Tonia Sargent knows first-hand the stress and strain military personnel and their families experience upon their return from areas on conflict, especially if they are wounded. Tonia’s husband Master Sergeant Kenneth Sargent suffered a head wound from a bullet in Iraq in 2004, barely survived and with Tonia’s assistance, went through the process of rehabilitation. When she was preparing to travel to meet him at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, she packed two things: her yoga mat and running shoes. According to Tonia, “fitness and wellness has got us where we are.” Not only that, when everything else she had identified with disappeared during her husband’s devastating injury, it was her connection to health, fitness and wellness, to relaxation and meditation, that gave her the fortitude she needed for her family, her husband and her activist efforts working with other military families.
Tonia is a yoga instructor, personal trainer and aerobics teacher. She incorporates her personal experience as the spouse of a marine injured in the war when she teaches the benefits of focusing on the breath and the use of relaxation techniques. Tonia is collaborating with Linda Pauwels and the Mission Viejo-based nonprofit Alas de America, who offer regularly scheduled yoga classes at Marine base Camp Pendleton to integrate yogic practices into the military routine. “I like to leave [classes] at the end showing them how simply breathing, taking five minutes, is just as essential as going 100 miles an hour,” Tonia says.
Integrating yoga into any part of the military day is a challenge. People need to make time to practice, for one. Pauwels points out that awareness of yoga practice, for many in the military, is limited. Yoga also carries with it preconceptions like yoga is a feminine discipline. To counter this, Tonia finds success with functional stretches and instructions that illustrate the benefits of poses. And yoga does, however, offer instant gratification; according to Tonia: “Yoga, relaxation and breathing instantly relieve stress.”
“Teaching meditation uses body and soul to connect rather than picking up a six-pack of beer and self-medicating.”
Stress is significant throughout military service, particularly as troops return home. Tonia comments on the returning military personnel, “the amount of stress they are under, limiting them to therapy just doesn’t work.” Yoga and meditation also offer people the opportunity to reconnect with their self and their own self-love, according to Tonia. “Teaching meditation uses body and soul to connect rather than picking up a six-pack of beer and self-medicating.”
At Camp Pendleton’s Marine Corps Community Services yoga classes, taught by Alas de America instructors, students leave their rank at the door with their shoes. The open classes at the base mean that returning warriors mingle with those about to be shipped overseas, as well as spouses and family members. Pauwels found that marines who participate in the class report that they were able to transfer skills learned on the mat to their daily activities. Benefits range from increased awareness of the physical concepts of stress reduction to reduced use of medications for health conditions. These efforts are increasing as Tonia is planning to use restorative yoga as a tool for couples.
While incorporating yoga into military settings may be happening slowly with small pockets of interest, inroads are being made with visionaries like Linda Pauwels and Tonia Sargent. These efforts are coupled with encouraging statistics from a recent research study conducted at Walter Reed Army Medical Center which suggests that yogic techniques provide needed support for people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) upon their return home.
Linda Pauwels and Alas de America can be contacted through alasdeamerica.org.
Tonia Sargent is active in Operation Home Front, supporting military servicepeople and their families. operationhomefront.net
