Warrior Division

I am a retired disabled professional Firefighter who spent almost thirty years as a Firefighter Paramedic, Paramedic Captain at Littleton Fire Rescue. During that time I was also employed as a Flight Paramedic for over 7 years. After being disabled in 2004, I spent time as a fire service training Captain, Fire Science and EMS instructor at Red Rocks Community College. I also served as an Advanced Cardiac Life Support and Pediatric Advanced Life Support instructor for 31 years. Due to the COVID pandemic, my teaching career abruptly ended, and I finally retired my Paramedic license on January 21, 2021 after 44 years as a Paramedic. I found myself struggling with many issues post career. I was overwhelmed with daily life. I was experiencing debilitating PTSD, as well as an abundance of health issues. My extended career in the fire service left me in chronic pain from many orthopedic surgeries. In addition, I was diagnosed with job related prostate cancer, and an unexpected cardiac issue, which resulted in a 6-way bypass shortly after being disabled. By this point, I was having severe depression and anxiety, which resulted in suicidal thoughts and feelings of hopelessness. My family and friends were looking out for me and they knew I was in desperate need for help. It was suggested that I look into the International Association of Firefighters Center of Excellence (COE) in Maryland. This is an in-patient treatment center for firefighters with struggling with PTSD and other behavioral issues. Regular yoga classes were part of the COE's treatment program. That decision to seek treatment saved my life. After more than a month of intensive treatment in Maryland, I returned home to continue my recovery and begin to regain my life. I realized recovery from the years of his Firefighter Service was going to be a life-long endeavor. I have been very active in my ongoing recovery which has included EMDR, meditation, talk therapy and several other treatment modalities. One day on a visit with my therapist, she suggested that I meet with a yoga instructor that was involved with first responders and assisting in the healing of trauma, named Sharon Wheeler. At the end of my session, Sharon came in and introduced herself and described her classes, which addressed the unique stress relief for those suffering from the effects of a career in the Fire Department. I started weekly yoga sessions with Sharon and it has been the most effective part of my recovery. I have now been regularly practicing yoga with Sharon for more than 4 years and it has become the most important part of my recovery. Sharon's dedication to helping first responders has been an inspiration to me. She is also a wonderful human being and has become a dear friend. I am humbled that Sharon has asked me to be on the advisory board. I have also been active in helping other Firefighters with PTSD. This foundation will be an avenue to help my fellow brothers and sisters in need. This is truly a cause that is close to my heart. I was contacted by Denver 9 news Corey Rose to be a part of her Emmy award winning firefighter PTSD special. Corey sits on the Board of Directors for the Colorado Professional Firefighters Foundation. Her father, Gary Stameisen, passed from job related cancer in 2010 at the age of 57. She has been active in bringing firefighter cancer to the forefront as well as our under reported PTSD epidemic. Here is a link to Corey’s 9 News PTSD special. Please take a look if you haven't had a chance. Peace and Love to all, Retired Disabled Firefighter Gary Metz

My name is Brock Taylor. I am a retired firefighter with 31 years of service in the Littleton area. I am also the father of a special needs daughter who was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, hypertonia, and a seizure disorder. My daughter Courtney required total care her entire life. Feeding, dressing, and bathing. I absolutely loved both jobs! These stresses eventually led to the end of my 29-year marriage. Over the years, Courtney required several orthopedic surgeries, a Baclofen pump implant to deliver muscle relaxant medicine to decrease spasticity in her body, and eventually the placement of a g-tube for feeding. While in the process of grieving my divorce, my work schedule drastically changed. I was working 48 hours on and 96 hours off. My off hours were constantly caring for Courtney. I had no breaks. This went on for two years. A decline in Courtney’s health, coupled with the shift change, helped me make the decision to retire. Twenty days after my retirement, Courtney passed away. My marriage, my career, and my daughter were all gone. The things that I loved were gone! I did nothing for six months following this. As an attempt to pick myself up, I went to work for Littleton Public Schools. I trained to be a bus driver, and then drove a special needs school bus for 6 years. Prostate problems forced me to retire again, this time fully. It was at this time that I began my new past time of playing pickleball. While attending an event with fellow firefighters, a friend recognized my PTSD signs, and invited me to a yoga session with Sharon Wheeler. Sharon’s understanding and compassion for my suffering was the medicine my body and soul needed. I started weekly yoga sessions with Sharon and continue with my healing. The power of the warrior is hard for me to explain, but the tranquility that I am experiencing is very welcome! Since starting yoga, I have learned to recognize and reduce my anxiety. This in turn has allowed me to move forward with many stalled projects, including remodeling my house. I am feeling grounded and safe, allowing growth in relationships. I have also noticed that I fall asleep easier, and sleep more soundly. I am more consistent in caring for myself, which in turn, adds to my confidence. I look forward to continuing these gradual positive changes and living a more complete and fulfilling future. Sincerely, Retired Firefighter Brock Taylor

