Better self-awareness, yes…Yoga, maybe not

Sgt. 1st Class Hugo J. Osorio is the first in a line-up of non commissioned officers now offering us their take on the past week os Resiliency Training. These NCO leaders, with some of the closest connections and largest impact into the daily lives of Soldiers, are a critical piece in the success of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness.

During the past five days we have been immersed in a systematic study of interpersonal and meta-cognitive skills. Even though we use them every day, we do not recognize their value or how much they affect our behavior. These skills include problem solving, our capacity to overcome adversity, self-awareness, the ability to deal with stress, communication skills and human cognitive conflict among others. The course it’s designed to help soldiers reinforce and strengthen these skills by introducing psychology based models and activities based on proven research. A lecture on a certain skill is presented and immediately after, the class is broken down in small groups which allow for personal interaction and the practice of these skills.

It is exciting to experience some of the reactions of my peers (and my own) due to the self-awareness that the course highlights. You are constantly catching yourself in past mistakes but at the same time you are afforded tools to avoid these mistakes in future situations. Some of the most common mistakes are pessimistic thinking, letting biases define our thoughts and actions, practice of non-productive communication and the inappropriate use of praise and criticism.

At the end of the skill presentation portion of the course, I feel that the Army has taken a huge step forward regarding the wellbeing, specifically, the mental health of our troops and their families. Although the course is in the starting phase, I think the content is very relevant and useful with the exception of the module describing how to channel your energy - I just don’t see myself stopping what I am doing in the middle of a task to close my eyes and practice Yoga-like exercises. The second part will be focused on how to train our troops. Hopefully this part will touch on some aspects of learning styles and how to address them along with different techniques on how to present the material.