{"id":12790,"date":"2023-05-29T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-29T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=12790"},"modified":"2023-05-30T06:48:52","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T06:48:52","slug":"tai-chi-brings-a-veteran-closer-to-his-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=12790","title":{"rendered":"Tai Chi brings a Veteran closer to his family"},"content":{"rendered":"

Army Veteran Bill Seelaus strengthens his mindfulness and awareness, tenants of Whole Healt<\/a>h, by incorporating Tai Chi for Arthritis classes into his personal health care plan.<\/p>\n

Whole Health is VA\u2019s approach to care that supports health and well-being for Veterans and centers care around what matters to the Veteran by putting each person at the center of their own health care.<\/p>\n

Regularly taking part in activities like Tai Chi is credited with contributing to each participant\u2019s Whole Health because it helps with energy, flexibility in motion, relaxes and heals the mind, and encourages their personal development.<\/p>\n

Small steps<\/h2>\n

Completing this beginner\u2019s Tai Chi for Arthritis class offered by recreation therapy at the Coatesville VA is just one of many small steps in Seelaus\u2019 Whole Health journey that started in 2006, long before he knew anything about Whole Health.<\/p>\n

Walking away from a civil service job as a heavy equipment operator in Tacoma, Washington, Seelaus ended up in the desert. \u201cI walked out into the desert of Utah and lived on water for 27\u00bd days. One day I got up and said, \u2018This is the day I\u2019m either gonna get help or I\u2019m gonna die,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>
Veteran Bill Seelaus performs Tai Chi with instructor Ellen Barnes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

That day, he took a small step toward living and has continued to take small steps that, over the course of the last 18 years, have carried him through overcoming homelessness, addiction and mental health issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhole Health care planning allows each person to discover their own mission, aspiration and purpose,\u201d said Angela Shaffner, Whole Health program manager for Coatesville VA. \u201cThe idea is to inspire commitment from the Veteran to their own health and well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding inspiration<\/h2>\n

After trying, failing and restarting many times, Seelaus\u2019 efforts to build a productive life began to take hold in 2016. Following an assignment from his mental health provider, he realized one of his inspirations to improve his health: He found value in helping fellow Veterans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I learned from being in the service is there is always that soldier who is looking at you to help him figure things out. That\u2019s why I live. That\u2019s where I am,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Coatesville VA\u2019s Whole Health approach connects a network of health care resources, allowing Seelaus to access homeless Veteran programs, primary care, specialty care, mental health, nutrition and fitness programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A really good feeling<\/h2>\n

Seelaus identified two reasons to \u201cBe better.\u201d The first was other Veterans out there counting on him to help them figure things out. His second reason was he didn\u2019t want to be a burden to his family any longer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe relationship with my family is much better because they don\u2019t have to be concerned for my well-being all the time and that feels really good,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Army Veteran Bill Seelaus strengthens his mindfulness and awareness, tenants of Whole Health, by incorporating Tai Chi for Arthritis classes into his personal health care plan. Whole Health is VA\u2019s approach to care that supports health and well-being for Veterans and centers care around what matters to the Veteran by putting each person at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":12792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,316,149],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-tai-chi","category-whole-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12790"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12793,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12790\/revisions\/12793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}