A journey with breath.
I didn't come to breathwork as a wellness trend. I came to it as a broken athlete — and it saved my life, my body, and ultimately my purpose. This is that story.
The broken athlete who found the breath.
I began my exploration into yoga and yoga breathing as a broken athlete with low back and knee injuries sustained from individual and team sports. I'd been a competitive athlete in everything from football to surfing since the age of nine. While my body may have "looked good" on the outside, by my mid-30s, I was feeling the effects of over-training and injury.
The body keeps score — and mine was presenting a bill I could no longer ignore. I was doing everything the conventional sports world told me to do: train harder, push through, ignore the signals. What I didn't know yet was that the most important performance tool I had was the one I'd been taking completely for granted. My breath.
The swim that changed everything.
In 1994, I was a competitor in the Around The Island Swim — a 22½-mile ocean and bay marathon around Atlantic City, NJ. I was the only amateur in a field of 27 professional swimmers. The water temperature averaged 59 degrees. The race included brutal changes in temperature, tides, and currents that challenged every swimmer in the field.
The first 7 miles were great. I was swimming effortlessly. It was the next 10 miles that were truly debilitating — and ultimately life-changing. I can't count how many times my mind told me to stop while my body violently revolted. I was physically vomiting. I was cold. I was hallucinating. My body temperature had dropped into the early stages of hypothermia.
And then, at or around mile 17, something shifted.
"Something greater than me began to swim for me — and I was on the ride of my life."
When the ego finally let go.
When the internal battle within my mind had finally felt as though it died, I became empowered. A warm, bright energy rose up from my pelvic basin. It felt like a bottomless source of energy I had never experienced before. I began to swim at 85 to 90 strokes a minute for the last 5½ miles — and crossed the finish line.
I wasn't swimming anymore. Something greater than me began to swim for me, and I was on the ride of my life. I had become one with the water molecules of the ocean. I was in "flow" — what athletes call "the zone." Fourteen professionals quit during those last 5½ miles because the currents and conditions were so challenging. I finished 14th out of 28 starters.
I didn't understand what had happened. But I was immediately drawn to find it again. And that search led me directly to yoga — and to the breath.
From athlete to breath master.
Because of the profound positive effects on him physically and emotionally, Ed studied at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health and became a Certified Yoga Instructor. He was blessed and influenced by the master teachings of Yoganand Michael Carroll, Stephen Cope, and Jonathan Foust.
Inspired and amazed by the effects of yogic breathing, Ed explored and became Certified in Advanced Pranayama — mastering advanced forms of pranayama and uniquely sequencing basic, intermediate, and advanced techniques to facilitate Inspiratory Muscle Training.
Ed found a way to fuse the worlds of yoga and sports in a revolutionary way. He brought yogic breathing, cross-patterning yoga, and meditation into the western sports paradigm — either as a primary training tool or as a hybrid within an athletic environment — and created the Mind Body Athlete® performance training program.
As an athlete, Ed had always wondered why we were never really taught the importance of linking breath with movement. That question became his life's work. There is a union that takes place between the body and mind that can only happen through breath. That union makes us more powerful physically, mentally, and emotionally than most people ever imagine.
Credentials & Training
Teaching from inside the experience.
Now in his late 60s, Ed is teaching from the place he writes about: the lived experience of aging well, breathing well, and discovering that the second half of life can be the most vital chapter of all. He is not teaching breathwork from a textbook. He is teaching it from inside the same chapter of life his students are in.
His Breath AS Medicine continuing education trainings have supported thousands of healthcare professionals, health coaches, fitness trainers, and clinicians. His courses were the first non-MD courses offered as CME through George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences. He has collaborated with Harvard's IEL research team, partnered with the Goldie Hawn Foundation's MindUP program, and serves as a Faculty Member of the Medical Wellness Association.
Ed's books — Life With Breath IQ + EQ = NEW YOU and BodyMindBusiness: The Business Of BE'ing Within — are the distillation of three decades of practice, research, and lived experience. Both include 30 days of daily practices that serve as a guide and self-care routine.
He is referenced in Vince Papale's book Invincible — Papale saw Ed's Around The Island Swim story and wanted it as part of his book about underdogs who come out on top.
"It is my mission to help you find the same invincible moment within yourself. The breath is the bridge between the life you've lived and the years still ahead. Go BE Great."
— Ed HarroldReady to find your invincible moment?
Book a complimentary 20-minute discovery call with Ed and find out which path — coaching, certification, or daily practice — is right for you.