Belief Net's Meditation page has several online audio meditations. I would particularly recommend Thich Nhat Hanh's Being Peace, which has a both calming meditation and a breathing exercise.

Or try Cultivate mindfulness (15 minutes), by Dan Darnell: mindfulness involves suspending moment to moment judgments and problem solving, and instead just being, doing nothing. From the University of N. Carolina Campus Health Service.

BuddhaNet has an audio meditation page with a large number of real audio streams and mp3 downloads. This page, and the Malcolm Huxter meditations in particular, were recommended to me by the Melbourne Meditation Centre - thanks, Matt!

The Meditation Society of Australia offers a free online meditation course. Each of the ten lessons has instructions and an mp3 download, which runs for around 15 minutes. In the first lesson you imagine a candle flame as the doorway to peace and breathe in a golden, peaceful energy through your heart and release tension with the out breath: candle meditation.

Also from The Meditation Society of Australia, a short weekly podcast to freshen up your meditating.

Meditation sites

Channel 4's complementary medicine site gives an excellent overview of meditation with information on what it is, how it works and the evidence for health benefits.

Meditation sites range from the purely secular to the deeply spiritual, and most have very definite views on the right way to meditate. To find something to suit your own tastes, try the ODP directory's two two categories: Health> >Meditation and Religion & Spirituality >Meditation. My own favourite sites include:

Stillpoint offers information and resources for those with chronic illness interested in meditation and Buddhism.

World Wide Online Meditation Center This source of straightforward information on meditation is ideal for beginners and includes guidance notes on several forms of meditation, including mindfulness.

Wildmind Buddhist Meditation has huge amount of helpful information on meditation with online meditations too (see above). This site is very useful whether you have particular spiritual beliefs or none.

Meditation Society of Australia has good general information about meditation and several free resources including the online meditation course (see above), mp3 meditation music and a daily meditation.