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chocolate-brownies · 6 years ago

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The Good Fight: How Yoga is Being Used Within the Military

The Good Fight: How Yoga is Being Used Within the Military:

The U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies have been spearheading efforts to use yoga to manage and mitigate pain and mental health problems among active military.

There is hope that soldiers will receive yoga and mindfulness training before heading into combat.

In July 2010, US Navy pilot Liz Corwin was flying her F-18 fighter jet on a combat mission over Afghanistan at 350 knots. She had been in the air for seven hours and was struggling with the little hand-held urinal that female pilots use to relieve themselves mid-flight. Suddenly, to her left, she caught a glimpse of her wingman—just 50 feet away. The pair were on converging paths. They were so close, in fact, that she could clearly see the control panel inside his cockpit and the squadron’s mascot painted on his helmet. Taking a deep breath, she called on her eight years of aviation training and yanked the jet’s control stick toward her, flipping her plane upside down in an aggressive attempt to avoid a collision. But the turbulence told her it was too late. As she glanced out of her cockpit, there was no question: her wingtip was missing.

See also This 15-pose Sequence was Scientifically Proven to Treat Chronic Low-Back Pain in the Military

Wrestling ego, uncertainty, and self-criticism, Corwin spent the next few moments finding deep breaths to “wrangle those demons back into their pens,” she says. In the back of her mind, she knew the real threat would emerge when she attempted to slow down, deploy her landing gear, and touch down on an aircraft carrier floating somewhere in the Arabian Sea—which at her current speed was every bit of an hour away.

That hour was brutal, says Corwin, calling it the worst of her life. But she tapped into her yoga training, employing the same breathing and mindfulness techniques she had been practicing throughout deployment alone in her room on her yoga mat. Five thousand people awaited her return on the carrier, and she knew it would be a moment of reckoning for her reputation as a pilot—a female one at that.

“The cacophony of voices in my head needed an orchestrator, and I knew I couldn’t let self-doubt and shame be the loudest,” Corwin says. Yoga had been her savior during flight school: “My entire relationship with myself was at stake, but I knew if I could tap into presence, calm, and self-care, I could pull myself together enough to land safely.”

Learn how yoga is being used to treat PTSD and other military-related disorders.

See also Meet the Inspiring Woman Teaching Yoga to Caregivers of U.S. Military Service Members & Veterans

As Corwin recalls, she paused for deep self-reflection and offered up some vital self-love to the woman staring back at her in the rearview mirror of her cockpit. “Yoga had taught me to loosen harsh self-judgements. It taught me that whatever I did didn’t define me, but was a tool for my own awakening. I knew in that moment that what was happening wasn’t a failure, but an opportunity,” she says. “Yoga delivered a sense of peace to the moment of hell I was living in.”

Ultimately, she delivered the best carrier landing of her life—“a perfect pass,” she calls it.

Little did she know that at the same time, the US Department of Defense (DoD) and

the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) were already working with the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) and the National Institutes of Health to examine exactly how integrative therapies such as yoga and mindfulness meditation might be used to benefit service members like herself.

From PTSD to Pain Management

Traditionally, military leaders often met these practices with skepticism. But over the past two decades, a series of clinical trials backed by a growing catalog of scientific evidence has persuaded high-level DoD health care experts to accept yoga and meditation as legitimate treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), pain management, and much more.

Part of the appeal: Experts familiar with the research suggest that yoga and mindfulness may actually be more cost effective and faster at promoting healing and preventing certain injuries than more-popular modalities such as surgery and prescription drugs. On a more grassroots level, active service members are tapping into the practice’s performance-enhancing and preventive benefits to make soldiers and operational staff more calm and resilient in the field—before shock, injury, or PTSD set in. In fact, efforts to embed yoga into every branch of the military have never been more aggressive.

Yoga is aggressively being adapted to the military field.

See also How High-Level Pentagon Officials Are Using Yoga to Destress

While much of the early research on yoga and the military focused on how meditation and mindful movement could help veterans mitigate PTSD (which has had significant impact at VA hospitals and has been linked to record suicide rates among vets), by the mid-aughts, other related areas of concern were coming into sharp focus.

According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, studies show that nearly 45 percent of soldiers and 50 percent of veterans experience pain regularly, and there’s a significant correlation among chronic pain, PTSD, and post-concussive symptoms such as fatigue, poor balance, sleep disturbances, and depression (meaning, if you have one, you��re more likely to experience one or more of the others).

“Musculoskeletal and mental health problems have really spiked, thanks to all the things that go along with active combat: carrying heavy loads, jumping in and out of aircraft—plus exposure to infectious diseases and violence,” says 42nd US Army Surgeon General, Eric Schoomaker, MD, PhD, who retired in 2012 and now serves as vice chair for Leadership, Centers, and Programs in the Department of Military and Emergency Medicine at the Uniformed Services University. Schoomaker is on a mission to bring yoga and its benefits to the frontlines of military health care.

During the mid-2000s, at the government level, new pain treatments and prevention techniques were in high demand. Surgery and prescription drugs weren’t working, and the military was hit especially hard by the opioid epidemic. In fact, in 2005—just two years into the Iraq War—narcotic painkillers were the most abused drugs in the military, according to a DoD survey of more than 16,000 service members. By 2011, it was estimated that up to 35 percent of wounded soldiers were dependent on prescription pain relievers.

