We all know the basic rules to mindbody wellness: Be better. Eat healthier. Move more. Take some space to think. But there are times when we hit a wall, making forward movement difficult. What then?

“You can go from stress to strength,” says Dr. Michael Kennis, a retired chiropractor who offers acupuncture and Chinese medicine in Sleepy Hollow. “We have to honor the importance and complexity of the human experience in health and healing, going beyond a purely conventional medical approach, and see one another heart to heart.”

A core tenet of acupuncture and Chinese medicine is that the pace and stresses of daily life affect the quality and flow of qi, the body’s life-force energy, Kennis says. “When the body is stressed, it shuts down most nonemergency systems, including the immune system, disrupting the body’s self-healing abilities.”

Kennis uses the Eight Extraordinary Vessel acupuncture treatment to help resolve core emotional and energetic issues that can impact physical health. Conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, chronic lingering pain, fatigue, anxiety or mild depression and sluggish metabolism often respond favorably to the treatment, he says.

And as he is also an experienced licensed nutritionist, he uses a functional nutrition “root cause approach” to strategically personalize his patients’ diet, herbal supplements and lifestyle to support the desired changes.

Staying healthy as we age requires mindbody awareness, he says. “Clearly, successful aging entails many facets, too numerous to discuss here. But cultivating and sustaining health and happiness at any age has a great deal to do with maintaining one’s attitude and capacity for resilience and balance, and indeed can be within everyone’s reach.”

Dr. Michael Kennis practices at 245 N. Broadway, Ste. 206, Sleepy Hollow, NY. Contact him at 914.433.9340.