FINDING YOUR CALM: The Mind-Body Science of Relaxation
- Rogers Research Global
- Jun 14
- 13 min read
Updated: Aug 20
Written by: Marie T. Rogers, MPS, Ph.D., RYT
A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking because its trust is not on the branch but on its own wings. -Charlie Wardle
THE STRESS METER
In modern times, many are reporting experiencing overwhelming levels of physical and mental exhaustion; feeling over-worked, over-scheduled, and over-stimulated. We have become mass consumers of distressing news, chronically living with a sense of doom & gloom, urgency, and burdensome deadlines. While occasional stress and anxiety are normal parts of life, persistent and uncontrollable levels eventually become disabling.
In the pursuit of achievement, productivity, or status, many people ignore the quiet signals of stress and fatigue until the body begins to break down. Ignoring these signs, however, will not make the symptoms go away. In fact, the opposite occurs. They become louder, refusing to be ignored. For some, the chasing of wealth resulted in the loss of well-th! When rest is viewed from the lens of a reward instead of a necessity, and relaxation is interpreted as laziness rather than wisdom, the end result is mental, emotional and physical exhaustion. One's nervous system becomes significantly dysregulated.
The Chronicity of Stress
It is the heaviness of chronic stress that increases the likelihood of poor health. We certainly were not designed to sustain prolonged stress in unrealistic efforts to feel "productive." So many are currently living dysregulated and unbalanced lives; attempting to function as human do-ings, and not human be-ings.
Add cognitive concerns such as foggy thinking and memory problems to the list and the result is suboptimal executive functioning (a collective term defining the regions of the frontal and prefrontal lobes responsible for core competencies such as planning, focusing, organizing, problem solving, and decision making). Suboptimal executive functioning can be and often is the result of executive functioning fatigue (EFF).
Stress is meant to be temporary and NOT a way of living. Following a stressful occurrence or period, the body returns to a natural state; to a state in which the heart rate slows, muscles relax, and breath deepens. In other words, this is what a regulated nervous system feels and looks like!
The Regulation of the Nervous System
A regulated nervous system feels balanced and stable, as opposed to feeling wired & tired. Mental clarity is strong and energy is abundant. Sleep is restorative and deep. Food cravings are in sync with healthy body demands. When these align, we feel a sense of serenity. Confidence and self-efficacy soar, while feelings of anxiety and depression ameliorate or disappear altogether. There is a sense of calmness and peacefulness within the mind and body, resulting in a strong feeling of vitality and a Joie de Vivre.
THE MIND & BODY ARE CONSIDERED RELAXED WHEN FREE OF TENSION & ANXIETY
Finding this coveted space deep within our minds and bodies requires making time for a purposeful escape; an opportunity to disengage from the demands of everyday life so as to reconnect with ourselves.
Rise in Anxiety & Anxiety Related Conditions
Mental health professionals are observing and reporting a meteoric rise in rates of anxiety disorders (both in children and adults). Anxiety disorders have a deep biological underpinning and can be described as chronic intermittent disorders. Interference in day-to-day functioning is an important criterion in the diagnosis of an anxiety disorder.
The DSM-5 diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) has among its criteria the daily feeling of constant worry, fear, and dread, despite the evidence of the presence of a specific threat. The degree of worrying is disproportionate to the actual risk. In addition, physical symptoms of fatigue and muscular tension often accompany GAD.
If you are concerned about an anxiety disorder, the strategies offered in this article may be helpful, but they are not intended as a substitute for professional guidance or treatment. A licensed mental health professional—particularly one experienced in treating anxiety disorders—can work with you to develop a personalized plan that may include cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), medication, or both. While CBT is often a first-line treatment, your provider may recommend a different approach better suited to your needs, such as EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), somatic therapy, or another evidence-based modality.
The strategies outlined below are often most effective when used in conjunction with psychotherapy, enhancing your ability to manage anxiety in a comprehensive and sustainable way. Before getting to the strategies, let's spend a minute or two deepening our understanding of self-care and our nervous system. I believe this helps to ground our efforts in science, increase self-compassion, and personalize our approach to healing and resilience.
Why This Matters:
Grounding in Neuroscience: Understanding the nervous system, especially how it responds to stress, gives self-care a physiological foundation. In fact, there is an interdisciplinary scientific field dedicated to studying the effects of chronic stress- PSYCHONEUROIMMUNOLOGY (PNI). It explores how our psychological processes (like stress, emotions, and beliefs), neurological activity (like brain function and nervous system responses), and immune system functioning are deeply interconnected.
