Your Guides
Alex & Deagan are a husband & wife team that are both Certified Breathwork Facilitators. They offer weekly breathwork experiences that guide individuals, couples, and groups into healing, breakthroughs, and self-discovery.
I was introduced to breathwork in 2021 and I loosely experimented with it to explore the variety of healthy benefits tied to my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well being. But it became an essential for me during and after my mom’s cancer diagnosis and passing in July 2024. Having experienced how powerful this practice is amidst challenges, I felt a call to go even deeper. I have brought this practice to communities destroyed by natural disasters, individuals struggling with death of a loved one, and groups of women all over the country needing to express their full spectrum of emotions (anger, sadness, love, grief, fear, joy, etc.).
Deagan Maki
From an early age, I experienced a host of breathing issues: RSV as a baby, asthma as a young boy, and multiple bouts of pneumonia as a teenager. It wasn't until my 20s that I actually learned how to breathe properly. Since then, I have become an accomplished athlete, trekked high-altitude mountain ranges, and consciously managed high-stress situations through breathing. I have now guided more than a hundred people through a transformational breathing experience, helping them unlock a higher potential through the power of breath.
Alex Lee
The BRB Story
Blue River Breathwork (BRB) was birthed out of disaster. Alex & Deagan were at the epicenter of Hurricane Helene in Yancey County, North Carolina. During the event, they watched houses be washed away, mudslides hitting homes, and evacuated to the top of a mountain with just a security blanket (and their dog!) to wait out the last hours of the hurricane.
Once at the peak of the mountain, still getting pounded by rain and the looming threat of trees collapsing on them, they did the only thing they could to stay warm, positive, and connected…they turned to breath techniques! But not in the way one might think of when they see a cute Just Breathe coffee mug or t-shirt. No, they used what Alex calls “Tactical Breathing Strategies” that increase body heat, reduce the body’s fear response, and increases mental clarity for effective decision making.
Once the storm passed, the real journey had just begun. After hiking over 6 miles across a devastated mountain landscape into town, they met hundreds of other survivors who made it there, too. With no power, plumbing, phone connection and the only clean drinking water coming via helicopter from the National Guard. In this new reality, every single person pulled their weight in new ways. Everyone brought their own…Superpower.
Some were pros with a chainsaw, some could find innovative ways to use food before it went bad to provide to community members, others with satellite phones were getting messages out to family members across the world, and Alex & Deagan brought, you guessed it, the power of the breath!
They collaborated with other healers and venue owners hosting free hour long breathing experiences. The goal, helping others process the weight and devastation Helene brought into their lives. Our beloved community lost businesses, homes, and far too many lives. And thus BRB was born - out of disaster and out of need.
As lovers of the land of Appalachia, it was heartbreaking to see the rivers and waterfalls that we once drank from turned to muck. The runoff, cars, garbage and debris that felt neverending will one day, be cleared. As above, so below - our hearts and bodies too will heal. Breathwork is the most effective tool we know to start this process - that’s why we do this work.
Join us for an hour long breathing experience set to music and let yourself be cleansed. Cleansed from the past, cleansed from expectations, and cleansed from our own inner judgements.
Through the breath, you can tap into that wild, unique, awe inspiring superpower that already lives inside of you!