Dear Vitality Man,

There is a lot of talk about meditation to reduce stress and for general health. What exactly is meditation? How does it help? How do you meditate?
-Sam in Palo Alto

Dear Sam,
Throughout the centuries, cultures throughout the world have used some form of quieting the self for various purposes. The reasons can range anywhere from to pray for rain, to connect with the inner voice of one's deity, or to just take a breather away from the stress and noise in our daily lives.

Most meditating cultures have rituals surrounding their meditation, such as washing the face, hands and feet, or singing a song, or chanting a verse or mantra. I've even seen people close their eyes and meditate at parties.

I've come to the conclusion that there's no rule for why, what, or how to meditate, or how long under what circumstances. However, here are some guidelines that might be helpful as you consider meditation for yourself:
(1) Ask yourself: "If I had a quiet voice that could tell me something that would be helpful, under what circumstances would I best be able to hear and understand the messages from that voice?" (2) Ask yourself: "How long would I need to go offline to hear that voice, at least for that situation." (3) Ask yourself: "How often do I need to do this, given my lifestyle, workstyle, and priorities." (4) Finally, don't make any rules or consequences around taking time to go offline to connect with that quiet voice.

In my opinion, ideally, one's daily life and livelihood should reflect the nature of their inner self and spiritual journey. Hence, the less your lifestyle and workstyle are attuned to your highest expression of self, the more you would "need" to meditate to retune yourself with your inner guide.

Conversely, the more your life and workstyle allow you to truly express who you are inside in a way that makes a meaningful difference in the world, the less you need to take separate time out to "meditate". In an ideal world, our meals would be a "meal-meditation", our walking would be "walking-meditation", and our work would transform into "working-meditation" and so on. And the world would be a better place for all of us for generations to come.