Power-breathing is much more advanced than just inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth when your Apple Watch commands you to. Rather, it’s touted by proponents as an effective set of breath-based tools that decrease stress, anxiety and sleep problems; restores well-being, mental focus and a renewed sense of connection and purpose.
It’s a lot to ask of breathing, but it comes highly endorsed by people who have learned it.
An intensive five-day workshop in the method will be open to veterans, first-responders and their families June 1-5, and a 10K Run for Mental Health will be held in Long Beach on May 15 to help pay for the workshop conducted by the veterans organization Welcome Home Troops.
At 29, Marine Corps veteran Nivardo Gonzalez is one of the most intelligent, confident, well-spoken veterans you’re likely to meet. He was a featured interviewee in the Post’s video of veterans reflecting on the end of the war in Afghanistan and the 20th anniversary of the attacks of 9/11, two events that occurred within days of each other last year.
Gonzalez, who was deployed as an infantryman in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2011 and 2013, returned home with an often-troubled mind, a common occurrence with veterans returning to the jarring normalcy of civilian life after the crippling trauma of war. He struggled with thoughts of suicide, another common problem for years as more than 20 veterans a day committed suicide.
He realized that if he could live to 80 or beyond, he still had decades to live and, through therapy and meditation, he’s decided to make the most of his life, and a big part of that is his decision to become helpful to those around him. “Helping my community,” he says. “That’s my focus now, helping neighbors, helping veterans, helping combat veterans. How can we help these men and women who have sacrificed so much?” he says. “That’s my hill now; that’s what I want to fight for.”
A big part of turning Gonzalez’s life around and one that continues to keep him centered and optimistic and far away from the dread and isolation of depression, is power breathing. And that’s something he wants veterans and others to master to improve their lives and their outlook.
When he was a student at Cal State Long Beach in 2019, he and a few other veterans started a club for the purpose of just being together, a way to stem the dangers of post-war isolation. “We’d hang out, drink some beers, go on a run, take a hike, go camping,” he says. “We called it the People of the Earth Krew, or POTEKREW.”
The group, in 2019, hosted a power-breathing workshop at the Pyramid on campus, and they’re repeating the workshop, conducted by the veterans organization Project Welcome Home Troops, in June. It’s an intensive five-day workshop with classes from 6:30 to 9 p.m. June 1-3 and from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 4 and 5. Participants are expected to attend all five days. The free workshop will be held at the Villages at Cabrillo and is open to all veterans, service members and their immediate family members 18 and over.
Participants, with help from others who have been through the workshop, will learn a variety of breathing techniques, including straw breathing, the yoga-based victory breathing and bellows breath and others. There are other components, too, including yoga, meditation and storytelling—the last, says Gonzalez, involves telling your life story from your very first memory.
It’s a process that can dredge up traumatic events, he says, and then, with what you’ve learned in the class, you can learn to understand those traumas and learn how to put them behind you. “The idea is to get rid of the things that have (messed) you up,” he said. “You’ve experienced them, but now you’re an adult, move on.”
POTEKREW founder Jesse Soria said the group was formed as a way for veterans to build camaraderie by camping, hiking “and just hanging out,” he said. And the objective has grown to helping to bring mental health to the community as well as to veterans.
Gus Esparza, who isn’t a vet but who has family members who were in the service, is with the Long Beach Running Club, a group organizing a 10K run on May 15 on the beach path starting at 7:30 a.m. at 5400 Ocean Blvd.
The $25 registration fee will go to Welcome Home Troops who will be conducting the power-breathing workshop in June.
“We have a lot of veterans in the running club and it’s important for us to help them with mental health,” said Esparza. “We’re hoping to get 100 people to sign up for the run. All of the proceeds will go to Welcome Home Troops to help pay for the breathing workshops.
To register for the Power Breath Meditation Workshop June 1-5, click here.
To register for the Sunday, May 15 10K Run for Mental Health, click here.
