The Conscious Warrior Delivers Data & Understanding of First Responder Culture
Author Shannon McQuaide and Fire Engineering Books announce the release of The Conscious Warrior: Yoga for Firefighters & First Responders. It’s the true story of a firefighter’s daughter who followed her own path only to return full circle to the firehouse to fulfill an important mission: to create and deliver FireFlex Yoga to first responders in a manner that supports warrior culture. McQuaide makes a compelling case for why first responders need yoga and she invites warrior culture professions to consider the ROI of integrating FireFlex as a measurable wellness initiative.
The Conscious Warrior begins with a foreword by Lexipol’s Dr. David Black, “Providing our nation’s heroes with innovative wellness support is precisely what Shannon is committed to achieving on a large scale. Because the trauma of the job is foreseeable and the risks are known, these are predictable outcomes. Therefore, we must be relentlessly proactive in providing innovative and high-quality wellness tools.”
Breathe to De-Escalate Your Stress Response
McQuaide grew up in a “fire family” with several firefighters including her father, uncle, sister, and brother-in-law. After an education in science and trauma-sensitive yoga, and while completing a master’s degree in leadership, she followed a hunch and built her capstone project to create FireFlex Yoga. The Conscious Warrior chronicles four years of data compiled from McQuaide’s course delivered in the apparatus bays of 20+ fire stations across the Bay Area.
“After many years delivering yoga classes at fire stations, and seeing the exhaustion caused by recent years, I wrote this book to empower first responders with impactful wellness tools,” said McQuaide. “Stress has been at an all-time high and my mission is to provide resources to help them recoup, reboot, and truly rest with practical wellness practices.”
First responders are vulnerable to traumatic stress disorders and maladaptive coping strategies without proactive interventions. Through FireFlex, first responders learn how to strengthen their bodies, breath, and interoceptive mind-body awareness, creating stronger resilience and decision-making under pressure. The Conscious Warrior includes detailed instructions specifically for first responders.
Battalion Chief Jason Golden said, “We are constantly in a state of hyper-awareness and it’s important we find time to slow down. I have learned to do this by regulating my breath. Now when I hear the tones go off, I take a deep breath and feel my body calming down. This helps me think more clearly when I have to make decisions that will affect my crew and the public.”
McQuaide wrote, “We can’t expect first responders to see the level of human tragedy and violence each day without some long-term consequences. They need a framework to process their experiences, one that is tangible, tactical, visceral, and scientific. This is why yoga belongs in the firehouse.”
A spouse of a firefighter reviewed the book, “This book is intelligent, insightful, and straightforward. It provides detailed explanations of the chronic conditions inherent to first responders and how yoga & mindfulness can help manage stress, decrease injuries, improve sleep quality, resilience, mobility, situational awareness, and performance.”
The Conscious Warrior is available at Fire Engineering Books and on Amazon.com.
About Shannon McQuaide
Shannon McQuaide is an entrepreneur, yoga teacher, certified functional movement trainer, and wellbeing coach. She has a master’s degree in transformative leadership and spiritual psychology. She delivers professional development training for corporations, teachers, municipalities, and first responder agencies.
In 2014, McQuaide founded FireFlex Yoga, a wellness program for first responders to mitigate stress and on-the-job injuries. It’s the only program for firefighters that gathers quantitative data before/after a series of classes to measure results of fundamental movement patterns and interoception. The data consistently demonstrates improvement for a high majority of firefighters. For more information, please visit FireFlexYoga.com and LinkedIn.
