Meditation and PTSD

dose of calmness. Every weekday morning, I'll share a meditation story, offer a simple practical tip about how you or loved going can stay a bit calmer in your life, and then we'll end each episode together with a moment of gratitude. My hope is that I can share what I know to anyone who needs it. Ready, sit comfortably, take a

few deep breaths, and let's begin today's journey. I want to tell you the story about Luke Jensen because Luke's story is indicative of what's happening in our society today, as more adults and children are being exposed to such traumatic events that they suffered the nightmare of post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Luke grew up in a military family. One grandfather was Navy, the other grandfather was Marine. Corps. Luke knew at an early age he wanted to go

into law enforce. Me wanted to get in the military. So the first thing he did was he joined the Army Reserves as military police. Then he got a job in a local police department, where he spent two years doing undercover narcotics work. Luke was a tough guy. In two thousand nine, he got deployed to Afghanistan, confident that he could really serve his country well. In about a week,

everything turned south. He said. For the first week, there was so much artillery fire, so many sirens, rockets, attacks nearby. He never slept the first week, he was asked to investigate the death of a little girl. She was the same age as his daughter. He held his little girl's body in his arms, and he said, something inside of him snapped. He realized, I'm never going to make it home to my family alive. He sunk into a depression.

The depression turned to thoughts of suicide. Within a few months, he found himself in a truck parked outside of the camp with a rifle pointed at his head and his fingers trembling on the trigger. He said, at that moment when he was prepared to pull the trigger. A truck pulled up right next to him with two army rangers. They never looked at Luke, they just looked straight ahead. Luke felt so embarrassed about what he was going to do that he put down the rifle and drove back

to camp. He told his superior officer immediately had a meta fact. Back to the United States, Luke felt confident that when he got back to be with his wife and two children, it would all be okay. It's never okay, not when you have trauma. One afternoon, his wife and daughter came in and he screamed, I'm going to kill myself, But just seeing the eyes of his daughter and his wife, he dropped the gun, collapse in his bed, and slept through the night. The next morning, he realized, with more

conviction than ever, he had a second chance. He was going to make the best of it. Our paths crossed when he learned to meditate. It's not the answer to to all problems, but it helped him a lot. My point here is Luke had a second chance. So many of our men and women and children who suffered from post traumatic stress never get that second chance. Today, the nurses and doctors and orderlies and custodial staff that are on the front lines living the hell of PTSD. And

there's another term, it's called complex PTSD. That is, you been a home where your mother or father or brother or sister has PTSD and it's contagious. You begin to experience the same symptoms irrational thinking, depression, anxiety, impulsive, violent behavior. Trauma doesn't go away over time. Trauma doesn't go away by ignoring it. It's a disease. There's so many things that need to be done to help a person who has PTSD. They need to have the right therapist, they

need to have a support system. What can you do? What is the tip I can give you in a long list of things that need to be done for the loved one that you're supporting. You need to be able to listen without judgment, not coming at them with you're going to fix everything for them, and not minding if they don't want to talk. You can save a life when you listen. The other thing I will tell you is find help. The National Association of Mental Health NAMI.

Google it. They have a hotline. If we want to keep calm within ourself and people around us as the world gets more intense, Listen, communicate, support each other. 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 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. This is Bob Roth. Keep calm, Thanks for listening today. I hope you heard something that inspires, that uplifts you and that you can incorporate into your own life. Until next time, remember, meditate, be kind, and be true to yourself. 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 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 one