In 2009, amidst the growing opioid epidemic, Schoomaker, then the Army Surgeon General, chartered the Army Pain Management Task Force. The goal? To come up with a new, comprehensive pain-management strategy utilizing the most up-to-date research available. The group included medical experts from the Army, Navy, Air Force, the Veterans Health Administration, and Tricare—the military’s health insurance program. Schoomaker tasked the group with extensively researching any modalities that might be effective in combating acute and chronic pain. Among the science-backed solutions presented, he says, were yoga and mindfulness meditation.

Since the Pain Management Task Force published its findings in 2010, interest in what’s now referred to in the DoD as complementary integrative health and medicine (CIH/CIM) has heightened within the government and private health care organizations looking to revolutionize mental and physical pain management in the armed forces. “By then, we recognized that yoga and mindfulness were sorely underutilized in this country,” says retired US Army Colonel Chester “Trip” Buckenmaier III, MD, program director and principal investigator for the Uniformed Services University’s Defense and Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management.

But before a case could be made for their implementation among the armed forces, these practices would have to be studied in military-specific environments. Centuries of anecdotal evidence and outside research do not cut it when you’re talking about a globally deployed organization like the US military—especially when someone has to pick up the bill, Schoomaker says.

Several pain-research efforts ensued. One of the most groundbreaking was a study published in 2017 by the journal American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine that examined the practicality and effectiveness of an individualized yoga program, dubbed RESTORE (Restorative Exercise and Strength Training for Operational Resilience and Excellence), designed to treat chronic lower-back pain in service members and their families. Researchers and yoga-treatment experts created a 15-pose asana sequence to promote strengthening, flexibility, and postural alignment—specifically to target core, back, and gluteal muscles. (For the full sequence, click here).

The RESTORE yoga practicing trial group experienced relieved symptoms more quickly than the control group.

Yoga teachers who led the practice went through a 200-hour Yoga Alliance teacher training and an additional 50-hour program-specific course “based on therapeutic yoga,” says lead author Krista Highland, PhD. A “cultural-competence training” ensured that yoga instructors understood how to act within a military structure and how to address “unique clinical characteristics that patients in the military might present with,” such as post-traumatic stress.

Fifty-nine service members participated in the eight-week trial, the majority of whom were active duty. During this time, the RESTORE and control groups continued individual treatment as usual (think medication, physical therapy, chiropractic, injections, massage, or acupuncture). The RESTORE group, however, also incorporated one to two yoga sessions per week, accompanied by breathwork and a guided meditation. Pain levels and symptoms such as physical impairments and sleep disturbance were monitored for six months after the trial began. The yoga and meditation group experienced symptom relief more quickly than those in the control group, reporting lower pain intensity at mid-treatment (four weeks) and post treatment (eight weeks).

“That’s extra months to get back to work, to function socially—to get out with friends and family members,” says Buckenmaier, who was one of the 11 researchers. “That’s so beneficial for these patients.” Schoomaker agrees: “In those weeks in which yoga has restored function and improved pain, other people turn to surgery and drugs—things that get them into trouble.” Instead, Schoomaker says, we ought to be frontloading practices such as yoga that focus on function and whole-body wellness—using them offensively and defensively as the first step in preventive care and medical treatment before chronic pain, illness, and drug use become issues.

While the government amasses the empirical evidence it needs, dozens of yoga non-profits are taking matters into their own hands. Lieutenant Colonel Jannell MacAulay, who retired from the military in June, was just 17 when she snapped her femur in half after a stress fracture went undiagnosed in basic training. Devastated and debilitated, MacAulay went through two surgeries and three months of rigorous rehab. In her determination to become a US Air Force pilot, she tried a variety of therapies—yoga, acupuncture, and trigger-point massage among them—in order to improve mobility.

Once she found a regular yoga routine, scar tissue, stiffness, and pain started improving little by little. “Yoga became a space of non-judgment and gratitude that I wasn’t getting anywhere else in my life,” MacAulay says. “I was completely stressed all the time—just going, going, going. But when I practiced yoga, I could be myself and invest in slowing down, which actually helped me speed up my career path as a professional in the military.”

See also: New Study Finds Yoga Significantly Reduces Depression in Male Veterans

Back in 2012, while government research was ramping up, MacAulay founded Healthy Body Healthy Life—a free, first-of-its-kind health-and-wellness initiative for military families that incorporates yoga, meditation, nutrition, and high-intensity interval training. She also pioneered a similar program at Kirtland Air Force Base, in New Mexico, when she was stationed there last year. Today, the Air Force pays her to travel the globe educating senior leaders about the importance of incorporating yoga into basic training—so soldiers can get ahead of mental and physical injuries before they happen. “We need to better prepare our military, not just to do the job, but to do the job under extreme stress,” she says. “Because that’s the reality in a combat zone. If we’re not using yoga and mindfulness, we’re missing out on creating the best human-weapon systems to operate in those environments.”

