I have used meditation for many things, and I believe it can help for us over here as well.

There are two closely related disciplines,

1. 1) hypnosis
2. 2) meditation.

If anyone reading this is a teacher or student of meditation or hypnosis, and has a different opinion please post here. My own experience is only from books and occasionally speaking to people who practice these regularly.

After much thought i came up with a difference between the two. Hypnosis is a form of deep relaxation in order to access the subconscious mind. On the other hand Meditation has a further goal, of controlling the entire mind, both the conscious and the subconscious.
So they both start the same, yet for hypnosis you have reached your goal once you have entered the deeply relaxed state. As apposed to meditation, this is just a preliminary for the ultimate goal of controlling the thought process.

Here is a link with some practical ideas for hypnosis.
www.guardureyes.com/GUE/Tips/SelfTher.asp

A simple way to meditate:
Get comfortable, then close your eyes gently and start ton breath deeply, in through your nose and out through your mouth. and focus on your breaths, maybe count them.
It is almost impossible to keep focused on one thing for more than 2-3 seconds without a lot (read: years) of practice. So when your mind wanders, don't get frustrated, just gently nudge it back to focus on your breaths and breathing.

I find that doing this, or a similar exercise in the morning, for 20-30 minuets, helps keep my mind more focused for much of the day, allowing me to fend off unwanted thought more easily.

I find that a very challenging time is when I'm in bed before I fall asleep. At these times I have begun to meditate on the possuk of Shema, and have been finding that besides the fact that I stop fantasizing, I have gained a greater appreciation for Krias Shema.

Another relaxation technique that I used today. I often use this technique to get into a relaxed state to meditate, but today I found it helpful just to do the relaxing part (I call this self hypnosis.)

Get comfortable. Breathe in deeply through your nose, and exhale slowly trough your mouth, while whispering or thinking the word "relax" (some words, such as "relax" have a very relaxing sound!). Do this 3 times.
Then, with another breath, exhale as you say or think "ten" and picture a vibrantly colored number 10 as you do this.
Then, repeat the 3 breath sequence above, and then on to number 9 and so forth down to 0, each time choosing a different color or pattern and/or texture for each number.

I have found these type of exercises very beneficial in helping remain calm throughout the day.