This is an ancient form of meditation that, again, seeks to discipline the mind by developing your ability to focus on one thing at a time. In this meditation, you concentrate on your own stream of consciousness. Imagine yourself sitting quietly on the bottom of a clear lake. Each of your thoughts and feelings forms a bubble that slowly rises to the surface of the lake. As each {226} comes to your mind, watch it closely and think only of it for the five seconds or so that it takes to rise to the surface. Be aware of the slow rhythm of the bubbles. Try to spend approximately equal amounts of time attending to each bubble. If the same thought, the same bubble, rises several times, this is OK. If you continue, the repetition will pass. If nothing comes to mind for a time, this, too, is OK. Form an empty bubble. Try this meditation for ten minutes a day for two weeks, then increase to twenty minutes a day for one or two months. By then, you will know if this approach to meditation is beneficial to you. THE BENEFITS OF MEDITATION How _will_ you recognize whether an approach to meditation has value for you? Any changes that occur in you will be gradual; you must be patient. If, after most sessions of meditation, you feel generally more integrated, calmer, more at ease, this is a good sign. Over a period of time, if you are working hard at an approach to meditation that seems to fit your temperament, these periods of feeling peaceful, alert, and comfortable in the world will gradually become more evident to you. Physiologically, meditation appears to lead to a deeply relaxed state of alert concentration. Your respiration and heart rates slow, the level of lactate in the blood (associated with tension and anxiety) drops lower, and there is an increase in slow alpha brain waves, associated with profound relaxation. What is important, no matter what approach to meditation you try, is to stay with that approach long enough to determine its potential value for you. Doing a meditation once or a few times is like jogging once or twice: you can't expect to derive any benefit from exercising a couple of times. Meditation is the practice and expression of discipline; deciding to practice regularly and then carrying out your decision are just as important as the approach you take to meditation. {227} 16 DRUG AND NUTRITION THERAPIES DRUG THERAPY: BALANCING EMOTIONS WITH CHEMISTRY _Often especially helpful to people who are emotionally very upset so that they may begin to benefit from psychotherapy._ During the past thirty years, biochemistry and pharmacology have made many important contributions to the treatment of mental and emotional disorders. There is no question that _psychotropic_--literally "mind-turning" or mind-influencing--drugs can help many people during periods of emotional or mental suffering.