My heart was pounding and the butterflies in my stomach were more like tap dancing elephants. I was at the Sydney premiere of The Connection about to stand up in front of seven hundred people and introduce a film that had taken me three years to make - a film I had given my heart and soul to. The cinema was sold out. It was a big moment and my stress response was in overdrive.   Given that The Connection is all about the latest research demonstrating the link between our mind, body and health, and given all the evidence... Read full article »

In the 1960s, a young cardiologist named Dr. Herbert Benson had been sneaking transcendental meditators through the back door of his lab at Harvard University to study what happened to their body when they meditated. The result of his work was one of the major breakthroughs in modern mind body medicine.   Dr. Benson found dramatic physiological changes in the bodies of his subjects. He recorded decreased metabolism in the body, decreased heart rate, decreased rate of breathing and slower brain waves. He called his discovery the ‘relaxation response’ to suggest its role as a counter part to the stress... Read full article »