WEDNESDAY, July 2 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers say they've taken a significant stride forward in understanding how relaxation techniques such as meditation, prayer and yoga improve health: by changing patterns of gene activity that affect how the body responds to stress.

The changes were seen both in long-term practitioners and in newer recruits, the scientists said.

We all know walking is great exercise. It helps the heart and lungs, it builds strong muscle and it's good for our bones!

It's also a good social activity. We can walk with friends, catch up with our lives and if you are like me, walking can lead in just the opposite direction. It can be a time to be alone, with no-one talking, no little fingers tugging at me and no-one asking me what's for dinner! I can smell the air, listen to the geese and feel the breeze. Just me and me.

I can also feel my waist line getter smaller and my legs becoming leaner. And who doesn't want that benefit?

To The Women of EmpowHer,

How often do you feel life has a chaotic grip on you?

When we are stressed, many of us women forget the most important person we have to care for is ourselves first and from this surplus of energy we can effortlessly give to others. If we are skimping on our daily meditation practice, we may enter our day in a blurry fog unaware of our interactions and projections towards people we are encountering.