Sisters And Brothers Stop and Relax-Max Daddy Doctor Benson’s The Relaxation Response  

Book Review

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

 

The Relaxation Response, Doctor Herbert Benson, Avon, New York, 1975

No question that modern humankind mostly has gotten caught on the fast track-fast lives, fast communications, fast everything and eventually fast medical problems. And the more we go forward it seems the faster things jump up and bite us. So it is nice to hear advice even if it is almost forty years old now from a medical researcher who says slow down, slow way down. While he may have a fistful of modern research (which has only gotten more specific as to the risks of living too fast not the basic facts since then) to back him up his takes his cues from the ancients, Greeks, Medieval guys, hell, maybe Adam and Eve or before that human being need to relax, are built that way and so we had better take stock and slow down.  And you know what he is still spouting those words of wisdom at his Benson Henry Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston where recently he made everybody laugh at a seminar when he declared contrary to public perception that he is very much alive (the Henry part by the way named for the major Red Sox owner who has gotten “religion” on this stress business).

Here’s where the words of wisdom come in, come in like the wind. We are not only built to relax, need to relax from the tensions of modern life but there are fairly easy scientifically verified ways to do such actions. What Doctor Benson has observed is that finding a quiet spot, finding a comfortable way to position yourself, and finding some simple way like concentrating on a word, your name, anything to block the distractions for a reasonable period, in short, meditating will bring very positive health results.

Now back in the 1970s that might have been more newsworthy at a time when some people were starting to seriously question the rat race but today it is almost a truism. Then the good doctor touted the good results from Transcendental Meditation which was in vogue the today probably Yoga has caught the greater attention but whatever it is that gets that pulse rate down and gets you in a good place for a few minutes anyway is worth listening to. But you don’t need to get a yoga mat, spiffy outfit to look good going to and fro, or even leave the house to hit the mats with twenty other weary people you can do this at home. Nice. And for the resisters and deniers to this somber advice the good doctor has the research if needed, or for history buffs the lineage back to his earlier sources.