“Generally,” Grant says, “I’m a typical hard-nosed Virgo.”

Yet, at least a few times a week, Grant sits for a spell in quiet contemplation of absolute nothingness. He meditates, in other words, slipping into the sweet circle of his mind and ignoring everything that exists beyond it.

Meditation: It’s not just for hippies and Tibetan monks anymore.

“I got into it when I was about 15,” Grant says. “A Wiccan high priestess got me into meditating to help a nervous condition and it worked so well I’ve continued it throughout my life when stressed out. It really does work wonders for me.”

To some, the practice of meditation feels like a fad that came and went in the 1970s; something akin to streaking and pet rocks. But of course, meditation is thousands of years old and is practiced by more people than you probably suspect. Young and old, rich and poor, bookish and athletic, introvert and extrovert.

That person you know as a complete spazz – can’t sit still, never shuts up, seems to be in constant motion – just may be shutting the world out a couple times a day and getting his om on.

“You,” said my friend and colleague Chris Williams, when he learned of my twice-a-day indulgence, “are the last person I’d expect to see meditating. I just can’t see it.”

But twice a day, there I am: a statue of inactivity sitting with legs crossed before a single burning candle. For those 40-minutes or so, nothing exists in the world except for the rhythm of my breaths coming in and going out. I discovered the practice 10 months ago and frankly, I don’t know how I got along without it.

Believe it or not.

“No matter what your personality type,” says Heidi L. Audet, “once into the practice, it can really become a positive habit to form. I am a type A driven individual. I bike like a fiend, go on intensive hikes, practice yoga almost daily, attend boot camp one to two times a week, but I find time either early a.m. or late afternoon to still my mind.”

Audet co-owns Chill Yoga on Lisbon Street in Lewiston. She teaches children’s yoga, prenatal yoga, yoga therapy and several other forms of the practice.

Ashok Nalamalapu is president of Information Technology and Services in South Portland and runs the Sadhana Meditation Center. His introduction to meditation came in the form of the people he admires the most.

“In my readings about great leaders,” he says, “I found one common thing among most of them. They practiced meditation regularly.”

And so he began, starting off in 2001 by sitting for 10 minutes a day. These days, he sits in the morning and again in the evening, meditating for a total of 90 minutes no matter what. Like so many others, Nalamalapu found that such a simple thing as sitting quietly and stilling the mind can end up being the most beneficial thing you do all day.

“Some of us take time to take care of our body through physical exercises,” he says. “Very few of us take time to take care of our minds. Meditation helps us in many ways. It has helped me lower stress, become more self aware, control anger, improve concentration, come up with creative ideas and not react quickly. It helps people to lower blood pressure. The slower we breathe, the longer we could live. Meditation helps to slow our breath. It helps one to be in the present moment. Our mind keeps jumping from one thought to the other like a monkey. Mastering our mind can lead us to happiness.”

A wise man once said: “I have never known a man who is too poor to meditate.”

Anyone can do it and just about everyone will benefit, followers say. According to Audet, there are specific groups who might benefit in life-changing ways. People who wrestle with anxiety and depression or those who suffer from a chronic illness that is a central focus in their lives such as rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and cancer patients.

“There have been reports from some of these patients that they have felt relief from some of their pain when consistently practicing meditation,” Audet says.

And kids? Definitely kids, she says.

“Children with anxiety, ADD/ADHD, and self-esteem issues who come to my kids yoga classes at the studio practice what is called a ‘meditation challenge,'” Audet says. “We start with silent meditation, withdrawing the senses for 30 seconds. We then progress to one minute using music and asking the students to focus on the sound of their breaths and the beating of their hearts. . . . There is no complaint; they actually enjoy it!”

For some, myself included, the idea of getting started can be intimidating, as though you are setting out to learn something complex, like levitation, rather than something simple. Am I sitting right? Breathing right? Do I need to wear a long robe or burn incense?

