The District House is a benefit of District216. Come by for a portion or all of the evening, meet amazing members + guests, and interact with speakers on a variety of topics.
Interactive Workshop: "Breath, Mantra, and Color: A Foot Fourword Experience"
Description: This immersive workshop blends ancient breathwork, personal reflection, and modern abstract expressionism to create a transformative journey of emotional regulation and self-discovery. Rooted in the power of mindfulness and the symbolism of the number four, participants are guided through a carefully sequenced experience designed to awaken the senses, calm the nervous system, and unlock creative intuition.
When: Saturday, September 13, 2025 from 2:30pm to 5:30pm (Workshop at 2:30pm)
Where: LoDo Studios, 216 E. Gutierrez Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101(Please only park across the street on the Office Max side of the lot.)
Members & Guests Welcome to purchase $65 tickets to this event.
Dress Code: We will be working outside which may be cool, so please dress in layers.
Note: We will NOT be filming this event. Refreshments provided.
Facilitator: Bryan Siever, Founder Foot Forward
Workshop Description: "Breath, Mantra, and Color: A Foot Fourword Experience"
Session Flow:
1. Grounding with Breath (Pranayama Practice)
The workshop begins with guided breathing techniques from the yogic tradition—Bhastrika, Sheetali, Shitkari, and Nadi Shodhana—to settle the body, increase awareness, and prime the mind for emotional clarity. These practices restore balance to the nervous system and gently open the door to internal presence.
2. Revealing the Inner Voice (Mantra Creation)
From this place of centered stillness, participants reflect inward and craft a personal four-word mantra—a portable, powerful affirmation that speaks directly to their present emotional state and intentions. The mantra becomes a compass for the creative process ahead.
3. Releasing through Art (Abstract Painting)
With emotion and mantra as guideposts, participants move to large-format canvas to pour, swipe, and layer acrylic paint in a process of pure abstract expression. This segment is not about technique or perfection—but about giving form to feeling. Color becomes language. Movement becomes medicine.
4. Re-centering in Reflection
The session concludes in silent or guided meditation, allowing the breath, the mantra, and the painting to settle into the nervous system as an integrated whole. Each participant leaves with a personal work of art, a handcrafted mantra, and a renewed sense of self-leadership and emotional awareness.
This experience is designed for those who feel overwhelmed, blocked, burned out—or simply ready for change. By combining breath, word, and art, it bypasses the limitations of talk and logic, and invites a deeper connection to intuition, healing, and creative courage.
Included In Workshop:
(A) Large Canvas for Group Painting: All canvases and materials provided.
(B) Foot Fourword Mantra Development Journal: A beautifully curated emotional grounding toolkit, designed to support intention-setting, reflection, and nervous system regulation in daily life
(C) Breathe Bawara Quick Reference Guide: a powerful introduction four guided pranayama (yogic breathing) techniques, participants learn to shift their nervous system state—moving from anxiety or fatigue toward calm, clarity, or renewed energy.
FACILITATOR BIO
Facilitator: Bryan Siever, Founder Foot Forward
Bryan Siever is a former tech executive turned emotional wellness educator whose life and leadership have been shaped by both extraordinary professional success and deeply personal healing. For over two decades, Bryan held senior leadership roles in revenue operations at startups and mid-sized tech companies, helping guide multiple firms through IPO and venture capital milestones. His expertise spans organizational development, customer success, and strategic planning across global markets—including verticals like construction software solutions, digital geography, hydrosonic sonar, GPS logistics, and infrared detection. A graduate of the Aspen Institute for Young Executives and a certified business coach, Bryan also trained over 2,000 professionals in leadership, customer care, and sales.
But beneath the surface of that success lived an invisible battle. A survivor of childhood abuse, Bryan spent much of his early and adult life masking unprocessed trauma through perfectionism, overachievement, and alcohol. In 2014, while on a business trip, a violent workplace incident left him with a traumatic brain injury. What followed were years of spiraling mental health: PTSD, anxiety, depression, angry outbursts, and memory loss—compounded by a culture of executive invincibility that left little room for recovery.
In 2016 after extensive neuroimaging confirmed damage to his prefrontal cortex, Bryan committed to his healing through inpatient trauma treatment at Sierra Tucson, followed by 18 months of neurorehabilitation, including hyperbaric oxygen therapy, TMS, cognitive retraining, and radical lifestyle change.
Today, Bryan is the founder of Foot Fourword, a grassroots emotional healing startup that offers in-person experiential workshops focused on emotional regulation, creative expression, and nervous system recalibration. His work is centered on creating safe spaces for others to feel what they were never taught to feel—and to begin healing not with force, but with presence, process, and community.
As a speaker, Bryan shares his story with raw honesty and uncommon clarity, inspiring others to redefine strength, recover from burnout, and lead with emotional integrity. Whether addressing students, startup teams, or C-suite executives, his message is the same: we are all one moment away from either breaking... or beginning to heal.
