MIND BODY MEDICINE    


Herbert Benson & William Proctor (2010). 

Relaxation Revolution: Enhancing your Personal Health through the Science and Genetics of Mind Body Healing.


Benson is a medical doctor that spent nearly 50 years (at the time of his writing in 2010) at Harvard University (from student to doctor to researcher to co-founder of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital). Since the 1970's Benson has been researching the "relaxation response," initially a mind body method of coping with stress, and now a mind body science that has profound implications for improving the health of a multitude of stress related diseases. 

The method is simple, involves no drugs, cost nothing, involves some practice and time, yet most physicians have not heard of it, yet alone are trained in it or are willing to prescribe it. Benson believes that mind body medicine should be the 3rd leg of medicine, along side and equal to drugs and surgery. Benson provides convincing evidence (multiple studies across decades of research) published in peer reviewed scientific journals, some of which are controlled double blind studies, showing the efficacy of the relaxation response. He notes that from anecdotal and clinical evidence that "religion/spirituality" seems to intensity the effect but that conventional "rational" modern science does not have the means to measure religion/spirituality. 

The protocol for practicing the mind body method is paraphrased below.


The Benson-Henry Protocol 

Phase I Relaxation Response (my paraphrasing)

1.Find a quiet place, sit with eyes closed, relax all muscles, breath slowly.

2.Focus on a word, image, or the breath, keeping the awareness constant as you exhale.

3.Assume a passive attitude...if distracted, say "oh well" and return to the focus.

4.Do once a day for 12-15 mins then immediately go to phase II

Phase II Visualization

1. Picture/Imagine a memory of yourself in a state of wellness doing what you enjoy, make it personal...Benson calls this "remembered wellness."

2.Hold the dynamic image and/or let the movie play through...keep returning to the image or movie.

3.If distracted, say "oh well" and return to the image/movie.

4.Do once a day for 8-10 mins.

Total time commitment is 20-25 mins a day for 8 weeks to achieve maximum effect (to change the activation of genes that promote health).

For those that want a guided meditation of the process, see Olivia audio CD of 20 mins. or view here on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlNTtmKeNy0





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