Yoga and Veterans: A Different Kind of Warrior (20dc-yogavets) (20dc-yogavets)

I am a Retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant who served two combat tours (not a lot for a Marine) and a certified 200-hour yoga teacher. As this article suggests, the best people to help Veterans deal with their post-traumatic stress may be those who themselves have experienced the same kind of stress; who have walked in their boots, so to speak. I am not looking to cast aspersions on those from outside the military community who have nobly worked to bring the benefits of yoga to Veterans. Whoever is the yoga teacher, I object to the notion that the only yoga to teach Veterans suffering from the effects of post-traumatic stress is a practice that is labelled “trauma sensitive.” This labeling only reinforces the notion that something is wrong with the Veteran, and if that label is applied enough, it is only natural that over time the Veteran may come to believe that something is indeed wrong with them. I also strongly oppose any attempt to monetize efforts of bringing yoga to Veterans under the guise of helping through teaching a trauma-sensitive class. I would like to see yoga teachers engage Veterans from the perspective that recognizes the positive, and not the negative, of their military experiences. Those who have served in the military are extreme athletes. They are resilient. They have put their bodies, and minds, through tremendously stressful tests, and have demonstrated time and time again the ability to persevere. “The body achieves what the mind believes.”

Read this after my morning mat time today. A lovely article. I found yoga after coming off of active duty and Desert Storm. It, along with the meditation I learned as a teenager, have helped me maintain balance in a tumultuous world. Namaste.

Can't hurt; likely to help. Go for it.

Anything that helps these folks feel better and get stronger, improve balance is a great thing. Less drugs, more ohm.

This was a wonderful story about how yoga can benefit anyone who surrenders to their practice, and that can be difficult for those in the military. As former Army Infantry, I am deeply grateful for what yoga has done for me, as it has basically saved my life. On that note, I completed my 200 hour yoga teacher training last spring with the hope of teaching yoga to vets and others at some point. Until then, I have a hot yoga class to get to in a bit. Namaste.

I am a civilian yoga teacher certified in Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY), developed at the Center for Trauma and Embodiment in Brookline, MA. I have been teaching at the West Haven CT VA since 2015 as a volunteer. Currently, I work with veterans in the Substance Abuse Day Program (SADP). Students in the VA program range in age. Almost everyone has physical as well as addiction issues and movement capacity varies widely. Hence, we focus primarily on breath awareness and gentle stretching (usually in chairs) followed by a deep relaxation exercise. The beauty of yoga is that it can be adapted to anyone. The particular usefulness of trauma sensitive yoga is that creates a space where students can safely experience physical sensation through movement and make choices to continue, modify or opt out. The emphasis is to restore a sense of agency based on the student's preferences and needs rather than the teacher's "authority". I completely understand why some students would prefer a teacher with military experience, but I have never found being a civilian to be an obstacle. Creating a safe space to enable students to be aware of their breath and physical sensations so they can make choices that restore a sense of agency is, I believe, more important.

Yes, yes, and yes! This is the single most effective and therapeutic thing that most people could be doing, if only they knew. I would think that, especially for veterans, the inner strength and balance, the benign sense of self-ownership, that naturally emerges within a short period of regular practice would be more effective than any medicines or talking therapies. Key, though, would be to find the right teacher and "style" for you. I, for instance, cannot stand to be in a "hot" yoga room, which seem to be ubiquitous these days. Fresh air (prana) should always be part of the session. Neither am I interested in a "spiritual" talking incessantly about the universe... But a gym like, get-to-it focus does work for me. This can't really be explained in a meaningful way. But do yourself a favor and try it. Commit! Give it six weeks before you make a decision.

The national yoga education company, Yogafit, has for years offered training in trauma sensitive yoga called the Warriors program. They offer scientific evidence in their teacher training programs. Many military members learn their systems and go on to teach. It’s a great organization that offers trainings all over the country.