PSYCHONEUROIMMUNOLOGY (PNI) INVESTIGATES HOW STRESS, THOUGHTS, AND EMOTIONS CAN INFLUENCE PHYSICAL HEALTH, PARTICULARLY THE IMMUNE SYSTEM.
Rather than viewing self-care as indulgent or optional, we begin to see it as essential for restoring balance and protecting long-term mental and physical health.
Increasing Self-Compassion: When people recognize that their overwhelm, shutdown, or anxiety may stem from a dysregulated nervous system (rather than weakness or failure), it often fosters greater kindness toward themselves. This shift in perspective is crucial for sustainable change and self-transformation.
Personalizing Self-Care: Each person's nervous system is shaped by genetics, environment and one's personal experiences. Understanding this invites curiosity about what kinds of self-care truly help regulate, rather than following generic advice that may or may not be applicable. Creating your signature self-care protocol will deliver exorbitant results, both to your mental health as well as your physical health.
Supporting Long-Term Change: Strategies rooted in nervous system awareness tend to be more sustainable because they respect the body’s rhythms and needs. This reduces burnout from overly rigid or performative self-care practices.
SELF-CARE
By carving out time to engage in self-care, you will relieve the day-to-day pressures of life and help re-balance yourself back to health, vitality, and energy. Research connecting stress with health reveals the role the release of cytokines play, which are small proteins, released by cells (especially those of your immune system).
When your body is physically or emotionally stressed, it releases epinephrine (adrenaline) and this signals the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Your body efficiently and appropriately releases these in response to infection or injury so as to destroy germs or repair tissue damage. Unfortunately, your body also releases pro-inflammatory cytokines when stressed, and when the stress is chronic, their expression may be the cause of inflammatory diseases.
THE VAGUS NERVE and the SYMPATHETIC & PARASYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEMs
In an effort to deepen our understanding of stress and the relaxation response, a brief mention of the nervous system will aid in this discussion. Both the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) and the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) are part of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). An easy way to remember the ANS is to associate autonomic with automatic. The ANS automatically regulates certain body processes, such as breathing, blood pressure, and digestion, to name a few, without any conscious effort on our part. The PNS and SNS were created to work in tandem, ensuring the restoration and protection of our bodies.
The PNS is responsible for bringing a state of restorative calmness, and through the innervation of the vagus nerve, it releases an assortment of hormones and enzymes that directly link to the enhancement of immune functioning and relaxation.
Connecting our brain to different parts of our head, neck, and trunk are the 12 pairs of cranial nerves, each named for their structure and function. We are most interested in the 10th pair, the aforementioned vagus nerve. Possessing both sensory and motor functions, it is the longest cranial nerve in the body (extending from head to abdomen).
The vagus nerve communicates information from the ear canal, which contains the vestibulocochlear nerve, and parts of the throat and it is the fundamental regulator of the PNS. Its stimulation is directly associated with relaxation.
The PNS is responsible for rest and digest, and its counterpart, the SNS is responsible for fight-or-flight, or freeze.
YOUR RELAXATION TOOLBOX
Anything you do to keep yourself healthy and energized is self-care and therein lies the path to stress management. While few would disagree the importance of self-care, it is often not prioritized in our lives. When stressed, self-care is unfortunately the first to go. Self-care encourages you to have and maintain a healthy relationship with yourself so that you can extend your good energy to others.
You cannot adequately and efficiently care for and/or give to others when fatigued, depleted, or overwhelmed. One of the most self-less commitments you can make is to commit, unapologetically, to your own well-being and self-care. When engaging in self-care, you are in essence accessing your parasympathetic nervous system with the resulting outcome of relaxation.
MINDFULNESS & MEDITATION
The enigmatic practice of meditation, rooted in deep cultural and religious history as a pathway toward enlightenment, has found itself in modern times more commonly used to manage stress and induce relaxation. Meditation is a mental training involving quieting and slowing down the mind. Mindfulness describes a specific manner of living that is cultivated through this system.
Meditation allows you to slow down; to go inwardly, accessing deeper insights. In contrast to a time-out, it’s more of a time-in. The combination of mindfulness and meditation is a powerful antidote to stress! There are many different types of meditation, mostly falling under the categories of guided (link provided below) and unguided (or silent). The relaxation component of meditation, in its many forms, provides long-lasting health benefits to the mind and body, including increasing volume in brain regions, reducing anxiety and depression, and improving immune function.
While there is not a universally accepted or "best" method, there are components to meditation that are consistent across practices. They include: focused attention, breath awareness, quiet and comfortable setting, and an attitude of non-judgment or "observer." The "best" meditation is the one that is "best" for you and the one that you will consistently do.
Getting Started
A quiet place and a comfortable seat are all you need to begin this practice.
