American war veterans learning Yoga to fight stress

By ANI

Friday March 2, 03:47 PM

Washington, March 2 (ANI): Confronting with the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, a group of war veterans has turned to Yoga, the ancient Hindu spiritual practice of India. Veterans from Iraq war, Operation Desert Storm (Afghanistan), Vietnam War and World War II are attending meditation classes led by teacher Joan Platt at the Central Massachusetts Yoga Studio, which is an hour west of Boston. During classes the Yoga teacher Joan Platt asks the veterans to lie down on their back, practicing "Shavasana", one of the Yogic exercises meant to relax body and reduce stress. Some of the veterans are lean and muscular while others are paunchy and arthritic. Together, they represent half a century of major conflict. Michael Jakonski, who served in the Marines during the Vietnam War, says he spent 40 years "scraping by" with his anger and depression. Before the Iraq war, he used to make fun of talks about post-traumatic stress disorder. "But the Iraq war really threw me for a loop. I found myself on the top of a mountain crying one day, and thought, 'I've got to do something about this, " a website of the National Public Radio quoted Michael Jakonski, a Vietnam Veteran, as saying. It was stiff neck problem that motivated Jakonski to try Yoga. Soon, he realised that Yoga could also be a tremendous help to reduce his anger. According to another Vietnam veteran, the problem of developing irritation or anger is a common problem faced by combat troops. "Anger is a problem that all combat veterans have," says Tom Boyle, a Vietnam veteran and a counsellor at the Worcester Massachusetts Veterans Centre. It's been two years since when Boyle started the Veterans' Yoga programme here. And, today it's proving a tremendous help to a number of war veterans including individuals like Jakonski. "Anger becomes a part of you. It is just an instinctive response to any kind of threat," said Boyle. "Everything Teacher Joan Platt is doing is about relaxing, slowing down, becoming mindful," Boyle added. Post-traumatic stress disorder does not go away, Boyle says. But you can learn to live with it, and that's where the yoga classes come in. "There is a theme of peace that is woven into just about everything that is said," he says, "because that is what the philosophy of yoga is: It is about attaining peace." So far, most of the veterans have been paying for the sessions themselves, but Boyle hopes the Veterans Affairs system will start to offer Yoga nationwide. He already sees Post-traumatic stress disorder and other symptoms of battle stress in troops back from Iraq - and he knows thousands more are still to come. Tom Connor is another veteran whose old memories were triggered by the new images on the news from Iraq. He served in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968. Connor tells that despite attempting many times to suppress his painful memories of combat, he just started losing sleep and having nightmares. During the yoga class, the Yoga teacher Joan Platt asks that all those in the studio feel happy, peaceful and liberated. (ANI)