Herbert Benson, M.D., is the founding President of the Mind/Body Institute and is the Mind/Body Medical Institute
Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He also serves as the Chief of the Division of Behavioral Medicine at the
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is the author or co-author of over 170 scientific publications and ten books, and he has been
the recipient of both national and international awards.
Dr. Benson defines stress as "any situation that requires behavioral adjustment. Any change to which you have to adjust
is stressful." Stressful situations evoke the fight or flight response, which is characterized by increased blood pressure, increased
heart rate, increased breath rate, and increased blood flow to the muscles caused by the release of stress hormones such as adrenaline
and epinephrine.
In today's stressful world, this response does not only occur in dangerous situations: "We evoke the fight or flight
response repeatedly, often, not so much because of an event that's threatening us...but from inferential reasoning." All of the "what
if" questions and the times of worry release these same stress hormones and "contribute to over 50% of visits to health care professionals."
Dr. Benson informs us that we do, however, have an alternative response to fight or flight called the relaxation
response. After a successful experiment with monkeys in the 1960s, individuals involved with transcendental meditation volunteered to
have their relaxation techniques studied. Dr. Benson and fellow researchers found "dramatic physiologic changes with the practice of
meditation. By the simple act of their thinking a meditative thought," there were physiologic effects "exactly opposite to the fight or
flight response." They decided to search for other ways to bring about this response.
The researchers determined that there were ultimately two basic steps that comprise transcendental meditation:
repetition (of a word, sound, prayer, phrase, or movement) and ignoring other thoughts when they come to mind. The same physiologic
changes occurred in Catholic and Jewish individuals who prayed regularly. "Basically, to the extent that any condition is caused or made
worse by stress it can be effectively treated by the once or twice daily elicitation of this physiologic state." This can be
accomplished through many different activities, such as meditation, repetitive prayer, yoga, and Tai Chi.
In order to demonstrate the positive effects of the relaxation response, Dr. Benson takes everyone through a brief
exercise focused on relaxation, breathing, and repetition. After merely two minutes, audience members report feeling more relaxed, more
alert, and a greater sense of well-being. Dr. Benson suggests that we incorporate this exercise into our daily schedules.
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