Billy Pinkerton Breathwork Sound Baths Yoga

“My purpose is peace. My mission is to share yoga, breathwork, and sound meditation, because I’ve seen what these practices have done for me and for the thousands of people that have come to my classes, workshops and retreats.”

Billy Pinkerton is a, breathwork, sound meditation teacher, and yoga instructor with more than a decade of experience. His work is simple at its core: helping people slow down, center themselves, and connect to inner peace.

Sound
Billy plays the gong, crystal bowls, handpan, and didgeridoo, weaving them together into a seamless soundscape you can fully relax into. He approaches sound as a meditation practice and offers simple guidance on how to work with it, through deep listening, letting the body rest, and noticing what comes up as awareness opens. There’s nothing to get right. You simply rest and listen.

For about seven years, he lived and traveled in a van he converted himself, spending much of that time playing his instruments in nature. That time alone shaped how he plays: calm, attentive, and closely connected to both the sound and the world around him.

Breathwork
Breath has been at the center of Billy’s practice since he started yoga in 2013. Playing didgeridoo taught him how sensitive and trainable the breath is. His breathwork style is gentle activation and sustained awareness. Rather than chasing big experiences, he helps people build capacity: breathing that becomes easier over time, steadier attention, and the ability to shift their own state. He trained with Dan Brulé and in the Wim Hof method, and draws on both modern breath research and traditional practice.

Yoga
Billy's mantra as a teacher is to speak, clearly, concisely and truthfully. He began practicing in 2013 and has taught since 2017, developing his own style centered on the breath and mindful movement. He teaches vinyasa, gentle, and restorative yoga, and often brings instruments into class to help students settle into deeper relaxation, meditation, and clarity. His style is calm and centered on the mind, body, spirit connection.

Meditation
For Billy, meditation sits at the top of the practice. Yoga, breathwork, and sound prepare the ground, so it becomes easier to turn inward with less resistance and more openness. He has studied with authorized Buddhist meditation teacher Cayce Howe and has practiced at Karmê Chöling, Menla Retreat Center, and Land of Medicine Buddha.

Background
Billy came to this work from a different world. He played Division I baseball at USC, and when injuries ended that path, he went into business. In 2013 he founded an independent insurance agency and built it into a successful brokerage, managing a sales team and running the business himself. Around the same time, yoga and breathwork became his way to rebuild his body, mind and spirit, and over the years it grew from a personal practice into his life’s work. Today he teaches yoga, breathwork, and sound meditation full time and still works in insurance part time. That background keeps his teaching practical and grounded, and it means he understands the stress and pace of the lives many of his students lead.

Where he teaches
Billy has taught at yoga studios in Orange County and upstate New York, and at workshops, festivals, corporate wellness programs, and retreat centers. Each year he leads a yoga, breathwork, and sound retreat at Menla Retreat Center in upstate New York, part of Tibet House US, which also hosts his sound bath practitioner training. He has led retreats internationally and holds workshops throughout Southern California.

He also cares about bringing these practices to people who might not otherwise come across them. He has led sound baths for the Center for New Medicine and for the nonprofits We Are Ocean and the Adaptive Freedom Foundation, and works with residential recovery homes.