Nestled deep inside of the mammoth Pentagon building lies an athletic center where treadmills, bikes, a basketball court and other traditional gym hardware await employees. Now, a new trend is catching on inside these walls: Yoga.

Lieutenant Colonel Melinda Morgan has been teaching yoga at the pentagon for the last year. But her belief in yoga's healing power dates back to 1997.

"I was diagnosed with an immune deficiency that was going to possibly lead to arthritis and that arthritis could eventually lead me to being in a wheelchair, I had two young children, that wasn't an option," she said to CBS News.

Yoga has been a part of Morgan's life ever since. Now, she is on a mission to use yoga to help others. After 9/11, Morgan taught yoga to special-forces teams in Germany and ever since, she takes the yoga mat wherever she travels.

"In 2009 and 10 I was deployed to Afghanistan for 13 months and the yoga mat was really the thing that kind of kept me together through some very stressful times," she said.

Melinda has learned to use certain words to empower her students who are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

She notes that The Veterans Yoga Project, a non-profit organization with a mission to provide education and support for the mindful use of yoga to aid in recovering from post-traumatic stress and other psychological difficulties, has a program that was integral in helping her understand how to teach yoga to veterans. It is called "Mindful Yoga Therapy for Veterans Coping with Trauma." Morgan is acutely aware of the fact that teaching yoga to veterans is very different than teaching yoga to non-veterans.

Air Force Captain Duilia Mora, another yoga teacher at the Pentagon, also recognizes the importance of catering yoga classes to her veteran students.

For example, word choice can be very important when leading the students through the class. Morgan and Mora both note that they do not use phrases like "bind your hands" or "surrender" in their classes. Instead, they use words that give the student a sense of ownership and security.

"'You're the boss,' I use that one sometimes," Morgan told CBS News.

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Yoga classes at Pentagon helping veterans combat PTSD