Aug. 14, 2024
From Black Hawk Pilot to Yoga Advocate: Sarah Moore's Journey to Mental Health
Imagine the life of a former Army Black Hawk pilot who faced immense pressure and severe anxiety, leading to a life-altering panic attack. In this episode, we have the privilege of hearing from Sarah Moore, who poignantly shares her journey from post-9/11 enlistee to aviation officer, and how the intensity of military life steered her toward advocating for mental health. Sarah reveals the prevalent unhealthy coping mechanisms in the military, such as excessive drinking and lack of sleep, and explains how these experiences fueled her mission to support other veterans through her business, Blue Side Yoga.
As the only female service member in her family during wartime, Sarah offers a unique perspective on the emotional and physical struggles faced by military families. She discusses the challenges of transitioning back to civilian life, dealing with PTSD, and managing post-deployment pain, as well as her journey from military service to federal law enforcement. This profound realization of the need for mental health resources led to the creation of Blue Side Yoga, a program aimed at helping veterans scientifically understand and manage stress. Sarah emphasizes the importance of reintegrating into family life and finding a sense of home again.
We also explore the transformative power of yoga and meditation for veterans and first responders, with Sarah recounting how a neurosurgeon's recommendation sparked her personal journey with yoga. From overcoming common misconceptions to understanding the mind-body connection, Sarah highlights the mental and physical benefits of yoga.
We introduce innovative virtual training programs like the "Warrior Mindset" and "Mountain Athlete" courses, designed to prepare participants for mental and physical challenges. The episode culminates with an exciting 12-week program that includes a trek in Nepal, aimed at fostering mental fitness and holistic healing. Join us for an episode packed with invaluable insights and actionable advice on mental health and well-being.
All links and socials we discussed (includes links to the free warrior mindset workbook): https://www.bluesideyoga.com/links
Discounts available for 2024 Annapurna Base Camp Trek - $100 off for you and $100 off for a friend to come on our 2024 Annapurna Base Camp Trek. Join Team Annapurna here: https://sarah-moore-1bdc.mykajabi.com/annapurna-base-camp-trek-copy-1
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Episode Powered By Act Now Education
Chapters
00:02 - Army Pilot Focuses on Mental Health
10:32 - Military Family Challenges and Mental Health
18:42 - Healing Through Yoga and Meditation
29:43 - Training for Mental Health Success
33:22 - Mental Health Trek for Veterans
Transcript
WEBVTT
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Welcome to the Morning Formation.
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This episode is powered by Act.
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Now Education Warriors fall in.
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It's time for formation.
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Today, folks, I have a guest on here who is a former military Army Black Hawk pilot was also enlisted prior to that which a lot of times folks call those Mustangs right, which I myself went through the same progression in the military.
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So I have a lot of respect for that specific, I guess, journey or track when it comes to your career.
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And one of the things that my guest today, sarah Moore from Blue Side Yoga, discovered was the self-awareness to take care of her mental health.
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So I'm going to give an opportunity for Sarah to introduce herself and talk a little bit about her background and where she comes from, and then we'll get into talking about her business that helps veterans cope with mental health through the wilderness.
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Sarah, thank, you.
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Thank you so much for having me.
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I'm so happy to be here and I love the parallels that we have with our career.
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So a little bit about my background.
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9-11 really shaped my entire life.
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So I didn't have a lot of aspirations for military or anything before 9-11 happened.
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It happened when I was in my freshman year in college and by the end of the week I was in the recruiter's office and I knew that was the path I was going to take.
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So from the start of age 19, I was living in that army world and took whatever job was available at that time and that happened to be a truck driver and I just rolled with it, no pun intended.
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So did the whole pre-Iraq war deal.
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Eventually got back to college and somehow enjoyed the army so much I knew I wanted to make it my career.
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So I went to, ended up going aviation and from there my flying career just kind of took off.
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So I was an air assault company commander deployed.
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A couple of times we were in Iraq, finished up in Kosovo.
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A couple of times we were in Iraq, finished up in Kosovo.
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But throughout that time it was about eight years into my career where the stress and everything just started building up and so I think that's kind of about the time where I see my peers start to get burnout as well.
