6 minute read
FINDING CALM
FINDING CALM During Trying Times
From the moment we wake up and log on to our day, we are flooded with news about people whose days started off much the same, with an expectation of going from point A to point B, to lunch, to point C and then back home.
But something happened. A tornado touched down in the neighborhood. Or a train derailed in a cousin’s hometown. Or, like now, an invisible killer stalks the globe, threatening to take our life or the life of someone we know.
Within seconds, we are flooded with horror and helplessness. Unable to stop the cascade of acute stress hormones, our bodies shift into fight-or-flight mode or leave us frozen like deer in the headlights. Whether we see what is happening online, on screen or in real time, we feel unsafe in our own skin. Although disturbing images can be swiped away, when something bad happens to us, we don’t know what to do. We can’t change the channel. Even during these tough times, we can find opportunities to develop new strengths and grow individually and together. To start with, we need emotional first aid to help us find calm quickly. We can do this by locating the tension points in our body and asking them what color would help them feel calm. Then we can inhale that color, letting it find its way within to soothe our cells, and exhale our stress by breathing out a different color. We can repeat this technique as long and as often as needed. Teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, report that this really works for kids, too. To heal means to make whole. It doesn’t mean to make something go away. Hardship is part of life’s journey. Even this global pandemic can serve as our spiritual wake-up call to learn how different spiritual traditions heal from life-shattering events. Five gifts offer us the keys to wholeness: n Humility helps us accept what we cannot change. n Patience takes the edge off when the hurt lasts longer than we want. n Empathy keeps us connected for the long haul. n Forgiveness means forgiving ourselves, our leaders and God. n Growth lets us look back with thanks for what we learned when the journey of life was anything but comfortable and easy. Let’s journey together. Laurie Nadel, a Manhattan psychotherapist, is the author of The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes. by Laurie Nadel
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Integrative Medicine Pioneer Dr. Peter Amato
By Sheila Julson S cranton native Peter Amato,
Ph.D., comes from an entrepreneurial family who owned an automotive parts business. His father, a World War II veteran, had suffered from several health issues including chronic fatigue syndrome and congestive heart failure, but he took measures such as juice fasting, vitamins and steam inhalation to help improve his health. “I think it bought him some time,” Amato recalls. “That had an influence on me.”
Amato and his siblings later took over the family business. In his late 30s, he entered drug and alcohol rehab. He found solace through meditation which propelled him to explore other natural wellness modalities. During the mid-1990s—well before integrative holistic therapies such as meditation, acupuncture, massage, nutrition and energy work were recognized by the mainstream—Amato attended conferences and workshops and got to know wellness pioneers such as Dr. Andrew Weil and Deepak Chopra.
Amato earned a bachelor’s degree in nutrition from Westbrook University, and he went on to get a master’s degree in transpersonal psychology. He then earned a doctorate in mind-body medicine and integrative health sciences from Saybrook University.
In 1997, Amato opened his first wellness center, Inner Harmony. He worked with Weil to form the National Integrative Medicine Council and served on the board of the foundation. He helped spearhead the United States National Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine (NCCIH) by working with U.S. senators, industry leaders, labor and insurance persons. A report he co-wrote, “A Journey Toward New Medicine” further legitimized integrative medicine and was presented to President Bill Clinton. “The gavel went down and five million dollar funding was allocated to form NCCIH,” he said. The NCCIH, housed under the National Institutes of Health, is still prominent today as a go-to resource for complementary and alternative medicine research.
Amato had also worked with Weil to develop the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, a teaching program for M.D.s and D.O.s at the University of Arizona - Tucson medical school. Amato had also developed integrative protocols for Mercy Health System and led community wellness workshops with the company of Dr. Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson.
After operating an Inner Harmony Wellness Center in the Caribbean, on St. Maarten Island, Amato brings his mission of fostering holistic transformation among individuals, families and the recovery community back home to Pennsylvania.
Inner Harmony Center for Well-Being is his new “country gentleman doctor’s office,” where he employs nutritional consultation, lifestyle, and wellness coaching to peel the onion and get to the underlying layers of one’s emotional, psychological, physiology, and spiritual health issues. Amato uses methods including SCIO, a quantum physics-based biofeedback scan that checks up to 12,000 positive and negative frequency signatures in the body to locate imbalances in the cellular makeup or energy fields. Amato is also highly educated and trained in two schools of muscle testing—applied kinesiology and Quantum Reflex Analysis (QRA), which is a cellular resonant analysis. The QRA cross-references a patient’s medical history and other metabolic testing to get an idea of a patient’s nutritional needs. He specializes in Lyme disease.
Amato notes that conventional blood work can sometimes miss health issues because it doesn’t detect the root cause. “With cellular resonant testing and biofeedback, we are able to identify the precise core issues,” he explains. “Then we can focus on proper diet, nutrition, restoring the body’s alkaline and pH balance, targeting and eliminating chronic infections, detoxification, and finally send the patient on a path of rejuvenation.”
Detoxification methods include tinctures, herbs, and nutraceuticals. Amato also uses autonomic response testing (ART) which helps restore the body’s biofield, or extracellular matrix. He has trained at the Klinghardt Academy. World
renowned Medical Doctor Dietrich Klinghardt predicts that neurodegenerative diseases will be the next leading cause of death. “We’re already seeing it with autism, brain fog, and sleep issues caused by environmental factors like electric and magnetic fields (EMF), dirty electricity, glyphosate, and smart TVs which are waking up human indigenous viruses,” he states.
Amato offers patients environmental tips on how to remediate their homes from dirty electricity, such as installing a nominally priced shut-off timer on wi-fi routers and keeping electronic gadgets out of the bedroom. He offers informational sessions and workshops at Inner Harmony, as well as two free talks per month at Thrive Wellness Center, in Kingston.
“It motivates me to see results and how what I do works!” Amato concludes. “Seeing people regain a bounce in their step makes it all worth it for me.”
Inner Harmony Center for Well-Being is located at 131 Reynolds Rd., Dalton, Pennsylvania. For more information, call 570-319- 6073 or visit InnerHarmonyWellness.com. See ads on pages 23 and 29.
Sheila Julson is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Natural Awakenings magazines across the country.
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