She’s not wrong. A resilience-training program that appeared in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2014 studied 147 Marines who had undergone Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT)—a 20-hour, 8-week course that incorporates mindfulness and physical exercises designed by former US Army Captain Elizabeth Stanley, a Georgetown University professor who used yoga and meditation to combat her own PTSD. The MMFT program, developed in 2007, aims to enhance troop performance and mitigate the extreme mental and physical stress that comes with deployment. As part of pre-deployment training, the test subjects practiced MMFT in a mock Afghan village. Shrieking actors and controlled blasts simulated combat stress. Meanwhile, a control group of another 134 Marines went through the same simulation without MMFT.

The research team analyzed both groups’ blood and saliva samples, brain imaging, and a range of cognitive performance tests. The data showed that Marines who practiced MMFT demonstrated greater reactivity, better emotion and stress management, enhanced heart-rate and breath recovery, and a reduced anxiety response. “In other words, these soldiers were not only better equipped for handling stress,” Stanley wrote in the book Bio-Inspired Innovation and National Security, “but they also recuperated more quickly so that they were better prepared to handle any subsequent stressors.”

Today, the US Army is collaborating with Amishi Jha, an MMFT researcher and associate professor of psychology at the University of Miami, to investigate the scalability of mindfulness training designed specifically for military and other high-demand professions.

Yoga and mindfulness improves reactivity, emotion, stress management for those active in the military.

See also: Veterans Who Hit Rock Bottom Open Up About How Yoga Changed Their Lives

A Bright Future for Yoga in the Military

These research efforts and others have paid off in some ways. Today, half of existing US military treatment facilities (MTFs) recommend yoga to patients, and nearly a quarter offer it onsite—according to a report published in 2017 by the Rand Corporation, a nonprofit think tank. Currently, Tricare insurance, the military’s primary medical insurer, will pay for yoga only when it’s administered at an MTF: “The minute you go outside, you can’t get reimbursed,” Schoomaker says. Because sending troops offsite to practice yoga can be tricky. The health and wellness of service members is the military’s first priority, but if practiced incorrectly, asana can cause strain or further injury.

Schoomaker believes RESTORE could pave the way for non-harming, military-specific yoga programs that can be taught on base, because its success was twofold: It proved that yoga could be an accepted, successful treatment within an active-duty military community, and it demonstrated the potential for a standard approach to yoga as a pain-management tool. He compares it to the extensive work done by the chiropractic community and thinks yoga should follow a similar path.

For the uninitiated, by law, chiropractors must be board certified and adhere to state regulations. They’ve also launched very successful lobbying campaigns over the past 50 years to become established practitioners within the health-care community. Thanks to lobbying efforts back in the 1960s and ’70s, today chiropractic is covered by Medicare—and since 2000, chiropractic treatment has been available to all active duty service members.

“Yoga needs a standardized system of treatment that focuses on anatomy, physiology, and kinesiology,” Highland says. Buy-in from bill payers and legislators for additional programs and coverage will require cooperation from the yoga community

by way of national standards or licensure, adds Buckenmaier. Yet that’s the subject

of an ongoing debate among yoga leaders and teachers, who represent dozens, if not hundreds, of different styles and philosophies—all called “yoga.”

“Lawmakers want to know what a group does to self-regulate itself to ensure there’s competency among practitioners before they unleash them on the public,” says Len Wisneski, MD, chair of the Integrative Health Policy Consortium, which advises the new Integrative Health and Wellness Congressional Caucus, a nonpartisan educational forum for lawmakers to discuss potential integrative-health legislation based on new research from experts. The caucus was announced in October 2017 and provides enormous opportunity to integrate yoga into an evolving health-care system focused not just on illness but on prevention and wellness—notably within the military. “People assume the military is rigid,” Wisneski says. “When, in fact, it’s incredibly innovative when it comes to being open to new ideas. They just want to know if something works and what it costs. If it’s non-harmful and noninvasive, they’ll try it.”

To this end, last September, the US Department of Health and Human Services, the DoD, and the VA announced a joint partnership—the first of its kind—to comprehensively study approaches for pain management beyond pharmacological treatments. Twelve research projects, costing an estimated $81 million over six years, will be used to develop, implement, and test non-drug approaches, including yoga and meditation, for

pain management and other conditions treated by military and veteran health-care organizations.

“The future is bright,” Schoomaker says. “For the first time, these three federal agencies are aligned in searching for a better understanding of the scientific effectiveness of these modalities—to tackle some of the issues like how these complementary integrative approaches can be used and delivered to service members.”

But MacAulay and Corwin, who have both taught yoga on several military bases, say that while yoga for pain management is a worthy cause, the dire need is for preventive programs—ones that train soldiers before suffering sets in.

“We can’t wait until we get injured or are out of the service to have these things available to us,” says Corwin, an ambassador for the Give Back Yoga Foundation, a nonprofit that supports and funds research-backed, clinically tested yoga programs for marginalized populations. “We have to get it early on in our careers.” For that to happen, she says, yoga teachers who work with service members must tailor their classes with the unique culture of the armed forces in mind: “Active military members need to be handled so differently [from civilian students]. You have to be conscious of what you’re teaching, because soldiers may not have the luxury of completely surrendering on the yoga mat when they have to wake up the next morning and do something that they’d probably rather not do.”

