JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
A workshop will teach Joint Base San Antonio members how to use breathing techniques to build resiliency and relieve stress Thrusday through Oct. 10 at the JBSA-Randolph Religious Activities Center, building 975.
The Power Breath Meditation Workshop is a mind-body resilience building program that uses breath based tools to decrease stress, anxiety, anger and improve sleep and personal well-being.
The workshop, which consists of five three-hour sessions, teaches a variety of breathing techniques with Power Breath at the core of the course.
Leslye Moore, Project Welcome Home Troops national director, said the program helps build resiliency and relieves stress due to any service or life related trauma someone may have experienced.
“The breath is the connection between the mind and the body,” Moore said. “Through breath we are able to help regulate emotion and the mind.
“What we find when people go through the workshop is they are able to become more responsive rather than reactive. Someone who might have trouble accessing emotions, or are always expressing anger are able to experience a broader spectrum of emotion and reconnect with loved ones in a more meaningful way.”
In addition to the mental benefits of the workshop, Power Breath can offer physical benefits such as relief from physical pain, normalizing cortisol levels (a stress hormone) and lower cholesterol Moore said. However, one of the immediate benefits is improved sleep.
“We’ve had people that hadn’t slept for more than three hours in the past 40 years, but after one day of the course they slept for more than five hours straight, and they couldn’t believe it,” she said.
The nature of emotion is intimately connected to the breath Moore said.
“With every emotion there is a corresponding rhythm of the breath,” she said. “Whether you are feeling angry or sad or joyful, each of those has a rhythm of the breath. We can quickly change the quality of someone’s life by changing the rhythm of their breath and by doing that we give them tools that can quickly soothe their mind, and quickly deescalate any kind of situation before it gets out of hand.”
Couples may also may also find it beneficial take the class together.
“Often times I have spouses write to me tell me, “Thank you, my husband is a new and improved version of himself.’” Moore said. “They feel reconnected to themselves and more present in the world, and it helps them understand what the other has gone through. We commonly hear from veterans after the workshop, ‘I got myself back.’”
The focus of the workshop is to help people who are struggling by giving them natural, easy tools to use.
“This is an opportunity to invest in yourself,” Moore said. “If there is some aspect of your life that could use some support or improvement this may be the program for you.”
Space in the workshop is limited. To reserve a spot, call 830-232-5061.