Our days are spent thinking, acting and reacting. Our minds are constantly alert, ticking away like clocks. Try stopping the clock for a moment every now and then and switching off. This is one of the easy meditation techniques and there’s no reason you can’t “do” it every day.

The key to these meditation techniques is learning to deal with distractions. You can only do this by practicing, so take every opportunity to do so. During an average day, you will have many moments of downtime – waiting for the kettle to boil, standing in the bus queue, buttering the toast, in the shower. For the next week, try this exercise:

Just stop.

This is a very good, if not one of the best meditation techniques, and that by practicing regularly you will find that you relax completely, if only for a few moments. So you are giving yourself more time this week during which you ore totally relaxed. If you’re a highly stressed individual, you should feel a huge difference by the end of the week.

1. Stop what you’re doing. That’s right-freeze.

2. Let your vision drift out of focus.

3. Breathe into your belly. Now breathe normally, but keep the cycle of breath going.

4. Relax your shoulders; relax your mouth and jaw.

5. Let your thoughts drift away from you. You are a rock and nothing more.

6. Stay immobile as long as you can.

7. Now get on with what you were doing.