I was a busy young mother with small children in Seattle during the 1970’s when I began to experience stress and sleepless nights. "You have to relax," my doctor advised. I didn’t need him to tell me to relax, I thought. If I knew how to relax, I wouldn’t be stressed!

It was during one of those sleepless nights when two words suddenly popped into my head: transcendental meditation. T.M. Where had I heard that? Oh, The Beatles. I remembered. They went to some mountaintop to meet with some guru. I’ll check into it tomorrow, I sighed, as I struggled back to sleep.

The next morning after breakfast, I dragged out the Lincoln logs to keep the kids busy for ten minutes while I checked the yellow pages for meditation. There it was: Transcendental Meditation. I hurried to make the telephone call before my ten minutes were up. A very pleasant voice answered. I was already beginning to relax.

She explained, "The course takes one week and costs $125. You meet everyday with a teacher who leads you through the steps to meditation."

"What if I don’t learn how to meditate in a week?" She didn’t know how stressed I was.

"We will work with you as long as necessary," she assured me.

And that was that. I learned T.M. I didn’t go to a mountaintop. I went to an office building in Seattle where transcendental meditation was being taught. I didn’t have the Beatles’s guru but I had a very good one of my own. I meditated on and off, mostly on, for the next 30 years.

The years passed quickly, as years seem to do, and it was 2004. My brother-in-law discovered he had lung cancer.

"I can’t sleep," he told me. "I can’t get any rest. The medicine the doctor gave me to relax doesn’t really work. I read about cancer and meditation. Can you teach me how to meditate?"

"I’m no meditation teacher," I answered, " but I will teach you how I meditate."

And I did. He often told me before he died that meditation helped him to rest when nothing else seemed to work. It was just a few months after his death that I discovered I had breast cancer and liver problems. I was in a state of shock. This time it was me who turned to meditation to rest "when nothing else seemed to work."

Anyone can benefit from meditation. Meditation is a marvelous coping device to help you through the very tough times a serious illness puts you through or for the everyday stress of raising a family or meeting your monthly bills.

Pick a spot where you can be alone without any interruptions. I use my bedroom. I lock the door, turned off the telephone (voice mail will pick up any messages,) and pull the blinds. I sit in a comfortable chair, prop up my feet and think of my mantra. A mantra is merely a word or sound that is comforting. Choose a word or sound that you find comforting. This becomes your mantra. You will keep this same mantra every time you meditate. I repeat my mantra over in my mind to begin to relax. My thoughts wander. Don’t try to control your thinking. Let your thoughts wander. If your mind becomes fixated on a particular thought, think of your mantra.

My meditation lasts about 15 minutes. I keep a clock within reach to check my time. When my 15 minutes are up, I slowly come out of meditation by wiggling my toes and fingers to stimulate my body. Then I open my eyes. I remain sitting for a few minutes. I take my time because the state of meditation is so relaxing that your heart rate decreases like it does when you are sleeping. You don’t jump out of bed first thing in the morning; you wake up slowly. The same with meditation.

Don’t become discouraged if you don’t immediately feel on top of the world when you first begin meditating. It will come. Stick with meditation and you will soon feel a sense of well being. Meditation is a heeler of the mind. And, believe me, you never know when you might need it.