The Resilient Warrior by Nick Benas

Author:Nick Benas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hatherleigh Press
Published: 2022-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Stephen Suchy

United States Marine Corps

Cultivate your passion and channel your energy into a productive art that enhances your clarity and brings peace to your everyday life.

From PT to 5Ks, every veteran knows that working out can be one of the best outlets for the mental challenges that come with service. However, after years of martial arts training and meditation, I discovered working out was my form of self-medication to block out the anger I’d been holding onto well before I became a Marine.

At 13 years old, I had the unfortunate experience of finding my father dead of a heart attack. I attempted to give him CPR, not knowing my attempts were futile, and immediately became an extremely angry young man. I didn’t realize why I was so mad—though it was probably so clear to everyone else—all I knew was that I couldn’t focus enough to do anything or sleep at the end of the day unless I was exhausted. I started working out before school, going to football practice after school, and heading back to the gym after dinner for another two-hour session, usually riding my bike there and back. After getting through some homework when I got home, I would collapse into bed, completely exhausted.

I kept up this 2 to 3 workouts a day routine throughout high school and joined the Marines in my junior year after being inspired by classmates who had joined up. I found my training at Camp Lejeune challenging, and I loved that they worked me out until exhaustion, particularly at boot camp, but I would often head back to the gym at night to get in a few more hours.

I was fortunate that there were no wars on when I was in the Marines, but I volunteered for any training I came across, such as advanced communications and martial arts. I had found a connection with martial arts and never stopped training in it throughout active duty, so when I went back to New Haven and enrolled in college during my time in the reserves, I continued my martial arts training in Shotokan karate, competing on my college team and seeking more ways to exhaust my body to ensure some form of sleep.

In 1982, I was hired as a police officer and continued to feel the need for pre-sleep exhaustion—but now on a rotating schedule. Throughout my career as a direct first responder, I came across a lot of horrific things, from suicides to confrontations on SWAT to children who lost their lives tragically…all of which increased the PTSD that likely started when my father died.

A few years and two kids later, I inadvertently found a new level of martial arts training in ninjutsu when my children questioned one of my friends about his “ninja” training that he was explaining to them. After heading to the club where my friend trained, I quickly learned his sensei Greg was one of the best martial artists I had ever found or met. Greg is the one who started my Zen training; he’s a warrior, but he’s also a hippie.

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