Meditation for beginners: how to start

What meditation is

Meditation is a set of practices that bring body and mind together and calm the mind, often by focusing on something simple: the breath, a sound, an image or a repeated word. Mindfulness means paying attention to the present moment, inside and around you, without judging it.

The most common misunderstanding is that you have to stop thinking. You do not. A blank mind is not the goal. The practice is noticing where your attention has gone and bringing it back.

Your first five minutes

1. Sit comfortably and upright. A chair is fine. Use a cushion or a backrest if you need support.
2. Close your eyes and let your breathing be as it is. There is nothing to control.
3. Follow the breath. Notice the air coming in and going out. It can help to say silently “breathe in” and “breathe out” with each breath.
4. When your mind wanders, come back. Notice the thought, without scolding yourself, and gently return to the breath.
5. Finish slowly. Sit for a moment with your eyes still closed before you get up.

Harvard Health suggests starting with five minutes on most days and slowly building up to 10-20 minutes, the range most clinical programmes use. NHS Every Mind Matters suggests about 20 minutes, ideally morning and evening, once you get used to it. Start small: a practice you actually keep up does more than a long one you skip.

When your mind wanders

It will, and often. In a study that asked 2,250 adults at random moments what they were doing and thinking, people’s minds were somewhere else in nearly half of the moments. They were also less happy when their mind wandered, whatever they were doing.

In meditation, wandering is not a failure. The moment you notice that you have drifted off is the exercise itself. Each time you notice and come back, you have done one repetition, like lifting a weight once.

Two things help:

• Treat thoughts as passing events. You do not have to follow a thought or argue with it. Notice it and let it go.
• Name what you feel. Silently saying “this is worry” or “this is anxiety” can make a feeling easier to let pass.

The breath as an anchor

The breath is a good place to rest your attention because it is always there and always changing a little. You do not need to breathe in a special way. Just notice it: the cool air at the nose, the belly or chest rising and falling. If you want to know what is moving when you breathe, see how breathing works.

Try a body scan

A body scan takes about 10-15 minutes and works well before sleep. Lie down or sit, breathe slowly, and move your attention bit by bit from your feet up through your legs, belly and chest, shoulders, neck and head. You do not have to change anything. Just notice what each part feels like: warmth, pressure, tension or nothing at all. Step by step in the body scan guide.

What research says

Much of the research on meditation is still preliminary or not very rigorous, so read these results as a cautious picture.

• Anxiety, depression and pain. A large 2014 review of 47 trials with 3,515 people found moderate evidence that mindfulness programmes improve anxiety, depression and pain a little. It found no evidence that meditation works better than active treatments such as medicine or exercise.
• Sleep and stress. The evidence is weaker. In one 2019 analysis, mindfulness improved sleep quality more than education programmes, but no more than cognitive behavioural therapy or exercise.
• Depression care. In the UK, NICE recommends mindfulness-based therapies for less severe depression.

Is it safe?

Meditation is usually considered low-risk, but it is not risk-free. A 2020 review of 83 studies with 6,703 people found that about 8% had a negative effect, most often anxiety or depression. That is similar to the rate with psychological therapies. The NHS also notes that mindfulness is not right for everyone and some people feel worse.

So: keep sessions short at first, stop if it makes you feel worse, and do not use meditation to replace or delay medical care. If you see a doctor or therapist, tell them you meditate.