People all over the world, for thousands of years, have been meditating. It is not necessary to pay the David Lynch Foundation who promotes TM meditation $1,000 to learn to meditate. Even though they tell you their meditation is different, it’s not. Meditation is meditation. It’s just a way for them to charge $1,000 for their “course” which I felt was disappointing and a lot of “nothing” and a total waste of my time and money. There is really nothing difficult to learn to meditate. And meditation is nothing mystical.

There are a lot of benefits from meditation. There are health benefits—from stress management to helping with high blood pressure, heart disease and depression. It’s also a good habit to practice in your everyday life. It helps center you.

Meditation is basically the process of using a word or phrase to help you focus (mantra) that you keep repeating in your mind while closing your eyes. You can chose any word or phrase that you should use every time you meditate. Or you can use the traditional OM mantra (idealmantra.com), which you chant. You are cutting through your brain’s “chatter” and finding focus. It is normal for your mind to wander while you are trying to focus and meditating. If this happens, and it will, just think of your mantra and continue.

So to begin, put the Insight Timer meditation app on your iPhone or iPad. Set it for 20 minutes or more if you wish (I like to also set an interval sound at 10 minutes so I know I am half way there).  Find a comfortable place to sit (I like sitting at my desk), start the timer, close your eyes and begin to repeat your mantra in your head or chant the OM mantra. Twice a day about the same time every day is optimal, but once a day if that is all the time you have is fine.

Happy meditating!