The Headspace Guide to: Mindfulness & Meditation

by Andy Puddicombe

For the purpose of Take10, I’m going to suggest that you use the breath as your primary support. There are many reasons for this, some of which I’ll go into in more detail later, but first and foremost the breath is undoubtedly one of the most flexible meditation objects. Unlike chanting or staring at a candle, you’ll be able to do this anywhere, even in public, without anyone else knowing what you’re doing. The breath is with you wherever you go. And if it’s not, then meditation is the least of your worries! But there’s also something comforting in focusing on a physical sensation, as it helps to draw the attention away from the realm of thought and into something a bit more tangible. Now for some people this is enough. Simply to sit each day, observe the breath, let the mind settle, and allow all the tension to work its way out of the system. And as I said earlier, there’s nothing wrong in using meditation in this way, it’s just that you won’t be getting the full benefit. In order to get the very most from meditation, you’ll probably want to integrate it with your everyday life. And in order to do that, you’ll need to add the second component – clarity. This way you get to see what’s causing the tension in the first place, you get to understand how and why you feel the way you do in certain situations. It’s the difference between ‘responding skilfully’ to situations and ‘reacting impulsively’. So, rather than getting to a point of stress and then needing to unwind, you c...