In this Mind Body Space podcast episode, Dr. Juna Bobby, a board‑certified radiologist and lifestyle‑medicine physician, introduces listeners to the relaxation response—a physiological state opposite to the stress response—drawing on the work of Dr. Herbert Benson. She explains that the relaxation response is achieved by interrupting habitual thought patterns, lowering sympathetic activity, and activating the parasympathetic (rest‑and‑digest) system. Listeners are guided through a simple, seated or lying‑down practice: progressive muscle relaxation from neck and shoulders down to the feet, followed by a breath‑synchronized mantra or calming word. Dr. Bobby normalizes mind wandering, advising a gentle “oh well” and return to the mantra. The session concludes with a re‑orientation to the environment, optional eye opening, and a stretch, encouraging listeners to notice any shift in how they feel. She invites the audience to reuse the meditation anytime, and points them to her Insight Timer teacher profile and the mindbodyspace.com website for further resilience resources.
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We're gonna elicit the relaxation response in the same exact way that I first learned about it over 12 years ago from Dr. Herbert Benson. He is the late, great cardiologist at Harvard Medical School. He was one of the first physicians to actually study meditation and its effects on blood pressure. Hello there, I'm Dr. Juna Bobby MD. I'm a board-certified radiologist and lifestyle medicine physician, and this is the Mind Body Space Podcast where we talk about the science of resilience And literally just by listening, you can become more resilient. Eliciting the relaxation response is rather simple. The bottom line is that we want to interrupt the train of everyday thinking, you know, all those thoughts that go on and on in our heads all day long. So when we interrupt that, we can elicit the relaxation response, which is the physiologic opposite of the stress response, meaning that we turn down the sympathetic nervous system and turn up the parasympathetic nervous system. So our heart rate lowers, our breathing rate lowers, we tend to relax muscle tension, a whole host of things happen. And that's for another episode. But suffice to know that we always have the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems on all the time because that's how we live. That's why, that's how we are alive. But a lot of times when we're in that stress response from that sort of everyday thought process, our sympathetic nervous systems are jacked up. So we're in that stress response that everybody is familiar with by now, the stress response. So let's go ahead and increase the opposite response, which is the rest and digest system, opposite of the stress response.
Okay?
So it's very simple. So sit quietly in your chair, feet on the ground, or if you need to lie down, whatever you need to do, go ahead, get comfortable, be in a safe spot.. And I always like to say the car is an amazing meditation capsule if you have one.
Otherwise, just close the door, put the earphones in, relax, sit quietly, and let's just first release the tension in our muscles. So inhale and exhale. Release all the muscles in your neck and shoulders. Next out breath, release all those muscles in your face, your body, your torso, and down your back. We hold so much tension there, all the way down your back, vertebra by vertebra by vertebra. Just relax. Let the muscles kind of melt off your bones. And breathe out down to the bottom of your feet, releasing all the tension in your lower body. And a final breath whenever you're ready, at your own pace. On your next exhale, release from the top of your head all the way down out your fingertips and feet. Releasing all the muscles from the top of the head, your face, neck, shoulders, upper body, arms and hands, lower body, all the way out your feet. Now bring to mind a word or phrase that calms you. It could be from your religion or simply the word calm. With that word or phrase in mind, repeat it silently to yourself on the out-breath. Your natural out breath. There's no right or wrong way to do this. Just say the word or phrase. And whenever your mind wanders, as it will, just say, "Oh well," and come back. Say the word or phrase on the out-breath. If your mind wanders 100 times, A thousand times, ten thousand times, it's perfectly fine. Just simply notice the wandering. Whatever you experience is perfectly fine. Continue noticing when your thoughts drift off and simply return, directing your mind back to your word or phrase. Now gently release that word or phrase, taking a deep breath in and exhaling. Noticing how you feel now. Take another deep cleansing breath. Listening to the sounds around you, coming back to your space. You can gently open your eyes if you haven't already done so. Feel free to stretch. Now notice how you feel.
That's the relaxation response, and I hope you feel better. You've done an amazing thing for your body. You can come back to this meditation whenever you like. You can also find this on Insight Timer. I'm a teacher there. Just look up Dr. Juna Bobby MD on Insight Timer. Head on over to mindbodyspace.com for resilience for your entire family. Thank you for joining me. I'll see you next time.
