In this stressful world, acquiring a set of tools to manage mindset, emotions, and psychological well being are not just important, they are becoming essential. The number of people suffering from diseases is tied to undue stress, a problem that continues to be on the rise. The medical community works hard to provide treatment options, but why aren’t we working harder on researching and developing preventative methods?
One health practitioner, who serves residents in the New York City and tri-state area, is about to do just that. Having been certified in a new program developed at the Harvard Medical School, Alex Eingorn D.C. is setting out to make prevention the norm. Eingorn is an experienced chiropractor, meditation coach, and yoga instructor certified as a facilitator of the innovative SMART series.
S.M.A.R.T Program
SMART stands for Stress Management And Resiliency Training. Over eight weeks, a two-hour session is spent each week studying and practicing different aspects of stress management and various behavioral therapies that lead to healthy living.
The first module, Healing States of Mind, participants get a comprehensive overview of the science of stress and stress management, followed by exercises in self-inventory. A unique style of journaling helps participants learn more about themselves and the reasons they react the way they do in certain situations. The way we grow up shapes how we operate in the world. There are incidents in our past that trigger strong emotional responses. Through journaling and taking self-inventory, we can understand more about how our mind works, and why. Participants in SMART during this module have an opportunity to understand gratitude and how important it is to have a positive mindset, which alters body chemistry.
Learning New Responses
Many tools will be presented and practiced, to pave the way for clients to learn how to respond in new ways to stimuli. Rather than automatic default reactions, participants can learn to identify, rectify their thinking and approach issues with a more relaxed and constructive response. By successfully following the techniques outlined in SMART workshops, one each week, clients rediscover a life of peace, purpose, and higher productivity.
This is a comprehensive program developed at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Herbert Benson, MD, is a pioneer in Mind-Body Medicine. These SMART classes, produced by his team, guides participants as they learn about and master tools that help them recognize and manage stress, anxiety, exhaustion, and poor physical habits. By incorporating these tools into everyday life, clients are happier, more productive, and have a greater sense of well being.
Research has discovered a great deal more about the brain and its ability to influence and control what happens in the body. Our thought processes are an essential key to how our bodies react to stress. The first step in educating ourselves about health is understanding how this works, beginning with the brain.
The amygdala, for centuries, has been tuned to react to situations with a flight or fight response. While this was practical when we were living in the wild and needed it to survive, in modern times this feature has gone awry. Many of us operate on automatic pilot, responding in ways that cause our body to exist in the “fight or flight,” mode almost continuously. This situation increases the level of cortisol raises blood pressure, strains the heart muscle, and puts adrenaline production into overdrive. Even breathing is affected as it becomes more shallow, which lowers the levels of oxygen that can get to our organs and brain.
Over time these constant attacks on the body, making it very difficult to fight off an imbalance or illness. And of course, this kind of stress response makes it very difficult to experience any degree of happiness or sense of wellbeing.
The SMART program draws from disciplines that have already been proven effective at reducing stress and helps participants learn about and master these tools. The goal is to help them manage stress better and retrain their thinking and behavior in methods that lead to better health. Modules include meditation, stretching and yoga, and nutrition, to name just a few. One module, for instance, is meditation which has been found to alter the body at a genetic level and reduce inflammation. Because of this vital research, SMART has incorporated easy-to-master meditation methods into the workshop.
Learning to live life with stability and balance and protecting yourself from the effects of stress is the path to physical, mental, and spiritual health.
A Life Changing Experience
As an experienced health practitioner who has offered many different forms of preventative treatments in his practice, Alex Eingorn, D.C. was drawn to the SMART program as soon as he learned about it. After going through the workshops himself, and finding it life-changing, he decided to become a trained facilitator so that he could help others.
Eingorn says that the stress we face not only threatens our quality of life, but it’s also robbing us of good health, happiness, and productivity. “Fundamentally, I believe we’re put here on earth to experience joy and share kindness with others,” he says. “But, we can’t do that unless we get out of our heads and learn to deal effectively with the stress we are under.”
The SMART program is designed to be the perfect collection of tools and approaches to build resilience and shield the body from the damaging effects of stress. In the end, it may also prove to be a clear path to happiness, health, and productivity. It’s certainly worth a try.
SMART Program for Stress Management
Register for the SMART Program
To register for Alex Eingorn’s SMART program with Better Health Chiropractic (https://betterhealthchiropracticpc.com/), call (212) 956-5920. Be sure to register soon, as spots are limited.