---
title: The Relaxation Response (archived)
url: https://mbmi.org/archive/mind-body-basics/relaxation-response
description: The relaxation response overview archived from mbmi.org: Herbert Benson's finding of a counterbalance to the stress response in Harvard's Cannon laboratory.
original_author: Mind/Body Medical Institute (later Benson-Henry Institute)
archived_at: https://web.archive.org/web/20090303172315/http://www.mbmi.org/basics/whatis_rresponse.asp
---
# The Relaxation Response (archived)

A brief introduction to the idea at the center of the institute's work.

- Original author: Mind/Body Medical Institute (later Benson-Henry Institute)
- Original URL: http://www.mbmi.org/basics/whatis_rresponse.asp
- Captured: 2005-12-10 to 2020-02-08 (84 snapshots)
- Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20090303172315/http://www.mbmi.org/basics/whatis_rresponse.asp
- Current guide: https://mbmi.org/relaxation-response

## What this page said

The page said that in the late 1960s, in the same Harvard Medical School room where Walter Cannon had studied fight-or-flight half a century earlier, Herbert Benson found a counterbalancing mechanism. Just as stimulating an area of the hypothalamus can cause the stress response, he said, activating other areas of the brain reduces it. He named this opposite state the relaxation response.

It invited readers to continue to pages on how to bring it on and weave it into daily life.

## Key points from the original

- Described as the counterbalance to fight-or-flight.
- Credited to Herbert Benson's work in the late 1960s.
- Led to pages on eliciting the response and common questions.

This is a historical record, not medical advice.