Female Veteran Finds Yoga Therapy & Ananda College a Healing Experience

For Ananda College of Living Wisdom student Brooke Cannon, the term “warrior” isn’t necessarily a negative image. “The warrior image is a mythological archetype that spans the universe from ancient Greece to modern day soldiers and Bodhisattvas. The Kshatriyas were warriors and rulers in ancient Vedic India, and many of them were also saints. Joan of Arc was a warrior and a saint. There are warriors for good and warriors for evil, and I like to think of myself as a righteous warrior,” says Brooke. “I also identify with Swami Sri Yukteswar, from ‘Autobiography of a Yogi.’ One of his mantras was ‘learn to behave’ and just looking at his picture makes me think that even though he was a very holy saint he could easily have been a general in the military.”

Ms. Cannon is a former US Army Staff Sergeant, Intelligence Analyst and Veteran of the Iraq War. She is currently studying Holistic Health & Healing at the college, with the intention of creating healing programs for veterans returning from war. “There are a lot of veterans in need of healing post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSS) and I feel the military is still learning how to deal with this,” she says. “Yoga is a powerful tool for healing PTSS. I don’t mean just yoga postures, but the actual study of the yoga philosophy is very practical. We have academic classes here but then we have to apply what we’ve learned in our everyday life…that’s not so easy. There are faculty and students living together here, so the learning is much more intense, but also more successful. I’m already teaching yoga classes on campus and designing the program I plan to create for veterans,” she said.

“As a young woman veteran, I was fully accepted here as just a person trying to improve, no matter what I’d done in my past. This is a huge relief from much of society, who would prefer to label me and always see me as ex-military, or someone who went to war,” said Brooke. “I was raised Methodist in Kentucky, and after the war I traveled to visit the “John of God” healer in the jungles of Brazil. After that, I looked high and low for a college like this. When I came here my focus was to study Holistic Health & Healing as a pathway for my future career. I had no idea that my own healing would also unfold here.”

Brooke Cannon (l) and fellow student

Demonstrating the “Warrior” pose in yoga class

Ananda College yoga instructor David Ramsden (r) former Chief Petty Officer in the US Navy

Ananda College of Living Wisdom a state-approved college offering A.A. and B.A. degrees

Female Veteran Finds Yoga Therapy & Ananda College a Healing Experience