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So it's like that eight-year mark where things just start to kind of pile up.
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But we can talk about a little bit of that later.
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But as I was going through my career, I started picking up these bits and pieces of mental health and realizing that the lifestyle that we live, which mainly is the suck it up and drive on, and these really poor coping mechanisms that are normal for us in the military aren't helpful overall for your whole system and you're going to burn out really quickly.
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So, mid-career, I started recognizing that and then from there got more into peer support, learning about neuroscience, learning about the nervous system and trying to that into daily life and encouraging others that, hey, your mental health has to be a priority.
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And I saw part of the replay from the presentation that you put on last week and you talked about when it dawned on you that you need to focus more on your mental health, and I think it happened during a training exercise.
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Is that correct?
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It did so the time that I had so I actually had such a huge anxiety attack that I got sent to the ER and leading up to that I had no idea what was going on in my mind and body and no idea that it was that severe that I was just kind of waiting for that next really stressful moment to just snap my whole nervous system.
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And so that happened about it was about six months post-Iraq deployment.
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I was in the aviation captain's career course, which ended up being my reward for deploying, which you kind of see it in the surge.
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That's kind of a downtime to go to a school because you're not deploying.
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I was in the midst of dealing with a lot of post-deployment issues.
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So I was having severe neck and back pain, my arm was going numb, but it was also stuff that I was ignoring, thinking that like, well, it's just life.
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I had no idea that that was related to the stressors that I had just gone through or the physical injuries of carrying the amount of armor and weight and stuff that we had to do while flying, on my size frame which I'm not a big person so a lot of that was really messing with my back.
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I came home from Iraq.
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I didn't really have anywhere to live.
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I was in an abusive marriage, verbally and physically, and so the cumulative of all of that stuff what an addition to the you know unhealthy coping mechanisms that we all have, which is drinking too much over caffeinating, not getting enough sleep, all that stuff.
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So in the middle of the dunker exercise, which is the helicopter egress training that we do for pilots, I had such a panic attack that it was just unrecoverable for me and it was terrifying because I didn't know I was having that.
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It was like tunnel vision.
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I couldn't stop physically shaking and then it was getting pulled from the pool in front of the rest of my fellow captains going through the school.
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That was super, super embarrassing and at that point it was like, well, I haven't dealt with all this other stuff.
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Now my flying career is in danger, which was the only thing I cared about at that time, and that's really when I had to hit pause on my career and everything else to focus on my mental health and get back in the game.
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So that kind of story is what I don't want to see other people go through, because we're ignoring these mental health issues.
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It's interesting that that hit you during a training exercise and not during your deployment.
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Did you ever, at any point in your deployment, have a moment where you might've had a tactical pause and you thought to yourself that this isn't normal?
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I don't think at that point I was correlating trauma and stress, trauma and stress and it was just.
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Things were so busy then that it was just the day-to-day life, and it wasn't until I got home where everything was just amplified where you kind of realized, okay, that wasn't normal and that wasn't okay.
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It was stuff where at home where, like the tiniest things I would get so upset over, and then the hypervigilance and not being able to calm down and not being able to sleep, and then, you know, I would have these, these nightmares that were I don't I don't know like how to categorize them as nightmares, but it was these, like I call them, stress streams, and I don't know if that's a technical term or not, but it was a thing where it's like I can't get my weapon out, I can't get my sights focused.
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That was part of the dream, where it was this internal panic of something that I can't do to save myself or others.
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But that was all post-deployment stuff, and so I think that, like I say, suck it up and drive on can't be a lifestyle, but it kind of had to be when we were deployed.
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But we're not taught how to shut it off, because our nervous systems cannot live stuck on high, and that's exactly what happens when we're in those types of environments, because we're always on.
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So it was post for me when everything started to kind of fall apart.
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Yeah, looking back at everything, I guess I didn't realize it at the time, but everything hit me once I came back from deployment as well.
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You know, I found out that a bulge disc and my L5, um, when I came back, I was walking to PT formation one day and I literally my legs just folded out from underneath me and I just sat on the ground and it was so embarrassing because two of my soldiers had to pick me up and put me in a vehicle and take me to sick call and like as a first lieutenant at that time that was really really embarrassing.
