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Benefsheh Verell (Benef) is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel with twenty years of active duty service. She graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point in 1997 and has a Masters of Science in Physical Geography from the University of Maryland. She spent ten years as a Military Police officer and ten years as an Information Operations officer.
As a retiree, Benef remains passionate about educating service members of the benefits mindfulness practices have on the mind and body. She’s trained to teach trauma sensitive yoga and is also on the board of directors of Warriors at Ease, a non-profit organization that brings mindfulness practices to the military and veteran communities. She’s an iRest (Integrative Restoration) meditation teacher and advocates to have mindfulness practices as part of a regular resiliency program that starts in basic training and continues throughout a service member’s career.
Benef continues to serve as a spouse and retiree through volunteering in the community as the president of the Zama Community Spouses Association, the treasurer for the Boy Scouts, advocating for mindfulness practices in the military, educating senior leaders about the benefits of mindfulness, meditation, and yoga, and mentoring service members and spouses. She is the author of Military and Mindful: Eight Essential Elements to Manage Your Military Career and Motherhood.
In this episode we talked about the challenges of attending West Point. We also covered the challenges of being dual military. It is often difficult for dual military couples to manage their service, having a family and being separated due to deployments and TDYs. Benef found herself struggling with life and that is when she found yoga as a place of healing and refocusing. It changed her life.
After 20 years of service she transitioned out of the military. She found many challenges, although she was ready to leave the military. She wasn’t ready for the transition and what life would mean without her military service. She transitioned to the role of military spouse and mom. It has been a struggle, but through hard work and learning who she was and who she wanted to be she is thriving today and even wrote a book.
Connect with Benef (contains affiliate links):
Military-Mindful-Essential-Elements-Motherhood
Instagram account
Mentioned in this Episode (contains affiliate links):
Beyond the Point by Claire Gibson
Related Episodes:
Mourning My Military Service – Episode 47
From West Point to Iraq – Episode 38
Serving in Iraq (the kickoff, the surge, the drawdown) – Episode 32
Post 9/11 Female Work Force Experience - Episode 78
Include Transitioning guide for the graphic for this blog post
Resources:
Women of the Military Mentorship Program
Girl's Guide to Military Service available where books are sold.
Signed copies of A Girl's Guide to Military Service
Girl's Guide to the Military Series
