Kim Colegrove - Mindfulness For Warriors: Empowering First Responders to Reduce Stress and Build Resilience

Praise for
Mindfulness for Warriors

The pain of trauma that first responders suffer from is finally being recognized, and Mindfulness for Warriors shows the path to healing. Kim Colegrove shares her heart-wrenching story of the loss of her husband to suicide, why it happened, and effective keys to recovery through mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness for Warriors is a welcome guide not only for first-responders and their loved ones, but anyone who suffers fro m trauma.

Rev. Connie L. Habash, LMFT, author of Awakening from Anxiety: A Spiritual Guide to Living a More Calm, Confident, and Coura geous Life

This is a book that will save lives. Mindfulness for Warriors is a work of major importance that offers practical approaches to self-care and serenity for our first responders. Our military veterans, firefighters, police, dispatchers, paramedics, doctors, and nurses are at the front lines of our society and a vital part of every community. Kim Colegroves marvelous book is an essential read for these brav e people.

Louise Harmon, author of Happiness f rom A to Z

Mindfulness for Warriors is an outstanding book I will be giving to a lot of people. My father was a Marine who came back from war and became a fireman. I loved how brave Dad was, but I also sensed, behind his tough exterior, he was hiding a lot of pain. He was a stoic who forged on doing his very important work but at a high personal cost. He and so many like him serve our communities and deal with extreme stress on a daily basis, often without any way to process the pain and PTSD they are suffering. Kim Colegroves book is an invaluable tool to help the helpers. Her mindfulness practices and meditation techniques offer much respite, relief, and calm to anyone who picks up t his book.

Becca Anderson, author of Prayers for Hard Times and Real Life M indfulness

Kim Colegrove survived unspeakable grief, and, rather than becoming bitter and broken herself, she honed a fierce and relentless compassion that seeks well-being for those who protect and serve. This book, and the PauseFirst Project, offer accessible tools for everyday use. In its pages, you will find solid strategies and proven practices for coping with stress and trauma in work and in life. Mindfulness for Warriors is a must-read for veterans, first responders, and all who walk the way of the warrior.

Rev. Roxanne Pendleton, MDiv, CYT 200, advisor, Trauma Informed Care, and author of Laughing Again: A Survivors Guide to Healing Depression

While many of us might not consider ourselves warriors. In truth, we are. Especially if, as the author writes, your life or work involves helping, saving, and rescuing others. From time to time, we become rescuers for our kids, partners, friends, family, or co-workers. This groundbreaking book, therefore, is a must-read since it touches all of us. It not only documents the lives of others who needed help, but it also provides very grounding solutions for dealing with and overcoming lifes ch allenges.

Allen Klein, author of Embracing Life After Loss

Kim Colegrove has one audacious goalto save the first responders who put their own lives on the line for others every day. Through candid memoir, insightful interviews, and informed advice, Mindfulness for Warriors offers practical tools for first responders and the people who love them. Colegrove artfully blends her account of the heart-wrenching loss of her husband with her wisdom from decades of meditation practice and her hope to find a solution to the trauma dynamic that rips first responders from the world. Colegroves firsthand experience watching lives change for the better authorizes her to make this bold claim: mindfulness can save lives. Shes seen it and tells us how its done. Hers is a message you wont want to miss.

Nita Sweeney, meditation teacher, writing coach, and award-winning author of Depression Hates a Mov ing Target

Mi ndfulness
for Warriors

Mi ndfulness
for Warriors

Empowering
First Responders
to Reduce Stress and
Build Resilience

Kim Colegrove

Coral Gables

Copyright 2020 Kim Colegrove

Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.

Cover, Layout & Design: Morgane Leoni

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Mindfulness for Warriors: Empowering First Responders to Reduce Stress and Build Resilience

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication number: 2019948834
ISBN: (print) 978-1-64250-174-2, (ebook) 978-1-64250-175-9
BISAC category code SEL024000, SELF-HELP / Self-Management / Stress Management

Printed in the United States of America

This book is ded icated to
David M. Colegrove

Contents

Mindfulness for Warriors is an outstanding book I will be giving to a lot of people. My father was a Marine who came back from war and became a fireman. He saw hand-to-hand combat and was wounded by a sword on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima in World War II. Dad not only survived, he brought home the sword that nearly killed him; it was displayed proudly beside an American flag in our living room. My dad was a badass. So are first r esponders.

I loved how brave Dad was, but I also sensed, beneath his tough exterior, he was hiding a lot of pain. He was a stoic who forged on without complaint, doing his very important work but at a high personal cost. So many more like him serve our communities and deal with extreme stress on a daily basis, often without any relief or any way to process the pain and PTSD they are suffering. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a serious syndrome and cant be ignored. Tamping down those feelings for too long can lead to major consequences, as Kim Colegrove discovered with her husbands tragic suicide. Our first responderspolice, military, firefighters, paramedics, hospital workers, dispatchers, and many more do so much to help others; more often than not, they dont get around to helping themselves. In Mindfulness for Warriors , Colegrove provides marvelous tools offering renewal for these courageous people who do so much for the r est of us.

Kim Colegroves book is an invaluable tool to help the helpers. Her mindfulness practices and meditation techniques offer much respite, relief, and calm to anyone who picks up this book.

Becca Anderson, author of Prayers for Hard Times and Real Life M indfulness

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have s ucceeded.

Ralph Wal do Emerson

Heres how this whole thin g started.

Me: I want to teach cops how to meditate.

Pretty much everyone else on the planet: You will never get cops to meditate.

Me: Hol d my beer.

The catalyst to this work was my husbands death by suicide in 2014. I never intended to become an advocate for culture evolution in law enforcement and other first-responder professions, but here I am.

Meditation and mindfulness are personal practices that empower an individual to become familiar with and regulate the self. They are evidence-based, meaning theres research to support my mission. When you learn these skills and practice them regularly, you can use them to settle and neutralize your systemmentally, physically, and em otionally.