During this year’s Mason Nation 9/11 Virtual Day of Service, we were honored to have Armor Down Founder and President Ben King as he guides us through a mindfulness meditation practice called 10 Bells on September 9th from 9:30am-10:00am. Zoom link for the session: https://go.gmu.edu/meditationbenking
With each sounding of the bell Ben will guide us through moment-by-moment awareness of our surrounding environment, bodily sensations, and our breath. With each moment of greater presence Ben will encourage us to armor down and open our hearts in gratitude for those who have served and sacrificed so much from and through the years following September 11th.
Before the pandemic Ben’s work teaching mindfulness to veterans and honoring our nations fallen warriors could be found in such notable publications as National Geographic, the Washington Post and numerous other books and publications. Since COVID Ben has continued his work teaching mindfulness online. To support what has become an online mindfulness community Armor Down developed a meditation cushion specifically designed for Veterans. For every meditation cushion Armor Down sells, one is given away for free to a Veteran. Since COVID began Armor Down has given away over 50 cushions to Veterans around the country.
Ben leads live mindfulness training online every morning at 7am on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Watched by hundreds every week Ben, a Purple Heart recipient, stresses the importance of developing a mindfulness based practice now. The pandemic has changed the game for everyone. We are all Veterans fighting against an invisible enemy that is impacting us at every level. Be learned from serving in the Iraq war that trauma can lie dormant in the nervous systems only to arise years later to knock us flat.
For more information about Armor Down, visit: https://www.patreon.com/armordown.