Hi MickCable--I've just realised I havent responded to your questions about meditation.  I havent done any to speak of since leaving premiehood behind three years ago, and I'm still hesitating about it--although I do believe it could be a good thing for me to pick up again for strictly physiological reasons.  I need something to help me relax and center, and in all honesty I did actually enjoy the meditation part of being a premie.  In fact I remember in the early days wishing it could be just about that, and not rushing off to see this strange phenomenon called "The Master" that everyone was raving about!  Good instincts then---but...one gets sucked in, doesn't one?  Some of us anyway...

I have a lot of problems with asthma and allergies, and rapid heart rate, some of which is just the natural process of aging no doubt, but I still believe in the power of the mind to control or even cure these things, so I look to the Mind-Body people like Louise Hay, Deepak Chopra, Joan Borysenko etc. and practice affirmations that at the very least help me feel good!  I'm still hesitating about anything as committed and disciplined as meditation practice however--a consequence no doubt of having been duped for so long by the whole K and M package!  That is my biggest loss in all of this, I suspect.  Because it meant so much to me at a very deep level. 

Good luck with your search for something that works for you.

Cheers,

Shelagh