By Tina Peng

Nancy Muriello, 37, decided a few years ago that she wanted to “empty all the junk” from her mind. So she began studying meditation techniques and practicing breathing and mindfulness, or being aware of the present moment. Now Muriello spends 15 minutes per day clearing her head of clutter. “You can really picture it as a reversal,” says Muriello, who owns Big Apple Power Yoga in New York City. “All the junk, all the stimuli are pouring out of you, so you’re left with a clearer, lighter mind and body. You feel very refreshed, very relaxed, and you have more capacity to take on new things.”

Recent studies have shown meditation can yield a host of health benefits, from increased concentration to some relief from depression. Hospitals and clinics are including meditation as therapy, and medical schools are including it in their curricula. As the practice becomes more accepted as something that can be both secular and therapeutic, publishers are responding: at least a dozen books on meditation are scheduled for release in the next three months. “It’s definitely become very mainstream in many ways,” says Alan Wallace, president of the Santa Barbara (Calif.) Institute for Consciousness Studies.

Brain-imaging research has shown that meditation reduces stress and can enhance one’s sense of well-being. Novice practitioners have increased activity in the left prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that can produce positive feelings and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, says Richard J. Davidson, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin and the director of its Lab for Affective Neuroscience. Long-term practitioners are able to better focus their attention and cut down on a psychological effect called the “attentional blink” that causes people to overlook rapidly changing visual stimuli. Wallace, who is currently studying how meditation can be used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), says the practice can also lower anger levels and act as a supplementary treatment for depression, heart disease and social-anxiety disorders.

And it can be surprisingly easy to get started. “You don’t have to leave it all behind or run away to a mountaintop,” says Sharon Salzberg, a meditation teacher and author who cofounded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass. Practitioners can learn it in a class, off a CD or from a book. Here’s a look at some of the new offerings, as well as some of the classics.

“Real Meditation in Minutes a Day” (Wisdom Publications. $16.95. May 2008), by Joseph Arpaia and Lobsang Rapgay, leads readers step by step through the process of medi-tation, helping them build from focusing awareness to developing mental flexibility and clarity to, finally, opening the mind. Bullet-point tips and instructions make the book seem like test prep for life.

“Ending the Pursuit of Happiness” (Wisdom Publications. $16.95), by Barry Magid, takes a Zen approach to meditation and spirituality, arguing that meditation shouldn’t be a conscious effort to treat spiritual or physical ailments.

“Eat, Pray, Love” (Viking. $15), by Elizabeth Gilbert, has topped The New York Times’s paperback nonfiction bestseller list for more than a year. Gilbert writes about taking a year off to travel the world and find herself, spending four months learning to meditate at an ashram in India.

“Full Catastrophe Living” (Delta. $20), by Jon Kabat-Zinn, is about increasing mindfulness and using meditation to deal with stress and pain. Kabat-Zinn was one of the first to bring meditation into the secular world and point to its more-medical, less-spiritual applications. He’s particularly famous for this title.

Pema Chodron, a Buddist nun and well-known meditation teacher, has released several audio CDs, including “How to Meditate With Pema Chodron” ($19.77; amazon .com). She has forthcoming titles on such subjects as living with uncertainty and cultivating compassion (preorders at bn.com).

Salzberg has created Unplug ($21.56; bn.com) and Insight Meditation ($19.77; amazon.com) kits comprising workbooks, audio CDs and flashcards.

Several meditation teachers also offer free series of podcasts for download. Mary and Richard Maddox talk listeners through breathing and grounding techniques and pain-release meditation on Meditation Oasis (meditation oasis.com or iTunes).

Learn to Meditate (meditation .org.au or iTunes), produced by the Meditation Society of Australia, has published 25 podcasts since 2006. Each episode consists of a lecture on such diverse subjects as love and string theory, followed by a guided meditation session. Now you can contemplate the interconnectedness of the universe from just about anywhere.

Should you ever worry that a toddler isn’t active enough? For the most part, kids naturally are going to get enough activity. But if the child is gaining weight excessively, and you think a lack of activity might be contributing to that, then it might be an issue.

