You can rest your hands in your lap. The most important thing is that you find a position that you can stay in for a while.

Meditation is a highly personal activity, with everyone finding their best own way to practice. Some find guided meditations to be useful, especially when starting out, to help focus their attention.

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A mantra, or a word or phrase that you repeat to yourself silently, can be used as an anchor for your awareness during meditation. In some practices, a mantra is given to you by a teacher. You can also use your own.

Find a comfortable seated position. Sit so you feel supported and alert and in a way that you can stay comfortably for a while. It can help to have your knees slightly lower than your hips, to allow your spine to maintain its natural slight curve.

Meditation does seem to improve mental health—but it’s not necessarily more effective than other steps you can take. Early research suggested that mindfulness meditation had a dramatic impact on our mental health. But as the number of studies has grown, so has scientific skepticism about these initial claims. For example, a 2014 meta-analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine

Soften your gaze and lower your eyes, not focused on anything in particular. You may also close your eyes, if that’s more comfortable.

Tune into your body’s physical sensations, from the water hitting your skin in the shower to the way your body rests in your office chair.

Recently, researchers have been exploring this question—with some surprising results. While much of the early research on mindfulness relied on pilot studies with biased measures or limited groups of participants, more recent studies have been using less-biased physiological markers and randomly controlled experiments to get at the answer.

Mindful couples may also recover more quickly from conflict. Mindfulness affects the way we see ourselves: More mindful people have a stronger sense of self and seem to act more in line with their values. They may also have a healthier body image, more secure self-esteem, and more resilience to negative feedback.

Mindfulness fights obesity: Practicing “mindful eating” encourages healthier eating habits, helps people lose weight, and helps them savor the food they do eat. Pregnant women who practice mindful eating gain less weight during pregnancy, and have healthier babies. Featured Articles

In another study, people mindfulness with heart disease were randomly assigned to either an em linha program to help them practice meditation or to a waitlist for the program while undergoing normal treatment for heart disease.

If you’re interested in more formal training, here are some successful programs for cultivating mindfulness that we’ve identified..

Initially, you could also practice during one specific activity, such as brushing your teeth before bed or eating the first three bites of your lunch. Walking Meditation