Viniyoga® to War Veterans

with Carmen Martinez, El Salvador

Carmen Martinez has been practising yoga for many years now and lives in El Salvador. She has been linked to the Viniyoga tradition since the beginning of her yoga studies. Most of her teachers were related in some way with T Krishnamacharya and TVK Desikachar.

She met Dr. Kausthub Desikachar in 2015, through her yoga therapy teacher Grazia Suffriti and now is one of his students. She has completed her Viniyoga Therapist Training with Dr. Kausthub Desikachar in 2019.

She currently teaches in El Salvador, both for private clients and small group clients. Her pet project is to taking Viniyoga to Warm Veterans. Here she shares her experience on working on this project.

1) What brought you to Viniyoga in the first place?

Without knowing, I have been linked to this tradition since the beginning of my practice and yoga studies. My very first yoga teacher told me I should get a certification with a school in Barcelona, because it would fit with me. So I started with Síntesis/Sadhana, then Pranamanas Yoga. Most of my teachers there, were related in some way with Krishnamacharya and TVK Desikachar teachings and tradition. And my first teacher was right. I like the freedom that Viniyoga has to adapt the postures to each person's needs and capacities, without going away from the tradition. One day I met Kausthub through my yoga therapy teacher Grazia Suffriti and now I am one of his students. Some times it seems just like a dream, since I never expected it. I feel thankful.

2) How did your work of teaching Viniyoga to the War Veterans manifest?

One of my students once told me she was a therapist assisting a war veterans' group. I offered myself to teach them a free yoga class. Months latter, she asked me if my proposal was still valid and at that precise week I had been wondering about the theme for my Viniyoga Therapist Thesis. So I had this impulse to turn this "free class" into a program for my thesis' work.

So, thanks to this local team of the national health program for war veterans I had access to a group of around 20 people. To my surprise, the group was mixed with men and women , ex-guerrilla members and ex-official army members. Their range of age is between 50 and 80 years old. We meet once a month and the group still has an average of 15 people attendees, which is very satisfactory. Usually this groups decrease after the second or third session. They have two short practices they take home. And some of them practice it in a regular basis.

3) How do you find the acceptance of Viniyoga by the students?

Actually, sometimes I have to say the word "yoga" like in a whisper because it could bring about some cultural and religious resistance that would prevent people to even trying yoga. But once they do their first practice and realize that something hsd happened, then I start talking about yoga. Marketing has it that in some people's minds yoga is just for skinny, blond people and a yoga class is like a Cirque du Soleil rehearsal. So, when they realized how much benefit they could take from a simple movement, breathing, chanting, visualizing, and that they could practice with their daily clothing, they were amused in a positive sense.

4) How has Viniyoga helped your student in their healing process? Can you explain some of the improvements they have had since beginning Viniyoga practice?

These people went through rough experiences, not only by losing family and friends, but also by having spent many years of their lives at war zone. After the war many of them did not have a profession and or occupation. So they have deep "vasanas" of suffering and fighting in life. You could see it in their eyes, hands, back, breathing, etc.

Practice has brought softness into their lives. Little by little they have recognized the need for a change in their mental patterns that make them suffer more. For example, some of them do not watch war movies or news at night. They avoid stimuli that may trigger negative emotions.

Most of them sleep better and that makes them feel different during the day. Also for a couple of them, this year was the first time they did not feel depressed during a specific time of the year related to deaths or jail episodes. The amazing thing is that they can recognize these improvements.

At the physical level they could tell the difference after the third practice. Their back and breathing patterns were changing, their hands were softer and they could feel the smile in their heart. We usually close the practice visualizing a smile in the heart, but it was difficult for some of them to do this at the beginning.

5) What challenges have you faced in bringing Viniyoga to these students?

Frequency is a big challenge. Given the lack of resources, it is not possible to do more than a monthly session with this group. Every time we meet, they have to invest resources to attend the session, so as the Local Health Centre does. I cannot go to their houses because there are gangs operating around. Even to get in or out the local health centre I have to be escorted by someone known in the area. So we cannot have enough time to give a personal follow up and personal practice. Even though they have two different practices they can do at home, some of them are not in a condition to do so in terms of space, silence, etc.

6)How do you see the role of Viniyoga in the future of Viniyoga Therapy in the world?

I see Viniyoga tradition as sustained, the fundament and the sense of Viniyoga Therapy. With this particular current situation with Covid-19, Yoga is getting into the people´s houses. And it will stay there. So there is a big chance to understand that Yoga is a personal practice adaptable for everyone's needs, capacity, time, etc. Yoga is not a showcase for the ego, but construction for us to understand that we are more than body and mind. Viniyoga Therapy has all the right tools to develop a personal yoga practice that works in our own particular process but only because it is sustained with Viniyoga tradition.

In another sense, the physical distance implemented around the world will make us reassess our concept of connection. Viniyoga also develops amazing tools to increase this sense of being connected to everything. The profound work that Viniyoga proposes with Mantra and visualization take us to that big space where everything is connected.

Carmen Martinez can be reached at carmenvgmartinez@gmail.com