Another challenge is creating classes that are rewarding and engaging to a population that’s physically fit by trade, says Corwin. “They’re young, they’re athletic—so what kind of yoga classes do they need?” Sweating, she says, is essential.

The military spokespeople and yoga researchers we spoke with agree that

a culturally specific style of yoga will be an integral part of the puzzle, but it’s just one cog in a very elaborate machine. Another thing everyone agrees on is that progress, especially in a global system like the armed forces, takes time.

But things seem to be headed in the right direction for advocates of using yoga as a preventive practice. Thanks to a legacy of research such as the MMFT program, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 requires the Secretary of Defense to launch a pilot program that provides mindfulness-based stress-reduction training to members of the armed forces before they’re deployed to combat zones—in order to study its effects on stress management and PTSD prevention.

“I’m constantly optimistic,” says MacAulay. “Three years ago I gave my first presentation and was called ‘brave’ and ‘bold’ for having the guts to talk about yoga in a professional military forum. But today, more and more senior leaders are inviting me to share this message about yoga and mindfulness with this community.” begin applying yoga and mindfulness to prepare soldiers for combat.

See also: A Healing Meditation for Caregivers of Wounded Warriors (It Only Takes 5 Minutes!)

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cedarrrun · 6 years ago

Link

The U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies have been spearheading efforts to use yoga to manage and mitigate pain and mental health problems among active military.

There is hope that soldiers will receive yoga and mindfulness training before heading into combat.

See also This 15-pose Sequence was Scientifically Proven to Treat Chronic Low-Back Pain in the Military

Learn how yoga is being used to treat PTSD and other military-related disorders.

See also Meet the Inspiring Woman Teaching Yoga to Caregivers of U.S. Military Service Members & Veterans

Ultimately, she delivered the best carrier landing of her life—“a perfect pass,” she calls it.

Little did she know that at the same time, the US Department of Defense (DoD) and

From PTSD to Pain Management

Yoga is aggressively being adapted to the military field.

See also How High-Level Pentagon Officials Are Using Yoga to Destress

According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, studies show that nearly 45 percent of soldiers and 50 percent of veterans experience pain regularly, and there’s a significant correlation among chronic pain, PTSD, and post-concussive symptoms such as fatigue, poor balance, sleep disturbances, and depression (meaning, if you have one, you’re more likely to experience one or more of the others).

The RESTORE yoga practicing trial group experienced relieved symptoms more quickly than the control group.

See also: New Study Finds Yoga Significantly Reduces Depression in Male Veterans

Yoga and mindfulness improves reactivity, emotion, stress management for those active in the military.

See also: Veterans Who Hit Rock Bottom Open Up About How Yoga Changed Their Lives

A Bright Future for Yoga in the Military

by way of national standards or licensure, adds Buckenmaier. Yet that’s the subject

of an ongoing debate among yoga leaders and teachers, who represent dozens, if not hundreds, of different styles and philosophies—all called “yoga.”

pain management and other conditions treated by military and veteran health-care organizations.

The military spokespeople and yoga researchers we spoke with agree that

See also: A Healing Meditation for Caregivers of Wounded Warriors (It Only Takes 5 Minutes!)

#sleep sounds #sleep music #white noise app #nature sounds #relaxing sounds #rain sounds for sleeping

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remedialmassage · 6 years ago

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The Good Fight: How Yoga is Being Used Within the Military

The U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies have been spearheading efforts to use yoga to manage and mitigate pain and mental health problems among active military.

There is hope that soldiers will receive yoga and mindfulness training before heading into combat.

See also This 15-pose Sequence was Scientifically Proven to Treat Chronic Low-Back Pain in the Military

Learn how yoga is being used to treat PTSD and other military-related disorders.

See also Meet the Inspiring Woman Teaching Yoga to Caregivers of U.S. Military Service Members & Veterans

Ultimately, she delivered the best carrier landing of her life—“a perfect pass,” she calls it.

Little did she know that at the same time, the US Department of Defense (DoD) and

From PTSD to Pain Management

Yoga is aggressively being adapted to the military field.

See also How High-Level Pentagon Officials Are Using Yoga to Destress

According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, studies show that nearly 45 percent of soldiers and 50 percent of veterans experience pain regularly, and there’s a significant correlation among chronic pain, PTSD, and post-concussive symptoms such as fatigue, poor balance, sleep disturbances, and depression (meaning, if you have one, you’re more likely to experience one or more of the others).

The RESTORE yoga practicing trial group experienced relieved symptoms more quickly than the control group.

See also: New Study Finds Yoga Significantly Reduces Depression in Male Veterans

Yoga and mindfulness improves reactivity, emotion, stress management for those active in the military.

See also: Veterans Who Hit Rock Bottom Open Up About How Yoga Changed Their Lives

A Bright Future for Yoga in the Military

by way of national standards or licensure, adds Buckenmaier. Yet that’s the subject

of an ongoing debate among yoga leaders and teachers, who represent dozens, if not hundreds, of different styles and philosophies—all called “yoga.”

pain management and other conditions treated by military and veteran health-care organizations.

