Stress Less, The Jewish Way

By Menachem Posner – Chabad.org

Americans are stressed out. This is especially true among college students and those entering the workforce. A 2017 Gallup poll shows that 54 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 “frequently experience stress,” and a whopping eight in 10 Americans are afflicted by stress in some way.

For nearly two decades, Rabbi Adam Stein, together with his wife, Esther, has directed the Chabad House at Stony Brook University on Long Island, N.Y. During that time, he perfected a course of easy-to-remember Chassidic meditations, designed to keep practitioners living fully in the moment. Since 2015, he has also led the Center for Mental-imagery Based Stress Management (MiBSM) and joined the American Mindfulness Research Association as a Practice Professional. His techniques have since been adopted by college students and others all over the world.

The core of Stein’s teachings were received from his mentors at yeshivah in Kfar Chabad, Israel, where he studied for rabbinic ordination after completing his B.A. in political science and Judaic studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Tel Aviv University, graduating in 1991. According to Stein, the meditations he received can be traced back through Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Kesselman (1894-1971), who mentored generations of aspiring Chassidim in the art of prayer and hitbonenut, Chassidic meditation.

The rabbi will be presenting the meditations in “Stress Less: The Jewish Way to Living in the Moment,” a four-part series of online lectures, beginning on Nov. 27 and running for four consecutive Tuesdays.

In the first class, Stein will define Jewish mindfulness and introduce basic terminology. In the second, he will focus on harnessing Jewish teachings to facilitate living in the moment at peace and stress-free. In the third class, students will be introduced to techniques that will allow them to apply the teachings of the previous two classes to real-life scenarios. The final session will focus on faith in an uncertain world, and how one can maintain serenity in a time of near-constant change.

Each lecture will be accompanied by texts, live chat boards, quizzes and student support at every step of the way. Although the courses are offered free of charge, sign up is required and a donation suggested.

“There is no question that stress is a major issue these days, affecting everyone to varying degrees. Technology, employment uncertainty and political volatility have taken us to a place we could not have imagined just a few decades ago,” says Rabbi Yaakov Kaplan, who produced the course. “The age-old wisdom of Chassidic teachings provide some real tools that I am confident everyone can use in their lives. Sign up for this course. You’ll be grateful you did.”