THANK YOU SHARON FOR CHANGING MY LIFE!!! I am blessed to have this opportunity to share with my colleagues (HCPs), how yoga and Sharon Wheeler have positively impacted my life. I am a Nurse Practitioner spending most of my career in Cardiac Surgery or ICU. I was driven by very objective circumstances, most being black and white.  I have also dealt with anxiety for about 30 years. About 4 months ago I was invited to attend a yoga session with Sharon. Nothing black or white about yoga, I thought but I will give it a try. WOW!!!! How could something be so life changing? Then I learned yoga has a deep history used for the development of the warriors, for remaining strong and calm in war. We all have wars we deal with daily especially HCP and executives. Sharon’s yoga classes have changed my life. I used to take anti-anxiety medication 3-6 times a week. Since starting yoga about 4 months ago I only need my anxiety medication once a week and some weeks I don’t need any medication. Sharon’s classes provided calmness and strength we all need especially health care providers in this current time of confusion.

Much to my surprise, yoga can not only can be done by all, but my body and mind thanks me for going. The practice of yoga came to our organization about a year ago.  I was hesitant at first, as my only knowledge with yoga is someone who is extremely flexible and fit, neither of which describes me.  I decided to go outside my comfort zone and try it out.  Much to my surprise, yoga can not only can be done by all, but my body and mind thanks me for going.  Sharon is an amazing and patient instructor and you can feel the care and passion she has for the program and the first responders.  I am thankful my organization brought this program into the organization and I am now a firm believer in this specialized yoga and the benefits it can offer.

Sharon’s competence and expertise is balanced with genuine caring about everyone’s Yoga experience and wellbeing. One way I have always dealt with stress – and to ensure I am ready for upcoming stressors – is with physical exercise. The more frequent and strenuous the better - from running marathons, summiting peaks, tackling moguls, to high intensity fitness classes. However, I began to realize those activities were only part of the equation. I needed to balance physical activity with an opportunity to quiet my mind and body, breathe, create space and calm – to just be. I am so grateful to Yoga for helping me do that. After beginning the practice of Yoga I quickly noticed that, like fitness activity, it also gave me energy. I have come to believe that Yoga is key to building and maintaining resilience through its ability to release stress and quiet the mind. The guided movement and breath work strengthen and enhance mental and emotional capacity, promoting fresh perspectives. It has become a practice I know I can rely on to provide the foundation to reflect, renew, recharge. It is empowering.  I have had many Yoga instructors / guides over the years – and I find Sharon uniquely suited for this work. She is dedicated to building trust and providing an open and safe environment in which to practice, to seeing each individual and meeting them where they are, to guiding with strength, compassion and humor. Sharon’s competence and expertise is balanced with genuine caring about everyone’s Yoga experience and wellbeing. Her style is well suited to a wide variety of practitioners – from the new and uncomfortable, to those who have practiced for years. I commend her commitment to bringing out the best in everyone through Yoga - it is clear it is heartfelt.

