How This Egyptian Entrepreneur Built an Empire by Breathing

It can happen to anyone, at any time, for any number of reasons. For Walid AboulNaga, that moment, that epiphany, that decision to take a step back from the pressures of entrepreneurship, came in a hospital, as a neurosurgeon broke the details of an invasive surgery that would require the Egyptian to have nerves in his head and face frozen and operated on.

It was a bombshell moment for the US-born-and-raised AboulNaga, a grave reminder of the demands of modern life. He promptly left the cross-continental field marketing empire that he had worked so hard to help build and went on a new journey - one still very much rooted in entrepreneurship, but one that brought his ‘old life’ and his ‘new life’ together.

That new life was rooted in his own pursuit of alternative healing, but transpired to open up a whole new world he never knew existed, a world anchored by the increasingly popular practice of ‘breathwork’, a world that would eventually give birth to NAFAS Journeys. 

Launched in 2018, NAFAS Journeys offers the kind of transformational travel experiences that AboulNaga was searching for three years prior and while he initially intended to target corporates, entrepreneurs and other members of the high-pressured ecosystem, NAFAS has come to be for all, its curated retreats taking participants everywhere from Bali to Sri Lanka, places prime for transformational journeys. It’s found huge success across the region, but for AboulNaga, it’s all very simple - it all starts with a single breath, as we found out when we sat down with him on a recent trip back home to Egypt.