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You know, and I can understand what you're talking about with the helicopter training incident where you're right there in front of your beers and you're like suck it up and drive on and I was telling myself mentally get up.
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Like what's wrong legs, why can't you get up?
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So I did.
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I definitely identify with you on that for sure.
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And I was just curious, sarah, why did you choose aviation?
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That?
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for sure.
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And I was just curious, sarah, why did you choose aviation?
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So that's a great question.
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I am a third generation pilot in my family.
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So my grandfather flew in the Army Air Corps and then turned into the Air Force and then my father is a fixed wing pilot.
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He did not go military, he's corporate, but it just is one of those things that's in my blood.
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So it was just that goal my whole life to fly something.
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And the way that life kind of led, you know, like I said, 9-11 kind of paved my future.
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Army aviation was the way I ended up going and I always had this love for the air assault mission and so that was my goal to make sure that I ended up in that type of unit and being an air assault pilot.
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And thankfully the stars aligned and I was a company commander, so that was really awesome for heading that sort of helicopter flight direction.
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Yeah, we have a lot in common actually.
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Flight direction yeah, we have a lot in common actually.
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That's really interesting too, because you know, my dad was in the military as well for 20 years, and so I was.
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Were you a military brat growing up?
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Nope.
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So I was the only one in my immediate family that went military.
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Okay, okay, yeah, so what?
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So what was that like, especially during war?
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What was that like?
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yeah, especially during war, there was a lot of concern.
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Well, the only thing, the thing too, is I'm the only female in my immediate family, so I've got two brothers and they never went military, which is kind of funny, um, but it was really concerning and it was really new for my parents.
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Because here I am at 19, leaving college, and this inevitable war is starting and I'm a fuel truck driver and we like, looking back at the start of the war.
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That was such a horrible place to be in a convoy, um, and so the stress of, you know, my family watching me go from you know college to enlisted and just pouring my heart into wanting to serve my country was nerve wracking and I was thankful.
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You know, my mom got involved with the family readiness group and all the you know all the things so that she knew what was going on.
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But it still was a really difficult and stressful time of, you know, being that that only daughter in the family that raised her hand to go go off and fight a war.
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So, and then continue when I got back and then, you know, dealing with all the the you know post-deployment issues of the physical back pain and then all you know PTSD and all that kind of stuff.
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No one really knows how to deal with it.
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And was really tough, you know, especially in the early parts of of uh, operation iraqi freedom of like.
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You know, how are we going to come back?
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How do we integrate?
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How do we, you know, is who am I again in this family?
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And it's it's.
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It's hard to just step right back into that because you have to merge who you were before with who you are now and that's very two different people.
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I think that's one of the more difficult parts.
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That's not spoken about when it comes to PTS is the assimilation back to the dinner table to people who have never served before and having conversations with them.
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It changes and sometimes you're not heard.
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Sometimes people form very strong opinions about certain things and they've never walked a mile in your boots before.
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And it's interesting too, because I was actually a transportation platoon leader when I was down range.
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What year were you in Iraq?
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What year was your first?
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time deploying.
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Well, so the first time this is really funny we enlisted and we were supposed to be on the initial invasion.
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So we were supposed to go with the fourth ID down through Turkey and they closed the doors to that.
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So, us being attached to the fourth ID, we got mobilized, we were ready to go.
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We were literally on the plane three times and then they got us off the plane and we never set foot in country when I was enlisted.
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So the time I was over there was when, after I became a pilot and we were doing a lot of troop movement throughout the country, but we were sitting there with the first group ready to be in the invasion and it just never happened.
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And the funny it's not funny, it's, it's actually actually kind of horrible that people didn't realize the difference.
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But when the whole jessica lynch thing happened, my mom got so many calls and be like is that sarah, is she over there?
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she's like no, it's a different blonde female, but she's okay, yeah and so you get out of the military and then you get a job working federal law enforcement.
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So you sign back up for a job where you're back on the line again really an alpha profession that you get into.
