Les 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.
Les 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.
Les 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.
Les 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.
Les 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.
Les 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.
Les 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.
Les 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.
Les 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.
Les 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.