Dan Medoff (2nd from the right) with Veteran Rites family.
Danny (Wave Rider) Medoff was born and raised in Columbia, Maryland. He served as an Army medic from 2005-2013 and deployed to the hospital Green Zone in Baghdad in 2006-2007 with the 28th CSH, to Afghanistan with the 1-17 Infantry Batallion and the 2ID in 2012. He earned a Bachelor’s in philosophy from the University of Colorado and graduated from the Alexandar School of Natural Therapeutics in February of 2020. He is a core presence in the Veteran Rites Circle of Return and is preparing for his Rite of Return ceremony in the wilderness in 2020.
Veteran Rites is growing an accessible resource library of practical tools for the military community during this time of trial. You can find Danny’s linked video there and connect with Virtual Veteran Rites (and partners like Path with Art) on our events listing at www.veteranrites.org/gather
Friends,
We’re living in a time that can easily be seen and lived as anxious and scary and uncertain, but we as veterans have lived experience and have persevered through this landscape. Though the enemy may not be so visible in this instance, let’s remember to tap into our resource of breath to not get caught up in fear.
Breathe. Breathe in 2, 3, 4. Breathe out 4, 3, 2, 1. Breathe in 2, 3, 4. Breathe out 4, 3, 2, 1.
Now follow your breathing using the counting method at your own pace of counting. Try to count slower if you tend to count to 4 in less than a second. Give yourself a few minutes to practice breathing at your own pace. Try this one to encourage the healing of your immune system, something we are all concerned about right now.
I hope you’re feeling more relaxed and clear-headed, especially given how easy it is to feel so anxious and/or depressed given the current state of affairs. If you ain’t feeling more relaxed, it’s ok, you’re doing your best. Let’s take it easy on ourselves.
If you’re like I was for the first 36 years of my life, you haven’t minded your breathing much. Until this past year, I spent my life taking breathing for granted; that is, I never gave my breathing much thought. After having spent the past year in what I consider to be a rigorous massage therapy program, I now give my breathing much more consideration.
My consideration for my breathing comes from my training and experience as an Army medic, studying human anatomy and physiology at the collegiate level, my training and experience as a massage practitioner thus far, and my overall life as a human being. As a medic and in my anatomy and physiology courses, we studied and discussed breathing in relation to 1) what is the average healthy breath rate for an individual across the different age ranges and 2) what is happening in our bodies in terms of what our lungs and diaphragm are doing when we breathe. We also consider what the air we breathe in is composed of and what it does in our body. As a massage practitioner, we studied and discussed breathing in relation to how our breathing can show us if we’re relaxed, anxious, or depressed.
Danny graduating from the Alexandar School of Natural Therapeutics to assist vets and all peoples with “issues in their tissues.”
On the one hand, we breathe automatically, without having to think about it. Our physical bodies want to survive, so they’ll try to keep breathing regardless of the state of affairs in the world around them. On the other hand, if we become aware of our breathing, we can choose breath that can help us connect with our bodies and ground us.
In a perfect world, our bodies will breathe at a pace that is balanced - not too rapid, not too slow, whatever the goldilocks zone is for each of our individual bodies. Our bodies would utilize all the muscles that assist in breathing (not relying on one muscle more than it’s used to being relied upon). While the diaphragm rightly gets most of the credit for assisting in our breathing, we also have muscles in our neck, our collarbone, our chest, and our abdomen (below the diaphragm) that can assist in our breathing.
If we feel anxious and fearful about the pandemic (happens to me, I’m human), our bodies will activate the sympathetic response, aka fight or flight. Our breathing becomes more rapid and shallow. And while our diaphragm is always assisting our breathing, during fight or flight, we generally tend to rely too heavily on our chest and neck muscles to assist our breathing.
If we feel depressed, as though unwilling to move from a safe place, say we’re stuck in isolation for too long, our bodies will activate the parasympathetic response. Our breathing becomes slower and deeper. Again, our diaphragm is helping out, and now we’re relying too heavily on our abdominal muscles to assist our breathing.
Let’s be more active and aware of our breathing. Practice breathing to feel good, you deserve it. Practice breathing to wake you up. Practice breathing to relax. There are a multitude of guided breathing practices on the internet. I believe y’all can find the practices that you connect with.
Love, Danny
Ride the wave.
Have fun
Ride the ascending wave.
Have fun
Ride the descending wave.
Have fun.
Get knocked down and get back up.
Smile.
Danny with Veteran Rites family at a Circle of Return Veterans Council
