Calm Your 🧠Nervous System in Minutes
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The Relaxation Response: Try it out with Dr. Juna, Harvard trained educator, mind-body and lifestyle medicine physician.
When life feels like one long to-do list, your nervous system never gets a break.
But what if you could reset your brain and body in just a few minutes—anywhere, anytime?
In this guided episode of the MindBodySpace Podcast, Harvard-trained educator and lifestyle medicine physician Dr. Juna Bobby walks you through one of the most powerful and research-based stress tools ever discovered:
the Relaxation Response, first identified by Dr. Herbert Benson, MD at Harvard Medical School’s Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine.
🧩 What Is the Relaxation Response?
Over 50 years ago, Dr. Benson—then a cardiologist at Harvard—discovered that the body has an equal and opposite state to the stress response.
By interrupting the “train of everyday thinking,” you can shift your physiology from fight-or-flight to rest-and-digest.
In this episode, Dr. Juna explains how this works on a neurological level:
- 🧘 The sympathetic nervous system (our stress accelerator) slows down
- 🌿 The parasympathetic nervous system (our relaxation brake) activates
- ❤️ Heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate decrease
- 💪 Muscles release stored tension
- 🧠 The prefrontal cortex regains control from the amygdala—so you can think clearly again
“When we interrupt everyday thoughts, we literally teach our nervous system that it’s safe.”
— Dr. Juna Bobby, MindBodySpace Podcast
🌬️ Try This 3-Minute Relaxation Practice
Find a quiet place (your parked car works great—Dr. Juna calls it her “meditation capsule”).
- Get Comfortable: Sit or lie down with feet grounded.
- Breathe Deeply: Inhale and release muscle tension—neck, shoulders, face, back.
- Choose a Word or Phrase: “Calm,” “Peace,” “One,” or a spiritual word that centers you.
- Repeat on the Out-Breath: Silently repeat your word as you exhale naturally.
- When Your Mind Wanders: Simply notice it and gently return to your word—no judgment.
That’s it. You’ve just activated your Relaxation Response, proven to lower blood pressure, improve sleep, and boost focus.
🧠 Why It Works: Neuroscience of Calm
According to research from Harvard Health Publishing and the National Institutes of Health, eliciting the relaxation response:
- Decreases activity in the amygdala (fear center)
- Increases activation of the prefrontal cortex (self-control & executive function)
- Improves vagal tone (heart-brain communication & digestion)
- Enhances neuroplasticity, helping the brain adapt to stress
“You’ve done an amazing thing for your body. This is science, not magic.”
— Dr. Juna Bobby
💬 Try Saying This to Your Child Tonight
“Let’s help our brain and body rest for a minute.
Breathe in calm… breathe out stress.”
Teaching kids about their nervous system builds lifelong resilience.
This practice is a core part of Dr. Juna’s Brain Builders and Brain Boss courses—adapted from the Benson-Henry Institute’s Resilient Youth Program.
🌿 Want to Go Deeper?
🎧 Listen: Spotify – MindBodySpace Podcast
📺 Watch: YouTube @MindBodySpace
🌐 Explore Courses: mindbodyspace.com
💌 Ask Questions + Get Free Tools: mindbodyspace.com/podcast
📚 References
- Harvard Medical School – Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine
- Harvard Health Publishing – Relaxation Techniques
- NIH – Meditation and Relaxation Response Research
- American College of Lifestyle Medicine
🔗 Follow & Connect
🌐 Website: mindbodyspace.com
🎧 Spotify: MindBodySpace Podcast
📺 YouTube: @MindBodySpace
📸 Instagram: @mindbody_space
💼 LinkedIn – MindBodySpace LLC: linkedin.com/company/mindbodyspace-llc
👩⚕️ LinkedIn – Dr. Juna Bobby: linkedin.com/in/junabobby
🐦 X / Twitter: @MindBody_Space
🧸 Brain Bun Plush & Courses: mindbodyspace.com/brainbun
⚠️ Disclaimer
This article and meditation are for educational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice. Always consult your physician before beginning any new wellness practice.
AUTOMATED TRANSCRIPT:
Calm Your Nervous System in Minutes
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[00:00:00] 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. I am a board certified radiologist and lifestyle medicine physician, and this is the MINDBODY Space Podcast where we talk about the science of resilience, and literally just by listening you can become more resilient.
[00:00:33] Eliciting the relaxation response is rather simple. the bottom line is that we want to interrupt. the train of everyday thinking.
[00:00:40] 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 para sympathetic nervous system. So our heart rate lowers, our breathing rate, lowers, we tend to relax muscle tension. Um, 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.
[00:01:16] 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.
[00:01:51] And I always like to say the car is an amazing meditation capsule if you have one. Um, 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 the muscles in your neck and shoulders.
[00:02:23] 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 vertebrae by vertebrae, by vertebrae. Just relax.
[00:02:41] Let the muscles kind of melt off your bones.
[00:02:47] 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 piece 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.
[00:03:40] now bring to mind a word or phrase that calms you.
[00:03:47] It could be from your religion or simply the word calm, with that word or phrase in mind, repeated silently to yourself on the out breath.
[00:04:04] Your natural out breath.
[00:04:17] There's no right or wrong way to do this. Just say the word or phrase.
[00:04:26] and whenever your mind wanders as it will just say, oh, well, and come back. say the word or phrase.
[00:04:49] on the outbreath,
[00:04:53] if your mind wanders a hundred times. A thousand times, 10,000 times, it's perfectly fine. Just simply notice the wandering,
[00:05:10] whatever your experience is, perfectly fine. Continue noticing when your thoughts drift off and simply return directing your mind back to your word or phrase.
[00:08:16] Now gently release that word or phrase, taking a deep breath in and exhaling,
[00:08:50] 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.
[00:09:17] That's the relaxation response.
[00:09:19] I hope you feel better.
[00:09:21] 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 on Insight Timer. head on over to mind bodyspace.com for resilience for your entire family. Thank you for joining me. I'll see you next time.