Send your brain on a spa day

Gee, the lousy job market, bad economy, Iraq War, instable Afghan situation, looming problems with Iran, gasoline prices, rape of the environment, lack of appreciation of Republican administration, or WHATEVER got you down, bunky?

Do what OOTJ does; Send your brain on a spa day!

Try some relaxation techniques. Here are some helpful websites:

The Meditation Station
A list of 108 different ways to explore meditation, from the Meditation Society of America link here.

ABC of Yoga
Meditation is one of the Five Principles of Yoga. This page is a nice introduction to two general types of meditation, concentrative meditation and mindful meditation. Fortunately for klutzes like me, you don't have to do a full lotus to meditate! See the link here.

Sacred Space
A Christian prayer site run by Irish Jesuits, with a wide variety of languages, meditations for the day and season, and prayer for peace. Very nice site if you are more comfortable in a Christian setting. link here.

Unity
Seems to be a Protestant Christian site from Missouri. A nice site, but I am wary of getting involved with church groups I know nothing about. link here, with a caveat.


Islam
I am not finding sites about meditation per se in Islamic prayer, but I presume it is a part of prayer life, since they use prayer beads and ritualized prayer forms, which, in the Roman Catholic prayer life I know results in a form of meditation. If I am wrong, I humbly beg to be educated. Here are some websites about prayer in Islam:

About Islam
link

Muslim at Prayer
link

Salah/Salat/Namaz/Prayer According to Islam
link
Perhaps if I understood the Arabic words, I would understand the differing types of prayer refer to meditation.

Jewish Prayer and Meditation - Wikipedia Siddur
link

There are a lot of other websites out there which claim to be about Jewish prayer traditions (and may truly be so), but are written for Protestants or African Americans with interests in learning about Jewish traditions for alternative reasons. Be careful if you Google this. There are strange sites out there.

Finally, the simplest of meditation techniques, which is certainly covered in the meditation link first above, is visualization. I really like this. Visualize someplace else, someplace you would really like to be, under the sea, or flying above the hills, or walking in the woods or a park or beach. It can be anywhere! You just have to give it a lot of detail. Take your mind for a vacation.