OCEAN SPRINGS -- A growing movement to offer free yoga classes to those who serve in the military has come to the Coast.

On Tuesday afternoons at River Rock Yoga, both men and women who have been in battle and those who have trained extensively for it come together for a yoga class.

The program is called Connected Warrior.

Like all yoga, it's designed to relax the mind as well as stretch the body.

Sometimes the class has 10, sometimes five. But Moira Anderson, who owns River Rock, said the class is geared for the needs of those who show up.

A friend of hers in Florida told her about the movement, and it is catching on in Ocean Springs as well as other places around the country.

Part of the yoga discipline is to reach out to the community without expecting a return, she said.

"We have a large military population in the area," she said. "We want to reach out."

River Rock has a lot to offer. It is a sanctuary for people, a sacred space where participants can take time to be still and be in the present moment.

All this becomes particularly important to people who have trained extensively to be hyper-vigilant in their work -- warriors.

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Free yoga classes offered to military and veterans in Ocean Springs are part of Connected Warrior movement