Meditation: The Smart Person's Bubble Bath

Graduate school and stress go hand in hand. Your career success, as well as your health, depend on whether you can release stress and unwind. Stress weakens the immune system, making you more prone to colds and illness and exacerbating chronic health problems like high blood pressure, asthma, and eczema. Stress hampers your concentration and lowers your ability to deal with the hassles of life. Moreover, stress leads to burn-out. How can you cope? Meditate!

Meditation is the ultimate stress reliever. Meditation boosts the immune system and rewires the brain to reduce stress. Meditation is more popular in the US than ever before -- and being recommended by physicians as a way to prevent and slow the pain of chronic diseases like heart conditions, AIDS, and cancer. Psychologists recommend meditation to help restore balance and inner calm to patients with depression, anxiety, and attention-defecit disorder. Research shows that meditation works -- especially for stress-related conditions (and graduate students have lots of those!).

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