#13: James Gardiner on Working with the Blue Jays, to Living in an Ashram, and Putting it All Together with FIRSTAR Therapy and Performance Wellness

James Gardiner (@firstar.therapy, https://firstartherapy.com/) is an athletic therapist by trade but really so much more than that. He's worked with athletes at the highest level across many sports and organizations and has also been able to connect the dots through yoga, breathwork, mindfulness, intentful movement and all the things that make us human.

James went searching for more in the Bahamas and came back with a refreshed view of athletic therapy, training and life overall and has applied these new lessons to FIRSTAR Therapy which "is a philosophy and approach to sport performance, training and rehabilitation that places emphasis on education and empowerment of the athlete."

I had the pleasure of taking James' Recalibration Workshops earlier this year and it was a game changer for me in beginning to understand breathwork on a deeper level, and by association understanding myself. Whenever you're listening to this, the beginner and advanced courses will be starting again soon, and you can find out more information here.

James will also be speaking at the State of Mind Festival which is a mental health innovation festival, and you can learn more about that here.

He also is the host of FIRSTAR Let's chAT: an athletic therapy roundtable podcast where James has excellent discussion with therapists, coaches, doctors and many exciting people on all things human performance. You can find it wherever your find podcasts or here, Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts.

The third but certainly not last exciting project is the Performance Wellness Platform in partnership with MindframeFit which is a program where the goal is "to enable, empower, and enhance each athlete’s well-being on and off the field of play through a focus on intentful movement and mindful practices." This is one I'm really excited about, and you can learn more here.

James is a really wonderful human, I hope you enjoy this and find as much value in this conversation as I did.

Connect with James on Instagram @firstar.therapy and Youtube.

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