And what about all those thoughts? The idea is to clear one’s head, but when you first give meditation a try, you might be surprised at the mental detritus that flies around your head like moths around a lamp.

“For a long time I believed that meditation was the absence of thoughts,” says Meredith Kendall, nurse educator and Reiki master/teacher. “But I couldn’t seem to stop my thoughts; I thought I was a failure. Then I learned that you can’t stop thoughts. They’re going to pop in to your mind as you meditate. Let them come; let them go. Picture them like a dry leaf on the surface of a small stream: Let them float downstream.

“I learned that it’s good to have a focal point,” Kendall says. “A sound like ‘aum,’ a picture of a mandala perhaps or you can focus on your exhalations. So when thoughts pop in, just let them go and refocus your mind. I learned that it is this refocusing that is the work and purpose of meditation.”

The people who have been doing it a while say there is no such thing as bad meditation. That takes the pressure off right there, doesn’t it? Just sit quietly, concentrate on your breaths and don’t sweat it. Just remember to breath.

“Beginners could start meditating just for five minutes a day — anytime and anywhere,” says Nalamalapu. “The ideal time to mediate is during transition times, sunset and sunrise. There are many techniques to meditate. Experiment with different methods and follow the ones that work for you.

“A simple technique that Buddha taught was to observe the breath while inhaling and exhaling by focusing at the place below the nose and above the upper lip. By closing the eyes, one could sit in any posture keeping the spine straight and clasping hands. Thoughts may keep coming and going. Instead of judging or getting mad that you can’t focus, just remember to go back to your breath. Eventually, we get better at meditating,” says Nalamalapu.

For my daily sits (you just can’t get used to that image, can you?) I use an Android app called Meditation Helper to take care of the small stuff. It’s a customizable timer that will ring bells at the start and end of your session. It keeps track of every second you spend in meditation and can be set up to shut off your ringer, notification sounds and other external irritants. All I have to do is sit down, shut up and cast the world out of my thoughts.

For Grant, meditation is a way to rise out of the stress that sometimes befalls him. For me, it’s a quiet bubble into which I can retreat to escape the roar of a chaotic world. But the benefits of meditation don’t exist within those small slots of time alone. I carry those moments of peace through the rest of my day, as well. Frustrated? Angry to the point of fuming over one of the world’s many irritations?

Simply return to the even (and predictable) ebb and flow of your breath. Smack dab in the middle of the most maddening of circumstances, you can find a little bit of serenity by reaching for the lessons of meditation. I find myself doing so a half-dozen times each day and it works like magic. The everlasting salve of meditation is probably why I didn’t ram the back of your car with my own when you cut me off in traffic.

What’s a story about meditation without a deep thought to close on? Here is one from Nalamalapu you can take into the void of your mind.

“As we practice meditation daily, with awareness of our actions and feelings and not reacting to them, we could maintain equanimity. Many have said that ‘the kingdom of heaven is within us.’ Let us practice meditation and live happier.”

Some types of basic meditation

Guided visualization meditation, or focused meditation: A suggestion is given by an instructor throughout the entire practice to help the student decrease focus on the noise in their heads (known in yoga circles as “chitta vrtti” or fluctuations of the mind.)

Mantra meditation: Choosing a sound or word to repeat out loud in a chant that becomes the focus of your meditation.

Mindfulness meditation: Sitting and letting the sounds around you come in and wash out, like the waves of the ocean. You may hear screaming neighbors, sirens, people talking, but you don’t let the chatter become your focus. Instead you focus on your breath and let the rest swirl around you without affecting you. Take the sound in, have no connection to it, and let it flow out.

Source: Heidi Audet

Vipassana: There are many types of meditations. Some are based on visualization, such as imagining a candle flame, and some on verbalization, such as a mantra or chanting. These meditations do calm our mind. However, they make our mind actively focused on these external objects or words, whereas Vipassana mediation makes us explore within ourselves.You could find information on Vipassana at www.dhamma.org

Source: Ashok Nalamalapu

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