Lee Heather

We all know that public speaking is one of the most feared endeavors for many, many people especially when we are not called on to do it very often. There are many ways to combat public speaking nerves but for some reason the very people who are the most scared do the least to get over this fear. There is one main thing we have to remember when we have this type of fear.

Meditation has become more popular and more acceptable than ever before these days but despite more exposure in the media there still seem to be some mystery to some. In fact many people ask me, when they find out I meditate regularly, why do you do it?. So I decided to make a list of the many benefits of meditation.

Firstly the main reason I meditate is because it gives my body such deep and profound rest in a way that sleep alone never can.

In order to manage our stress and improve our health and gain more inner peace and a sense of control over our lives we must be willing to make a commitment to ourselves to manage our own stress levels because nobody else will monitor then for us. We may have to risk thinking and behaving in healthier and more empowering ways to live life optimally.

Stress is now the number one reason behind sickness from work and more than 70% of working adults have experienced stress at work in the past year according to the Gee Publishing Survey of 2006. Whether or not these statistics are true one thing is certain, we cannot expect our employers to provide everything we need to reduce or manage our stress. They are far too busy themselves.

Why do we so often find it so hard to switch off and relax? What is it that makes us feel tense and twitchy just when we need to sleep or recover from all that hard work and stress? It seems that our own bodies are working against us at times - and in a way, they sometimes are.

As part of our neural equipment, the autonomic nervous system, which controls organs such as the heart, stomach and intestines, is made up of two even more specialised sections.