Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Bounds.
Brian, before we jump into specific questions about your work, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Although I was born and raised in suburbia DFW (Southlake), I took off as soon as I graduated from High School.
Since my first backpacking trip to the other side of the world, the thrill of travel engrained itself in me. Venturing into the foreign revealed an electrifying curiosity in me – a curiosity that has shaped my experience of the world ever since. I will carry a pen and notepad with me at all times, I decided. I wouldn’t miss a moment. What ended up coming out on that trip was completely unexpected:
Poetry. I had a deep gut feeling to share my experience, so I snapped a quick photo with my phone as keepsakes, signed the back of the poem, and handed it to the nearest passerby. I was fully alive – electrified. In that moment, I adopted an instinct to ink down every revelation, mark the setting, photographed for my own collection, and share.
I finished my college degree at UT Austin, working in craft cocktail bars to support myself. My passion for taste evolved as a career alongside my love of travel, writing, and human connection. These were the early days of my yoga practice.
My dearest friend and roommate Greg urged me on to a meditation app. I discovered the beauty of grounding through the breath in those Austin days and frequented the city’s yoga studios. Every practice felt like an escape – the same feeling I would get at the airport, waiting for the next flight to anywhere, with nothing but the essentials, and my tremendous curiosity of how it will feel.
Plot Twist:
I was in transition in my career, having concluded my first big role in cocktail bar management in Austin, and my cousin Scott rings me up regarding the 40 foot Catamaran Sail Boat he’d just purchased on a whim. Frankly, he’d reached a point where his lifestyle balance had gone defunct and needed to experience the world in a new way. Scott was inspired by YouTubers documenting their alternative lifestyles. Looking back, I was low hanging fruit. He had all the operational know-how, growing up on boats, but needed at least two more hands, and someone inspired to go with the flow. My curiosity had been struck. My best friend Patrick reassured my urge to leave the bar scene for a minute, and take this once in a lifetime opportunity. I called Scott back and told him I’d see him in Charleston, South Carolina, where the boat was, to pull it out of the water and begin preparing it for the Caribbean.
I’ve backpacked through dozens of countries, hiked the Himalayas, sailed roughly 5,000 nautical miles on Sailing Vessel BALANCE, developed an artistic career in cocktail bars, written and self-published a massive collection of poetry, and begun writing and producing music and videos of my experiences. I have something special to share with my growing community, and I’m glad I landed in Dallas to build Breathe Balance to tie it all together.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I’ll never forget venturing into the heights of Sa Pa, Vietnam, skirting the border of China via motorcycle, searching for a mountaintop viewpoint my buddy Patrick had found in an online blog. Here, the clouds burn away as the sun rises, revealing an immaculate panoramic view – our type of experience.
Our new friend Stetson (also from Texas if you couldn’t guess) and I had the proper motorbikes, whereas Patrick was stuck on a less powerful, much chunkier scooter. In the midst of finding our trail in the dim morning light, Patrick lost control of his bike, falling twelve or so feet off a ledge into a ditch in the road below. As I rushed back to find him, the image of a bloody lip and two massively chipped front teeth burned into my memory forever. I was so incredibly grateful he was mostly okay, but his pain ached through me. I was almost certain our trip was over. Not only were we hours away from Sa Pa with a busted scooter, busted teeth, and busted spirits, but we had already booked an overnight bus that night to get us to our flight to New Delhi, India to continue our adventure. We were to fly into India on the day of Holi Festival.
Patrick is one tough dude. We found a village at the base of the trail to get him checked out, made our bus back to Hanoi for our flight, and landed in India some 48 hours later – and it turned out, New Delhi is a Dental Tourism capitol of the world… Funny how that works! Our adventure would continue for a month in India, followed by another couple of weeks trekking through Nepal’s share of the Himalayas (Annapurna Circuit), and would conclude with three weeks of bliss in Indonesia. Patrick got out of the whole ordeal – busted scooter and medical bills – for less than $500, and his smile is prettier than ever!
What I’ve grown to love most about travel is that you can always expect a bumpy stretch, but, there is always somewhere to go next. There is always the opportunity to make a decision about how to face the next moment. Will I smile through it, regardless of the busted teeth? Or will I let it break me? This is what I love about teaching yoga, meditation, and breath. Mindfulness brings us back to that moment of opportunity. They aren’t goal-oriented experiences, they are direction oriented. There is no failure, only expansion.