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And at what point did you decide to step off and quit doing that but pursue blue side yoga?
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So as I got into the federal law enforcement job, I started to see so many similar things, with people being burnt out and not addressing the amount of stress that we go through and dealing, coping with these really unhealthy mechanisms, particularly in our life alcohol and then really trying to push to make a difference.
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Because the resources are out there, there's programs that can teach us how to be mentally resilient and teach it on a scientific level, because our community is a really skeptical community.
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So we need to learn the why behind everything.
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Before I just tell you like, hey, if you meditate, this is going to really help calm you down, like the average person in our community is like don't tell me to meditate, what is that?
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That's for hippies, I'm not doing that.
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But if I tell you, hey, when you meditate and you calm your breathing, you're going to engage your parasympathetic nervous system.
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That calms your nervous system down, that takes you off of the fight or flight and therefore it starts to regulate your nervous system and therefore your mental health.
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And so when you start to explain things scientifically, we could have a huge buy-in from our community, because the elite, elite, elite operators know this and they're trained in this and they do it.
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So where's the disconnect between that and what we do when we're still living every day in this stress and going through the training and being one of the people that was in the Army we call it casualty assistance officer.
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There's not really equivalent in the agency that I was in, but that's the work that I was doing with a officer suicide and that point I realized.
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The agency isn't responding to this mental health crisis.
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I was told that I can't say the word crisis and from that point on I kind of knew that my life path was going to be through blue side yoga and helping people scientifically understand what is happening in the nervous system and then be able to address it.
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And that is the basis.
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And it's funny, we talked about how hard it is to come back home, but that's what I've named.
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My program is back home because you need to learn how do I integrate back home, how do I leave the stress behind?
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How do I deal with the stress?
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How do I deal with triggers?
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How do I talk to my family now about this?
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And that is all the stuff that we cover in our back home program.
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That should be given to us in the military and our agencies.
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It really should, but it's not, and so that's why I really felt strongly, so strongly enough that I left my full-time law enforcement job to pursue blue side yoga and help people through this process.
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And I was just curious why yoga For the non-believers out there in yoga?
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Why yoga?
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I love that you asked this question because I've actually had people tell me like you need to change your name because no one's going to want to work with you, but yoga was the first thing that saved my life.
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So after my anxiety attack in 2009, the VA's answer not the VA, the army, the military's answer was to give me a ton of pain pills and muscle relaxers, and I wasn't willing to do that.
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I was personally terrified that I was going to be become addicted to the painkillers and, plus, like the only joy I had in my life at that time was my flying career and I was not about to let that go.
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So I researched and I went out on my own and I went to a neurosurgeon actually cause my back pain was so bad and he said, well, he's like you should naturally try yoga and then get into like deep tissue massage and on chiropractic work and all that stuff.
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But yoga was the first thing that he recommended and as soon as I started going to yoga, it took probably about a month like really going three times a week and living it.
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But then my arm so I had really bad numbness in my arm.
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My arm started to come back to life and I was like, whoa, there's something here.
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And then it wasn't just the physical, like getting all of our muscles to release, because we hold stress in our muscles, especially our hips, back, neck, all of the areas.
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So finally, when I was able to get those muscles to release, the mental aspect started feeling better too.
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I was like, oh, I'm actually sleeping better and I'm concentrating better and my mind isn't going through this constant hypervigilant state, and so I really credit yoga as the first step to saving my life.
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And I don't say those words lightly.
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I really think I was going down a very scary path lightly, like I really think I was going down a very scary path.
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And so that's why yoga is so important to me, because it was the first step in getting me on the right path to understanding what happened in my mind and body and understand what happens in others, as they've gone through very similar situations.
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The only time in my life that I ever felt 100% like mentally and physically was when next to my gym there was a hot yoga place and I I was always concerned about being injured.
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That was my biggest concern.
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I got to go to work.
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I can't be injured, so let me try this yoga thing so I can stay flexible and, and you know, that prevents injuries, and so I go in there.
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The best part about it was that it was an hour out of my day when I started going like two, three times a week, uh, where my phone was not with me and it was just, it was a hot yoga, so you had to focus on your breathing and and I felt so good after just like two months of doing it and, uh, I was really sad when I moved away from that place because it was so convenient to get to, and so I'm a believer in it.
