Long ago, meditation was regarded as an Eastern religious practice. Today, modern science has now proven it to be a powerful tool for personal development and self-healing.

Meditation costs nothing. It requires no special equipment, it's not difficult to learn and can be practised anywhere, at anytime. As little as 20-30 minutes per day is fine and unlike medication, has no side effects.

There are many techniques, but all have a basic goal - to calm the restless mind and facilitate inner awareness.

Doctors agree that most of our illnesses are stress-related. Even when patients seem unaware, there are issues they are unconscious about that relate to their problems.

Every illness has a psychoso-matic component. True healing cannot take place if we only treat the physical manifestations (the symptoms) and neglect the underlying emotional and spiritual components (the cause).

Neuroscientists have found that meditation changes the activity of the brain. It produces slow alpha and theta brain waves usually associated with deep sleep. It also activates different areas of the brain - brain waves in the stress-prone right frontal cortex move to the calmer left frontal cortex. This mental shift decreases the negative effects of stress, depression and anxiety. There is also less activity in the amygdala, the area of the brain where the brain processes fear.

Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts studied brain waves of stressed-out workers in Madison, Wisconsin. The subjects were divided into two groups: some learnt to meditate over eight weeks while the others were left as a control group. His research found that the meditators showed a pronounced shift in activity to the left frontal lobe of the brain and they were calmer and happier than before.

Here are some of the benefits of meditation that modern science has discovered:

PHYSICAL BENEFITS

Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation;

Increases exercise tolerance and decreases muscle tension and enhances energy, strength and vigour;

It lowers oxygen consumption, slows respiratory rate and improves lung function;

It regulates blood flow, slows the heart rate and helps to reduce high blood pressure;

Helps in chronic pain diseases like arthritis;

Reduces hormonal imbalance problems like PMS and the menopause;

Accelerates healing after injuries and surgery;

Balances the immune system, enhancing resistance to infections, allergies and autoimmune diseases;

Protects against various stress-related disorders;

Improves brain chemistry and increases production of brain chemicals like serotonin, endorphins and DHEA.

PSYCHOLOGICAL BENEFITS

Builds self-confidence, improves mood, behaviour, the removal of bad habits and addictions to legal and illegal drugs, smoking and alcohol;

Resolves phobias and fears, reduces anxiety attacks;

Decreases restless thinking and the tendency to worry while improving your control of our own thoughts;

Reduces road rage and other aggressive behaviour;

Improves the quality of sleep and helps cure insomnia;

Helps with focus and concentration;

Increases creativity, learning ability and memory;

Increases feelings of vitality and rejuvenation and slows mental ageing, and;

Increases emotional stability and improved relationships.

If a drug existed that could provide just a few of the benefits of meditation, it would be a best seller, regardless of the cost. Consider more meditation and less medication.

You may email Dr Tony Vendryes at vendryes@mac.com or listen to An Ounce of Prevention on Power 106FM on Fridays at 8 p.m. The programme streams live on the Internet.