Mind over Matter. Is that really achievable? Is that truly possible? If one takes up the practice of yoga, the answer is a resounding YES! The original intention of yoga, a 5,000 year old science and philosophy, is to prepare one’s mind and body for war. It was established as a specific training for warriors to keep their head about them and stick to the task in front of them: WAR. Our first responders, essential workers and those in the military/veterans are at WAR every day they are at work. Mastery of the mind is crucial to their survival. “Complacency kills” is a signature mantra. It has been said that the job of a first responder is 80% mental and 20% physical. As Captain Willis writes in his book, BULLETPROOF SPIRIT, mastery over the mind and keeping the mind healthy is a necessary protocol for self-care. First responders, essential workers and military/veterans can see more in one day than the average person would see in a lifetime. For both spiritual and emotional wellness, Captain Willis also states that there are effective methods to shield, nurture and sustain your spirit. These methods include practicing some type of physical exercise, practicing self-awareness and incorporating meditation and deep breathing into your lifestyle. This is the basis of yoga! There are at least 9 warning signs that can alert an individual that they are becoming a victim of their profession. These signs include isolation, irritability, difficulty sleeping, anger, emotional numbness, lack of communication and depression. Displaying any of these signs is a serious indication that there is difficulty processing the acute stress and trauma of the job. That’s where yoga comes in. Yoga can directly alleviate several of these signs of distress in the mind and body. The foundation is tactical breath work. By the use of breathing techniques, we can immediately tap into the autonomic nervous system and switch the body from working in the sympathetic stress response to the parasympathetic stress response mode. In as little as a few minutes of yogic deep breathing, we can make this switch for our minds and bodies from operating in the “fight, flight or freeze” mode to operating in “rest, digest and heal” mode. When practicing yoga in a group of peers, the feeling of isolation is reduced. You now have your “tribe.” Yoga has also been shown in studies to help facilitate a sense of calm, thus reducing irritability and anger. Sleeping is improved, emotional numbness is lessened, communication is enhanced, depression is reduced and a general feeling of well-being is achieved. With a regular yoga practice, we can train the mind and body to come into the natural state of regulation. Specifically, we can train the body to self-regulate, bring oxygen to all parts of the body, enhance self-awareness and situational awareness, allow for more effective sleep patterns, improve mind-body communication and more accurate gut responses, all while building physical strength and mobility and reducing the occurrence of injury. All of these benefits allow sustainability in these highly stressful careers. Interestingly, yoga has been so “westernized” that the fundamentals and benefits of yoga are hardly addressed in a typical yoga studio class. Today’s yoga marketing is generally targeted to white, thin, flexible women who are affluent and have the current color and style of yoga clothing. The emphasis is flexibility and competing to do poses that typically only thin, flexible, injury-free individuals can manage. Often a studio setting is stereotyped to include the vision of plenty of mala beads, hippy sandals and mood lighting. Music is the foundation of the practice in order to distract the mind. There is not much talk of tactical breathing, processing stress and alternate modifications to take when managing a pose with an injury . . . or two. Thus, when there is such a disconnect between the western yogi and an essential worker, there may be hesitancy to buying into the notion of yoga as part of necessary training. When we mindfully present yoga from a standpoint of its original intention, we can reach them and make a difference! They can now better understand the WHY of it all and apply the practice to themselves. There are no mala beads or hippy sandals present in the room. Lights stay on. No music is played. Instead of numbing out the mind further with music, the first responder is invited to go into the mind and groove new neural-pathways and build new neural-circuitry. This mindfulness is part of the training. By using yoga as the warrior training that it is, one can train the mind to operate from the prefrontal cortex where clear, conscious thinking happens. Using body movement and vocabulary to process stress and trauma out of the body is also key to health. The intentional, culturally informed yoga practice promotes the necessary assistance to come out of a state of hyper vigilance - which is needed for the job, and come into a state of health and ease - when not on the job. WHEREVER YOU GO THERE YOU ARE, the book by Jon Kabat-Zinn, advocates mindfulness to assist us in living our lives with better access to the full spectrum of our possibilities and a bringing about a healthier mindset. He recognizes that yogi’s have been exploring this concept for thousands of years. (5,000 to be exact!) Being aware of the breath is the first step in mindfulness. He encourages using the breath to nurture mindfulness. He states that it is possible, through meditation and intentional breathing, to find “shelter from much of the wind that agitates the mind.” What a welcome blessing for so many first responders, essential workers and military/veterans! To truly master The Mind over The Matter. To master the mind over the events they must face each day and allow the mind a place of solitude and respite. This intentional way of sharing the science of yoga and stating the specific benefits from a culturally informed perspective allows the instructor to meet the participant where they are. In turn, they are more likely to make yoga practice a part of their lifestyle. Offering yoga in this manner allows this tool to be accessible and pertinent. It facilitates real healing and transformation. It brings about the ability to save and reclaim lives.