Mindbody relaxation

The goal of mindbody relaxation is to relax both the body and mind. The basic idea is that it's easier to relax your mind if you first relax your body. There are a variety of mindbody relaxation techniques including yoga and meditation. Mindbody meditation goes by many different names, including mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindful meditation. The term "mindbody" is spelled either as "mind-body" or as "mindbody", to emphasize the connection between the body and mind.

Why is mindbody relaxation important? Tension has been proven to have many negative consequences. Tension causes premature aging of DNA. A study at the University of California at San Francisco showed that mothers who are under high stress have more damage to their DNA than mothers under low stress. Tension and stress cost American businesses $300 billion a year. The total cost includes increased health costs, accidents, absenteeism, employee turnover, and reduced productivity, according to The American Institute of Stress

Benefits
Mindbody relaxation reduces the risk of heart disease by 30%, and reduces deaths due to heart disease by 23% according to a study in the American Journal of Cardiology, which also showed that relaxation increases life expectancy. Furthermore mindbody relaxation techniques significantly reduce the risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks, and fatal heart attacks according to a study in the British Medical Journal.

Mindbody relaxation reverses hardening of the arteries. Not only does mindbody relaxation reduce the risk of heart disease, it actually reverses hardening of the arteries according to a study published in the American Heart Association journal, Stroke.

Mindbody relaxation reduces the risk of a depression recurrence by 50%. Approximately 10-30% of people will suffer at least one episode of depression in their life. Relaxation techniques in conjunction with medication reduce the risk of recurrence of depression significantly more than medication alone.

Mindbody relaxation is effective in treating and preventing substance abuse and addiction. Approximately 10% of people suffer from drug and alcohol addiction. Numerous studies have shown that relaxation provides long-term improvements in self-esteem and psychological health, and significantly reduces the risk of substance abuse.

Mindbody relaxation helps treat anxiety and panic attacks. A study at the University of Massachusetts showed that patients who suffered from generalized anxiety or panic disorder felt significantly better after learning relaxation techniques, and continued to use those techniques over the long-term.

Mindbody relaxation can strengthen the immune system. One study showed that after just eight weeks of learning how to relax, participants had a stronger immune system.

Mindbody relaxation relieves chronic pain, and relieves chronic low-back pain. In one study, after a ten-week mindbody relaxation course many patients needed less pain medication. After fifteen months, not only did they suffer less pain, but because they suffered less pain they also suffered less from depression and anxiety.

Mindbody relaxation reduces the symptoms of fibromyalgia. In one study, 51% of the patients experienced moderate to marked improvement in their fibromyalgia symptoms. That is rare in most treatments of fibromyalgia.

History
The history of mindbody relaxation goes back two and a half thousand years to the origins of yoga. But the modern history of mindbody relaxation begins with Dr. Edmund Jacobson of the University of Chicago. In the 1920s he developed a technique called progressive relaxation, in which patients were taught to progressively relax their muscles. Dr. Jacobson explicitly stated that by relaxing the muscles of the body an individual would feel more relaxed in general.

In the 1960s Dr. Hans Selye, an endocrinologist at the University of Montreal, was the first to document the physical consequences of stress on the immune system. Dr. Selye coined the word stressor, which has become part of the vocabulary.

Also in the 1960s Dr. Herbert Benson, a cardiologist at Harvard, began to study the medical benefits of relaxation. Dr. Benson conclusively proved the mindbody connection by showing that simple relaxation techniques could lower people's blood pressure, slow their heart rate, and calm their brain waves. He called that effect "the relaxation response". In 1975 Dr. Benson wrote a popular book called The Relaxation Response.

Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, a molecular biologist at the University of Massachusetts, took these ideas and is largely responsible for the adoption of meditation by hospitals and health care.