Meditation is one of the most widely practiced stress management techniques worldwide. Meditation is an excellent way to cultivate control over your own mental processes, but in many cultures (including ours), meditation is often practiced for spiritual reasons, not for stress management at all. Stress management is merely a fringe benefit.

Westerners are more likely to practice meditation either solely for stress management or as a combination of the desire for stress management and the desire for a more spiritual life. Whatever your reason for meditation, the effects are consistent. Meditation has a profound effect on both the body and the mind. It helps to still the constant chatter in our heads so that we can think more clearly. It cuts through all our expectations and attitudes. It cultivates mental discipline and, in addition, is exceptionally relaxing.

Meditation teaches us, most significantly, to live in the now. Rather than letting our restless minds, worried thoughts, and anxious feelings carry us away into what might happen next or what we could have done before, meditation teaches us to still that mental ruckus. What's left? The perfection of the present moment, in which you are only and exactly what you are, with no need for improvement. And that doesn't leave much room for stress.