Meditation helps war vetern

Some one in six Iraq veterans suffer from post-traumaticStress disorder (PTSD), some of them are taking a different path to healing:Meditation .

At a recent retreat at the Zen Center of Los Angeles, Vietnam vet Claude Anshin Thomas taught fellow veterans to confront their trauma by "waking up to how we've been affected" and applying full consciousness to the present moment. "What I'm attempting to do," says Thomas, "is create a safe space where that information will start to become accessible to them."

There may be more at work here than a spiritual centering. Dr. Tana A. Grady-Weliky, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, explains some of the science behind meditative practice. "Mindfulness meditation practice, in which one focuses on 'staying in the present' during meditation as well as other activities, appears to play a role in positive mood and attitude," Grady-Weliky writes. "Interestingly, imaging studies of individuals during meditation show higher activity in the left prefrontal cortex, which is the brain area associated with positive mood and attitude."

In the late 1980s, Thomas discovered meditation, and the practice enabled him to deal with difficult memories and feelings. He became a Zen monk in 1995.

Despite Thomas' Buddhist ties, Piasecki writes, his retreats are less about religion than mindful awareness of life, which helps the vets and others accept and integrate their traumatic pasts.