How often does your mind wander? Maybe someone’s talking to you, but you’re not really listening. Maybe you’re meant to be working or studying, yet your mind keeps flicking between thoughts. You find yourself distracted, unfocused, and not fully present.
Meditation is one of the simplest ways to bring yourself back. It helps you train focus, quiet the noise, and feel more present, with benefits that translate into better outcomes in every part of life: social situations, work, relationships, sports, the list goes on.
In this guide, we’ll cover what meditation is, why it works, and the exact steps to start getting results from it.
Understanding Mindfulness Meditation
What is Meditation?
There are many different forms of meditation, this guide focuses on one in particular: mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness meditation is the practice of training your attention to rest in the present moment, whether that’s your breath, surroundings, or a physical sensation.
The goal isn’t to empty your mind or stop thinking. Instead, it’s about noticing when your mind wanders and bringing it back without judgement, gradually building the skill of awareness. Over time, this becomes more automatic in everyday life, helping you stay calm, focused, and present even when life gets busy.
Benefits of Meditation
Meditation offers powerful mental, emotional, and physical benefits that can improve your overall well-being. What begins as a few minutes of focused breathing can gradually rewire how your brain handles stress, attention, and emotion.
Mental and Emotional Benefits
Reduced Stress
Meditation lowers levels of cortisol which is the hormone responsible for stress. The more you meditate, the more stressful situations will feel less overwhelming and easier to navigate calmly.
Improved Focus and Clarity
Training your attention to return to the present moment strengthens concentration and focus. This increases productivity and output because the mind becomes distracted less often.
Better Emotional Regulation
By observing your thoughts without judgement, you create a gap between stimulus and reaction. This helps you respond to challenges with patience, perspective, and self-control, rather than impulse and emotion.
Benefits in the Brain
The brain actually physically changes over time due to long-term, consistent meditation.
Increased Grey Matter
MRI studies show that regular meditators have greater grey matter density (stronger networks of nerve cells). This increased grey matter is in areas such as the hippocampus (memory and learning), prefrontal cortex (decision making and emotional regulation), and insula (self awareness).
Reduced Amygdala Activity
The amygdala is the part of the brain responsible for your body’s stress, fear, and impulse responses. It’s also linked to cravings and bad habits, as it drives us toward instant gratification and comfort.
With consistent meditation, the amygdala becomes less reactive, and studies even show a slight reduction in its size over time. This helps lower anxiety, reduce emotional reactivity, and improve control over impulses.
Improved Prefrontal Cortex Connections
The prefrontal cortex is the area of the brain responsible for decision making, focus, planning, and emotional regulation, and is often referred to as the control centre of the brain. Meditation strengthens this area and improves its connections with deeper emotional regions of the brain.
As these connections strengthen, you become better at staying focused, making clear decisions, and managing emotions calmly under pressure.
Physical Benefits
Lower Blood Pressure and Heart Rate
Meditation activates the parasympathetic nervous system. This is the part of the body that helps you relax and recover, and is the opposite to the sympathetic nervous system (‘fight or flight’ response).
Activating the parasympathetic nervous system slows the heart rate, relaxes blood vessels, and lowers blood pressure, supporting long-term cardiovascular health and recovery from stress.
Improved Sleep Quality
Mindfulness helps quiet mental chatter, reduce overthinking, and promote relaxation. This makes it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep.
How to Practice Mindfulness Meditation
You will need:
- A place to sit where you won’t be distracted
- Background noise is fine, mindfulness is about noticing, not eliminating, what’s around you
Action steps:
- Sit Comfortably: Sit in your chosen place with a straight (not stiff) back, hands resting on your knees or lap, and relaxed shoulders.
- Close Your Eyes
- Deep Breathe: Deeply inhale and exhale a couple of times. This helps to slow the body down and ground you in the present moment at the start of the meditation.
- Focus on Your Breath: Pay attention to the sensation of your breath wherever you feel it most clearly, maybe the nose, chest, or stomach. Observe the natural rhythm of breathing in and out.
- Notice Your Thoughts: When your mind wanders, notice it and acknowledge it, without judgement.
- Refocus your attention: Gently bring your attention back to the breath.
- Repeat: Mindfulness meditation is a constant cycle of steps 4-6.
Start super small, maybe just 2-5 minutes per day. The key is to build up the habit until it’s as normal as brushing your teeth. Once it becomes familiar, gradually extend your sessions as your focus improves. The goal isn’t long sessions, it’s regular ones.
Be patient if your mind keeps wandering. The most important step is 6: refocusing your attention. It’s this step that strengthens the ‘muscle’ of focus. You can think of each time you refocus as 1 repetition. More repetitions means more benefits.
As with most habits, consistency is key. The benefits build slowly, but are well worth it. Meditation apps like Medito and Headspace can help you track your sessions and also offer guided meditations to help you get started.
FAQs
Is there a wrong way to meditate?
Not really, as long as you follow the steps above. I recommend sitting if possible, rather than lying, as you don’t want to be too relaxed. Breathe however feels natural to you, but try not to force the breath after those initial inhales and exhales.
Is a longer meditation better?
Technically yes, a longer meditation is better than a shorter one because you’re getting more repetitions of refocussing your attention. Be aware that if you do choose to meditate for 30 mins plus, it’s quite easy to forget what you’re doing and be lost in thought for too long. This results in fewer repetitions and you may as well have meditated for a shorter period. I’d only recommend longer meditations for people who have kept up the practice for a while and are comfortable concentrating for that long. Be patient and build up the duration gradually.
Wrapping Up
We live in a world of distraction and stimulation, where everything is fighting for your attention. Use meditation to take back control and ownership of your attention, to direct wherever you see fit. It’s a tool that very few people are taking advantage of.
The key takeaway would be to start small, choose a duration that you can commit to every day. Make meditation a habit and enjoy the benefits for your mind and body.
Notes
Notes
My favourite quote on meditation:
“You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes everyday – unless you’re too busy; then you should sit for an hour.” ~ Sukhraj S. Dhillon
I think this really means to treat meditation as a priority. It’s very easy to put it off because other things are calling us, but I think what Dhillon is saying here is that that’s the whole point. Use meditation, especially in busy times, because that’s when it’s needed most.
