When the warrior cried or How I discovered the healing power of breathwork.

This is me, teaching the warriors.

Warriors are brave, strong, and courageous, they work hard and don’t back down, and most of all, they do what it takes to conquer the enemy. In the military, all soldiers are warriors, but there is an elite group of warriors, the top 2 %, such as the Navy SEALs or the Army Green Berets, who are trained to even higher standards due to their above-average physical and emotional abilities, as well as to their intelligence. In my job as a language teacher, I often taught these exceptional soldiers and found them to be exemplary students, who never gave up and gave their best to become proficient as linguists.

Learning a second language can be very challenging, and extremely frustrating. To master a new language, good study habits are just the beginning, and students constantly have to adjust their cognitive models to the ever-changing landscape of the new language. With this in mind, I conducted regular one-on-one feedback sessions with my students to help them maximize their study success. One year, a Navy SEAL was struggling with understanding the nuances of more complex listening texts and we were trying out different techniques to improve his listening skills. We had scheduled a follow-up session, and I was waiting for him in my office.

The door opened, and the most confident-looking, tall, impressively trained soldier in camouflage uniform entered the room. After some small talk in his new language, we began practicing listening techniques. I had hoped that he would experience success, but nothing seemed to help. I could tell that even though he was not resisting any of my suggestions, he became more and more frustrated with himself. As I looked at him to talk about how to incorporate self-care into his study arsenal, I noticed that his look of determination had turned into one of sadness. I wondered if I had misread his expression. We continued, and the next thing I noticed was that he very quickly wiped his eyes. Had I seen correctly? No, there were definitely tears welling up in his eyes.

This was a difficult situation: Should I acknowledge the tears and possibly embarrass and frustrate him even more? I needed to do something so he could save face and leave our session with a positive outlook. That’s when I remembered that I had recently been introduced to a very helpful breathing exercise (I now know it’s called ‘box breathing’), which I had been using whenever I felt stressed or apprehensive. “You know”, I said, “would you mind if we tried something a little outside the box?” He looked puzzled. “Something that has helped me focus and think better”, I continued. At this point, I think he was just glad to have a diversion to get his emotions under control again. And so I showed him how to do box-breathing and we practiced it together. I finished our session and sent him back to class with the incentive of box-breathing before a listening exercise, and to see if that would make a difference.

To make a long story short, box-breathing was a resounding success. My warrior improved his listening skills quickly and impressively, and when he had graduated with honors, he told me that the breathing exercises had made all the difference, especially since he could do them discreetly and at any time. At that point, I decided to share breathing exercises with all my students, and we often breathed together before tackling a difficult text or test. Inevitably, the first time a new class was exposed to breathing with me, they chuckled and joked (“Only in California!”), but nevertheless, I could tell that most of them continued little breathing exercises when they felt they needed it, leaving me with the satisfaction of having taught a skill for life.

Since then, I have read that box breathing has become part of military training under the name ‘combat breathing’. It is wonderful and encouraging to see how breathwork has become an option in the military toolkit, thus introducing future generations of warriors to the powers of breathwork.