Meditation can provide an oasis of calm in today's stressful environment and is well acknowledged for the sheer stress relief and clarity of mind that it can bring.

Most meditation techniques are grouped into two major categories: concentrative meditation and mindfulness meditation.

Concentrative meditation focuses on the breath, an image, or a sound in order to still the mind and allow a greater awareness to emerge. Creative Visualization or Guided Imagery, is also a means of meditating where the mind is directed along a particular path, allowing suggestions to get through to the sub-conscious to bring about change in patterns of behavior or belief systems.

In mindfulness meditation, the meditator simply witnesses whatever goes through the mind without reacting or becoming involved with thoughts, memories, or worries. In both forms of meditation, one becomes keenly aware of reactions to stress, providing the individual with an increased internal sense of control.

Meditation, introduced to Ireland in the early 1970's as Transcendental Meditation (TM), can bring about a healthy state of relaxation in which the heart rate, pulse rate, stress hormones, and respiration rate decrease while EEG alpha brain waves, associated with relaxation, increase. Studies show that after TM, reactions are faster, creativity is greater, and comprehension is broader. Aside from the management of stress and pain, meditation offers numerous psychological and spiritual benefits.

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