"Ever since I was a kid I dreamed of being a soldier. At 17, I enlisted, did the cool stuff: training, driving tanks, diving. No one ever mentioned yoga if they did I would’ve said it was for hippies"
Meet Charles @heal_with_your_tribe . I urge anyone affected by the issues he relates in his #yogasavedmylife story to check out his page & resources. These are his words
"I became a combat medic & deployed to Afghanistan in 2009. My training meant at first I felt bulletproof. We’d roll into a village where I’d get to treat locals. I was helping people, it felt good. Then I started to see the reality of war. Dead babies & people blown to pieces by IEDs I came home but was unsettled & in 2012 I re-deployed to Afghanistan, leading a team of young medics. As soon as we hit the ground we were confronted with one mass casualty event after another, of innocents blown apart going about their daily lives. We lost 7 of our Aussie brothers in that deployment: 3 murdered by an Afghan soldier. Of all the patients I treated, the ones that stick with me the most are the kids. Innocent little kids: the same age as my own Eventually I couldn’t picture the Afghan children without picturing my own & vice versa. Returning home I knew there was something wrong, as did the people around me. I was on a rollercoaster of depression & hyper vigilance, terrified something terrible was about to happen when I was in public. Nights of insomnia or nightmares: a slippery slope, ruminating “there’s something wrong with me”, “I’m damaged”, eventually: “my family are better off without me” One day my wife suggested doing an online yoga video by @nickycjones & suddenly I felt a change. It felt good. I felt safe. I did that same video every morning. Eventually I felt such a change that I decided to do my teacher training: all the way to completing 500hrs. I went on to graduate in yoga therapy & worked one on one & with groups of veterans with #ptsd at hospitals & vets charities. I published two yoga books: How to Heal With Your Tribe & Evolve into the New You and started a website packed with free yoga videos, workshops, podcast 🙏
Yoga saved my life, literally!
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