Aikido for Veterans
America has been at war for over a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan and the soldiers who volunteered to serve in the military are returning home with record-high levels of stress; including severe conditions such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a psychosomatic disease that affects the body and mind of individuals in ways that are poorly understood and hard to treat.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been affected by the stress of waging two long-running military campaigns and the repercussions on soldiers’ mental and physical well-being are only beginning to be understood. Too many military veterans are losing their battle with stress and resorting to self-destructive behavior and suicide.
Aikido is an art of peace. The word means “way of harmony” and those who train in Aikido learn to manage stress and conflict by practicing techniques with a partner that channel negative energy into positive energy and offer a path for aggression that does not result in more aggression.