Which of these descriptions apply to you?

(1) Some people consider meditation to be a great weapon in the arsenal of stress management.

Ever since the Beatles popularized the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, ushering in the Transcendental Meditation craze of the 60’s and 70’s, Westerners have been fascinated by the practice.

The popularity of meditation, at least as a spiritual practice, tended to rise and fall along with the popularity of the particular branch of religion that it was wrapped in …

First was Zen Buddhist meditation from Japan, followed by various Hindu meditation methods in the context of the Yoga craze. Then Tibetan Buddhist meditation was popularized in the wake of the Dalai Lama’s visits to the West, and recently Christian meditation or “centering prayer” has become very popular.

As a secular method for self-improvement or stress management, meditation has been cited by various authors and in a multitude of scientific studies as providing some degree of relief from the ravages of stress – be it a lot or a little.

(2) The other school of thought is, to put it bluntly, that meditation is a complete and total waste of time!

From this perspective meditation is simply a pointless exercise in mental masturbation, a kind of childish day-dreaming.

All that time wasted sitting with your legs crossed and contemplating your navel would be better spent engaging with the world around you and doing something to relieve whatever sort of stress you’re under!

On top of eating up valuable time, some consider the practice of meditation to be not just wasteful but harmful. They believe that meditation can provide the illusion of taking action to deal with the stress in your life, when in reality it is nothing more than an escape – no better than drugs!

“But Grady…” I can hear you asking, “… what is the TRUTH?”

Like so many things, the truth of the matter lies somewhere between the two opposing points of view …

Meditation benefits stress management. TRUE!

Meditation benefits stress management. FALSE!

“Grady, what in the heck are you talking about?” Don’t worry. I am going to lay it all out for you right here, right now.

Meditation benefits stress management - IF you do it RIGHT!

The simple fact of the matter is this: There is meditation and then there is MEDITATION.

Genuine, practical MEDITATION is one of the crown jewels of the approach outlined in my book THE STRESS VACCINE™. I can count on one hand the number of methods that come anywhere close to real meditation, meditation with a capital "M", in terms of its profound effects of stress.

The crux of the matter is that meditation is a skill. Like any skill, it takes practice. And not just practice, correct practice. Without correct practice, it is worse than worthless – it is a waste of time. And with incorrect practice, it can actually be harmful.

On top of this reality is the issue that there are few qualified teachers of meditation in the West - that’s just the plain truth of it.

If you want to be able to say that meditation benefits stress management, practice does NOT make perfect ...

Only perfect practice makes perfect.

Can you learn real meditation from the yoga instructor at the health club where you work-out? Or from a book or pamphlet? The short answer is "no", but you can aboslutely get your feet wet with my article on how to meditate.

When you're ready to really jump in with both feet, you'll definitely want to invest in my program THE STRESS VACCINE™

Just remember that meditation is like a knife – it can be a wonderful tool to help cut away the effects of stress from your life, but only if you keep it sharp with correct practice.

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