Credit:
Michael Mendoza
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