Background
Recent behavioral studies have shown the clinical relevance of meditation in the treatment of stress-related physiological and psychological illnesses. Kabat-Zinn et al. (1998) found that audio-induced mindfulness meditation reduced stress and increased the rate of healing of psoriatic lesions in patients with psoriasis. Krisanaprakornkit et al. (2006) reviewed a variety of meditation techniques on the effect of stress-related anxiety disorders and found that most meditation approaches can help patients self-regulate anxiety symptoms in a variety of anxiety conditions. In an extensive literature review comprising hundreds of studies conducted in the past 20 years, Jacobs (2001) also found that relaxation techniques and ...