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I suggest yoga to everybody, but at the end of the day it's like who's actually going to go do it?
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You know that's the biggest challenge of it all.
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Do you find a lot of difficulty in convincing folks to give it a shot?
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I do, so I get a lot of excuse.
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So it's the usual excuses that I'm not flexible, the all that kind of stuff which you can easily like if you're not flexible.
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That's why you should go to yoga.
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It would be like telling you like, hey, I don't speak Spanish so I can't go to Spanish class.
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Like, no, you go to Spanish class to learn how to speak Spanish, so you go to yoga to be more flexible and more calm and controlling the mind and all that, the mind-body connection.
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But the other one that I found was really interesting, and I was a PT instructor for the federal agency that I was with, and so I was always offering yoga and stretching.
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And I had one guy come up to me and he's like I can't do yoga because it's too boring for me.
00:22:10.877 --> 00:22:37.127
And so I was like, okay, I totally understand where you're coming from, because our minds are so busy that when we finally have a time where we have to sit still or have to that, when we finally have a time where we have to sit still or have to hold a pose or hold a stretch, we as military and first responders, have trained our minds and bodies to feel like work.
00:22:37.127 --> 00:22:42.439
Being feminine is uncomfortable, and so our bodies have learned that to be a threat.
00:22:42.439 --> 00:22:49.210
So we react to it like I can't do this, I don't want to do this, this isn't comfortable for me, and they're going to fight that tendency to do it.
00:22:49.971 --> 00:22:59.270
So when I come across someone like that, I try to explain scientifically, like this is why it's boring for you, or this is why you're uncomfortable doing it.
00:22:59.371 --> 00:23:04.411
It's because your mind is constantly activated and constantly on.
00:23:04.411 --> 00:23:17.369
So you need to come back and be centered and start to train the mind to not be going every which way and to focus on the task at hand, and so it's interesting to see that perspective.
00:23:17.369 --> 00:23:24.770
So I don't think I made him a complete believer, but at least had the light bulb of like, wow, they're okay.
00:23:24.770 --> 00:23:32.896
So there is more going on than me just thinking that this is a a boring workout, or you know something that I don't like.
00:23:32.896 --> 00:23:59.159
And if you take away the mindset of it being boring and put it into the, the mindset like oh no, I am training my mind and body because our western society has made those two things separate and they really aren't when you can combine the two and know that, okay, I need to do both of these things, then you can, you know, get the the full benefit from that yoga practice oh yeah, yeah.
00:23:59.179 --> 00:24:02.589
Just shutting off the noise in this Western society is difficult, right?
00:24:02.589 --> 00:24:13.289
That's why I love podcasting so much, is, you can actually get two to three tiers deep into a conversation, versus the short form video that everyone's fallen in love with here in the last few years.
00:24:13.289 --> 00:24:34.834
I hope that we come back to a society where we actually stop and listen to each other, um other and take the time to fully understand one another, but also understand ourselves too, and that's why I really like what you're doing, because it involves a lot of self-awareness and a lot of accountability.
00:24:34.834 --> 00:24:38.229
So talk about what you offer.
00:24:38.229 --> 00:24:43.058
As far as the trips for the first responders and the veterans to the Himalayas.
00:24:44.286 --> 00:24:45.551
Yeah, so my goal.
00:24:45.551 --> 00:24:50.798
So I have to give you a little backstory on why, particularly I fell in love with the Himalayas.
00:24:50.798 --> 00:25:01.590
So it was always a goal for me to hike to Everest Base Camp and for some reason, ever since I was a little kid, I was always obsessed with Mount Everest.
00:25:01.590 --> 00:25:04.875
I had the picture in my room like no idea why.
00:25:04.875 --> 00:25:05.916
Uh.
00:25:05.916 --> 00:25:15.849
So when I graduated from uh, georgetown with my master's degree, I was like, finally, this is my gift to myself and I'm going to do this.
