LETTER FROM
THE EDITOR
so vital to our soldiers in combat
zones becomes, for many, a nightmare of anxiety that makes it difficult to function when they come
back home. That was the case for
Sgt. Senio Martz, a 27-year-old
Marine who was knocked unconscious by a roadside bomb
when leading his squad through
southern Afghanistan in 2011.
Today, yoga relieves him fro m the
need to closely monitor his surroundings during the day — an
obsession that was also keeping
him up at night. “Last night after
yoga, I had a good sleep,” he says.
“That’s a place I haven’t been in a
long, long time.”
Pentagon and Department
of Veterans Affairs researchers
have found that yoga’s stretching, breathing techniques and
meditation can help calm the
part of the brain that the stresses of war kicks into a state of
hyper-arousal. And more and
more yoga teachers are bringing these practices to the vets
who need them. Robin Carnes,
who helped develop a program
called iRest, found that meditation helps draw patients’ attention inward, away from out-
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side stresses. She also founded
“Warriors at Ease,” which trains
and certifies yoga teachers to
bring calming yoga practices to
even more soldiers in need.
As Wood writes, using yoga to
help returning veterans isn’t as
surprising as it might
seem. “After all, yoga
— a Sanskrit word
Yoga
meaning to “join” or
dates back
“unite” — dates back
to 3,000 B.C.,
to 3,000 B.C., and its
and its basic
basic techniques were
techniques
used in the 12th cenwere used
tury when Samurai
in the 12th
warriors prepared for
century
battle with Zen mediwhen Samurai
tation.” As more and
warriors
more skeptics are conprepared for
vinced, and as yoga
battle with Zen
becomes further ingrained in our military meditation.”
hospitals, that means
more veterans will
be making deep breathing and
Downward Dog part of
their recovery regimens.
ARIANNA