Meditation: don't leave home without it Guardian, 18 May 2011 It's not just anger management and lower cholesterol. A daily dose of meditation is a route to spiritual joy and mental health Looking after our minds should be as natural as brushing our teeth. The government's Action for Happiness suggests daily habits – doing good to others, taking exercise and nurturing relationships – can improve our mental health, just as five-a-day fruit and veg portions improve our physical health. The psychiatrist Dr Norman Rosenthal, best known for describing seasonal affective disorder, believes meditation is an essential daily habit. Addressing a seminar on Meditation and Mental Health in London this month – organised by Meditatio, the outreach programme of the World Community for Christian Meditation – Rosenthal said he wouldn't leave the house without it. Rosenthal recommends transcendental meditation (TM) to patients. Peer-reviewed research on the physical and psychological benefits of TM – from reduced anxiety to increased creativity is – impressive. Different forms of meditation and mindfulness will affect brain waves in different ways, said Rosenthal, but they all reap benefits. Our responses become less reactive. For prisoners and city school kids, "a couple more minutes to respond" can mean not hitting out. … The reality is a busy teacher, office worker or mother grabbing 20 minutes to connect with a deeper centre from which to "be" before the "doing" takes over. Meditation prioritises our instinctive need for wholeness. It attends to the soul and spirit. For spiritual traditions it is a work of transformation that brings spiritual fruits: love, peace, compassion, joy. A daily habit shown to be good for mind and heart, as well as the body, could offer one important way to happiness and reducing our mental health bill – though smiling at the postman will probably help too.