Herbert Benson

If you are anxious, you can't learn. It's like dropping seeds on concrete. With a quiet mind, people take things in.

The better you understand how these mind body clinical studies have improved hypertension, chronic pain, depression, angina pectoris, and many other health conditions and complaints, the more clearly you will see how these findings can be applied to treat your medical problems.

Emphasis was placed on the calming effects of regular, deep breathing; on the benefits of using a repetitive phrase or sound; and on the importance of passively ignoring intrusive thoughts.

The power of expectation—the kind of expectation that embraces a deep belief that what is expected will actually occur—has long been recognized as a significant mental and emotional force.

We now have scientific proof that the mind can heal the body.

We knew from our previous scientific studies that those practicing mind body techniques tended to experience lower blood pressure, calmer brain activity, healthful emissions of nitric oxide in the body’s cells, and other physical and emotional benefits.

These studies have established clearly that eliciting the relaxation response through any of a wide variety of techniques will actually change the body’s gene activity or 'expression.'

You can restructure your thinking processes to expect good health rather than bad. With that expectation, your mind will more likely influence your body in a healthful direction.

Because the fight-or-flight response and the Relaxation Response are in opposition, one counteracts the effects of the other. This is why we feel the Relaxation Response is of such import, for with its regular use it will offset the harmful effects of the inappropriate elicitation of the fight-or-flight response.

Since the environment is unlikely to grow less complex or more stable, we must find within our own bodies a physiologic means of dealing with the demands of twenty-first-century life.

The subject’s attitude toward the exercise, and this is absolutely essential, must not be intense and compulsive, but of a ‘let it happen’ nature called ‘passive concentration.’

We can either change the complexities of life—an unlikely event, for they are likely to increase—or develop ways that enable us to cope more effectively.

People were far more apt to adhere to a regular practice of mental focusing if the approach they selected was meaningful and compelling to them personally.

We learned that with self-care, we can effectively treat any disorder to the extent that it is caused by stress or mind/body interactions. Indeed, we can partly relieve or cure most of the common complaints patients bring to their doctors’ offices, simply by applying self-care techniques.

We can either change the complexities of life—an unlikely event, for they are likely to increase—or develop ways that enable us to cope more effectively.

The major physiologic change associated with meditation is a decrease in the rate of metabolism. Such a state of decreased metabolism, called hypometabolism, is a restful state. Like sleep, another hypometabolic state, meditation causes bodily energy resources to be taxed less.

The elicitation of the Relaxation Response, stress management, regular exercise, good nutrition, and the power of belief all have a tremendous role to play in our healing.