Independent, with no ads or sponsors. Not affiliated with the Mind/Body Medical Institute or the Benson-Henry Institute.Independent · not affiliated with MBMI or the Benson-Henry Institute
mbmi.orgMind-body medicine, explained

Mind-body medicine, from the research

Stress has a physical cost. Your body also has a way to reverse it.

Clear, sourced guides to the relaxation response, stress and the conditions where mind-body practice is studied, built on the archive of the institute that pioneered the field.

Learn the relaxation responseFind a condition
MeasureStress responseRelaxation response
Heart rateRisesFalls
Breathing rateRisesFalls
Oxygen consumptionRisesFalls
Carbon dioxide outputRisesFalls
Direction of change reported in early laboratory studies of the relaxation response, compared with the stress response. Source: Benson, Beary & Carol, Psychiatry, 1974.

Essential guides

All guides
OverviewWhat the relaxation response isThe state of deep rest that counters fight-or-flight, and how researchers first measured it.PracticeHow to elicit the relaxation responseTwo steps and a ten-minute daily routine you can start today, without equipment.StressHow stress affects the bodyWhat chronic stress does to the heart, sleep, digestion and mood, and why.

Conditions A–Z

See all conditions

The MBMI Archive

The Mind/Body Medical Institute website, preserved

For most of the 2000s, this address was the public home of the institute founded by Herbert Benson, MD, who described the relaxation response. Our archive rebuilds its site section by section, with a summary and the original source for every page.

Explore the archiveAbout the archive
64archived pages
2001–20years of captures
568old links redirected

How we make these guides

Written from the research. Dated, sourced and kept current.

Read our editorial standards
  1. 1We start from published research

    Guides summarise peer-reviewed studies and clinical guidelines, and cite each one.

  2. 2Every page is dated

    Guides show when they were last updated. Archive pages show when the original was captured.

  3. 3History and current advice stay separate

    Archive pages record what the institute published. Guides reflect current evidence and link back to the archive.