Above: Have you felt you’ve been in a downward spiral recently, fueled by stress? A neuroscientist will hold a virtual talk for the community with tips on reversing that.
Southborough Youth & Family Services is offering more free help to residents feeling overwhelmed by stress.
Earlier this year, SYFS booked an expert on using neuroscience for a special talk. Now, instead of holding it in person, Dr. Alex Korb will address Southborough residents over zoom. The talk will take place, Wednesday, April 22nd at 7:00 pm.
The event is funded by a grant the agency received from the Department of Public Health. Director Sarah Cassell writes:
Little did we know when we started planning for this how much we would all need this right now. This is a really fantastic opportunity as Dr. [Alex] Korb will be talking about ways we can all help ourselves right now without all the usual coping strategies we normally have access to.
The flyer pitches that neuroscience can help people feeling stressed out or unable to relax:
By making small changes in your thoughts and actions it’s possible to change the activity and chemistry of key neural circuits that regulate stress.
The Upward Spiral will teach you about the neuroscience of stress and offer some practical tips for getting stress under control and increase your wellbeing.
Dr. Korb is a neuroscientist and author of Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time. Among other topics, the book covers the area of the brain that regulates stress your body’s reaction to stress. Dr. Korb writes that the hypothalamus:
can send your body into fight-or-flight mode, raising stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. It’s like a military base waiting to deploy troops to deal with threats. When you’re depressed, it’s a base on high alert—it has a hair-trigger response, making it difficult to relax and just be happy. Finding ways to calm the hypothalamus is therefore one of the best ways to reduce stress.
For this SYFS offering, the attendance isn’t capped and there’s no fee. But pre-registration is required in order to get the details on the zoom video conference. And there is a reason to sign up quickly.
The first 30 registrants will receive a free copy of Dr. Korb’s book. (SYFS is unable to mail them at this time. The agency will arrange for registrants to pick up the books at SYFS when they reopen.)
To register, click here and sign up through the Southborough Recreation website.* Zoom information will be sent out to registrants on the afternoon prior.
*Rec launched a new website earlier this year. If you haven’t created an account on the new database yet, you’ll need to do that to register. (It won’t pull up your account from the old website.)
