Veterans and Active Duty

This video clip is part of the TV show "The American Veteran" and was produced by the Department of Veteran Affairs. Featured in the video is one of our senior teachers, Molly Birkholm, teaching iRest at the Miami, Florida VA.

iRest offers the men and women serving in the Armed Forces and veterans in all walks of civilian life, a simple tool for healing through the variety of symptoms and issues that they are facing while actively serving or after being discharged from the service of our country.

The Integrative Restoration Institute (IRI) employs a simple and effective 4,500 year-old teaching, that we call today Integrative Restoration (iRest).

iRest is based on the ancient meditative wisdom of Yoga Nidra and teaches us how to reclaim, then experience simple joy in life and enjoy a sense of well-being.

iRest is a form of deep relaxation, self-inquiry and meditation.

iRest was modernized by Richard Miller PhD and is currently being used by members of the Armed Forces as a way of understanding, coping with, and most importantly, healing the hidden wounds that confront active duty soldiers and veterans on a daily basis.

iRest helps people understand and heal from such issues as PTSD, anger, hypersensitivity, insomnia, trauma, stress, chronic pain, physical injury, over-medication, aversion to crowds and chemical dependency.

What is iRest Yoga Nidra?

iRest is a 10-step protocol that provide a clear and simple path for healing. iRest Yoga Nidra includes practices of deep relaxation, breathing, healing negative emotions, thoughts and memories, and restoring your sense of well-being.

Why Would I want to meditate?

iRest helps turn anger into peace, insomnia into restful sleep, trauma into calm, anxiety into understanding and helps create a well-being of mind and body by teaching you the art of welcoming your experiences. Welcoming may sound too simple or out of place, but it actually forms the first step to understanding and resolving the damaging issues and helps identify the symptoms that arise from stress and trauma. Welcoming brings confusing issues into focus so that healing can occur. iRest provides you the opportunity to pause and take the time needed to gain control of yourself even when the events occurring around you cannot be. With iRest you learn you can reclaim your life and peace of mind while facing the most challenging and difficult of circumstances.

What should I expect in an iRest Yoga Nidra class? Can I do this?

You should expect to either lie or sit in a comfortable position for about 30 to 40 minutes. During that time, you will be guided through the 10-step iRest protocol. Your job is to just lie or sit and to do the best you can to follow the instructions. Many people fall asleep during class and that is perfectly acceptable and part of the healing process. You will not be expected to talk or share anything that you are not comfortable with. Additionally, there is no chanting or physical activity. The instructor is merely creating a safe space where you are able to relax and renew your mind and body.

Who iRest can help.

Who Will Stand (preview)

The two hour documentary covers, in detail, the plights of more than a dozen soldiers who have returned either physically or psychologically wounded. “Nobody is surprised that war creates amputees, homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, divorce, but very few people are aware of the enormous rates of these issues.” Said Phil Valentine (producer/director). “And almost no one is aware of the psychological issues that nearly 100% of combat soldiers suffer with, namely Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.”

Videos

Exalted Warrior Program

Tribute to Our Troops

Remember Me by Lizzie Palmer

U.S. War Veterans and PTSD Awareness

My PTSD Poem by PTSDSoldier

Where iRest is being Used in the Military:

iRest in the Military Facts