Army Seeks Out the 'Yogic Edge'

We are all living with the societal cost of our country's war on Iraq, and as yoga instructors from time to time - depending on our locations and proximity to military bases - we find families of military personnel and both active and retired military in our classes.

We also know that yoga is extraordinarily powerful in reducing stress throughout many systems in our bodies. Here's a post from the Mayo Clinic about yoga and stress).

Now, the military is seeking out help from all avenues (a good thing) to address the growing crisis our soldiers are facing - PTSD. More about PTSD here (Wikipedia), here (VA), and here (NIH).

The military is scrambling for new ways to treat the brain injuries and post-traumatic stress of troops returning home from war. And every kind of therapy -- no matter how far outside the accepted medical form -- is being considered. The Army just unveiled a $4 million program to investigate everything from "spiritual ministry, transcendental meditation, [and] yoga" to "bioenergies such as Qi gong, Reiki, [and] distant healing" to mend the psyches of wounded troops.

While this is an extreme example, those of us who are actively involved with thousands and thousands of individuals and companies striving to solve their health concerns through yoga see, day after day how powerful this ancient technology is. Its great to see the entrenched military establishment seeking out help in this area. Some great work is already being done...if you haven't seen Richard Miller's iRest program, take the time to find out about it.

The government is looking for proposals:

But many of these treatments haven't been held up to much rigorous scientific scrutiny before. So the Army is looking to hand out $4 million in "seedling grants" to "conduc[t] rigorous clinical studies" into all sorts of "novel approaches." Projects "containing preliminary data" will be eligible for up to $1 million. But even "innovative but testable hypotheses without preliminary data" could get as much as $300,000. Proposals are due May 15.

Read the entire article on wired!

The "Bonsai" Organization

Bigger isn't always better for business according to Drucker School of Business Professor, Charles Handy. Here's an interview with Handy from NPR's Marketplace. I like a number of things he says, including that

"if we are not careful, organizations can become the prisons for our souls"

This very much speaks to the challenge we have in building organizations that incorporate yogic values along with strong business acumen and skill. We attract people who want life entwineed with work, in a dynamic, nurturing way, and it is our challenge as managers and business people in this arena to solve this problem and feed people's souls, even as we accomplish powerful results for our organizations.

One other writer who has chronicled this area well is Bo Burlingham in his book, Small Giants, which is a MUST READ for folks wanting to be validated in their search for a poerful, more human work place.