The holiday season, while enchanting, often comes with its fair share of stress. There’s a lot to manage, from gathering all the necessary ingredients for a festive feast to ensuring the children’s nativity outfits are ready and finding time to wrap gifts before the celebrations commence.

In an effort to help people balance the pressures of the holidays with their daily lives, today, December 21, marks World Meditation Day. This initiative, established by the United Nations just last year, invites individuals globally to focus on finding inner peace and reflecting on our shared humanity, aiming to cultivate unity. Meditation is known to provide several health benefits, including the reduction of blood pressure.

As reported by Healthline, studies have indicated that individuals who regularly meditate often experience lower blood pressure, thereby reducing the strain on their heart and potentially preventing heart-related issues like heart attacks and strokes.

On Reddit, a user shared practical advice for those interested in exploring meditation for the first time. They recounted their struggles: “I’ve always wanted to get into meditation, but every time I tried, I either got bored, sleepy, or found my mind wandering to thoughts of dinner planning.”

“In the last few months, I’ve discovered some straightforward strategies that finally made meditation work for me. I’m sharing these in hopes they might help others who are just beginning their meditation journey.”

The first piece of advice is to avoid trying to “empty” your mind completely. The user explained: “This was a breakthrough for me. I used to think I was doing it wrong if I had thoughts during meditation. But having thoughts is natural! Just acknowledge them, don’t resist them. Treat them like pop-up ads—observe them, but don’t engage, and let them fade away.”

The second suggestion is to start small, beginning with just one minute and gradually building up from there. Thirdly, they advised using your breath as an anchor. Count your breaths in and out, inhaling on one and exhaling on two, up to a count of 10, then repeat.

Their fourth recommendation is to link meditation with another aspect of your daily routine. The Reddit user stated: “I meditate right after brushing my teeth in the morning. No excuses, no ‘will I do it today?’, it’s part of the routine like peeing or washing my face.”

They also mentioned that playing gentle ambient music or rain sounds might be helpful, noting: “Not everyone likes pure silence, and that’s fine. It’s about focus, not torture.” They emphasised that meditation doesn’t require sitting cross-legged “like a Himalayan monk”, simply adding: “Just stay still.”

The user also proposed labelling thoughts as they emerge during meditation. They clarified: “When a thought comes up, I silently label it like ‘future planning’, ‘random memory’, or ‘junk’. That labelling somehow helps the thought lose power and fade.”

Their concluding advice is that meditation isn’t confined to a seated position. Walking mindfully, paying attention to each step, can also be a form of meditation. Similarly, eating with full awareness of the meal, devoid of distractions like your mobile or television, can be meditative.

According to Healthline, meditation boasts an array of other benefits. These encompass stress reduction, anxiety alleviation, enhanced attention span, improved sleep, pain management, and mitigation of age-related memory loss.

Meditation is also versatile in terms of location – it can be practised at work, on public transport, or even during a walk.