The military spokespeople and yoga researchers we spoke with agree that

See also: A Healing Meditation for Caregivers of Wounded Warriors (It Only Takes 5 Minutes!)

from Yoga Journal https://ift.tt/2OgTlCN

#Yoga Journal

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amyddaniels · 6 years ago

Text

The Good Fight: How Yoga is Being Used Within the Military

The U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies have been spearheading efforts to use yoga to manage and mitigate pain and mental health problems among active military.

There is hope that soldiers will receive yoga and mindfulness training before heading into combat.

Learn how yoga is being used to treat PTSD and other military-related disorders.

See also Meet the Inspiring Woman Teaching Yoga to Caregivers of U.S. Military Service Members & Veterans

Ultimately, she delivered the best carrier landing of her life—“a perfect pass,” she calls it.

Little did she know that at the same time, the US Department of Defense (DoD) and

From PTSD to Pain Management

Yoga is aggressively being adapted to the military field.

See also How High-Level Pentagon Officials Are Using Yoga to Destress

According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, studies show that nearly 45 percent of soldiers and 50 percent of veterans experience pain regularly, and there’s a significant correlation among chronic pain, PTSD, and post-concussive symptoms such as fatigue, poor balance, sleep disturbances, and depression (meaning, if you have one, you’re more likely to experience one or more of the others).

The RESTORE yoga practicing trial group experienced relieved symptoms more quickly than the control group.

See also: New Study Finds Yoga Significantly Reduces Depression in Male Veterans

Yoga and mindfulness improves reactivity, emotion, stress management for those active in the military.

See also: Veterans Who Hit Rock Bottom Open Up About How Yoga Changed Their Lives

A Bright Future for Yoga in the Military

by way of national standards or licensure, adds Buckenmaier. Yet that’s the subject

of an ongoing debate among yoga leaders and teachers, who represent dozens, if not hundreds, of different styles and philosophies—all called “yoga.”

pain management and other conditions treated by military and veteran health-care organizations.

The military spokespeople and yoga researchers we spoke with agree that

See also: A Healing Meditation for Caregivers of Wounded Warriors (It Only Takes 5 Minutes!)

0 notes

caveartfair · 6 years ago

Text

The Best Places to Take Ceramics Classes across the U.S.

Over the past decade, more and more professional artists and amateurs alike have taken up ceramics. Many find that it’s an absorbing outlet for creative expression, as well as a gratifying or therapeutic experience. Ceramics have come to be seen as a wellness activity, compared by some to doing yoga or meditation; researchers have found that working with ceramics has health benefits, like alleviating symptoms of depression. In our digital, screen-obsessed world, the act of producing unique handmade objects—and the tactile experience of throwing pots on the wheel or creating sculptures from slabs of clay—is extremely satisfying.

As a result, communal clay studios across the country are booming with interest. Here, we share a list of some of the most beloved ceramic studios across the United States, where both aspiring and established practitioners can take classes. Some are hosted at revered art schools with idyllic campuses, while others are local clay establishments that serve their distinct neighborhoods. Price points run the gamut, from $225 for a series of eight classes to over $1,000 for an intensive, 12-day workshop. Whatever their size or ambition, these clay hubs offer a wide range of courses for ceramics aficionados of all skill levels.

Belger Arts Center

Kansas City, Missouri

Popular classes: Beginner Wheel, Date Night

Class at the Belger Arts Center, Kansas City, MO. Courtesy of Belger Arts Center.

Belger Arts Center has two locations in the heart of Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District, with ample space for classes for kids and adults—including a popular date night class in the evenings. More seasoned artists can join as members, paying a monthly fee for space to work and store their pieces, and the center also hosts an exhibition space, a lithography workshop, and a metal yard. “Oftentimes those who learn about ceramics stick around because of the incredible community they find themselves in,” said Belger’s Cydney Ross.

Baltimore Clayworks

Baltimore, Maryland

Popular classes: Basic Wheel, Woodfire, and Figure-Modeling

Baltimore Clayworks, Baltimore, MD. Courtesy of Baltimore Clayworks.

For those that are hesitant about jumping into ceramics, Baltimore Clayworks offers one-day “Try-It” courses for wheel throwing and handbuilding. These allow students to feel out the materials and processes before enrolling in introductory courses, which can run from 4 to 12 weeks. “Students not only take classes, but engage in spirited conversations, work collaboratively, participate in community events, show their work in our annual student exhibition, and have fun,” said the studio’s Sara E. Morales-Morgan. Among Baltimore Clayworks’s highlights is its artist residency program, which sees artists make and exhibit their work on site and teach at the studio in satellite locations across the city. It also has a rare Noborigama two-chambered wood kiln, which attracts the region’s local artists and students; the studio offers courses that focus on the unique facets of wood firing, and hosts communal wood firings that are open to the public.

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts

Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Popular classes: Various workshops in throwing and figurative ceramics

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts’s Wheel Studio, Gatlinburg, TN. Photo © Robert Batey Photography. Courtesy of Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.

