Do you have any suggestions for form, location etc of future courses, days and residential retreats? I think you need to take this to the community. The community will not go out and seek help because of the denial. They will not come to you. Can you imagine if there was a meditation centre in Camp Bastion? I think that would be a positive start.
Your own words, thoughts and experience on this will help us no end. I am one person in a sea of many. I think this project is inspired and I hope that you have the success that you seek. In my humble opinion, the military is a tightly, coiled spring who cannot look beyond science. This will help if they let you in. Somehow you have to work out how to unlock them. Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer. Hagar and I talked all the way home.
I have decided to create a meditation room in my house. A place dedicated to silent reflection. I left the day feeling very calm and strong. I don’t want to lose that. It was brilliant to meet you all. It was incredible to think that I sat still for 3 x 30 minutes and didn’t speak and barely moved. For me, a person of many words and a complete fidget pants it was a hugely challenging experience.
But in the words of the Dalai Lama – “Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.”
Hagar. Without sounding like too much of a hippy, I have to agree with my wife. CLUNK (That is the sound of my wife falling over in complete shock!). When Clare suggested a meditation I was hostile to the idea.
But then, as Clare also said, I am a stressed out bunny right now, the cumulated stress of a couple of years in Northern Ireland, a detachment to Sierra Leone, four detachments in Iraq and about to embark on my seventh Afghan detachment (most of my detachments are 8-11 weeks long, by the way). Once we had got past the stress of realising we were probably going to be late, as the clocks had gone back that night, and we had obviously forgotten, and through the stress of driving into London and trying to find a parking space, I was ready for some chill out time!
The London Meditation centre is an oasis of calm and as soon as we were through the door, I began to relax. Cat and the other ‘specialists’ were quick to put us and the
www.raf-ff.org.uk
only other Serviceman there, a fellow of the medical profession, nicely at ease.
I began to wonder just what this bunch of new age hippies could provide to help de- stress a chap like me? We talked for a while and shared experiences, with everyone introducing themselves and giving a brief history of why they were there. Then we moved downstairs to the meditation room to begin the first ‘practice’ which involved a cushion, a blanket, a soft carpet and lying down in a warm
room....nice.....and normally guaranteed to get me to sleep!
However, what followed, with a softly spoken voice and some breathing advice, was a lovely mentally relaxing experience. More talk and then more practices followed, interspersed with a delicious veggie cottage pie and crisp fresh veg, before the final practice of the day was upon us. This one involved simply breathing out, then in and counting each breath, trying to get to ten. I couldn’t do it! My mind kept wandering off, in a nice way, by the time I got to six at the most! An interesting experience.
An honest debrief of what the guys could actually provide for the military followed and then we were off home, to get stressed in the queue of traffic as Twickers emptied out...
So, what can Cat and her team offer the mob? I think if they position meditation as a tool to help de-stress and to help keep your thoughts in perspective, then they have a wonderful opportunity to help people out here. I have no doubt there are considerably more stress issues in the mob than people are willing to ‘fess up
to, and the problem is only going to get bigger and bigger.
I am not talking PTSD here, more simply cumulative stress from the strain of being in the military right now. We suffer a great deal, so I think we should try to keep an open mind and look for more opportunities like this one (free by the way as it is lottery funded) to help those who know they need it and those who don’t yet know they need it, but one day soon will!
Clare. Hagar saw a piece in Envoy for Healing Hands and has been in touch with them. He had some Reiki and really enjoyed it. He found it to be a useful way of dealing with the accumulated pressure that life at the sharp end of battle can weigh on a person. The pressure is not going to get any less. The news is showing the fighting season is upon us as the summer arrives and the insurgents wage war. In addition there are redundancies and uncertainty about the military in the future.
Medical science and pills are not the only solution to manage the pressure that everyone is feeling. Just finding the time to be nice to yourself, to reflect, to take stock and to breathe out the stress could help a little.
Find out more
If you want to know more about Catherine Powell and her inspired idea to bring meditation to the military then email her at:
catherine@londonmeditationproject.org For more on Healing Hands go to: www.
healinghandsnetwork.org.uk/forces_ project.php
Envoy Summer 2011 13
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