More Than Just a Stress Buster

Regular meditation of any kind helps us remain centred and better able to manage life's stressful events. It also helps us to think more clearly and to make better lifestyle choices - about food, alcohol and exercise. That can only be a good thing.

Not all forms of meditation have been shown to lower blood pressure, however. Two general schools of meditation have been studied. Mindfulness-based meditations, the most prominent of which is MBSR (developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical School) teaches "relaxed awareness" methods which seek to quiet the mind with, for example, focus on body, breathing or environment.

Mantra-based meditations, the most famous of which is Transcendental Meditation, seek to change the mind's state using repetition of a chosen internal sound, or mantra (eg. "Om").

Evidence to date suggests that mindfulness-based meditations, for all their other benefits, won't actually lower your blood pressure.

Regular practice of mantra-based meditations will, however, lower your blood pressure. It's worth finding the time to give it a try.