Benedict Beaumontโs Story: The Simple Act of Breathing
"We don't know how many breaths we have left. Every single breath could be our last."
In 2017, a burned-out teacher from Brighton nearly died under a tractor in the deserts of Rajasthan.
Today, he's revolutionizing how thousands of people connect with themselves through the simple act of breathing.
This is Benedict Beaumont’s story - my latest guest on the Clocking Out podcast!
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Growing up on England's south coast in the 1970s, Benedict's Quaker mother gave him an unusual gift: the ability to sit in silence and look inward.
While other kids dreamed of becoming doctors or footballers, Benedict searched for something deeper. He wanted to understand why we're here, what it all means.
University philosophy didn't give him answers.
Neither did his IT career in London's top law firms.
Nor did his rock band (which kicked him out at 31 for being "too old").
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At 31, Benedict lost everything in one day - his job AND his band.
A friend in California said: "Get on a plane."
So he did. On that same day, with just the clothes on his back.
In Joshua Tree National Park, after 48 sleepless hours, he decided to become a different person.
He became a Buddhist. Retrained as a teacher. Spent his 30s in England's toughest schools, trying to save kids the system had given up on.
Then in his late 30s, teaching burned him out again.
He bought a motorbike in India, rode through Rajasthan’s deserts when a tractor crushed his bike to bits.
Somehow, he walked away from and in that moment, millimeters from death, he felt more alive than ever.
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Years later, in Bali, someone invited him to a breathwork session.
It was quite chaotic!
People were screaming, laughing hysterically and in the midst of it all, Benedict said that he had “spiritual visions of angels and an overwhelming sense of connection to the world.”
And he realized, “Oh wow, this is what I’m supposed to be doing!”.
Cue 400 hours of training and two weeks in Ibiza doing 6 hours of breathwork daily all of which led him to founding Breathing Space in 2017 with his wife, Jennifer, where he trains breathwork facilitators who take this practice to communities he could never reach.
Want to learn more about Benedict’s journey, what breathwork actually is, and how it became his calling?
Check out his episode!
Link to the Clocking Out episode is here.
P/S: Don’t forget to follow the Clocking Out podcast for more inspiration stories of people who have “clocked out” to find their purpose in life/career.
