Meditation is a practice that focuses one's attention and helps those who practice it to feel calm and allows them to be more conscious of their life. For thousands of years, Eastern philosophies have recognized its health benefits. In the West, this practice also has a lot of recognition. There are several techniques that involve breathing and focusing attention on an image, sound or mantra. Generally, the practice consists of slow breathing regulation while the person sits in silence for 15 or 20 minutes. What is it good for? In the last years, meditation has been used to deal with a great variety of mental and physical problems that include: addictive behaviors related to drugs, nicotine or alcohol; anxiety, stress and depression; pain; high arterial pressure and hot flashes (especially in women that are close to menopause). Many people have also used meditation to alleviate the anxiety caused by certain chronic diseases like HIV and cancer. All this without counting the excellent effects that bring to the spirit.