“When they experience that they get over the obstacle course more easily after practicing Yoga, nobody says that Yoga is a waste of time anymore”.
In 2003, the Hindu Spiritual Care (in Dutch: HinGV) was established at the Dutch defense forces, with Yoga and Spirituality as one of its aspects. Lead pandit and spiritual counselor Mr. H.D. Djwalapersad was convinced that Yoga is widely applicable and of great value within the armed forces. A year later, the first Yoga workshops were organized with many to follow.
After I started working as a military pandit in 2010, in addition to being a spiritual carer, I too started leading Walk-in Yoga classes at a number of barracks. The Yoga workshops we organised 3-4 times a year were attended by defense workers, military, and civilians, including qualified Yoga teachers. With this core group we further developed ways to incorporate Yoga within defense. This led to the creation of the Yoga Network Defence (YND) in 2016, consisting of eight Yoga teachers.
Due to increased demand for Yoga teachers, we started an internal Vinyasa Yoga teacher training in 2016 and have since trained between 35 and 40 defense workers a year, who regularly organize weekly Walk-in Yoga classes at various barracks.
The Ministry of Defense introduced the Sustainable Employability Defense (in Dutch: DID) policy to promote sustainable employment of defense workers, consisting of e.g. promotion of employee health by offering healthy nutrition, sports and meaningfulness. Yoga is used to promote the DID metrics: “health, Vitality, and Resilience” and “meaningfulness and job satisfaction”. Defense workers who get in enough physical exercise have more energy, are absent less, and are more resilient both physically and mentally. It is the intention of the YND, which also contributes in sustainable employability in defense workers, to structurally incorporate Yoga in the defense organisation and make it a standard part of the DID strategy.
One aspect which our training focuses on is Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TSY), which can be used to care for defense staff who may have been suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or burn-out. This area has potential to be developed further. Yoga will also, where possible, be incorporated in military education.
A number of (introductory) classes are embedded in the standard officer training curriculum at the Royal Military Academy in Breda. The increased availability of Yoga teachers has allowed us to slowly increase the number of Walk-in Yoga classes. Currently, Walk-in Yoga classes are offered weekly at over 30 locations. On request we also organise many workshops around special events, such as sports days, open days, and team building events. Even during deployment, Yoga lessons are offered wherever possible. But also during military exercise (at home or abroad) in a forest, or on a ship.
Below we include various testimonies. Counsellor Shefique Nindu from the Humanistic Spiritual Care Service (HumGV) sees Yoga as meditation in movement: practicing to be in the here and now.
“Yoga is for me a way to help me ‘tune’ into that consciousness”
Sergeant Major Arjan Hofsteenge says:
“Through Yoga you become aware of your own limits and what it does to you when you cross them. Yoga has fundamentally changed me. I become less angry, I am more open to others, I have fewer prejudices. Yoga is far beyond the experience of the average soldier. Many soldiers associate Yoga with wearing pink leggings, sitting in a circle “buzzing”. By naming physical benefits I convinced them. Boys with large muscle bundles notice on the Yoga mat how stiff they are. When they experience that they get over the obstacle course more easily after practicing Yoga, nobody says that Yoga is a waste of time anymore”.
For Councilwoman Hester Schipper, Yoga is an important reflective exercise:
“Yoga makes me aware of my mood, my body, and how I feel. It is confronting, yet also makes me fitter, and has a positive effect on my well-being”. She also sees the benefit in its implementation in the military: “‘I once did Yoga with a soldier, before we started talking. He was just stuck in his own head, Only afterwards, we could talk”
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