Relaxing Your Nervous System

Does your brain need to be convinced that relaxation is an important part of self-care? Are you a curious type? If you're the kind who likes to know the science behind your mind and body, how stress can cause disease, and how meditation and lifestyle changes can help offset modern chronic stressors at the cellular level, this course is for you.

In this 10 day course, you will learn an overview of the field of mind-body medicine and some of the research behind how the mind-body interaction plays out in our day-to-day psychology as well as at our biochemical, immune, neurologic, and genomic level.

Each lesson consists of a mini-review of the science of stress and relaxation and ends with a mini, research-supported technique to elicit your relaxation response, the physiologic opposite of your stress response.

By the end of the course, you will have learned the basic concepts of how your nervous system works to keep everything in balance and what you can do to directly influence the wear and tear of everyday stressors on your overall wellness, down to the cellular level.

The course ends with an invitation to a 10-day challenge to elicit your relaxation response on a regular basis with a flexible 10- or 20-minute meditation recording provided for your use.

All materials and exchanges with Juna Bobby are for informational and entertainment purposes only. Course materials and recordings are not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment of any health condition or problem. Any questions regarding your own health should be addressed with your own physician or other healthcare provider. Juna Bobby makes no warranties nor expresses or implied representations whatsoever regarding the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, comparative or controversial nature, or usefulness of any information contained or referenced on Insight Timer or any other platform. In using recordings and courses with Juna Bobby, you agree that neither MindBodySpace LLC, Juna Bobby nor any other party is or will be liable or otherwise responsible for any decision made or any action taken or any action not taken due to your use of any information presented.

Lección 1: Mind-Body Medicine

In this lesson, you'll get an overview and research highlights in mind-body medicine. You will understand the three phases of the stress response and the physiologic changes in our body that goes along with stress. We will end the lesson with a short, three-and-a-half-minute elicitation of your relaxation response by focusing on the breath. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced meditator, you can reset your nervous system with mini-meditations anytime, anywhere.

Mind-body medicine is a powerful tool for self-care. Use it in addition to regular check-ups with your health care professionals, pharmaceuticals and surgery.

Lección 2: Your Nervous System

In this lesson, you get a brief overview of your brain and nerves extending out to the rest of your body. You also learn about the different systems including the autonomic nervous system and the somatosensory nervous system which we exercise at the end of the lesson with a three-and-a-half-minute relaxation response body scan exercise.

Lección 3: Your Stress Response

In this lesson, you'll learn about the benefits of the fight or flight, stress response. We'll also cover a brief overview of the psychoneuroimmunology of the stress response and how chronically, biochemical changes can affect us in our day-to-day life by reshaping our brain connections over time.

We close with a mini-meditation practice going through the three steps to elicit our relaxation response.

Lección 4: Your Intelligent Body

In this lesson, you learn about how intelligent the human body is and the automatic functions that go on in the background to keep us in balance or homeostasis. You’ll also learn the basic concepts of allostasis and allostatic load. We end with a mini-meditation on relaxing the self — mind and body, to elicit our relaxation response.

Lección 5: Healthy Adaptation

In this lesson, you learn how brains can literally change in structure and function. Our mental perspectives and behaviors add to the stress balance that has already been preloaded for us — our genes, unique experiences and our environment. We can start to shift the balance toward healthy behaviors, one of which could be eliciting our relaxation response on a regular basis.

We end with a mini-meditation with guided imagery toward healthy adaptation.

Lección 6: The Relaxation Response

This lesson dives into what the relaxation response is and how to elicit it. The relaxation response is not a technique, rather it's a physiologic state that can be brought on voluntarily and can be reliably reproduced when it meets the criteria of breaking the chain of everyday thinking. We end the lesson with a sun salutation yoga sequence using the three steps to elicit the relaxation response.

Lección 7: The Science Of The Relaxation Response

In this lesson, we will discuss important biochemical and physiological research contributions that support the relaxation response as a powerful state that can change us down to the cellular level. It's never too late to start and it's never too early to teach our children about the science of our brains and bodies.