There are only three kinds of warrior poses, not five as the article states. The link takes you to a sequence of five poses total called a Warrior Sequence, which is something made up, not a traditionally taught sequence in modern postural yoga.

At the studio where I practice yoga in Rockville Centre, NY, we are blessed with a wonderful teacher named Rafael Rivera, who is a veteran. He brings so much to the mat that is unique and he shares his love of yoga and veterans through his work with the Veterans Yoga Project.

There is something for everybody in yoga. Age,gender ,... dont matter. For aged, handicapped, it is more beneficial. It is guaranteed to bring down your medical expenses, improve sleep etc. But one should avoid complicated poses in the beginning and should start under guidance.

Great article. Thanks to NYT and to all the former military men and women who have made the decision to share their healing modalities because the war inside is what drives the war outside.

Great piece. Beautiful photos.

I’ve had five surgeries, three of them lung, in the past year due to cancer. Yoga breathing exercises helped me get out of the hospital and back to work within days of of leaving the hospital.

I took up yoga when I was in the Army. It was something to do, you could do it anywhere, didn't require a whole bunch of paraphernalia and seemed like a great way to pass the time, especially when in the field. It made you more alert, and I came to understand that you cold see things more clearly, when your mind was rested and open. It is so much more attentive and focused. I staid with it and continue to do yoga as part of my regular routine, integrating it in to my every day activities, when and where ever I can. For example, I do not wait on line anymore. I tree. I've had the good fortune of taking classes along the way from some amazing instructors, and although I am really no longer physically capable of doing some of the strength poses that I learned from them and came to "accomplish," I have retained the lessons of each. It is a great feeling to obtain freedom in restriction, and this article, as encouraging as it is, barely scratches the surface of the many positive benefits that can be derived from the practice of yoga. Still, my favorite Yogi will always be Mr. Berra, who said, "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." Yoga is a practice that in theory promises better physical and mental health, so what's not to like about that? I pity those that reject it on religious grounds, which you hear all too often.

Beautiful article. Peace to all vets.

Very glad to see the ancient knowledge from India described in the Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali Yoga sutras helping our armed forces and veterans dealing with their power, concentration, pain and suffering. May this spread. Thanks for the article.

Excellent, thoughtful article. Thanks to the people interviewed for sharing their thoughts and teaching us.

Thanks for the great article. I'm glad to see this wonderful practice being brought to Veterans. When I was a police officer, I used to go to yoga studios on my off time to "really get away" from all the noise and stress of that job. But of course I was really getting closer to my best self--and dropping all the flak that the job can hit you with. Sometimes it was just, "A breather," away from everything. At other times, the yoga class allowed me to "get strong," in a way the gym couldn't. All of us have tough lives and need help along the way. It takes some time to find the "right" type of yoga class, but I hugely recommend it. May all of the vets find their way to peace and happiness.

Wonderful article for an underserved portion of society. Though I am not a veteran I have practiced yoga for over 20 years, I am a recently certified teacher. I initially did yoga as an an addendum to my regular workout routine.. my training gave me this ~ my bottom line description of yoga ~ is that it “gets one ‘comfortable’ with the (being) ‘uncomfortable’”. Being alone with ones self or thoughts can be terrifying for some. Whether it be through asana (poses), breath (Prana) or meditation, being with oneself quiet and taking the focus off the fruit of your daily labors and the minds chatter is the true purpose of yoga.

I work with veterans who have PTSD to help them with integration into community-based employment. I have learned much about challenges specific to veterans as well as trauma many of them had before they served. If we can work with veterans to integrate into civilian yoga classes--perhaps those that focus on trauma--they can see that they may be understood by non-military people more than they imagine. Part of the healing includes expansive understanding. Yoga is universally important. Kudos to those who see how this, equine therapy, and other practices may be crucial to veterans as they begin to reach out with trust. Thank you.

Yoga has helped my body and mind. I highly recommend it to anyone. Even if you do it for 10 minutes, it will help you. Thank you NYT for giving yoga a voice in your pages!

