Mental Pliancy for the Hassles of Life

People ask if I meditate and I do, but I rarely explain how, because I find it odd that I use cards. About age eight, I started playing solitaire to calm myself from a brother who bugged me and a dad who yelled. The game lulled me into a non-state of relaxation. In the 1980s, I started using tarot cards for the same effect. I continue to use both when I feel agitated or anxious.

One of my piano students has just become enamored of meditation. He told me the thrill he felt when he came home from a hard day at school and listened to two, ten minute meditation tapes. I never saw his smile so wide.

Meditation increases connections between two brain networks. One controls unfocused thinking, like daydreaming, and the other, specific and demanding tasks. Tibetans call it mental pliancy, this switching between states, and they believe it helps with self-growth. Research shows that problems in this network have been linked to Alzheimer's disease.

On a day you get bombarded by hassle after hassle, try meditation. Do it any way you want. Maybe you can get into a meditative state when you knit or take walks. It's a good, easy fix that leads to pleasure.