ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My deepest gratitude and appreciation to the many individuals and organizations for their selfless service, hard work, publishing expertise, and mindful eyes, all of which have contributed in truly countless ways to make the publication of this book possible:

       •  To all our veterans and military service men and women who are the true inspiration for this work.

       •  To the countless yoga service organizations and studios for their selfless service to veterans and their families.

       •  To my teacher Munishree Chitrabhanu, the Jain monk who guided my life of spiritual inquiry through the entire decade of the 1970s, inspired me to travel to India in l974, and taught me meditation and the principles of ahimsa (reverence for life) and anakantavada (relativity of thinking).

       •  To my teacher Norman Allen, who taught me the astanga vinyasa asana system in the early 1980s and first awakened me to the eight-limbed path of classical yoga, and to his teacher, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, with whom I studied from l987 to 1993.

       •  To the Give Back Yoga Foundation (a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide yoga teachers with the resources to develop and deliver yoga programs of all types to underserved and under-resourced areas of the world, founded in 2007 by Rob Schware, Lori Klein, and me) for funding the initial expenses of copyediting, photography, and travel expenses for the models, and for partnering with Sounds True in order to make the publication of this book possible.

       •  Special thanks to Rob Schware, executive director of the Give Back Yoga Foundation, who shepherded this book from start to finish. His dedication to “getting it done and out” really made the completion of the book you have in your hands possible.

       •  To James Fox, founder of the Prison Yoga Project and author of Yoga: A Path to Healing and Recovery, whose book (supported and published in part by the Give Back Foundation) gave us the initial idea for this project.

       •  To Suzanne Manafort and Mindful Yoga Therapy for Veterans for their work and research on the use of yoga therapy and methodology in the treatment of post-traumatic stress and for help with organizing the first photo shoot for this book.

       •  To the eight amazing men and women, all veterans and representing the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, who were the models for all the yoga postures and worked tirelessly with our photographers to bring you the fabulous images in this book. Thanks Liz, Alex, Shane, John, Mike, Melinda, Phil, and Tim.

       •  To our incredibly talented photographers for donating their professional services to this project: Elizabeth Watts (New York City) and her assistant Maria Ferrari for all the photos in the book and Carolyn and Brian Robbins of Robbins Point Photography in Virginia Beach for the photo of Shane and for our cover photo of Liz and Alex.

       •  To Ann Richardson Stevens in Virginia Beach for all her help in arranging and preparing for our cover photo shoot and for donating the use of her spacious and stunning yoga studio, Studio Bamboo, to use as the location for making the beautiful image that graces the cover of this book.

       •  To Lori Klein, my trusted and beloved assistant of many years and director of the teacher training programs for my school, The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute, for her focused and creative work in helping to manage the business, for her organizational and scheduling skills, for her valuable advice in every aspect of my life, and for being a great mother to her two boys, a brilliant student, and a dear friend.

And to these many others:

       •  To Herbert Benson, MD, for his books, The Relaxation Response and Relaxation Revolution, and his research into the health benefits of yoga and meditation.

       •  To Tom Steffans, Rear Admiral, US Navy (retired) and former Navy SEAL, for his first-round reading of the manuscript and his pulling-no-punches evaluation, both of which helped to make this a better book and closer to the mark for true warriors.

       •  To the board members of the Give Back Yoga Foundation—Anne Richardson Stevens, Suzanne Manafort, and Stan Woodman—for their support of this project.

       •  To Sara Neufeld, who helped to prepare the glossary of Sanskrit terms.

       •  To Tami Simon and Nancy Smith of Sounds True for their leap of faith.

       •  To the entire team at Sounds True for their amazing patience, perseverance, and persistence in getting this book finished and out and into the spectacular end result you hold in your hands—special thanks to those talented souls listed below who I had the pleasure of working with directly and to the many folks behind the scenes that I have yet to meet!

       •  To Jennifer Brown, senior acquisitions editor at Sounds True, for the vote of confidence to acquire Yoga for Warriors.

       •  To Jennifer Holder, editor, who first brought forward the Yoga for Warriors project to Sounds True, for her exceptional skill in helping to organize the manuscript.

       •  To Leslie Brown, production editor, who expertly shepherded the book through the various stages of production.

       •  To Lisa Kerans, art director, who worked incredibly hard from Boulder to pull together the cover photo shoot on the East Coast, and then (with Rachael Murray) flew to Virginia Beach to giftedly oversee and direct the project.

       •  To Rachael Murray, senior book designer, who took all the pieces of the project—the text and the photos—and seamlessly wove them together to produce this glorious piece of artwork that is called Yoga for Warriors.