https://www.facebook.com/YogaForVets.org

I am very happy to announce that Yoga For Vets now lists over 600 locations around the country who offer 4 or more free yoga classes.  This number should really get your attention because it shows that the yoga community is increasingly interested in welcoming our deserving combat vets home.  As we move forward I am concerned that our grassroots organization can no longer be reasonably and "professionally" run by just  one person, me.  I have family and a yoga studio that has to come first so that I can continue to operate Yoga For Vets.  I consistantly get a few to many email a week from vets looking for classes near them or teachers who want to be listed and  I personally approve every single listing on this site.  With growth comes some growing pains so I want to remind everyone to be patient if I cant get back to you quickly, it isn't that I don't care. Also, some occasional log-in gremlins pop up but can usually get fixed quickly.  In 2013 I expect Yoga For Vets to reach 1000 listings so come along for a ride that will last for a long time with your help.  I received very few donations from this years Veterans Day yoga classes held around the U.S but I want to give a sincere thanks to those who did donate.  If you didnt but want to send a check in now, the address is: Yoga For Vets

2629 W23rd Street (Suite H)

Panama City, Florida

32405

The check should be made out to Yoga For Vets.

The money is spent very conservatively for web costs and YFV related phone bills.

Additional help is more of a dream at this point but if you happen to know a lawyer, accountant or a webmaster who can donate free help, please contact me now at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Opportunistic fame seekers, need not apply.  Well, you can apply if you want to but I give no guarantees. ; )

Thanks for reading this blog despite how basic it is.  For those who know me, you already know this but what you see (or read), is what you get, for better or worse.

With gratitude to all  of our vets and volunteers,

Paul 

Veterans Day is coming up and we are going to do our second annual wake call for America.  Currently most people look at Veterans Day as an opportunity to have a long weekend, party, and catch a sale at the local mall.  This is okay as long as we don't forget the reason for the holiday; to pay tribute to all veterans past and present.  Yoga teachers all around the country are stepping up again to offer a free yoga class or event on Veterans Day weekend.  It is recommended that you designate one (or more) classes that are free for all vets, not just combat vets.  The catch is, you should invite all people attend, even if they don't have any military connection. It is a way to let them hopefully see the faces of true real yoga warriors and to say, thanks for your selfless service.  Any money collected during this event "may" be sent to Yoga For Vets so that we can continue to upgrade our website to be more "searchable" as well as to start saving for our first ever teacher training scholarship for any combat vet who applies.  No one receives any salary or monetary compensation and the money collected goes into a designated Yoga For Vets bank account.  I will blog again soon with more news so mark your calendar and start planning your yoga event now.

~Paul

It is the day after Memorial day and if you are like me you spent the day yesterday thinking hard about the high cost of freedom, or war, or conflict.  It really doesn't matter to me what you perspective is as long as you agree that we must always remember those who lost their lives due to war.  Of course Yoga For Vets is all about offering yoga to those who served and returned alive.  Alive is the key word because while those who returned from war should be happy they lived through the experience, a growing number of vets are coming back home and suffering.  In fact some are suffering so much that they commit suicide.  This reality actually inspires me.  It inspires me to try harder to offer free yoga to vets because we know that yoga has helped pull vets back from the edge and improved many vets lives. Yoga aside, I'll try harder to reach out to those who served, to say thanks, to say welcome home and maybe become good friends with them.  If you are nodding your head as you read this, I am glad.  It means that you understand the bigger picture of being human.  It is beyond just offering free yoga.  It is making sure our combat vets who where lucky enough and skilled enough to survive combat come home to a grateful community.  Yes, I rambled here a little bit but I am always told by my more media savvy friends to let some stuff go so that people will know more about me.  Well, here it is.  I will try to write more often in this blog so that you will get more insight into my ideas, thought and inspiration.  Today, my inspiration is definitely coming from those who never returned.

  I recently received an e-mail from a combat vet with PTSD.  He wanted to make sure that the yoga locations who haven't had a single vet ask for free classes not to worry.  Using himself as an example, he said that his PTSD made it very hard to go into a room full of strangers and especially a new environment like a yoga studio.  He thinks that over time, more vets will ask for yoga as their symptoms become more manageble.  He also gave me a big Thank You to the yoga community.  It was really a "wow" moment for me because although I served 5 years in the Navy I dont have any  combat experince or PTSD.  I never considered being in a room full of strangers as a reason that a vet wouldn't  take free yoga.  I've heard the typical ignorant comments like yoga is just stretching or it is for girls.  This recent vet opened up a new scenario to me.  He asked that I mention this in the blog so that yoga teachers wont get discouraged.  Typical combat vet, thinking of others before himself.  So, there you go, the yoga teacher (myself) became the student.  As long as there are war vets I want Yoga For Vets to be around so when a combat vet with PTSD decides that he or she is ready to take a yoga class, they will be able to find one on our website.

Shanti (Peace),

Paul

Yoga For Vets is getting a lot of new teachers sign up to offer 4 or more free yoga classes lately. So many that I estimate we will top 400 different locations and teachers before the end of 2011. This blog post mentions Connected Warriors with good reason. While they are not officially partners with Yoga For Vets, the teachers who get certified by Connected Warriors are offering free yoga to vets also and because of that, we list their names and locations. I am pointing them out because they reflect a trend in the right direction by the yoga community. One of our goals is to get the entire yoga community to offer at least 4 free classes to our vets. Connected Warriors is helping to make that happen and I wanted to use this blog to personally tell them thanks and how grateful I am for their service to our deserving military. You can see their link under the resource section of our website as well as other great organizations who help our vets with free yoga.

Please dont think this is a time to sing Kumbaya or give Hooaahs because we have a long way to go. In fact when I recently posted an artlcle on our Facebook page which mentioned a Marine drawdown in Afghanistan starting in 2012 a military spouse quickly posted a response that tersely said: Now our work really begins. That comment reminded me that like a marathon runner who doesn’t run fastest in the beginning of the race, neither should we. Yoga For Vets is handled by me and only a few other people who lend their advice when they have an opportunity so sometimes the pace of our growth seems slow to me. However, I expect this organization to keep going for a long time so that someday when we are no longer at war EVERY vet who wants to take free yoga knows where and when the next class is. Seems simple, just like a troop drawndown. Shanti (Peace), Paul