00:25:15.849 --> 00:25:29.152
And I had just gone through all of the neuroscience training and understanding the mind and body and really starting to think of like, okay, I need to start to focus back on myself and give myself this quiet gift.
00:25:30.526 --> 00:25:51.730
So I went over and did the Everest Base Camp Trek and it was about day seven, maybe six, two, it doesn't matter Anyways, two days before I actually get to base camp and we're really high altitude and it's just this gorgeous Alpine hiking and I'm walking alone and I'm just listening to nothing.
00:25:51.730 --> 00:26:29.775
I'm enjoying the quietness and I felt like I had this like bugs, exoskeleton that I was wearing and and it felt like it was just cracking away and as I'm feeling this, I could feel, I felt like it was like the weight of my service, the weight of PTSD, the weight of the physical pain, the weight of just trauma, and it felt like it was just breaking away and like I felt so free and I knew scientifically about seven days like something like that may happen, because that's about the time where it takes for the body to calm down.
00:26:29.775 --> 00:26:32.247
So I had no cell service.
00:26:32.247 --> 00:26:34.009
It was just me.
00:26:34.009 --> 00:26:44.211
I'm eating healthy, I'm not drinking like all of these like this, like a perfect storm in the most positive sense to like finally come back to who.
00:26:44.211 --> 00:26:46.898
I started to feel like being me again.
00:26:48.103 --> 00:27:18.028
And so as I finished that that little walk and I felt like completely enlightened afterwards, I was like I want others to feel this, because when I came back from Iraq and I came back from Kosovo and dealing with everything else, I didn't think that I could feel peace ever again because I always had that stress and that just kind of like heavy anger looming over me and I was like it's possible, it's possible, I have to share this with others.
00:27:18.028 --> 00:27:28.086
So that was the start of why I wanted to do blue side yoga and not just teach people about the nervous system and science and stress and how to heal.
00:27:28.086 --> 00:27:32.335
But it's a tough journey and you know this.
00:27:32.335 --> 00:27:36.568
Just keeping up with yoga like God, I know it's good, but how do I keep up with it?
00:27:36.568 --> 00:27:54.136
So if I start working with you and our end goal is to do this amazing trek in Nepal that you have to physically and mentally prepare yourself for, and we're doing it with a group of others that are in the same boat, that's where I'm like, that's where healing happens.
00:27:55.065 --> 00:28:05.330
And so we spend about 12 weeks prior 12 to 14, 16 weeks prior to the trek, spend about 12 weeks prior 12 to 14, 16 weeks prior to the trek working on this stuff together.
00:28:05.330 --> 00:28:05.771
We do yoga virtually.
00:28:05.771 --> 00:28:06.933
We do a whole program on neuroscience.
00:28:06.933 --> 00:28:16.108
I teach you the effects of meditation and how to meditate, so that it's a brain exercise and not some wooey, you know, kind of hippie exercise.
00:28:16.108 --> 00:28:18.616
And then we come together as a group and we're physically in Nepal together and we're doing this trek.
00:28:18.656 --> 00:28:32.955
And so that's why, as a group, and we're physically in Nepal together and we're doing this trek, and so that's that's why I fell in love with Nepal, and you know the whole journey to the other side of the world for such a positive thing, um was just.
00:28:32.955 --> 00:28:37.550
I was like I have to figure out how to actually make this happen and I've done it.
00:28:37.550 --> 00:28:55.145
So we're in year two of bringing our folks over to Nepal and it just keeps growing and it's just been an amazing opportunity and I just am so proud of everyone that's decided to do the work and then show up and just have a fabulous time on the trail.
00:28:56.269 --> 00:28:58.554
So how many folks did you have travel with you last year?
00:28:59.715 --> 00:29:16.974
So last year we had a group of 10 for our Everest, so we call it the Everest Panorama Trek, so we don't go all the way up to Everest Base Camp on this one, and so that one is that was 12 days of trekking and it was certainly challenging and we all had our moments.
00:29:16.974 --> 00:29:27.532
Yeah, so that was last year, and then I just kept getting more asks for more trucks, and so this year we've got three going on.
00:29:27.532 --> 00:29:32.630
I still have room If there's any of your listeners that are interested in heading out this year.
