In today's Motivational Monday I draw a parallel between dawning a new identity for Halloween and transitioning from the military. I also lift the curtain to reveal a little bit of my childhood.
I have interviewed over 50 veteran organizations since the start of the Veteran Resource Podcast. In this episode I share the top 5 things that I have learned. The full text can be found at veteranresourcepodcast.com/059
Nicholas grew up in Uhrichsville, a small town in Ohio. When he turned 18 years old, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps as an infantryman. His first deployment was in 2008 to Ramadi, Iraq where he trained the Iraqi police force and encouraged them to take pride in securing their city’s safety. Shortly after he returned home from Iraq, his unit deployed to support the Drug Enforcement Agency on a mission in the seas of South America. He came home just before Christmas in 2009 and immediately started training for his third and final deployment. Six months later he was in Marjah, Afghanistan where his unit was engaged with the Taliban to secure the safety of civilians and the city’s farmlands. In August 2011, after five years of service and three deployments, Nicholas was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps and moved to Tampa Florida. Nicholas tried his first yoga class within a few days of being in his new city and was sure that he would never go back again. Shortly after he began to notice some serious physical problems and they started to negatively impact his life. He also was struggling with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries from his time in service. He had become friends with his yoga teacher and she urged him to come back to maybe a less intensive class. After a few classes Nicholas started to feel the physical benefits of yoga and after long talks with his teacher and more yoga Nicholas fell in love with the practice. Still struggling with his physical and mental challenges Nicholas decided to take it further and in 2014 he signed up for a 200 hour RYT teacher training. This particular training was 8 months long and he knew his journey had just began. Today Nicholas teaches yoga with Exalted Warrior Foundation providing adaptive yoga to veterans who are struggling just like he is. Yoga for him isn’t just a class in studio, it is a tool for every moment in his life to battle the physical and mental challenges he still faces every day.
Paul Riedner is the Executive Director of a startup non-profit called the Veteran Resilience Project which uses EMDR to address a number of after effects of military service and war. Paul has an Economics degree and an MBA focused on business anthropology and consumer behavior. From 2006 - 2010 he was a Deep Sea Diver in the US Army. Since returning from war and the military, Paul began exploring how to use art to express his changing perspectives and to connect the public with the experiences, triumphs, and struggles of returning veterans. Paul produces a podcast called ResilienceMN that interviews veterans and serves as the community outreach mechanism for VRP.
This article from the Los Angeles Times fired me up a little. Veterans from the California National Guard are being forced to pay back enlistment bonuses from a decade ago. Please listen to this episode and then ACT by signing the two petitions.
Season 3 kicks off with me apologizing for the late start. But I really feel that setting up the structure and processes that will allow me to deliver five episodes per week was a good use of time. I am dedicated to getting the word out to veterans about some of the amazing veteran organizations that we have available to us, so in addition to five episodes per week I will also be working on speaking to groups of veterans around the country, and maybe even through live webinars here and there so that I can get the word out even further. If you haven't yet, please join me in the new facebook group where we can start to grow a community of like-minded individuals that help each other.