Photo By Chief Petty Officer Aaron Chase | 200213-N-YF306-0027 ALAMEDA, Calif. (Feb 13, 2020) Dan Libby, Director of the Veterans...... read more read more
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Before placing his hand on the gym floor located at Navy Operation Support Center Alameda, Dan Libby calls out “side plank” and describes the maneuver to the 20 Sailors and Marines in front of him. Each person, Libby included, places their right hard on the floor and stretches their left arm straight up in the air. Some struggle to keep their feet together and their bodies in a straight, diagonal line.
“Yoga includes meditation,” said Libby. “But it’s about mindful resilience. Right now, it’s about morning PT.”
Marine Major Jarrod Rothman agreed. “You can really feel the burn on some of those killer movies,” said Rothman, a member of 4th Force Reconnaissance Company located in Alameda. “I am now more lethal.”
Making servicemembers more lethal isn’t necessarily a goal of Libby, the executive director of the Veterans Yoga Project. However, he said his goals do include helping service members cultivate leadership, resilience and strength.
“Yoga is a system is a leadership and self-mastery. It promotes and sharpens tools that veterans use all the time,” said Libby. “Once people get over the stigma of the word ‘yoga,’ they can see just how effective and useful it can be.”
The Veterans Yoga Project is an is a nonprofit educational and advocacy organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of military veterans, according to Libby. It does so by providing yoga classes for veterans and service members, and connecting them with teachers and program suitable from them; it also instructs yoga teachers and yoga therapists on the special skill set necessary to work with veterans who are recovering from stress-related mental health challenges. Libby calls the program for both veterans and their teachers “Mindful Resilience.”
“For us, mindful resilience is really about these five tools that help us manage life’s ordinary and extraordinary challenges: breathing, meditation, movement, rest and gratitude,” said Libby. “By just learning what these tools are, how they work in the body, and then getting a felt experience of their effects, we can hopefully help the men and women that we work with be better in whatever they do.”
Libby is a clinical psychologist who specializes in working with veterans who are dealing with post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury and other trauma related challenges. However, while working as a Yale post-doctoral clinical fellow at the West Haven Veterans Affairs Clinic in Connecticut, he provided a yoga class for the veterans there as part of group psychotherapy.
“At the fourth class I taught, one of my veterans came in before class and he said, ‘Hey Doc, I stopped taking my sleep meds, because now I can meditate to go to sleep,’” recounted Libby. “That was the moment the project was born. That was when I saw that these tools had a way of helping people empower themselves to overcome whatever their challenges are.”
From there, the Veterans Yoga Project has grown into a network of 1,500 teachers across the country offering 350 to 400 classes each month for veterans, according to Libby. Libby said his goal is now to increase its availability not just for veterans, but for active duty service members. “We are absolutely willing to come and offer our services to any veteran or active duty military installation or organization,” said Libby.
“It was exciting to finally try yoga and I am very thankful to Daniel Libby for making this event possible. I look forward to incorporating yoga into our regular fitness schedule,” said Capt. Kanan Ott, commanding officer of Navy Operation Support Center Alameda. “Yoga is an invaluable tool for building resiliency and mindfulness while reducing stress for our Sailors.”
“I thought that the yoga session was outstanding. I really appreciate them coming out and supporting the Sailors, showing them techniques to relieve stress,” said Chief of Naval Air Training Rear Adm. Daniel Dwyer, who was in Alameda as part of a Navy Executive Engagement Visit. “Our Sailors have an incredibly demanding mission that our nation is counting on us to perform. Whether it’s through yoga, weightlifting, running, or just spending some time on personal reflection, it’s very important that our Sailors find a way to release some of that stress that we may find on and off duty.”
Yeoman 1st Class Mary Solis, the command fitness leader for Navy Operation Support Center Alameda, is a regular practitioner of both weightlifting and yoga. She said that yoga has helped her improve as a weightlifter, and helped her improve on the run portion of the Navy Physical Readiness Test. “It’s helped with both my shoulder mobility and my hip flexibility,” said Solis. “When my body’s under stress, yoga has helped teach me to breathe—inhale, then exhale. Now, I don’t freak out when the run becomes harder. I’m just able to run.”
Solis said she intends to have yoga more readily available at the support center if possible.
Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Kiara Scott, a member of the Navy Operation Support Center Alameda medical team, said she was invited to attend the yoga session under Libby by her chief petty officer, but said she would welcome more yoga offerings. “I love being able to connect with my body and mind, and meditate,” said Scott.
Libby said he hopes to get more opportunities to reach out to interested service members, and that he feels that yoga would be beneficial to most Sailors. “Our goal is to see this tool used widely,” said Libby. “Yoga can reduce chronic pain and sleep issues. It can also keep Sailors focused and on the top of their game.”
| Date Taken: | 02.15.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 02.28.2020 11:21 |
| Story ID: | 364126 |
| Location: | ALAMEDA, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 219 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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