00:29:32.630 --> 00:29:33.792
I do have spots left.
00:29:33.792 --> 00:29:38.811
And then now I'm looking at 2025, which is going to be even bigger.
00:29:38.811 --> 00:29:42.118
So it's, it's taken off, which is a nice thing.
00:29:43.266 --> 00:29:45.713
And all the training that you're talking about that leads up to it.
00:29:45.713 --> 00:29:49.012
I mean, this is available for folks that live all across the US.
00:29:49.012 --> 00:29:49.674
This is virtual.
00:29:51.025 --> 00:29:51.626
That's correct.
00:29:51.626 --> 00:30:08.423
Yeah, so the lead up training so we do a warrior mindset course and it's a 12 week course, and there's these minor tasks that you do every day, because mind fitness and really healing from this is not something that you can be like.
00:30:08.423 --> 00:30:11.411
Well, maybe every other week I'll do an hour Like it's.
00:30:11.411 --> 00:30:24.877
It's the repetitive brain training of keeping yourself present and keeping focused, and it also teaches you that this healthy lifestyle and to keep on track doesn't take that long every day.
00:30:24.877 --> 00:30:28.988
So you give yourself about five minutes a day and you'll really start to see some turnaround.
00:30:30.672 --> 00:30:32.494
So that's our 12-week course.
00:30:32.494 --> 00:30:51.218
And then I have a 16-week mountain athlete course that everybody gets, no matter what kind of physical shape that you're in, and that's designed to take somebody that isn't used to trekking at all and it'll prepare them to do a 10 mile trek, which is definitely the longest that we would do any day in Nepal.
00:30:51.218 --> 00:30:54.132
So if you can do that trek at the end, then you're you're set to go.
00:30:54.132 --> 00:30:58.167
So, yeah, we set you up for success with this and you're never alone.
00:30:58.167 --> 00:31:01.554
So that's the, that's the big benefit of this you up for success with this and you're never alone.
00:31:01.574 --> 00:31:02.474
So that's the, that's the big benefit of this.
00:31:02.474 --> 00:31:07.201
And, sarah, what is, what would you say, is your ultimate goal at the end of all this?
00:31:07.201 --> 00:31:18.413
I know one of your goals is to help others out with their own mental health, but where would you like to see this go in five to 10 years from now?
00:31:20.338 --> 00:31:27.718
I want this training not be something that is outside of our organizations.
00:31:27.718 --> 00:32:05.166
So even though that's what has to be provided now because our agencies have not bought into this but this sort of training and this sort of mental health awareness needs to start from day one to let you know, like, hey, when you join the military you got to go hard through training, you got to go hard through combat, but when you're not in those scenarios, there's got to be something that teaches us to come back down to our normal baseline, back down to our normal baseline.
00:32:05.166 --> 00:32:14.233
So my goal would be to have this like, have so much awareness about this that it's a normal conversation within units, it's normal training within units and you don't have to break before you get to learn about this stuff.
00:32:14.233 --> 00:32:17.607
It should be like preventative medicine out there.
00:32:17.607 --> 00:32:25.797
So that's my goal is to get this a normal, a normal conversation, a normal practice in everything that we do.
00:32:27.925 --> 00:32:41.817
Sarah, my last question to you is this, and it's probably a pretty difficult question how do you get a veteran to to understand self-awareness and accountability?
00:32:41.817 --> 00:32:49.739
The reason I ask this question is because I had a Marine veteran call me this week just crying.
00:32:49.739 --> 00:33:07.813
I was literally in the middle of jujitsu class and I'm watching my daughter do jujitsu and he calls me up crying because he's going through a divorce, he hasn't seen his kids in forever and I've told him over and over again hey, you need to go seek therapy, you need to find some positive influence, you need to.
00:33:07.813 --> 00:33:12.328
I mean, in today's day and age there's really no excuse because they have like meet me apps.
00:33:12.328 --> 00:33:17.529
You know where you can meet folks in groups that will do physical training and things like that.
00:33:17.609 --> 00:33:22.866
And, being from the military, physical fitness is kind of a base, a foundation for everything.
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