Relaxation Basic Training
In your military Basic Training, you learned self-discipline, sacrifice, loyalty, duty and obedience to authority. Now you have an opportunity to learn a completely different but complementary set of skills that will help you to RELAX. After the stress of military service and combat, you will need to learn how to UNWIND. This time you get to be the drill sergeant as it will be up to you to keep yourself on task. If you follow this simple guide, you should find results that will help you get on course to a healthy and fulfilling life. We hope these simple Relaxation Techniques will help you on your journey to optimum physical and emotional well-being.

Why Relax?
After so much time spent learning the discipline of extreme vigilance and the importance of being constantly on guard and alert, you may find it difficult to let go of these ingrained ways of being. In wartime, they are important, but in civilian life it is necessary to develop a way to let go of stress and minimize the fight or flight syndrome that you previously learned. When the body and mind are tense and on guard, it is difficult for bodily systems to function properly, often resulting in blockages and decreased immune function. Chronic tension also increases the effect of pain creating an unwelcome cycle of pain, tension, and more pain. Now is a good time to learn how to release stress in healthy ways in order to avoid creating more dis-ease and other stress-based disorders. If you have been wounded, you will find that learning to relax can help you to heal faster and more completely and even help you deal with the effects of pain. If you are sick, the relaxation process will help you at all stages of illness and healing.

Soundings of the Planet’s Music Supports Wounded
Soldiers & Marines Returning from Iraq & Afghanistan
''As the wounded soldiers and marines arrive every week at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, it is nice to have your music as part of our care plan to meet their need to relax and rest while they recuperate from their injuries. The music also helps our patients focus on their healing and not the chronic pain they endure constantly. The soothing music of Healing Sanctuary and Healing Dreams provides a needed respite from the dreams and flashbacks of the terrors that our wounded have seen and experienced. It is helpful for them to relax and not dwell on the bad dreams or images that they can see. Some find them very helpful to get to sleep. We look forward to now expanding the availability of this music to more soldiers. Thanks again.''
JOHN L. KALLERSON, Chaplain (Major) US Army

We are honored that the music of Dean Evenson and the Soundings Ensemble has been chosen to be the music that wounded soldiers and marines returning from Iraq and Afghanistan hear as they are recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. It has long been our dream to directly support the troops who have given so much of their lives in support of their country. During the Gulf War we donated hundreds of copies of Ocean Dreams to troops in the Middle East and heard back from many of them how the music helped them to find a moment of calm in the midst of the storm of war. More recently we have donated thousands of CDs to military personnel and their families through the I AM Foundation. Now, we turn our attention to the individuals who are trying to put their lives back together after combat. Many of them suffer from physical wounds and loss of limbs. Many also suffer from the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which may cause them years, and even a lifetime of emotional suffering. We have put together a Relaxation Basic Training booklet to help guide them in their healing process. If you are a veteran or know of military personnel, who would like more information on how to use the music to support the healing process, please visit the section of our website dedicated to Service Personnel.

Hearts Toward Home International
www.heartstowardhome.com

This non-profit charitable organization has been structured for the purpose of providing support, counseling, training, educational classes, materials, and re-integration and re-adjustment workshop/forums for military personnel (both active duty and veterans) and their families after war-time service.

The activities of ''Hearts Toward Home International'' are carried out with special emphasis on addressing issues that prevent present military personnel, as well as all war veterans, from re-entering society and having a quality life. The organizational purpose is to come to the aid of those war-fighters who have been exposed to traumatic experiences and who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after serving in military hazard zones. Additionally, HTH International is equipped to train facilitators and counselors in the skills of re-integrating military personnel with loved ones, and the civilian environs to which they return.

The specific use of ''Turning Your Heart Toward Home'' workbook course and the self-help book ''Down Range: To Iraq and Back'' are the primary materials utilized in forwarding this mission.

Bridget C. Cantrell, Ph.D. President/CEO
Hearts Toward Home International
A Non-Profit Organization Dedicated to the Restoration & Reintegration of Trauma Survivors.