Things You'll Need

Instructions

1

Dress in loose clothing and seat yourself comfortably in a quiet, isolated room. Keep your entire spine as straight as possible, but without rigidity and tension. To alleviate thoughts about time or fears of falling asleep, it might be helpful to set an alarm for the time you wish to meditate.
2

Close your eyes and allow your body to relax as you breathe.
3

Breathe only through your nose, and begin to focus on the sensations of your breath, such as the heat as it enters your nostrils and goes down into your lungs and the coolness as it travels back out. Be aware of other sensations you feel, but have no reaction to them. Just observe them passively, however gross or pleasant you find them to be. Understand and accept that inevitably, all sensation shall pass.
4

Allow your focus to fall on a particular area of sensation -- perhaps just above your lip or just inside the nose.
5

Focus on this one area of sensation, and make the focus even narrower, paying attention to nothing else, trying to get your area of focus down to a single cell. Observe the sensations in this one area equanimously, allowing no reaction to distract you from concentration.
6

Count inhalations and exhalations as "one-one," "two-two" and up to "eight-eight." Then count backward to one. This can also help focus concentration.