Well, I could offer some advice from a buddhist perspective....

1. practice conscious awareness (as I described in another thread). Whenever you're out, walking about, maintain your focus on the world around you. Keep yourself totally focused on your surroundings and sensory perceptions, seeing the world around you in total clarity. as you do this, withdraw your focus from your self, eventaully until you can forget the self, but only maintain your awareness. your clarity in perception, concentration, and stress reduction will all greatly increase. also this is a fundamental buddhist method in clearing that which clouds your mind: uncontrolled emotions, instinctive drives, patterns of thought that trap you in a narrow mindset - these are all things that trap your mind in a system of pre-set though which prevent you from seeing the true self.

2. I hear a disturbing amount of people here who only meditate while stoned. I'm not saying that doens't have it's benefits, but if you cannot teach your mind to be in a meditative state on it's own power, you won't develope it much.

3. When meditating, a good method is the concentrate on the breath. Also, don't worry about what type of mindset you're gaining, if you're failing or succeeding. make your meditation goaless, and simply do that which you need to do, the results can come as they are meant to.

4. One of the hardest things to do for everybody (me included) is let go of hatred, grudges, the wrongs which people have inflicted upon you. just try to recognize that people's negative actions are the result of an undeveloped mind, one which is still controlled by internal drives. it is when you remove the ability of drives, emotions, and conditioning (including habbits) to control you, that you can truely attain total control and understanding over your own mind.

5. Craving and aversion are said to be the 2 main causes of suffering. one who is trapped in suffering (mentally) is inhibited, as the suffering controls your mind, rather than controlling it yourself. The idea is to eliminate the need to indulge craving, and eliminate the fear of that which you find unpleasant (pain and loss particularily). Simply view the world in as much clarity as you can, do what you must to make your existence a good one, and the rest is just karma (karma is the innevitable, the course of events outside your control. it should not be clung to to avoided, but accepted as the innetitable and disregarded from yourself).