At the campus of the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, there are two specialized ceramic studios—one for wheel-throwing and one for handbuilding and sculpture—and special kilns for soda firing, wood firing, and salt firing. During the year, there are multi-week classes for adults and children, and, in the summer, the school offers a wide range of clay workshops with specialized topics taught by artists, like “Finding Balance between Innovation and Utility” and “Wheel Bootcamp.” The latter filled up fast, program director Nick DeFord noted, “because the class is designed to get people throwing on the wheel who have never had that opportunity.”

Clay Art Center

Port Chester, New York

Popular classes: Wheel 101, Cladies Night

Artist Nathalie Khayat at Clay Art Center, Port Chester, NY. Courtesy of Clay Art Center.

The 60-year-old Clay Art Center offers classes that are small in size and designed to foster the growth of individual students of all skill levels and ages—from 5 to 99. In addition to “Wheel 101” and “Handbuilding 101,” there’s “Beginners and Beyond” for those who have previous ceramics experience, but want to brush up on their skills. The studio also hosts more advanced ceramists who can join as members, as well as evening events like “Cladies Night” on Friday evenings, which attracts a diverse group, from college students to retirees. For many, it’s as much about community as it is about honing ceramics skills. “Working with clay brings mindfulness into your life,” said executive director Leigh Taylor Mickelson, “and our studios are bustling with working professionals, parents, and children who are looking to de-stress, unplug, and socialize with others.”

District Clay Center

Washington, D.C.

Popular Classes: Beginning and intermediate wheel classes

District Clay Center, Washington, D.C. Courtesy of District Clay Center.

As the largest ceramics facility in Washington, D.C., District Clay Center offers 10-week classes in handbuilding and wheel-throwing. The latter tends to be more popular. “People find something magical about working on a wheel and seeing a lump of clay rise up into a beautiful cup or bowl or vase just using their hands,” said executive director Cass Johnson. The studio also offers one-night classes, where people can try out throwing for a night and see how they fare, or workshops with esteemed artists like Roberto Lugo. Once you sign up for a series of classes, you’re entitled to perks like the ability to drop in on other classes, along with free open studios on Sunday afternoons. “Practice, in pottery as in other things, makes perfect—and so we want to give students as much practice time as possible,” Johnson added.

The Clay Studio

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Popular classes: Wheel Throwing, Date Night, Let’s Make

The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA. Courtesy of The Clay Studio.

“Clay is meditative, immediate, and more of an accessible medium for a lot of people who have convinced themselves that they can’t draw or paint,” said The Clay Studio’s director of education and community engagement, Josie Bockelman. “The wheel is incredibly challenging and at the same time soothing and relaxing. As a student it’s incredibly gratifying when your skills start to improve,” she added, nodding to the studio’s popular throwing classes, which include a two-hour introductory workshop, a five-week beginners course, and 10-week courses for all levels (plus handbuilding courses). In addition to the teaching artists who lead courses, students have access to 12 artists-in-residence who hail from across the country.

Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts

Helena, Montana

Popular classes: Special topics classes like surface techniques

Class at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, MT. Courtesy of the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts .

Artists from around the world apply for the prestigious residency program at the Bray (as it’s lovingly called), where they also teach classes for the broader community. Courses for beginners include introductory throwing and handbuilding courses, as well as a range of rotating specialty classes, like sculpture, mold-making, and kiln building. Students also have access to state-of-the-art ceramics education and research, and can choose from 19 different types of clay, which are produced on-site—far more options than the typical stoneware, earthenware, and porcelain offerings at most institutions. “Students express a love for the community that often comes with working in a ceramics studio,” said Archie Bray’s Amanda Wilkey. “For many, it’s not just about the ceramics, but about the people.”

Santa Fe Clay

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Popular classes: Summer workshops

Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, NM. Courtesy of Santa Fe Clay.

Santa Fe Clay is revered for its annual lineup of summer workshops—one-week “ceramic bootcamps” that are taught by contemporary ceramic artists like Linda Lopez, Brett Kern, and Jason Walker. During the rest of the year, courses appeal to a wide range of ceramists—“from beginners who want a solid grounding in the fundamentals, to more experienced artists intent on mastering specific techniques,” explained chief creative officer Mark Grischke. In addition to the wheel, beginners can take classes on building with coils or slabs, as well as classes on painting, glazing, or using decals to decorate work. Given the size of its dynamic studio, Santa Fe Clay is able to host everyone from serious ceramists to families, school groups, and wedding parties.

Greenwich House Pottery

New York, New York

Popular classes: Wheel, Handbuilding, Paperclay

Kiln at Greenwich House Pottery, New York, NY. Courtesy of Greenwich House Pottery.

In beginner classes focused on handbuilding, slip casting, or the wheel, students at Greenwich House Pottery “learn the process, a little about history, a lot about the particulars of the material, and [also] about what it means to work within a community studio,” said director Adam Welch. There’s a range of intermediate, advanced, and specialty classes, like popular paperclay classes—a handbuilding course that focuses on using clay infused with paper pulp. The studio’s greatest asset is its community, Welch said. “Our students and staff give each other tips, informal critiques, help with technical questions, equipment, or with carrying each other’s work,” he explained, adding that the studio also bands together for activist and charitable causes. (Full disclosure, the writer of this piece has taken wheel and handbuilding classes at Greenwich House Pottery.)

