MARINA SPENCE: I read an article in 'O Magazine' recently that said: Meditate: Daily relaxation exercises may cut the risk of death from heart attack by 30 percent and cancer by 49 percent.

The light I was reading by was dim, so I held the magazine nearly to my nose. Yep, that's what it said.

Cancer runs in my family. Both of my parents, my grandmother, and too-many aunts and uncles all died of it. But the good news, at least for me, is that I've been meditating for nigh onto 28 years.

But meditation goes far beyond the health benefits. We all can differ from our conditioning, veer from our heredity, and defy our programming to live creative, passionate, and joy-filled lives.

I believe that meditation is the foundation for this change.

Why? Our minds are like trap doors that lead to everything musty and old: outdated fears, old hurts, and out-of-focus pictures. By working with the mind, by using patient, comfortable awareness, we shine the light inside that trap door. Things shift. Slowly. Subtlety. We move to a new state of mind, then another and another. We become the change we envision, for ourselves and for the planet. Slowly. Subtlety.

And we have fun along the way.

"Fun? But isn't meditation boring?" people ask me.

"Try it and see," I usually say to those I teach. For you, here are my top 10 reasons for meditating:

10.You better remember why you walked into a room.

9. You smile more and grind your teeth less.

8. You see beauty in the most unlikely places-the face of of child with a runny nose, a wrinkled old toothless smile, a heap of grass clippings.

7. You develop a sense of humour, especially about yourself.

6. You have the feeling you do after an hour of yoga-but without the exercise.

5. Your obnoxious uncle/aunt/cousin doesn't bother you as much.

4. Your intuition becomes your secret advisor.

3. Your heart heals, and holds more love.

2. You feel stillness as deep as the ocean.

1. Ecstasy

My advice about meditation, which I learned from a wise one, is simple: don't leave the house without having done it, since the only bad meditation is the one you didn't do.