A near-death bicycling crash left Michael O’Brien in an extensive period of recovery as well as with a new perspective on life. He ultimately chose to start a mindfulness movement to share with others the power of taking a pause to gain perspective.

Welcome to Making It! This weekly show explores the lives and stories of entrepreneurs as they share their unique perspectives on their success and the path to making it.

Michael O’Brien is a leadership coach and the founder of Pause Breathe Reflect, a movement and business that creates products to help people practice better mindfulness in their daily lives.

“When I think about what it means to make it, there is a peacefulness and a grace about it…. [it’s] worth a ton of money and a ton of status to be able to live life in that way.”

— Michael O’Brien

Breathe in…Breathe out… It’s time to stress less and Pause Breathe Reflect with Michael O’Brien.

Michael is a qualified meditation teacher, executive coach, endurance athlete, and creator of the Pause Breathe Reflect Meditation and Gratitude app. He loves helping people accomplish hard things through mindfulness. He’s a survivor of a horrific near-death cycling accident that he calls his “Last Bad Day” and in 2022 used the power of mindfulness to ride his bike across America.

Michael’s overall approach to mindfulness is welcoming and he believes in creating communities of like-hearted humans who are open to different-mindedness. At Pause Breathe Reflect, everyone is welcome. As a qualified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher, he also appreciates the value of longer meditations but sees time as an obstacle that prevents more people from practicing mindfulness. With his meditation and gratitude app, he emphasizes shorter practices to utilize throughout the day to help build a life-long practice.

Resources or websites mentioned in this episode:
Mirasee
Michael’s website: PauseBreatheReflect.com

Credits:
Co-producers: Cassandra Topperwein and Geoff Govertsen
Assembled by: Michi Lantz and Andrew Chapman
Supervising Producer: Cynthia Lamb
Audio Editor: Marvin del Rosario
Executive Producer: Danny Iny
Music Soundscape: Chad Michael Snavely
Making our hosts sound great: Home Brew Audio

Music credits:
Track Title: The Sunniest Kids
Artist Name: Rhythm Scott
Writer Name: Scott Roush
Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

Track Title: Love and Circumstance
Artist Name: Shimmer
Writer Name: Matthew Wigton
Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

Track Title: Love So Sound
Artist Name: Cody Martin
Writer Name: Cody Kurtz Martin
Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

Special effects credits:
24990513_birds-chirping_by_promission used with permission of the author and under license by AudioJungle/Envato Market.

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