Sit or lie comfortably.
Focus your attention on your breath and on how your body moves with each inhalation and exhalation.
Breathe naturally.
Notice when your mind and thoughts wander and bring your attention back to your breath.
Add Aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils or other aromatic plant compounds for healing and wellness. Certain fragrances have been shown to have a clinically quantifiable effect on mood. Incorporating aromatherapy into your meditation practice may help facilitate feelings of calm and relaxation through its primary processing pathway, the olfactory system. The olfactory bulb (an essential structure of the olfactory system) is directly connected to the amygdala and hippocampus, which explains why smells and fragrances are often powerfully connected to specific memories. For purposes of relaxation, lavender is typically the aromatherapy expert's go-to scent.
SOUND & MUSIC
Easily available and incredibly effective, the integration of sound and music in our daily lives is an easy way to instantly feel better. Sounds produce vibrations that alter brain waves. Music can help us feel good by stimulating the production of our feel good hormone, dopamine. Considered ‘new age,’ music and sound healing, unfortunately, do not get the recognition they deserve. However, the effects are powerful. And as with many treatments considered 'new age,' sound healing is actually deeply rooted in ancient history.
Whereas everyone is familiar with music and its effect on mood and energy, few know about the profound healing benefits of sound, which involves the utilization of sacred instruments or voice to evoke well-being.
Vibrations such as those used by gongs, singing bowls and tuning forks to relax the mind and body are highly effective. Another simple strategy to relax an over-stimulated nervous system is humming. By humming, whether a tune or the equivalent of the Om mantra (familiar to yoga practitioners), the vagus nerve will be stimulated. Since it is the fundamental regulator of the parasympathetic nervous system, its stimulation is directly associated with producing a more calming feeling.
Incorporating nature into your daily routine is also a highly effective tension reliever. Nature and sounds of nature are good for your mind, your brain and your body. However, sometimes we can't just leave our office or indoor space to go outside and enjoy nature. If that is the case, then bring nature into your space.
If you are unable to step outside and just need a minute to reconnect and rejuvenate as you're feeling your attention span plummet and stress levels rise, then click on the 1-minute YouTube video link below and enjoy the soothing sounds and visual experience of an early morning sunrise over the ocean. Feel your tension melt away.
EXERCISE
Exercise is an excellent stress-buster. You earn bonus points if your work-out involves being outdoors and in connection with nature. Our bodies love and crave movement. Both moderate and strenuous forms of exercise help relieve symptoms of anxiety and reduce stress.
Cardio-type work-outs and resistance training, also known as strength or weight training, have been shown to dissipate stress and improve mood and energy. This does not have to be a 1-hour weight lifting session or a 5-mile beach run. It can be as simple as performing a few sit-ups and push-ups, or a short walk around the neighborhood. A 20-minute stretch can be so restoratively soothing to both your mind and muscles, and this brings us to our next stress busting activity and an excellent segue into yoga.
YOGA
Yoga, a deeply rooted, healing practice emphasizing the mind-body connection, incorporating postures, breathing, and meditation, originated thousands of years ago. The physical practice of yoga can be viewed as a moving meditation, connecting breath with movement. Pranayama is the formal practice of managing the breath, and a steady, rhythmic breath is central to yoga. Its consistent practice yields compounding results, meaning each and every time you participate in this moving meditation, you're decreasing the negative effects of stress. Yoga primarily works through the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, the component most often associated with rest & digest.
Using magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging, researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) found that practicing yoga may elevate gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) levels. Why is this important? Because GABA is a natural brain relaxant that helps you feel good. Higher levels of GABA translate into elevated feelings of calm.
The moving meditative nature of yoga, combined with breathwork, is one of the most powerful actions we can take to help restore balance deep within our bodies.
MASSAGE THERAPY
The healing benefits of massage therapy are plentiful. You don’t need a sales pitch to believe in the power of massage—one good session is often all it takes to understand its profound benefits.
Kneading and/or manipulating muscles and other soft tissues improves well-being and health. Massage therapy has been known to lower blood pressure, decrease pain and tension, and relieve stress. It also boosts circulation, which means increased oxygen and nutrients to your tissues while supporting the removal of waste products.
One of its key benefits is in its immediate ability to naturally release endorphins and decrease adrenalin. This helps shift the body out of "fight or flight" and into "rest and restore." The end result is a deep state of calmness and relaxation.
Schedule a 60 or 90 minute massage and reap the benefits of a tranquil body and mind.