Yoga is great for the body and mind. Stretching and strengthening improves physical health. Attentive focus on the earth-water-air-ether aspects of asanas while doing Pranayama (purposeful breathing) restores peace to the mind. Even if you only have 20 minutes to spare, daily practice is amazingly restorative. Namaste.

Although I have been a practioner of some form of daily exercise for many years, yoga never really appealed to me although I tried to get into it several times. But ... after a recent illness and treatment that left me underweight and with much less muscle mass than I’d had before, watched the five minute yoga video uploaded to the Times’ website as part of the whole New Year’s thing. I tried it. I love it and do it everyday. I find it both centers my thoughts around the day ahead, whatever the challenges are going to be. And I can feel strength returning to limbs that had felt discouragingly weak and useless. So, thank you New York Times. Also, as a veteran (non-combat and without subsequent trauma as a result), I am grateful for what yoga and these yoga teachers are doing to help those less fortunate that I have been. And thanks again to the Times for this wonderful story.

Whatever your situation is I think it's important to find a teacher and an approach that work for you. Recently I took classes that had a repeated 30-40 sequence of high warrior poses. To me it was more like yoga calisthenics. The sequence aggravated a hip injury. I stopped going, and the hip recovered. I have a home practice and other options. The main point is it's important to find a teacher/tradition that is safe for your body. It's also important for each practitioner to take the responsibility for stopping if there's pain that's bad for you and to learn the difference between good pain and bad pain.

In 2015 I worked with a local fitness center to get their yoga instructor certified as a Yogafit Warriors instructor for the homeless Veterans shelter I was running. I was able to get a $10,000 grant from a Veteran's foundation to help fund that training and then, a state tax credits grant to run the program for a year. The concept was to engage homeless Veterans at the shelter 3 times/week, providing each homeless Veteran with their own yoga supplies (to take when they were discharged if desired), combined with a rigid evaluation component in place to test pre and post Yogafit Warriors impact on health and well-being. Unfortunately, things changed at the shelter after I left, and the program disappeared, the evaluation never happened. Yogafit Warriors is a wonderful program by Veterans for Veterans.

I'm not a veteran, but I suffer from depression. In one especially difficult time yoga may have saved my life. It also allowed me to get off of antidepressants. I was lucky enough to run across a very special yoga teacher when I was first leaning. She taught basic poses very exactly, but more importantly, she coached breathing, intention, and being in tune with our own bodies and minds. I feel like Yoga studios, and other places like the YMCA, do a pretty poor job with yoga beginners. Most often, they're thrown right into a class that's way too hard, they miss the whole mind/body point of yoga, and they leave discouraged, never to return again.

A constant in my life is 6:30am power yoga Monday, Wednesday and Friday. A very nice way to start the day, our group, the Breakfast Club," gets put through its paces in a darkened studio that welcomes the day as the sun rises. If there is a better way to start the day I'm not sure what it would be. Thanks for the excellent article that demonstrated once again the versatility, strength and renewal of yoga.

The discussion about controlled breathing and firearm training as well as lengthening the exhalation of the breath to reduce fight-or-flight instincts is fascinating. I've struggled with panic attacks since the age of 15 and harnessing my breath has been the way only out for me. Unfortunately, no one understood panic attacks those many years ago and I eventually "saved" myself through trial and error, but always feeling the next breath would be my last breath when in the throws of terror. I now practice yoga in a small, low-stress environment and the teacher's breath training has been one of the greatest benefits for me. I take it with me when I leave the studio, as she encourages us to do.

Yoga has proven very effective as a part of an overall treatment program for a number of issues many individuals face yoday. I work with a major addiction program in Oklahoma and we are using it as a part of our treatment plans to help individuals get control of their addiction issues. We work with many veterans who face a lot of problems returning to civilian life after military service. Yoga is a pert of our program for them.