GUIDED MEDITATION

Guided meditation is a state of relaxed concentration invoked and led by another party. It can be a yoga instructor, a religious guide, a CD or even a recording of yourself playing back to you. The guide will instruct you to relax specific muscles in the body until they are comfortable, and will then lead you through mental images and visualizations, often of healing light or the dissipation of past wrongs. Guided meditation can be as short as a few minutes or as long as several hours. Either way, the purpose is to achieve mental, emotional and physical healing and stress relief.

The main benefits of a meditation practice are stress relief and a calmer, more accepting outlook on life. According to Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, molecular biologist, professor, and researcher at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, those who practice meditation shift the levels of brain activity from the active, stress-housing right-frontal cortex to the more stable left-frontal cortex. Meditation will literally soothe the parts of the brain that keep you wanting to always go, go, go.

According to the University of New Hampshire's Office of Health Education, a regular meditation practice can result in lower blood pressure, decreased cravings for nicotine and alcohol, better concentration at work and in school and improved quality of relationships.