Meditation for Veterans

Corey is a veteran who, like many others with his experience, had a difficult time making the transition back into civilian life. It wasn’t until he met Dr. Gordon, a specialist who works with veterans who have PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injuries, that he began to truly heal through Transcendental Meditation. Listen to Corey’s story to learn TM “resurrected” him.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Stay Calm as a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
to Stay Calm, your daily dose of calmness. I'm Bob Roth,
and I've been teaching people to meditate for fifty years,
helping them to stay calm under pressure, reboot and re
energize their lives, and basically be a happier, healthier version

(00:22):
of themselves. And now I want to help you do
the same. Ready, sit comfortably, take a few deep breaths.
U let's begin today's journey. Korea. O'Brien is a science
teacher at Hamilton's Township High School in Columbus, Ohio. Every
day he would stand in front of his class and
explain the basics of the physical sciences and biology. Then

(00:46):
he would go home to help his own five kids
with their homework. Every day for twelve years, he did
his best to show up as a husband, a father,
and a teacher, but the truth was he was going
through the motions in eyed his life was a living hell.
Corey O'Brien is an Iraq war vett. Military service runs

(01:08):
in Corey's family. His grandfather was a B seventeen bomber
pilot during World War Two in Korea. His father was
a marine veteran during Vietnam, Corey spent nine years with
the U. S. Army and the Ohio National Guard, and
he did two deployments to the Middle East. But Corey
came home from his last deployment in two thousand and

(01:28):
five with post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury
or tb I. He struggled in silence, feeling like he
let down a lot of people. I didn't come back
a hero, Corey says, I just did my job. I
took an oath, and I followed orders. Corey tried hard
to make it work. When he got home, he was

(01:49):
surrounded by the love and support of family and friends,
but he just couldn't figure out how to function, much
less survive. Corey's family took the brunt of it. He became,
in his own words, a monster. My temper was so
bad that at times I scared myself. Looking back, there
were times I was lucky I didn't end up in jail.

(02:13):
The local v A hospital offered Corey antidepressant medications, which
he turned down. Like a lot of veterans do. I
learned certain skills in the military that kept me alive,
like hypersensitivity and hyper alertness. He says, I didn't want
to take a magic pill and have all that disappear.
PTSD runs in Corey's family. His grandfather had it, his

(02:37):
father has it, and Corey knows he has it. But
making things worse, Corey also has traumatic brain injury. Things
kept going downhill. Whatever help he was getting from the
v A just wasn't enough. If Corey wanted to survive,
He realized he would have to find his own way.

(02:57):
That's when his luck finally turned. Three years ago, Corey
met doctor Chrisanne Gordon, founder and chairwoman of the Resurrecting
Lives Foundation in Dublin, Ohio. Her foundation provides cognitive retraining
to veterans through a team of tb I experts, including
physical medicine specialists, speech pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, job coaches,

(03:21):
and social workers. Dr Gordon met Corey and right away
she knew he needed to meditate. She introduced Corey to
David Kidd, a Vietnam veteran himself and a teacher of
transcendental meditation in the Columbus area. Corey jumped at the
opportunity and learned from David. What surprised Corey was how

(03:41):
easy it was to meditate, and how the results were
so immediate. Right from the start, I felt so much
more rested, and I slept so much better, he says.
Over time, I've become a better father and a better husband.
I've also become a better teacher. In fact, Corey felt
so much better that he told his father, the marine
about the meditation, and he learned too. Now his dad

(04:05):
is off three different types of medications. Reflecting back on
the fifteen years since he returned from his deployment, Corey says,
I'm convinced that TM will give veterans their lives back.
I know it brought me back from the dead. I
was resurrected. I've become a human again. My health tip
for the day is actually more of an awareness tip.

(04:27):
T b I does not only afflict veterans like Corey,
it can afflict any of us. A traumatic brain injury
can come from a blow to the head or a
penetrating head injury, which disrupts normal function of the brain.
Nearly three million people sustained a traumatic brain injury in
the United States every year. If you think that you

(04:49):
or someone you know may be living with t b I,
please go online and contact the Brain Injury Association of
America and get help. All right, let's end this time
together doing something that I think should be a feature
of our everyday life, and that's appreciation and gratitude. So

(05:09):
let's take thirty seconds of quiet, thirty seconds to take
a break, just take a moment. It turns out when
we do that, it's good for our health as well.
I'll be right back, all right. Thank you for joining

(05:51):
me today. I hope you heard something that inspires, that
uplifts you and that you can incorporate into your own life.
This is Bob Roth. Stay calm, hey, all of you
out there. I'd love to hear from you. You can
send me your stories, your questions, or anything else on
your mind. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, or

(06:15):
Instagram at meditation Bob. You can also send me an
email at meditation Bob Roth at gmail dot com. I
look forward to hearing from you.