Speaker 1: Stay Calm as a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
Speaker 1: to Stay Calm, your daily dose of calmness. I'm Bob Roth,
Speaker 1: and I've been teaching people to meditate for fifty years,
Speaker 1: helping them to stay calm under pressure, reboot and re
Speaker 1: energize their lives, and basically be a happier, healthier version
Speaker 1: of themselves. And now I want to help you do
Speaker 1: the same. Ready, sit comfortably, take a few deep breaths.
Speaker 1: U let's begin today's journey. Korea. O'Brien is a science
Speaker 1: teacher at Hamilton's Township High School in Columbus, Ohio. Every
Speaker 1: day he would stand in front of his class and
Speaker 1: explain the basics of the physical sciences and biology. Then
Speaker 1: he would go home to help his own five kids
Speaker 1: with their homework. Every day for twelve years, he did
Speaker 1: his best to show up as a husband, a father,
Speaker 1: and a teacher, but the truth was he was going
Speaker 1: through the motions in eyed his life was a living hell.
Speaker 1: Corey O'Brien is an Iraq war vett. Military service runs
Speaker 1: in Corey's family. His grandfather was a B seventeen bomber
Speaker 1: pilot during World War Two in Korea. His father was
Speaker 1: a marine veteran during Vietnam, Corey spent nine years with
Speaker 1: the U. S. Army and the Ohio National Guard, and
Speaker 1: he did two deployments to the Middle East. But Corey
Speaker 1: came home from his last deployment in two thousand and
Speaker 1: five with post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury
Speaker 1: or tb I. He struggled in silence, feeling like he
Speaker 1: let down a lot of people. I didn't come back
Speaker 1: a hero, Corey says, I just did my job. I
Speaker 1: took an oath, and I followed orders. Corey tried hard
Speaker 1: to make it work. When he got home, he was
Speaker 1: surrounded by the love and support of family and friends,
Speaker 1: but he just couldn't figure out how to function, much
Speaker 1: less survive. Corey's family took the brunt of it. He became,
Speaker 1: in his own words, a monster. My temper was so
Speaker 1: bad that at times I scared myself. Looking back, there
Speaker 1: were times I was lucky I didn't end up in jail.
Speaker 1: The local v A hospital offered Corey antidepressant medications, which
Speaker 1: he turned down. Like a lot of veterans do. I
Speaker 1: learned certain skills in the military that kept me alive,
Speaker 1: like hypersensitivity and hyper alertness. He says, I didn't want
Speaker 1: to take a magic pill and have all that disappear.
Speaker 1: PTSD runs in Corey's family. His grandfather had it, his
Speaker 1: father has it, and Corey knows he has it. But
Speaker 1: making things worse, Corey also has traumatic brain injury. Things
Speaker 1: kept going downhill. Whatever help he was getting from the
Speaker 1: v A just wasn't enough. If Corey wanted to survive,
Speaker 1: He realized he would have to find his own way.
Speaker 1: That's when his luck finally turned. Three years ago, Corey
Speaker 1: met doctor Chrisanne Gordon, founder and chairwoman of the Resurrecting
Speaker 1: Lives Foundation in Dublin, Ohio. Her foundation provides cognitive retraining
Speaker 1: to veterans through a team of tb I experts, including
Speaker 1: physical medicine specialists, speech pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, job coaches,
Speaker 1: and social workers. Dr Gordon met Corey and right away
Speaker 1: she knew he needed to meditate. She introduced Corey to
Speaker 1: David Kidd, a Vietnam veteran himself and a teacher of
Speaker 1: transcendental meditation in the Columbus area. Corey jumped at the
Speaker 1: opportunity and learned from David. What surprised Corey was how
Speaker 1: easy it was to meditate, and how the results were
Speaker 1: so immediate. Right from the start, I felt so much
Speaker 1: more rested, and I slept so much better, he says.
Speaker 1: Over time, I've become a better father and a better husband.
Speaker 1: I've also become a better teacher. In fact, Corey felt
Speaker 1: so much better that he told his father, the marine
Speaker 1: about the meditation, and he learned too. Now his dad
Speaker 1: is off three different types of medications. Reflecting back on
Speaker 1: the fifteen years since he returned from his deployment, Corey says,
Speaker 1: I'm convinced that TM will give veterans their lives back.
Speaker 1: I know it brought me back from the dead. I
Speaker 1: was resurrected. I've become a human again. My health tip
Speaker 1: for the day is actually more of an awareness tip.
Speaker 1: T b I does not only afflict veterans like Corey,
Speaker 1: it can afflict any of us. A traumatic brain injury
Speaker 1: can come from a blow to the head or a
Speaker 1: penetrating head injury, which disrupts normal function of the brain.
Speaker 1: Nearly three million people sustained a traumatic brain injury in
Speaker 1: the United States every year. If you think that you
Speaker 1: or someone you know may be living with t b I,
Speaker 1: please go online and contact the Brain Injury Association of
Speaker 1: America and get help. All right, let's end this time
Speaker 1: together doing something that I think should be a feature
Speaker 1: of our everyday life, and that's appreciation and gratitude. So
Speaker 1: let's take thirty seconds of quiet, thirty seconds to take
Speaker 1: a break, just take a moment. It turns out when
Speaker 1: we do that, it's good for our health as well.
Speaker 1: I'll be right back, all right. Thank you for joining
Speaker 1: me today. I hope you heard something that inspires, that
Speaker 1: uplifts you and that you can incorporate into your own life.
Speaker 1: This is Bob Roth. Stay calm, hey, all of you
Speaker 1: out there. I'd love to hear from you. You can
Speaker 1: send me your stories, your questions, or anything else on
Speaker 1: your mind. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, or
Speaker 1: Instagram at meditation Bob. You can also send me an
Speaker 1: email at meditation Bob Roth at gmail dot com. I
Speaker 1: look forward to hearing from you.