What can you do to encourage a shy child to run and climb? Try going to the playground at a less busy time. Help them climb up the slide backward, or ask them to race you to the swings. Play Hide and Seek or Simon Says.

Don’t overdo it. Runners of all levels fall victim to the too’s—“too much, too soon, too hard,” says Dr. William Roberts, medical director for the Twin Cities Marathon in Minnesota. Start slowly, running half a mile, then walking half a mile—or walking a block, then running a block. People who do too much too quickly can develop problems like tendonitis in their heels or knees. For the average runner, a half hour five times a week is enough.

Don’t postpone a doctor visit. “People are notorious for trying to run through their pain,” says Dr. Tyler Cooper, a physician at the Cooper Clinic in Dallas and coauthor (with his father, Dr. Kenneth Cooper) of “Start Strong, Finish Strong.” “Be proactive. Go to the doctor before it gets bad. A lot of times just put-ting some orthotics [special inserts] in your shoe can change everything.”

Walkvest: As you progress in your exercise and weightloss program, it’s harder to improve as quickly. The Walkvest, made famous recently by actress Valerie Bertinelli, who used it to shed pounds, allows you to add half-pound weights, up to eight pounds, to make your walking or running regimen more challenging ($59.90; walkvest.com).

Goody: If you often have to stop mid-workout to adjust your hair band or clip, what good is it? Goody’s StayPut collection really does just that. Its hair bands ($3.99) have 52 percent more holding power than a regular band, and the quarter-inch and half-inch claws ($3.99 to $4.99) grip probably longer than you can on those barbells (goody.com).

Stretch and strengthen. Strong, flexible muscles provide the best back support. “God created us with a back brace: it’s the muscles in our back and stomach that help support our spine,” says Darrell Barnes, a certified athletic trainer at St. Vincent Sports Performance Center in Indianapolis. The National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s most recent recommendations to combat lower back pain call for paying attention to posture, standing up straight, always warming up first, getting a good night’s sleep on a firm mattress that doesn’t sag, adding aerobic exercise and using proper lifting technique (standing with a wide stance and a slight bend at the hips and knees, tightening the stomach and keeping the back flat).

Radishes Nutritional Info: A good source of vitamin C, folate and potassium Crisp and refreshing, radishes should be refrigerated and eaten raw, sautéed or pickled.

Cauliflower Nutritional Info: High in fiber and vitamins C, K and B6

More than half the U.S. population—including about 70 percent of the elderly and 90 percent of minorities—is vitamin-D deficient, according to Dr. James E. Dowd, author of “The Vitamin D Cure.” The nutrient helps maintain normal levels of calcium and phosphorus in the blood. It also helps the body absorb calcium and keeps bones strong. Vitamin D may also protect against osteoporosis, hypertension, cancer and other diseases, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Vitamin D is mostly produced in the skin after UV exposure from the sun, but it can also be derived from milk, fish, egg yolks and vitamin supplements. It’s harder for the obese and people with more melanin in their skin to absorb vitamin D. It doesn’t help that we’ve become a nation of sunscreen wearers who eat low-vitamin processed foods and work mostly indoors; that all leads to D deficiency, which can cause susceptibility to seasonal affective disorder, fatigue, headaches and a variety of immune-related diseases, according to Dowd.

Checking the ingredients list on food packages has become a no-brainer for the health-conscious. But what about the ingredients for personal-care products? Read the label on that bottle of moisturizer and you may find ingredients that are as scary to pronounce as they are to learn about. Parabens (generally seen as a suffix, as in methylparaben) and phthalates (listed as dibutyl and diethylhexyl, though sometimes listed generically as “fragrance”) are a few of the chemicals that have been linked to cancer, birth defects, infertility and a host of other problems. But since the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t regulate cosmetics and personal-care products, and there is therefore no safety testing required, consumers are left to fend for themselves. Some companies are responding to increased consumer demand for safer, chemical-free alternatives. A few of our favorites:

Hear “Pretty Buildings,” the new single by Welsh band People in Planes (peopleinplanes.com). This ballad, rich in melody with strong, searching lyrics, shows why this group is one to watch.