Jake Clark enlisted in the Army at 17 years old; he served five years and then went onto become a Los Angeles Police Officer and FBI Agent. He reenlisted after Sept 11th, and then spent another four years in the military, deployed with the California National Guard for two tours in Kosovo.
First we need to understand the severity of the problem. Jake calls it a ‘suicide epidemic’. It is a certifiable crisis, no doubt. The most recent VA study shows that 20 warriors are lost each day. Since 1979, that equates to 263,000 veteran suicides – more than WWI, Korea and Vietnam combined. 800,000 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans are suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress at this very moment.
Like too many of our warriors, Jake struggled with civilian life, he had serious alcoholic problems, lost his job and was struggling with recovery. Life was spiraling out of control. It wasn’t just one thing, Jake’s problems seemed insurmountable – which put him on a suicidal path to becoming another national statistic.
Jake began practicing transcendental meditation after taking a course partially subsidized by Oprah Winfrey. “Oprah played a big part in saving my life,” explains Jake. “I knew that the suicide problem was not going to just go away and I took away permission from myself to be okay with the status quo; the other being calling myself on my own bullshit, meaning to stop seeking material solutions for spiritual problems; to accept what I’d known for some time now: that in order to find what I was really looking for in life… that I had to help enough other people get theirs first.”
Jake Clark is about as raw and authentic as you can get. There are some profound elements discussed on the program that you will want to think through and consider for your own life. This broadcast you’re about to hear can and will change your life friends!
The story continues on the Brink of Greatness Podcast…
The Next Leap Forward
“The synthesis of these critical moments of discovery – known as anagnorisis – changed everything,” says Jake. The reversal of fortune and change in my circumstances amounted to an insightful quantum change; a profound “aha” moment that left me stunned; a moment over which I will never get.”
Jake put on the first Save A Warrior cohort in September 2012. They’ve just completed the 65th Cohort at Save A Warrior, having hosted more than 700 active duty, returning Veterans & First Responders.
Save A Warrior™ is a meaningful conversation about the nature of human experience. A nationally-recognized program, that offers novel, judgment-free solutions to returning Veterans, Active Duty Service Members, and First Responders with Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS). “Everybody who comes [into the program] is suicidal,” Clark said. “You ask them, ‘What’s going on?’ They say, ‘I’m taking pills, I can’t sleep, my wife is threatening to leave me.’
The Project’s motto is “Play like your life depends on it.”
Brink Notes:
Please DONATE here: https://saveawarrior.org/donate/#donate-1
Website: www.saveawarrior.org
