Mindfulness For Warriors. Kim Colegrove

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СКАЧАТЬ about the shocking, disturbing, and gruesome things being experienced on the job). Makes sense, doesn’t it? If a person isn’t allowed to feel and show normal human emotions, at least the laughter provides some relief from the bottled-up pain, grief, sorrow, anger, fear, and despondency.

      Meditation and mindfulness are coping mechanisms that can help a person learn to modulate stress and emotion for the purpose of self-regulation. They require stillness and silence, and yes, they require observation and feeling. But wait, there’s more.

      These powerful personal practices can also empower a person to choose focus and intensity when needed, and de-escalation when desired. Can you imagine this level of self-discipline and relief?

      For those of you concerned that you’ll lose your edge, please don’t worry. I’m not asking you to sit down and meditate in the middle of a crisis. Rather, I’m suggesting that you use these tools between crises and train yourself to harness the power to defuse and de-stress when you need to or want to.

      Hypervigilance is a big problem in the first-responder community. Yes, your senses need to be heightened at work, and your ability to focus and react is what makes you an excellent first responder. But you might not need the same level of intensity on every call or with every interaction, especially at home. The problem is, hypervigilance gets locked in, stresses your biological systems, and can hurt the people around you. Same with anger, hostility, aggression, defensiveness, negativity, and apathy.

      So, I’m asking first responders to set aside their preconceptions and skepticism and give me a chance—to give meditation and mindfulness a chance. The status quo is not working. Our first responders are stressed and traumatized, and they are dying at alarming rates, sometimes prematurely, due to stress-related health problems, sometimes in line-of-duty deaths, and way too often by their own hand.

      What I present, in my classes and in this book, is an introduction to the concept of meditation and mindfulness as healing tools. I am offering a simple, straightforward, logical way for you to dip your big toe into the pool, so to speak. If, when you finish this book, meditation appeals to you on any level, but you are not connecting with my style of instruction, please don’t give up! All it takes is a quick search of the internet to find other practices and techniques. I promise, you can find something that works for you.

      Also, you should know, I am teaching cops to meditate, and they are loving it! In fact, I’m working with first responders from all professions and they are embracing these once new-agey, now mainstream practices with open arms. Well, they embrace them with open arms after begrudgingly sitting in class with their arms crossed in front of them for the first thirty minutes. I love the challenge!

      So here we go. Uncross your arms and set those preconceptions aside. I have some things I’d like to share with you, because I really want you to live a long, healthy, happy life. You deserve it.

Part 1

The Warrior

Chapter 1

From Widow to Warrior

      “Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.”

      —F. Scott Fitzgerald

      My husband dedicated thirty years of his life to a profession that trains warriors for battle but has no context for healing the invisible wounds of warfare. Did the job kill my husband? No. Was it a contributor? Absolutely.

      Our first responders are very well trained, but their training does not prepare them for the mental and emotional impacts of the job.

      Invisible Wounds

      A majority of first responders suffer from symptoms of post-traumatic stress, which is a condition that develops in some people who encounter trauma. Trauma is a deeply distressing or disturbing experience that alters a person’s ability to cope.

      The average citizen has no idea what first responders see, hear, and endure throughout their careers. They are constantly exposed to and affected by the trauma of others: accidents, disaster, violence, abuse, neglect, victimization, and death. This type of trauma is known as secondary trauma.

      First responders regularly encounter scenes and circumstances that most of us could not stomach. The sights, sounds, and smells from these experiences leave imprints on their psyches. Memories and images can continue to harm them after the event is over, and very often these invisible wounds do not heal on their own.

      Post-traumatic stress (PTS) and secondary trauma are not visible like a burn, a gunshot wound, or a laceration. They occur on the inside, unseen, but they cause just as much, if not more, pain.

      Left untreated, PTS and secondary trauma can be stealthy killers. They quietly ruin health, relationships, families, and lives. They can cause people to withdraw and isolate, or rage and lash out. They create devastation and rob individuals of the most basic human rights: life, love, and joy. However, they are treatable. But in order for treatment to become normalized, the shame and disgrace attached to seeking help must be eliminated.

      Stigma

      There has long been a stigma attached to mental health issues in these often stoic emergency-responder professions. If a person is brave (or desperate) enough to speak up about mental and emotional difficulties, they face the possibility of being labeled “weak,” “unstable,” or “incompetent.” Instead of receiving help, they might be demoted—or fired. This ridiculous stigma causes first responders to suffer in silence, forced to pretend they’re okay when they’re not.

      This is what my husband did, for years and years. In order to survive in the law enforcement culture, David felt he had to remain silent about anxiety, depression, and other symptoms he suffered over the years. He was terrified of being deemed incompetent or unsuitable for the job. He worried about being stripped of his badge and gun and being fired without the ability to support his family and collect the pension he had worked so hard to build.

      I want to make a point here about mental health and first responders, and I want to address first responders directly.

      Getting treatment for mental health does not mean you are mentally ill. I try to always include the word “emotional,” when speaking about first responders who need help, because mental and emotional distress go hand in hand when they are caused by a stressful, traumatic profession. I say mental and emotional difficulties, or mental and emotional problems or issues.

      I think one of the main reasons you haven’t sought or won’t seek help is that you don’t want people to think you’re mentally ill or crazy. First of all, mental illness is not the same as being crazy, and everyone needs to knock it off with that kind of language and thinking. Secondly, mental illness is treatable, is not necessarily permanent, and should never be stigmatized.

      So, listen up! You have been mentally and emotionally wounded. This should not cause shame any more than a physical wound would.

      If you are struggling mentally and emotionally because of the work you do and the things you’ve seen, you have been wounded. You are not weak, you are human.

      And let me be blunt. If you are resistant to help and treatment because of the stigma, you are sacrificing your life to your job, and that is unacceptable. Some day you will leave this job, СКАЧАТЬ