Tristan Rose (@tristanrose.com.au) is the Founder of a Veteran-focused Yoga and Meditation service Blind Tiger Yoga, and a former soldier in The Royal Australian Regiment.

For a long time, I’ve wanted to interview a former Veteran to get a better grasp of how this community perceives itself amongst the general civilian population. War and violence are at times, necessary, and so I wanted to understand how they view that necessity.

For quite some time I would continually pitch former and current special forces operators only to have repeated “no’s” come back. After interviewing Tristan, I started to understand why.

The way we treat Veterans in Australia, as a general population, is strange. Whether it’s sticking our head in the sand about suicide post-discharge (through masking statistics), making it hard for veterans to make medical claims, or going along with a culture that doesn’t allow us to celebrate the commitment these individuals make post-career.

I realised that during the research process, and indeed the interview, how important Tristan’s work is. Blind Tiger Yoga - a team focused on complementing health management for Veterans and First Responders - could be the connective tissue that links a multitude of modalities in a Veteran’s life, giving it a wholeness and meaning in a system that has washed people away.

This was an eye-opening conversation, that I thank Tristan for allowing me to be a part of, including:* Teaching Yoga & Meditation to Veterans* Tristan’s life-changing Yoga moment* Compartmentalising as a soldier* Australia vs U.S Veteran treatment* Being a Veteran in Australia* Veteran mental health & suicide* What Blind Tiger Yoga does