Meditation produces a state of deep relaxation where, unlike sleep, your mind is wide awake and alert.

Not only is it a sure technique for finding peace and harmony in a troubled world, it will also allow you to be more positive, more creative, more alive, more tolerant, more able to cope.

And, of course, more calm.

Better still, it is a simple exercise performed with a minimum of effort.

It is designed to do one thing: still the mind. Once the mind is stilled, all the other benefits flow naturally, and of their own accord. How do you do it?

Stilling the mind (meditation) is deceptively simple. It's like any other trancelike state you might be familiar with: running a long-distance race, taking a long bus ride, knitting a scarf, listening to the waves.

To achieve this state at will is a simple matter of focusing on one thing - to the exclusion of all others.

Some meditation techniques would have you focus on a physical object, or on a complex series of actions (as in tai chi). For purposes of simplicity the technique on this site requires you to concentrate on an image. And, if you prefer, a sound.

We have suggested listening to entrancing, meditative music through headphones. But, of course, the sound could be anything you choose. It could be the sound of your own voice speaking a single word - any word - over and over again. In classical medititation parlance, this would be known as a mantra. If you were to do this, simply repeat the word over and over again - not necessarily aloud - for 20 or 30 minutes.

When your attention strays, which it will, simply guide it back to that repeated word or sound.

For a more complete understanding of how this works, read the Calm Technique.

If you'd like to try a little meditative experience, you probably should have clicked on one of the links above. But that's OK. There are a few simple steps for you to go through. Just click here, and we'll take you through them again.

---

 

Most of us have been raised to think of the word trance being related to something mystical, show business, or perhaps even evil.

The trance state is much more benign and everyday than that.

In spite of what the stage hypnotist will have you believe, the trance state is something we all experience on a regular basis. When you go on a long walk, concentrating on walking well and not much else, you will often experience moments when time seems to have flown and where you're conscious of very little. This is a basic trance state.

When you go on a bus or train journey, and you have nothing to do but look out the window and witness the world passing you by, you will often experience periods of nothingness - suddenly becoming aware that time has flown and that your eyes are glazed. You guessed it: a trance state again.

You'll experience similar states when you're running a long-distance race, knitting a scarf, losing yourself in a passage of entrancing music, listening to the waves, and in meditation. It's covered in a sequence on self-hynosis in the book, "Instant Calm".