We end with the three steps to elicit the relaxation response.

Lección 8: Benefits Of The Relaxation Response

In this lesson, you learn about the research-backed benefits that a mind-body curriculum can have on the day-to-day lives of youth and adults. It's never too early or too late to introduce the science of mind-body medicine and lifestyle medicine into our lives. We end with a short body scan to elicit your relaxation response.

Lección 9: Shifting Perspective

In this lesson, you'll learn about the five key components of human resiliency. In order to boost resiliency, in addition to the relaxation response, we need additional cognitive and lifestyle changes that help us tip the perception of our experiences toward a more positive emotional valence.

We end the lesson with guided imagery to help shift our perspective.

Lección 10: Healthy Habits Challenge

In this lesson, we will do a review and summary of what you learned over this course in order to reinforce the concepts for your brain. We will discuss how to start a new lifestyle habit with an invitation for you to continue daily elicitation of the relaxation response for 10 more days.

Two free relaxation response meditations, one 10 minutes and one 20 minutes, are available for you under my teacher profile. We end with a guided imagery of your healthy self.

Reviews

Thoroughly enjoyed this course that included both scientific info and relaxing meditation. Packed a lot of "food for thought" into each session spoken in a moderately fast pace with a calm soothing voice,

Full of interesting information about the brain, body connection! ! It wZ great to get reinforcement that meditations daily are helping my brain and that I'm doing a great job!

Informative and practical, as well as inspiring. Thank you Juna!

Excellent overview of the science behind the relaxation response. I also liked the little practical breathing exercises at the end of each session. Well worth and I will listen to it again every now and then and do the 10 day challenge.

A truly wonderful balance of teaching and practice! I plan to repeat the course to let it all sink in more deeply, and continue on with the ten day challenge!

I think this course is truly life changing. Plenty of useful information delivered in a gentle and confident way in palatable, bite sized chunks together with actual relaxation response practices, every day. I already feel better and I will be continuing with Dr Juna’s meditation recordings.

Excellent, cohesive course with a great balance of information, insight and exercises.

Thank you for this informative course. I love the evidence based information that is provided. Will look for your meditations🙏

Thank you!! Such an informative course. This helped provide a deeper understanding. My intent to use this knowledge to continue to craft offerings to share in my yoga practice. 💕

Super helpful to verbalize concepts I already nurtured and to build on them with deeper knowledge.

This was a fantastic deep dive into the science behind the relation response. I'll definitely be using what I learned in my future meditation practice.

Great course, with loads of scientific information. Thanks Dr Juna for sharing your insights of the mind-body connection with the world and for your meditations. I am very grateful that I have discovered the many benefits of the relaxation response in my daily life. I think I will be sharing some of these ideas with my young relatives. As you said, it’s never too early or too late to begin. Best wishes 😊🙏

WoW what an amazing course applying right away the practice to the theory and showing the best current knowledge in a concise and accessible way.

I am a long COVIDER and your course is exactly aligned with reprogramming the whole nervous system (especially the ANS) that is so needed in most of us struggling with this condition.

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much ... I really enjoyed your course ... I have been practicing TM for 50+ years. It is always great to hear a neuroscientific explanation that supports my meditation experience. 🙏

Wonderful mix of science and practice. I am a long time meditator and learned so many new and useful things. Thank you!

Very informative! I’m ready for my neurology test now! Seriously I appreciate the insight this talk has provided. I feel I can take control of my reactions that cause so much stress for me. Learning a bit about the relaxation response really has me motivated to practice it regularly. For me this is a lifesaver! A huge Thank You!

Excellent corse packed with lots of helpful guidance in a very relaxed manner.

Informative and relaxing class! I loved learning about the neuroscience connected to meditation and the relaxation response.

Calming, intellectually stimulating, non judgmental teacher. Dr Juna is the best.

I very much am grateful for this course. It was just scientific enough to explain the effects and gave knowledge to make the changes an individual needs on their journey.
Thank You