Posted on 12/06/2012 6:08:20 PM PST by NormsRevenge
While preparing for overseas deployment with the U.S. Marines late last year, Staff Sgt. Nathan Hampton participated in a series of training exercises held at Camp Pendleton, Calif., designed to make him a more effective serviceman.
There were weapons qualifications. Grueling physical workouts. High-stress squad counterinsurgency drills, held in an elaborate ersatz village designed to mirror the sights, sounds and smells of a remote mountain settlement in Afghanistan.
There also were weekly meditation classes — including one in which Sgt. Hampton and his squad mates were asked to sit motionless in a chair and focus on the point of contact between their feet and the floor.
“A lot of people thought it would be a waste of time,” he said. “Why are we sitting around a classroom doing their weird meditative stuff?
“But over time, I felt more relaxed. I slept better. Physically, I noticed that I wasn’t tense all the time. It helps you think more clearly and decisively in stressful situations. There was a benefit.”
Next year, the Marines will incorporate Mind Fitness Training classes into an infantry school at Camp Pendleton, Calif., making it a tentative part of the regular training cycle.
That benefit is the impetus behind Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training (“M-Fit”), a fledgling military initiative that teaches service members the secular meditative practice of mindfulness in order to bolster their emotional health and improve their mental performance under the stress and strain of war.
Designed by former U.S. Army captain and current Georgetown University professor Elizabeth Stanley, M-Fit draws on a growing body of scientific research indicating that regular meditation alleviates depression, boosts memory and the immune system, shrinks the part of the brain that controls fear and grows the areas of the brain responsible for memory and emotional regulation.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
A good work-out at the beach would work for me.
THAT’S why we’re winning in Afghanistan.
Military needs bigtime housecleaning at the top when someday we get a real Congress and President.
General Patton, please pick up the white courtesy phone, General Patton.
If it helps bring our men and women home alive tho’ too and help to handle the situations they face.. I see the benefit potential. I remember being told to meditate in boot camp so it’s not new, just newly funded I reckun.
Shock and Awe and Shaktipat
http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/the-men-who-stare-at-goats/trailer
funded
to sit in a chair and concentrate on a spot on the floor costs how much??
An all-nighter in Tijuana did it for my generation of Marines.
Good point.
I have mixed feelings about this. I think the jury is still out.
This generation is different. They are exposed to different stresses both in combat and outside of combat. They were raised differently than previous generations.
I am in favor of any program that benefits our troops so long as it does not diminish their combat effectiveness. I am open-minded that this program might do that. I’m also open-minded that this program might improve their combat effectiveness.
What saddens me is the need for this. I think in the past, our troops relied on prayer for all of these positive effects. I think meditation is the politically correct and acceptable replacement for God in our lives.
Used to admire Patton, but not any more.
It’s also being studied as a PTS PREVENTIVE. I personally like to meditate on something in particular instead of nothing. My favorite relaxation technique is thinking about what life will be like after the Messiah comes back and all the enemies of Israel are gone. :)
Zenper Fi?
Many great heroes are checkered. Jesus Christ is the only one who wasn’t.
Mindfulness meditation works!
I have suffered from PTSD for many years and this is the first technique/treatment, along with exercise, that truly alleviates the symptoms.
I usually do 20-40 minutes daily. I’m able to think more clearly and better handle the stresses of everyday life. I feel calmer and sleep better.
Its a great, free, self help tool and you can do it just about anywhere.
This is an interesting concept. Back at GA Southern in the middle 80s our marching band would sit in a big circle and meditate before every rehearsal.
Kinda hard to concentrate with all the gnats flying around, but did it make us better? I will say probably, because for those moments there were 150 of us striving for the same goal.
Will that work in an Infantry company (about 150-200 people? Again, I say probably.
While all of you FreeRepublic "conservative" Republicans are so quick to desert them; I can assure you the United States Marines are not the pu$$ies you so easily accept them to be.
If I were to ask for your prayers, what would they be worth?
Not to worry. I'm not asking.
You are so right, and thank you for your service.
Look West For The Inner Warrior.
Can you do this with headphones? Perhaps listening to music etc?
Considering women for combat, a BAM in charge of PI, but-buddies as foxhole buddies, law-enforcement training, nation-building, planned dissolution of a couple of brigades, and now this....
I couldn't even begin to post 99% of the feelings and discussion comments from the birthday party a few weeks ago...Even before the real drinking began...
LOL
Please don’t go there
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