Fitness and health for Vets with PTSD

Aikido the art of peace:
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• Recognize tension
• Recognize Stress
• Focus Energy
• Relax in the face of aggression
• Resolve conflict
• Convert negative to positive
• Face the world with calm
• protect yourself and others

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“Using The Power of Aikido to help veterans with Combat-Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. “

KEGANIN NO SENSHI AIKIDO
?the Wounded Warriors Way to a United Spirit?
What does Aikido have to offer you?
I can only tell you what it has offered and continues to offer me, every day, every minute.
What are the devils my experience in the jolly hell of combat has given me?

• Fear;

I fear myself, I know what I can do, how destructive I can be, how I can hurt and destroy. I fear the violent aggression I have been conditioned to release when faced with violence and aggression. I fear being afraid, of not being able to deliver, of giving in to the coward I fear is deep in side. I fear being vulnerable and helpless.

• Anger; anger at being unable to deal, unable to return to who I was before, unable to accept the world as it is, with all its changes and inconsistencies and confusion and reversals and sucker punches.
• Deadness;
• the difficulty, even inability to express, or accept, or even feel honest emotions because it might mean exposing myself and my ?self? to more pain or rejection, or worse, having someone I care about destroyed. If I don?t care – – – I don?t care!
• Frustration;
• the frustration that can overcome me because I have no way to deal with all this shit, which only adds to the shame, depression and inner doubt that increases this self-defeating, viciously downward spiral.

What Aikido has offered me, and which I constantly strive learn and practice is;

• how to recognize tension and stress in myself,
• how to convert my own inner stress, tension, anger into positive energy,
• how to focus my energy in something I can use constructively,
• how to relax in the face of aggression and attack,
• how to resolve conflict constructively,
• how to convert negative, aggressive energy from others into energy I can use constructively,
• how to be relaxed, centered, balanced and positive in how I stand, move and face the world,
• how to move out of the arena of warfighting and into the normal world of family and community.

I want to offer you a glimpse, a taste, of what the practice of Aikido has offered me and a real experience using these powerful tools which you can use to deal positively with your own inner devils. It has taken a lot of courage for you to come here, to be a part of this program. It will take a lot more guts to accept what you will learn. I hope that through Aikido, I can offer you something which might also strengthen your ability to move out into a better life.

Tom Osborn

8 years in Viet Nam, 6 were years Special Forces and 24 months were with Special Forces A Teams.

Aikido of Maine will be offering workshops to Vets through the Portland Vet center at no cost