YOUR FURRY FRIEND
Your furry friends are great for your health. It only takes a few minutes of playing with or petting a dog or cat to feel your blood pressure lower and stress melt away. If your furry friend is a dog, then you in all likelihood have an immediately available walking, hiking, and/or scenic car riding or errand-running companion. Also, because animals live in the moment, they are excellent teachers of presence. They take each moment, from eating their food to snuggling with their humans, as it comes, making the most of the here-and-now.
CREATIVITY
Get creative. Creativity is self-expression in motion. It is weaved within us, incorporating a dynamic and innovative part of our being that helps bring fulfillment and meaning to our lives. When stressed, we typically do not gravitate toward productive solutions. Creativity not only pertains to the arts and design, but also to effective and productive problem solving and business development.
While we can appreciate the exquisite sequencing of written words of great authors and musical notes of great composers, and the bringing of a vision to life of talented artists, photographers, and filmmakers, these obvious expressions of celebrated creativity are only but a few examples. Great parents, teachers, and leaders use creativity in their management of the home, classroom, and work environment, respectively.
When feeling overwhelmed or stressed, rather than to engage, stepping forth into creativity, we often disengage, stepping backward into over-eating, -drinking, -thinking, and any other over that does not support the life we're desiring.
Immersing yourself in a creative activity will place you and your brain directly in the zone or flow state, which is a coveted location. You cannot be both anxious and in the zone simultaneously. The zone provides a vacation from stress.
Hobbies and activities that enhance creativity include:
drawing/painting/coloring
interior and exterior designing
solving/assembling puzzles (word/jigsaw)
creative writing
knitting/crocheting
cooking/baking
playing a musical instrument/singing/song-writing
scrapbooking
dancing
JOURNALING
The benefits of capturing your thoughts, dreams, circumstances, and concerns in writing are innumerable. Getting into a regular journaling practice is a self-honoring gift that has long-lasting benefits. Primarily, it serves to provide a safe space and opportunity to mindfully connect with yourself and momentarily press the pause button on your life. Who doesn't need that?
As you capture your story in writing, you're engaging the parts of your brain that focus, connect, and clarify. Secondarily, journaling offers the benefit of re-visiting your story at a later date. Re-reading entries may lead to the much appreciated Eureka effect, also known as the Aha! Moment. All of a sudden, a hidden insight or discovery is made because a pattern in your life you couldn't see before now becomes visible.
The 10-15 minutes per day that you dedicate to journaling, whether as part of your morning or evening routine, will deliver added mental health benefits, as journaling has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety. You can also jot down inspirational or motivational sayings, and when you re-read your entries, you will be reminded of these uplifting quotes. Including gratitude in your journaling is like hitting the calm button twice—it deepens the positive effects and rewires your brain for peace.
Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes...including you. -Anne Lamott
Disclaimer
The information presented in this article is intended for general knowledge and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment. As with most things in life, there isn't a magic pill or "cure-all" but there are strategies to help regain control of your life and manage stress and anxiety. Do not hesitate to reach out for support and professional guidance if you believe your personal situation exceeds the strategies outlined in this article. Awareness and acknowledgment of anxious feelings and/or burnout are good first steps. There is no need to suffer in silence. Meeting with a qualified health professional to determine an accurate diagnosis is key. With targeted interventions, the prognosis is excellent. It is through validation and connection that we feel heard and understood.
REFERENCEs
Boston University. "Yoga May Elevate Brain GABA Levels, Suggesting Possible Treatment For Depression." ScienceDaily, 22 May 2007
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.)
About Dr. Rogers
Dr. Marie T. Rogers is a psychologist, consultant, podcaster, certified yoga instructor, author, and creator of guided journals and notebooks that inspire reflection, growth, and intentional living.
Dr. Rogers' publications include LIFE in FOCUS: A Self-Discovery Journal for Powerful Transformation, POWERFUL MANIFESTATION: Bringing Your Vision to Life through Intention-Setting, Gratitude and Self-Reflection, and FLOWING INTO THE GRATITUDE ZONE: My Daily Journaling Practice—each designed to foster mindfulness, emotional clarity, and inner peace through self-guided inquiry and gratitude.
In addition to her transformative journals, she has created versatile companion notebooks: I CAN LEARN ANYTHING: My Study Notebook for Capturing Course Content, supporting active learners and CAPTURING CREATIVITY: One Idea at a Time, and IDEAS, INSPIRATIONS, INSIGHTS: My Notebook for Capturing Creativity, both designed to hold space for spontaneous brilliance and reflection.
Dr. Rogers hosts the LIFE in FOCUS podcast where she talks about all things neuroscience, mental health, executive functioning, psychoneuroimmunology (otherwise known as the mind-body connection and the role stress plays), mindfulness, and basically how to live your best, most successful, most energized and healthiest life.
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