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Approaches to meditation fall into three major categories:

Transcendental Meditation (TM). This is the most common form of meditation in the western world. It involves mental repetition of a mantra, usually a Sanskrit sound provided by the instructor. TM practitioners sit upright in a straight-backed chair with their eyes closed, and meditate for 15 to 20 minutes twice a day, morning and evening. A nonreligious off-shoot of TM has been developed by Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard University, with the sole goal of achieving the relaxation response that TM is known to trigger.

Mindfulness Meditation. An outgrowth of a Buddhist tradition called vipassana, this form of meditation focuses on the present moment. A favored technique in mindfulness meditation (shared with other forms) is the body scan, in which you move your focus through the body, from the tips of the toes to the top of the head, paying particular attention to any areas that cause pain or suffer from a medical problem (for example, the lungs for asthma, the pancreas for diabetes, the heart for heart disease). The body scan is usually done while lying down.

Breath Meditation. This technique calls for concentration on respiration, the process of inhaling and exhaling. In other respects it is similar to TM and other forms of meditation.

By relaxing the body and calming the mind, meditation seeks to alleviate the harmful effects of tension and stress--factors that are known to aggravate a number of medical conditions. Although meditation has its roots in Eastern religious practices, its health benefits are independent of its spiritual aspects. Each practitioner can bring his or her own beliefs and world view to the meditative experience.
Meditation has measurable effects on the pattern of electrical impulses flowing through the brain. Studies with an electroencephalograph (EEG) show that it boosts the intensity of the alpha waves associated with quiet, receptive states to levels not even seen during sleep. Other studies show increased synchronization of brain waves between the two hemispheres of the brain during meditation, lower levels of stress hormones, and improved circulation. Levels of lactic acid, a potential by-product of tension and anxiety, drop after meditation. When practiced for an extended period of time, meditation has also been found to reduce oxygen consumption, slow the heart rate, and bring down blood pressure.

Devotees of meditation often claim that it improves their memory and other mental abilities, protects them from disease, and reduces their use of alcohol and drugs. Some studies have found that long-standing practitioners (those who've been meditating for several years or more) tend to make fewer doctor's visits than non-meditators. Other studies have found that meditation can reduce or reverse cardiovascular disease; improve the ability to cope with chronic illness; reduce anxiety, panic, and fear of open spaces; and relieve mild depression, insomnia, tension headache, irritable bowel syndrome, and premenstrual syndrome. One study of mindful meditation found that it reduced the rate of relapse in those with emotional disorders. Meditation has even been found to increase the longevity of healthy older adults.

Aromatherapy is one of those rare forms of treatment that can improve your quality of life whether or not it has any other benefits. That's just as well, because few doctors believe it has any significant effects on health. Whatever relief it confers, they speculate, stems from emotional response to aromatherapy's pleasing scents, rather than any physiological effects.
Used as a comforting ritual to reduce stress, enhance relaxation, and relieve anxiety, aromatherapy may indeed improve your well-being, relieve psychosomatic symptoms, and alleviate some emotionally-related disorders. For some people, it has provided a respite from insomnia. Others have found it an effective remedy for impotence. A few people even report that it eases the pain of arthritis and relieves postpartum discomfort. However, medical science can find no physical reason for these effects.

Although many gift boutiques have taken to marketing scented candles, pomanders, and potpourri as "aromatherapy," genuine treatments rely on the use of highly concentrated essential oils extracted from various healing herbs. In most cases, these oils are produced by steam distillation or cold pressing from a plant's flowers, leaves, branches, bark, rind, or roots. The volatile, flammable oils are then mixed with a "carrier"--usually a vegetable oil such as soy, evening primrose, or almond--or diluted in alcohol before being applied to the skin, sprayed in the air, or inhaled.
Although you can pursue treatments under the supervision of a certified aromatherapist, many people simply use the oils as a form of home remedy. There is a notable lack of agreement on such issues as the amount of oil necessary to achieve a desired effect, the most effective method of administration, and the length of time necessary to continue treatment.

However, some of the more typical approaches are as follows: