And Breathe - a short guide to the world's easiest meditation

Whilst I love the growing focus on mental health, flourishing and wellness, there is also a growing sense that you need to go to a specific hardcore yoga course, become vegan, commit to complicated daily meditations for 40 minutes a day and walk barefoot through the dew before this can be achieved. Such things might be helpful - but at the end of the day, let’s not over complicate things!

If we take it right back to basics - all we need to do is to practice tuning in to ourselves. As human BEINGS. We can practice some be-ing.

And the easiest way to do that is simply to be aware of our breath. Air flowing into our lungs, air flowing back out. We can ground ourselves, realise that all the ‘stuff’ going on isn’t actually as important as we think and gradually practice being kinder to ourselves.

It can be helpful to seek the support of others - that’s why I run a monthly mindfulness group - and sometimes a change of routine or scenery can be a good way to kick-start change. The more firmly rooted a new habit is, the more likely it is to last and the greater the chance that we will see its effects in our life. Once that happens - it becomes a virtuous cycle as you can feel the benefits so you therefore keep doing it. If you don’t do it, it won’t help. So it has to be realistic. A 40min meditation that is never done is much less powerful than a 2 minute meditation you do manage to do!

I would suggest you stick post-it notes as many places as you can with the word ‘Breathe’ on them. Make it a habit to do a mini breath meditation when you get up, when you boil the kettle, when you wait for the bus, when you walk to work, when you go to the loo, when you are in a queue, when you are waiting for a meeting to start. Soon, you will be well on your way to feeling calmer and not so reactive to all the stress factors present in modern life.

You can read more about the benefits of meditation here.

For free meditations apps, have a look at this list.

Try it now…

1) Find somewhere quiet and comfortable (at least to start with - later on, try and challenge yourself and mediate in ever more challenging circumstances!)

2) Focus on your breath - feel the air in your lungs

3) When you brain starts to distract you with thoughts, (the shopping list, the to-do list…) be kind to yourself. This always happens. To everyone. Just say to your brain - ‘thank you for these thoughts. I will get back to them, but I am just spending 3 minutes focusing on my breathing right now’. You might need to repeat that sentence often to start with. The brain is like any other muscle - it gets stronger over time. Just like my abdominal muscles would get if I actually did some sit-ups…. ;-)

4) If you still struggle with focus - try looking at a candle flame, focusing on one word that resonates with you (peace, love, rest, joy…) or counting slowly up to ten and then down to zero again.

5) Stay with this for 2 or 3 minutes. Then celebrate! You are amazing and managed to meditate today.