Minding the Body, Mending the Mind

Joan Borysenko, co-founder and director of the Mind/Body Clinic at New England Deaconess Hospital/Harvard Medical School, describes the clinic’s ten-week program for learning to “mind the body” through a medical synthesis of neurology, immunology, and psychology. She provides step-by-step instructions to the clinic’s techniques while suggesting how they can be adapted for individual use. Combining meditation, breath control and stretching exercises, and mindfulness, and drawn from work with patients aged 17 to 93, these techniques help ease the stress of illness, particularly illness caused by stress, by exploiting the body’s natural capacity for healing. Readers who master them can achieve an admirable balance between inner self and environment.