Breathwork for Men, How an Ex-Marine Learned to Feel Again
A former Royal Marine who found in breathwork what the battlefield never gave him
Chris Davies spent his childhood as the family's self-appointed peacekeeper, squeezing his eyes shut at night trying to will his parents' arguments into silence. He calls that the earliest sign of who he'd become. After years running nightclubs and working sales by day, his father's death in 2008 pushed him to join the Royal Marines, where he served as lead man on foot patrols searching for IEDs in Afghanistan.
Years later, after leaving the military, Chris stumbled into breathwork almost by accident during a yoga class, and the experience undid him in a way nothing else had. He has since trained with the men's work communities Sacred Sons and Unmasked Man, both built around ceremony and honest confession between men, and now facilitates breathwork sessions that range from performance focused practice to deep transformational work.
Chris calls his approach full spectrum, moving between science and spirituality depending on what a person is ready to meet. As he puts it, "I've never done breath work with one person that hasn't come out the other end far better. Not once ever." His work with The Dad Project centres on giving men, especially fathers, a way to release what they've spent a lifetime holding in.
Quotes
"I've never done breath work with one person that hasn't come out the other end far better. Not once ever."
This Episode Is About
Chris Davies talks with Naroop Jhooti about growing up feeling like the outsider in his own family, the death of his father that pushed him into the Royal Marines, and the breathwork practice he found afterwards almost by accident.
The conversation moves through combat in Afghanistan, the loss of purpose many men feel once war and ritual disappear from their lives, and the men's work communities that taught Chris to say his pain out loud instead of burying it.
It turns into a wider conversation about why men resist change even when they know it would help them, and what it costs a man to finally become the version of himself he always could have been.
Who This Episode Is For
- Men carrying grief for a parent they never resolved things with
- Veterans adjusting to life and purpose after leaving the forces
- Men who suppress emotion because that's what they were taught
- Fathers wanting a new model of masculinity to pass on
- Anyone curious what actually happens in a breathwork session
What You'll Takeaway
- Fear fades once something becomes known, not before
- Unprocessed grief and anger get stored in the body
- Becoming better can feel riskier than staying stuck
- Breathwork quiets the mind's usual running story
- Telling the truth to another man releases what silence holds
