Hindus welcome Louisiana Veterans Museum offering yoga to combat PTSD

Hindus have welcomed USS Kidd Veterans Museum in downtown Baton Rouge (Louisiana) offering “Yoga for Veterans” to combat PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Its website says: The USS Kidd offers YOGA for Veterans as one more weapon in the arsenal to combat PTSD and other stress related illnesses. It has been shown that a mind-body approach like YOGA can address symptoms of trauma which have manifested themselves as survival responses throughout the body. The aim of these classes is to provide techniques to calm the body through mental and physical practices that are grounded in the “here and now.”

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, called usage of multi-faceted yoga to combat PTSD as a step in the positive direction. Zed urged all veterans’ facilities to launch yoga programs.

Yoga, referred as “a living fossil”, was a mental and physical discipline, for everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, noted.

Rajan Zed further said that yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.

According to US National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to a recently released “2016 Yoga in America Study”, about 37 million Americans (which included many celebrities) now practice yoga; and yoga is strongly correlated with having a positive self image. Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed added.

USS Kidd Veterans Museum states to serve Louisiana veterans. “Walk the Decks Where Men and Women Made the History”, a Museum announcement says. USS Kidd is moored in the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge. Alejandra "Alex" Juan is the Museum Executive Director.

US National Institute of Mental Health defines PTSD as a disorder that develops in some people who have seen or lived through a shocking, scary, or dangerous event.