Our journey leaves no time for basking in failure, letting negativity break us. Instead, we learn to appreciate the journey, because the crashes are the moments that make us. This is a similar lesson I’ve found in my journey becoming a yoga instructor, developing my career in bars, and a lesson I’m sure will be applicable as I finally launch our brand, Breathe Balance.
Alright – Tell us about your work. What should we know?
Dallas now serves as my home base. From here, I’ve grown some roots in order to cultivate new pursuits.
Breathe Balance is a brand that serves as an umbrella for a handful of services for the community. This includes yoga instruction, breathing & meditation workshops, and different styles of retreats, both local and abroad. I currently teach yoga at Black Swan Yoga Dallas in the new Bishop Arts Studio, as well as privately. I also teach the kiddos at Leila P. Cowart Elementary in Oak Cliff, which are undoubtedly my favorite classes. I’ve learned so much more about how to teach adults by teaching children. They are an absolute reflection of you. Makes you think how much of an impact we can have on one another by simply squeezing out an extra smile! I say it all the time to my coworkers and friends, “Don’t forget to smile!”… I’m sure they love it…
I’m excited to announce our first Breathing Workshop in December at Black Swan Yoga Dallas, teaching how to hone your breath as a tool in your yoga practice, and subsequently, you’re everyday grind. This is a special collaboration with dear friend and Freedive Instructor Cara Heller.
I met Cara on a sailing trip in the Caribbean. She was training and teaching Freediving in Roatán, Honduras. We quickly realized that we shared the same dreams, and decided to collaborate on a workshop, which has evolved into Breathe Balance. She recently moved to Corpus Christi, and together from a distance, we have put our energy together to create an umbrella brand for all of our pursuits. Breathe Balance wouldn’t be what it is without her, and I’m most excited to see what we build together.
Merging my worlds of Hospitality and Adventure into Breathe Balance is my ultimate passion project, as they’ve felt like two separate lifestyles I’ve led for a long time now. I manage it side by side to my career as a cocktail bartender. I currently work full time at what I would consider one of the most thoughtful Food & Drink experiences in Dallas, Bowen House, in Uptown, Dallas. There, I’m given tons of creative freedom to connect with the folks of the community through taste, including Cocktail/Mixology classes, teaching people about how to taste and develop their own palette. I call Hospitality the art of taking care of each other. There is a distinct energy in Bowen House that drew me in – the oldest house in Dallas. I love my role as an artist behind that bar, and the family it has provided me.
That being said, I’m most proud of Breathe Balance’s intention: to supply immersive experiences that make you feel. We are all living a balancing act. We often shy away from the tough road, though, more often than not, the tough road is the most effective road to fulfillment. We numb ourselves to tough emotions.
Breathe Balance is about practicing vulnerability, trying something new, and finding the poetry regardless of how the story plays out. I’m certain my first retreats in 2020 will mark some of the most meaningful moments of my career so far. My unique perspective in immersive travel, love for taste and hospitality, and passion for Balance through yoga, breathing, and exploration will provide a dynamic experience for anybody seeking affordable, EXPERIENCE based escapes to balance out their everyday grind.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
The cast of my life is an incredible one. It starts with family. I’m the baby of five children, and two amazing parents. They are a huge part of my inspiration. Being the baby is the best, after all!!!
My Grandee, Big Daddy, my brother in law Isaac, my cousin Scott, Cara, my extended family, the Gugliuzza Family, my best homies… they know who they are.
Bowen House for giving me a home base here in Dallas, as well as Black Swan Yoga Dallas and everybody within those communities. And ANYBODY I’ve ever worked within the Bar hustle. All my service industry people out there sharing their souls, taking care of the people around them… It’s special work that we do. We are the misfits… The Night Owls. Often misunderstood, always with great meaning.
Community is so powerful, and all of these people are a huge part of mine.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.breathe-balance.com
- Phone: 817 917 7872
- Email: brianericbounds@gmail.com
- Instagram: @brian.bounds, @breathe.balance
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/svbalance40/
Image Credit:
Brian Bounds
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