The healing effects of meditation

I sprained my ankle this week trekking carelessly and too quickly up an uneven hill, and couldn't go walking or do yoga for three days. I felt extremely frustrated until I decided to use the time to meditate instead. In 10 years experimenting with the world of well-being, it's the single most replenishing thing I've learnt to do, and an increasing number of spas across the globe seem to agree, for they now offer private and group sessions of meditation. You'll get a more instant result from a good massage or facial, of course, while a meditation session can be frustrating and difficult. But if you have a good teacher you'll take home the tools you need to calm yourself down for the rest of your life - and stay physically healthy.

The goal of meditation isn't to stop thinking, but to enable us to become dispassionate observers of our thoughts. When we're more detached from our worries and our fears, we develop a sense of ease, of "being" rather than "doing". This process of "letting go" is not only deeply relaxing, but has a direct healing effect on our physical health, reducing blood pressure, increasing our immunity, easing chronic pain, even minimising depression.

The British-Indian neuroscientist Shanida Nataraja explores meditation in her book The Blissful Brain. When we think too much, she says, we're over-using the left halves of our brains, the part associated with analytical, rational processing, and neglecting the right side, which is associated with abstract thought, visual-spatial perception and emotions. Meditation rebalances us because it uses the alpha brain wave, a sign that we're activating the parasympathetic nervous system and giving ourselves a rest from the more familiar "fight or flight" responses of our sympathetic nervous system that stress us out and make us ill. Meditation also improves our concentration, memory and decision-making because it puts both halves of our brains to work.

It's pretty impressive stuff for such a seemingly simple task. The American neuroscientist Candace Pert has also studied meditation and found that emotions can cause biological changes in the body which can in turn cause diseases. So by detaching from anger, hate or desire through meditation, we are positively affecting the make-up of our hearts and brains. The meditation teacher Guy Burgs, who set up The Retreat in Bali, takes this one step further. "The huge increase in degenerative conditions over the last 50 years is largely due to our obsessive minds and the lack of mindfulness that most people have in their bodies," he told me. A scary thought.

In a spa meditation session, you'll find most teachers will begin with the simplest way of meditating, which is to concentrate on your in and out breath while sitting with a straight back on the floor, a meditation stool or a chair. This process recreates the Buddhist notion that the past has left us, the future has (always) yet to come, and this moment is all there ever is. As thoughts intrude, you acknowledge them rather than trying to forcibly replace or suppress them, but then gently return your attention to the breath. The eyes can be closed, though in Tibetan Buddhist meditation you keep your eyes open to remain more present.

Other techniques include visualisation, concentration on a symbol such as a candle, a flower or mandala, or repeating a mantra. While in theory you should be able to meditate whatever your surroundings, quiet is important when you start out. I did a group meditation at a spa recently where the teacher played background music - this was really very irritating, as I just felt like I was sitting in a room being forced to listen to music that wasn't very good. After 15 minutes of this I asked her to turn it off, but my concentration was gone. Don't play music when you're meditating - listening to it will keep your brain waves on a "busy" frequency and thwart the process.

Once you've mastered it, just 15 minutes meditation a day will make a difference, though being mindful of simple tasks such as washing up, walking across your terrace or making a cup of tea is also a form of meditation. It's this type that I'm rather better at because it fits more realistically into my lifestyle. Done properly, activities such as yoga, qigong and tai chi are also a form of meditation in motion, as are swimming and walking - though not, of course, if they lead to a sprained ankle. From now on, I'll go slower so I can keep up with my new found meditative friend.

Caroline Sylger-Jones is the author of Body & Soul Escapes, a travel resource book of over 450 places around the globe where you can replenish mind, body and soul. Her second book, Body & Soul Escapes: Britain & Ireland will be published in November. See @email:www.carolinesylge.com