---
title: mbmi.org
url: https://mbmi.org/
description: Sourced guides to the relaxation response, stress and mind-body medicine, plus an archive of the Mind/Body Medical Institute website (2001–2020).
---
# Stress has a physical cost. Your body also has a way to reverse it.

Clear, sourced guides to the relaxation response, stress and the conditions where mind-body practice is studied, built on the archive of the institute that pioneered the field.

## Essential guides

- [What the relaxation response is](https://mbmi.org/relaxation-response): The state of deep rest that counters fight-or-flight, and how researchers first measured it.
- [How to elicit the relaxation response](https://mbmi.org/relaxation-response/how-to): Two steps and a ten-minute daily routine you can start today, without equipment.
- [How stress affects the body](https://mbmi.org/stress/effects): What chronic stress does to the heart, sleep, digestion and mood, and why.

## Conditions A–Z

- [High blood pressure](https://mbmi.org/conditions/high-blood-pressure)
- [Heart health](https://mbmi.org/conditions/heart-health)
- [Infertility and stress](https://mbmi.org/conditions/infertility)
- [Menopause](https://mbmi.org/conditions/menopause)
- [Insomnia and sleep](https://mbmi.org/conditions/insomnia)
- [Chronic pain](https://mbmi.org/conditions/chronic-pain)
- [Anxiety and depression](https://mbmi.org/conditions/anxiety-and-depression)
- [Cancer and mind-body care](https://mbmi.org/conditions/cancer)
- [Asthma](https://mbmi.org/conditions/asthma)
- [Digestive health](https://mbmi.org/conditions/digestive-health)
- [Memory and healthy aging](https://mbmi.org/conditions/memory-and-aging)

## The MBMI Archive

For most of the 2000s, this address was the public home of the institute founded by Herbert Benson, MD, who described the relaxation response. Our archive rebuilds its site section by section, with a summary and the original source for every page.

- [Explore the archive](https://mbmi.org/archive)