Meditation is simple and transformative, yet it is highly misunderstood. Some people think it is about controlling our mind or stopping our thinking, while others see it as both weird and wacky or boring and meaningless.

Tighten and tenderize your relationship with your body by suspending criticism and judgement for just a few minutes (at least!), shifting your focus to gratitude in this guided meditation.

The ability to shift focus is basic to any meditation practice. Try this simple shifting of focus to see if perhaps you are submerged in love, but only lack the awareness of it.

Through no coincidence, in any meditative practice, what is fundamental is the ability to use your steering wheel, which is focus. Shift your focus, change your life.

As challenging as it may be, the most painful experience can often turn out to be our best teacher, and we may feel enormous gratitude for what we have leaned.

Through my mindfulness practice, I've had a glimpse at living authentically, but have yet to make that my permanent expression.

The key idea of one-moment meditation is that short, intense bursts of meditation have some significant benefits. And taking a short break after a short period of meditation (before you do another such period, or before you go back to everyday life) has some interesting benefits, too.

Please join me in a guided meditation to release the impediments in your heart, revealing the love that is within you and longing to be realized.

Transcendental Meditation, or TM, has been suggested in a variety of studies to help reduce blood pressure, hypertension and other symptoms of psychological stressors.

Combining gratitude with goal setting seems to pave the way in consciousness toward the desired experience, often bringing to mind unrealized opportunities and avenues of accomplishment.

We all know habits are hard to change, but each year it's a tradition on Jan. 1 to try to do something differently. Our intentions are heartfelt. We've thought through what we want. We're motivated by our suffering or our desire to be better in some way.

There is always an open door to reinventing yourself. If we move with the events of life, holding on to our memories but letting go of the past, and plan for the future but meet openly whatever arises, we discover that our life is more vibrant and free than anything we imagined.

While the holidays, solstice and New Year may present a myriad of complexities and distractions, this season also offers the opportunity to pause and reflect more deeply on your life, to clarify priorities and affirm clear directions and intentions for the year to come.

A common fear when it comes to meditating in the silence of the mind is that perhaps one will lose themselves. On the contrary, it seems that meditation is a keen way to find oneself, to be more of oneself than ever before.

Essential to meditation, even for good health and peace of mind, is breath. If you think of your body and mind as an amazing, complex orchestra, everything working together as much as possible to produce the beautiful symphony of you, guess who would be the conductor?

Your feelings are beautiful, they are your gift to all of us. They bring color and texture to man's world, which can so often be gray and burdensome.

We are recommending a kind of meditation that could be called non-meditation. It is based on the barest kind of instruction orienting us toward relaxing our active agenda-driven existence.

Guided imagery is the lazy man's meditation (or woman's). It's a kind of deliberate, directed daydreaming, using soothing music and narrated suggestions designed to calm, empower, heal and nourish.

I've never been a big advocate of the counting-sheep ploy. But I do know that guided imagery and mind games can be very effective

If there are any negative emotions, have them be carried out of the body on the flow of appreciation.

Think of the body as an energy system: the less fuel needed to keep our muscles tight and ready to run, the more that is available for other body functions -- such as the brain.