Pottery Northwest

Seattle, Washington

Popular classes: Beginner Wheel, Soda Firing, Advanced Wheel Techniques

Student work at Pottery Northwest, Seattle, WA. Courtesy of Pottery Northwest.

Beginner offerings at Pottery Northwest include “Intro to Handbuilding,” “Welcome to the Wheel World,” and “Clay 101”—the last of which is an introduction to both wheel and handbuilding techniques. The studio’s residency program brings emerging and established ceramic artists—like Soe Yu Nwe, Amanda Salov, and Lynne Hobaica—to the studio for two-year terms to teach classes and make work. As a result, the studio is an ever-changing creative environment, and classes reflect the aesthetics and inspirations of those visiting artists. “It gives our students the opportunity to learn from many different types of artists, who each bring something new to our curriculum,” said communications manager Madeline Williams.

Community Creative Center

Fayetteville, Arkansas

Popular classes: Wheel

Community Creative Center’s Wheel Mobile: Traveling Art Studio, Fayetteville, AR. Courtesy of Community Creative Center.

In addition to multi-week wheel classes for adults and children hosted year-round, Community Creative Center offers workshops for families, a “Girls Night Out,” and date nights. It recently opened an entirely new studio to respond to the interest in wheel classes, along with what its directors call “the world’s first traveling pottery studio”—a custom-designed, 33-foot-long Winnebago known as the Wheel Mobile, which is equipped with nine potter’s wheels, power, and water, in order to bring art classes to low-income, high-need students and community members. Executive director Barbara Putman noted that a 2017 study by Culture Track found that people seeking arts and cultural experiences want them to be fun. “With the stress and divisiveness in our country these days,” she said, “coming into the studio and digging into a ball of clay can be a fantastic antidote.”

Anderson Ranch Arts Center

Snowmass Village, Colorado

Popular classes: Summer workshops

Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO. Courtesy of Anderson Ranch Arts Center.

On a picturesque campus in the Rocky Mountains, Anderson Ranch Arts Center offers classes for all levels and a slate of specialty summer workshops. There, students can take advantage of its fully outfitted studio, with a glaze lab and an expansive kiln yard. “Over the years we have built up an incredible supply of tools and equipment for the students to use that we continue to add to and update year-round,” said ceramics studio coordinator Giselle Hicks and artists director of ceramics Doug Casebeer. “A student rarely wants for anything.” Classes are led by a top-notch faculty of craftspeople, professors, and business owners, and in each class, two assistants are assigned to support students. Hicks and Casebeer wager that a two-week workshop at the Ranch approaches what someone might experience during a full semester at a university. “It’s a really intense, focused time to take risks, learn new skills and be challenged to think about your values as a maker and develop your voice as an artist,” they said.

Lillstreet Art Center

Chicago, Illinois

Popular classes: First-Time Potter, Beginning or Advanced Beginning Wheel Throwing, Beginning or Advanced Beginning Handbuilding

Ceramics Open Studio at Lillstreet Art Center, Chicago, IL. Courtesy of Lillstreet Art Center.

Among various classes for ceramics newcomers, Lillstreet Art Center’s “First-Time Potter” class is a strong option—a five-week course that introduces wheel throwing and handbuilding, while helping students get familiar with tools and the medium. The studio consistently offers specialized courses open to all levels; whenever you enroll in a class, you’re given access to free open studio hours, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. “It’s time to practice and hone their craft, but also an opportunity to establish and build a community,” said ceramics director David Trost. “Working with clay is not only an outlet for stress and creativity,” added Lillstreet founder and CEO Bruce Robbins, “it increases focus, improves problem solving skills, and offers a special sense of community in real life.”

Penland School of Crafts

Penland, North Carolina

Popular classes: Functional pottery workshops open to all skill levels, based on wheel throwing, handbuilding, or a combination of the two

Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC. Courtesy of Penland School of Crafts.

On its North Carolina campus each summer, Penland School of Crafts offers a wide selection of clay workshops—from functional pottery to figurative sculpture to brushmaking—that are friendly to beginners and advanced students alike (this summer, 12 of the 14 workshops are open to all levels). The studio includes an impressive array of kilns and firing options (electric, salt/soda, raku, wood), and students are actively involved in the firing process (whereas some studios leave the task to studio assistants and technicians). “Clay is a wonderfully accessible material,” said Penland’s Robin Dreyer. “While mastering anything is difficult, it’s easy to get started with clay.”

Morean Arts Center

St. Petersburg, Florida

Popular classes: Throwing Taller on the Wheel, Beginning Clay Sculpture

Morean Arts Center, St. Petersburg, FL. Courtesy of Morean Arts Center

With a low student-to-teacher ratio, Morean Arts Center offers classes designed for all levels, so a beginner can essentially take any course. “Our teachers take great care in ensuring each student is grasping the techniques needed to complete the course,” said Morean’s Sherrona Steward. “With high stress levels in our society today, we find that creating with clay can have a therapeutic effect on our students.” She added that the weekly, two-hour “Friday Night Clay” class is a great option for people with limited schedules; it focuses on both wheel throwing and handbuilding.

