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GREENSBORO — Meditation doesn't always mean that you sit down, close your eyes and chant "ohm."

It is a way of relaxing the body and slowing your thoughts. I wasn't sure if I could do it, but lately I've been feeling a little stressed and unfocused. Maybe meditation would help calm me.

Those who come to Julie Lapham's Monday meditations settle quickly into the proper meditative poses. Shoes are kicked off. Shoulders are squared. Eyes close. The room is dark, and it's quiet.

That's usually a cue for my stomach to begin growling. It sounds like aliens are playing pinball in there. I open my eyes to scan the room. Surely this is a disruption to the group's meditative state. Apparently, I'm the only one concerned about it. It makes me feel better when I hear someone else's stomach rumble. I close my eyes again.

I'm not used to sitting still. And silence is rare. At home, in the car or on the treadmill at the gym — a radio, TV or the Internet is always funneling information or noise to my brain.

It takes a lot of effort to think of nothing. And to do nothing.

My thoughts wander to laundry that needs to be finished. A story I'm working on. Phone calls that need to be made. Groceries I need to pick up on the way home.

Fifteen minutes feels like an hour. I fight the urge to check my cell phone for the time.

My leg cramps.

My glutes start to twitch.

And my stomach grumbles again.

I'm so focused on trying to keep my stomach quiet that my body can't relax. But after a few moments, it does. I start to envision a dark curtain slowly closing before my eyes, and I begin to feel sleepy. My chin falls toward my chest. I'm sure falling asleep isn't exactly the same thing as meditating.

Lapham rings a bell, and this meditation exercise is over. She shares a few mantras from the "Tibetan Book of the Dead." Practice good-heartedness toward all beings. Practice generosity. Practice kindness. Practice unconditional love. Practice loving kindness.

It was a work-related injury in 1972 that led Lapham to meditation. Lapham, originally from England, came to the U.S. to work as a polymer chemist in New Jersey. One day in the lab, she tried to remove a lid from a desiccator when the glass shattered the main artery and nerves in her wrist were severed. By the time she was rushed to surgery, she had lost so much blood, her heart stopped on the operating table.

She felt herself floating upward towward a light.

Lapham's surgeon recommended she try meditation as part of her recovery. He had read some studies on how simple meditation could lower the heart rate. His advice brought about a complete lifestyle shift for Lapham.

Shortly after she began meditating, she attended a three-month retreat, with astonishing results. Her blood pressure and pulse rate dropped. She slept better and had more energy. Lapham says she experiences deeper relaxation the more she practices.

"That deep relaxation turns into joy and compassion and laughter, and I think that's pretty cool," she says. "All I have to do is sit for a bit and look at these tremendous outcomes. ... It's better than any pill that I could prescribe."

She has since studied with numerous teachers and attends meditation workshops and retreats.

Lapham meditates for about 20 minutes in her living room every morning.

"It sets the day," she says.

I wondered how she kept from falling asleep. It was a challenge I faced when I tried it. Lapham says she's not always successful at achieving a relaxed meditative state without sleeping. It all depends on how well she slept the night before or the amount of stress she feels.

Sometimes her mind wanders, but she says that's OK.

Maybe there's hope for me yet.

Contact Tina Firesheets 373-3498 or tina.firesheets@news-record.com