Baggage Check: Ancient Coping Skills

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Dr. Andrea Bonior dives into the world of psychology.

AS PEOPLE BECOME busier and busier and report feeling more and more stressed, it's important to open our eyes not just to what modern psychological science tells us about coping, but what ancient techniques can offer as well.

With that in mind, meditation has enjoyed somewhat of a resurgence of late, among both practitioners and researchers. At some local universities, where day-to-day life can often feel frenzied, transcendental meditation is slowly gaining a following.

The improvements it can bring about are both physical and mental, from decreased blood pressure to a reduction in depression and anxious thoughts. Additional studies show more large-scale philosophical benefits, like an increased sense of meaning and connectedness to the world.

Psychologists in the United States are just beginning to understand how mindfulness and meditation can be incorporated into more traditional modes of cognitive-behavioral therapy. But meditation is something that anyone can try, far from a clinician's office.

With iPhones now offering applications to walk you through a meditation, even the most technologically connected can give a try toward becoming connected in an even more meaningful way, with themselves.