Meditation doesn’t have to be a big event, a journey, or a guided breathing endeavor. It certainly can be these things and I do believe it contributes to a greater quality of life, but for those of us just trying to make it through a tough day at the office, an uncomfortable ride on a train or plane, or just a bad day – taking a moment to center yourself and your emotions can greatly improve your overall wellbeing. If you’re having a lot of trouble, I think Code Brew developed an app that walks you through the process. My meditative guidance for first-timers is as follows:

1. Make yourself as comfortable as you can in your environment – you cannot always change your environment but you can almost always change your relationship to it. So if you’re sitting cross-legged on the M-train, responding to emails on your phone, put your phone in your pocket and place the bottoms of both your feet on the floor. Rest your arms at your sides or in your lap. Close your eyes and allow your body to sway to the rhythm of the train. Ignore distractions. Just be as comfortable as your environment will allow.
3. Begin to relax, breathing gently in three-part intervals: 1. Deep breath in for three seconds, 2. Hold it at the top of the breath for three seconds, 3. Deep breath out for three seconds. Repeat. Doing this alone for one full minute may drastically change and improve your day.
4. If you are in a comfortable environment and able to let yourself really sink into it, you’ll start to develop your guiding images, experiences or mantras. I like to consider something in the world that makes me happy over which I have literally no control as it helps to put into perspective the things over which I do have control. Deep breath in, that’s the sun rising one morning. Hold it at the top, this is the passage of that one day blessed by the sun having risen. Deep breath out, this is the setting of the sun and the closing of the day.
5. Coming out of a meditation is a return to awareness. I like to start at the bottom, becoming aware of my toes, wiggling my toes. Become aware of my feet and ankles, flexing them. Becoming aware of my legs ending at the floor where my feet are planted, and adjusting my legs. Becoming aware of my fingers, wiggling them. Becoming aware of my hands and wrists, flexing them. Becoming aware of my arms at my side or in my lap, and adjusting them. Becoming aware of my head, mind and neck, turning it from side to side and nodding it up and down. Becoming aware of my heart, reconnecting it to my head. And then waking it all up and carrying on with the day whether it’s sunrise, daytime, sunset, or night.