The Relaxation Response

In 1975, Dr. Herbert Benson, a cardiologist and founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Mass General Hospital in Boston, published a ground-breaking book called, "The Relaxation Response." In it, he discussed his discovery of what he called The Relaxation Response, defined in Mosby's Medical Dictionary as "a protective mechanism against stress that brings about decreased heart rate, lower metabolism, and decreased respiratory rate. It is the physiologic opposite of the "fight or flight," or stress, response." Stress, as you probably already know, can bring on or exacerbate physical and emotional health problems so it stands to reason that anything that can decrease stress is pretty darn great! And, if you have any doubts of the efficacy, check out MBMI's published research and clinical findings at http://www.mgh.harvard.edu/bhi/research/clinical_findings.aspx. So now that we know it works, let's see what it takes to trigger relaxation.

Fortunately, it's not actually all that terribly hard. The recommendation is to take somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes twice a day, preferably before breakfast and before dinner, and sit quietly and comfortably in privacy.
The time of day you perform this simple meditation exercise isn't really all that important, you just want to make sure not to attempt this exercise just after eating a meal since it appears that digestion interferes with our physiological ability to enter into a state of complete relaxation. Follow the steps below and try it out!

1. Sit quietly in a comfortable and relaxed position.

2. Close your eyes.

3. Do an internal scan and deeply relax your muscles beginning at your feet and ending at your face.

4. Breathe through your nose. Begin to come into awareness of your breath noting how your body feels with each inhale and exhale. Focus your concentration on your breath. As extraneous thoughts begin to intrude on your meditation, note them without judgment, set them aside, and return your focus to your breath. For most people, this is easier to achieve if you had a word into your thoughts, something that has no extra meaning to you. For example, you might repeat the word "One" or even "Om" on each exhale in your mind. Breathe easily and naturally.

5. Continue for 10 to 20 minutes. You may open your eyes every once in a while to check the time but do not use an alarm clock (for obvious reasons!). When you are ready, relinquish your single-mindedness on your breath and your word and sit quietly for a few minutes, at first with your eyes closed and then with your eyes open.

6. Don't worry about whether or not you've achieved relaxation. The process is a passive one that is not achieved by reaching. With practice, the relaxation response is achieved more and more easily.

I'll leave you with a link to a great video that features Dr. Benson and very clearly describes what the Relaxation Response is and how to achieve it! If the below video doesn't automatically begin, you can get to it by clicking the following link, http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7392433