Red Lodge Clay Center

Red Lodge, Montana

Popular classes: 10-week Adult Classes, Kid’s & Family Holiday Classes, Wheel & Wine, Workshop Demonstrations

Former Artist-in-Residence, Lars Voltz, tending the Wood-Fire Kiln during a fall Wood-Fire Class at Red Lodge Clay Center, Red Lodge, MT, 2017. Courtesy of Red Lodge Clay Center.

“Many of our students find comfort working with their hands and exercising their creative muscles that may otherwise go neglected in their day-to-day activities,” said Red Lodge Clay Center’s Sean O’Connell. Serving a small community, Red Lodge Clay Center generally accepts all levels of ceramists in every class. In addition to its 10-week classes for adults, the center also runs two classes in the fall and two in the spring, which cater to beginners on specialized topics like figurative sculpture or wheel-thrown tableware. In addition, Red Lodge Clay Center hosts popular holiday classes for families and one-off evening classes with wine. Plus, a few times each year, students can take classes in wood firing and soda firing. The studio also has a gallery that hosts contemporary ceramics shows and a sought-after artist residency program; as is the case with several other studios on this list, artist-residents double as instructors.

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts

Deer Isle, Maine

Popular classes: Summer workshops

Class with artist Alleghany Meadows at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME, 2015. Courtesy of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts’s campus, situated on the Atlantic coast and designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes, is an icon of modernist architecture and an ideal setting for artmaking. The school specializes in several creative disciplines—including ceramics, blacksmithing, fiber, wood, metals, and graphics—and prides itself on the community it fosters and the exchanges between artists that happen organically. Ceramics workshops remain among the most in-demand courses at the school, and in most cases, they’re open to students of all levels. “We believe this diversity of age and experience brings tremendous value to the workshop setting,” said Haystack director Paul Sacaridiz. The faculty of visiting artists—like Lydia Johnson, Lauren Gallaspy, and Hanako Nakazato—changes each term; they have practices that may represent traditional or experimental approaches to clay. “The people we bring to teach workshops come from across the country and internationally, and we think of the selection of workshops as representing a snapshot of what is happening right now in contemporary ceramics,” Sacaridiz added.

Pewabic

Detroit, Michigan

Popular classes: Wheel throwing and tile making

Pewabic, Detroit, MI. Courtesy of Pewabic.

Pewabic’s classes are open to all levels, though there are beginner wheel classes for adults and teens. Many classes are taught by professors from local colleges like Wayne State University, “so students get a similar experience without the price point or assignments,” said education director Annie Dennis (an eight-week class costs $225). Students are often inspired by the processes of Pewabic’s adjacent Fabrication Studio, where ceramic tiles are designed and made by staff artisans. “Lately people are returning to a deeper appreciation for handcrafted objects, and ceramics is tactile, physical, and functional,” Dennis explained. “Pewabic was built upon a similar appreciation of and dedication to the Arts and Crafts Movement.”

from Artsy News

#Artsy News

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fotozoneindia-blog · 10 months ago

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remedialmassage · 6 years ago

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The Good Fight: How Yoga is Being Used Within the Military

The U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies have been spearheading efforts to use yoga to manage and mitigate pain and mental health problems among active military.

There is hope that soldiers will receive yoga and mindfulness training before heading into combat.

See also This 15-pose Sequence was Scientifically Proven to Treat Chronic Low-Back Pain in the Military

Learn how yoga is being used to treat PTSD and other military-related disorders.

See also Meet the Inspiring Woman Teaching Yoga to Caregivers of U.S. Military Service Members & Veterans

Ultimately, she delivered the best carrier landing of her life—“a perfect pass,” she calls it.

Little did she know that at the same time, the US Department of Defense (DoD) and

From PTSD to Pain Management

Yoga is aggressively being adapted to the military field.

See also How High-Level Pentagon Officials Are Using Yoga to Destress

According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, studies show that nearly 45 percent of soldiers and 50 percent of veterans experience pain regularly, and there’s a significant correlation among chronic pain, PTSD, and post-concussive symptoms such as fatigue, poor balance, sleep disturbances, and depression (meaning, if you have one, you’re more likely to experience one or more of the others).

The RESTORE yoga practicing trial group experienced relieved symptoms more quickly than the control group.

See also: New Study Finds Yoga Significantly Reduces Depression in Male Veterans

Yoga and mindfulness improves reactivity, emotion, stress management for those active in the military.

See also: Veterans Who Hit Rock Bottom Open Up About How Yoga Changed Their Lives

A Bright Future for Yoga in the Military

by way of national standards or licensure, adds Buckenmaier. Yet that’s the subject

of an ongoing debate among yoga leaders and teachers, who represent dozens, if not hundreds, of different styles and philosophies—all called “yoga.”

pain management and other conditions treated by military and veteran health-care organizations.

The military spokespeople and yoga researchers we spoke with agree that

See also: A Healing Meditation for Caregivers of Wounded Warriors (It Only Takes 5 Minutes!)

from Yoga Journal https://ift.tt/2xQPQsu

#Yoga Journal

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