Andy's Tips

In a nutshell, meditation is the practice of paying attention and focusing awareness – in short, being fully conscious of the here and now.

Headspace teaches a practical set of tools and techniques that anyone can use to learn to meditate, promoting physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. The result? More clarity and less stress.

Meditation the Headspace way is a straightforward, incredibly useful practice, designed to fit in with your schedule and improve the quality of your daily life.

There are loads of different kinds of meditation, and loads of different names for each approach. Generally, though, they fall into one of two categories (although there is considerable overlap):

– Calming meditation

Calming meditations tend to involve concentrating on one particular object, such as the breath, a mantra, a visualisation, a physical object, or even physical sensations within the body.

These techniques, as the name suggests, tend to result in a quieter, more peaceful state of mind. They can also help to boost concentration.

– Insight meditation

Traditionally, insight meditation was aimed at transforming the mind — in short, developing wisdom and compassion.

The Headspace techniques combine elements of both calming and insight meditation to bring about greater calm, greater clarity, and improved feelings of wellbeing and happiness.

Although most meditation approaches were developed as part of various spiritual disciplines, in recent years, many non-religious techniques have been created to bring the tangible benefits of meditation to people’s lives, outside of a religious or spiritual context — like Headspace.

Yes! Absolutely.

Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years by people from all walks of life. In my own teaching experience, children from as young as 6 and adults well into their 80s can all learn and benefit from meditation.

The only exceptions are people suffering from the most severe forms of mental illness — we would strongly recommend seeking expert advice from a GP or specialist as an initial course of action.

Because it’s good for you. But we’re not just talking ‘eat your greens’ good-for-you. This is a daily practice that’s simple enough to incorporate in your everyday existence, but substantial enough to change your experience of life.

Everyone can benefit physically, emotionally and mentally from learning these techniques. If you want more peace of mind, better sleep, to be more productive at work, to feel happier or to have better relationships with others (and let’s face it, who wouldn’t?), you should definitely give it a try.

Yes — it’s a buzzing field of scientific research; the evidence is growing all the time. To see some examples of the clinical proof, have a look in our ‘Proof’’ section.

The key to learning meditation is having authentic and reliable information.

If you are fortunate enough to have personal instruction from a qualified teacher, then great. But you can also learn the fundamental techniques from a reliable book, DVD, or website — like Headspace.

When you learn with Headspace, you can also back up your remote learning with online, personalised support, or face-to-face guidance at one of our events.

It’s different for every person, but generally you can learn and get comfortable with the basic techniques within 10 days – that’s why we’ve designed the Take10 programme. Ten days is the minimum you need to really notice positive, sustainable changes. But obviously, the more you do, the more you’ll notice.

Everyone is different though, with differing levels of commitment and motivation, and it’s essential that you respect your own pace of learning. If it takes longer, that’s fine — in fact, the very worst thing you could do is have unrealistically high expectations and a particular timeline in mind for results.

There’s also always more to learn if you’re interested…

Relaxation and meditation tend to be used interchangeably, but they’re actually pretty distinct.

Meditation can be accompanied by varying degrees of relaxation, including some of the most profound states. But when you meditate, relaxation isn’t the goal, but more of a wonderful side effect. With meditation, you also achieve better self–knowledge, clarity of thought, focus and wellbeing, among numerous other benefits.

Besides, there are many different ways to just relax — either through specific techniques designed to achieve just that, and others where you simply find yourself feeling relaxed through doing something pleasurable, like sitting in the sun, walking in the park or listening to music.

Although in the West we tend to think of yoga as contorting ourselves into all manner of positions at the local gym, it’s actually a complete system of spiritual training which incorporates a wide range of guidance, ranging from ethics and morality to contemplation and meditation. Meditation, although integral, is just one part of this.

Not necessarily. Meditation has evolved over thousands of years, rooted in various spiritual disciplines. But at its core, it’s a deeply practical set of techniques that can benefit anyone, without having to affiliate itself with any particular religion.

At Headspace, we believe that meditation can benefit everyone, regardless of their spiritual orientation, so we draw upon the essence of these tried and tested techniques, but without any spiritual agenda whatsoever. Our approach is completely practical and absolutely non-religious, so can complement whatever your world view happens to be.

Definitely not — although, if you’d like to, go ahead! You also don’t need to wear robes, light incense, or get involved in any of that stuff which could all too easily look like mumbo–jumbo.

Once a day is about right. It helps to make it part of your routine — so if you find it easiest to meditate in the morning before breakfast, try to stick to that (and it’s completely fine if that means sitting on a Saturday about 3 hours later than you do on a weekday). Needless to say, if you’re feeling enthusiastic you are very welcome to do more, but if that’s the case, try to do several shorter sessions rather than attempting one long marathon session.

Whatever you’re comfortable in. You don’t have to dress in anything special — although you might be more tempted to nod off if you’re in your pyjamas, in my experience!

Not unless you happen to live on one. Otherwise, any reasonably quiet, comfortable place where you’re not likely to be interrupted is fine.

Because you’re a human being, and our default setting has become frenetic thought! If we could stop thinking at will, we wouldn’t need to learn to meditate. Just be gentle with yourself. It’s like whack–a–mole — the more you try to quash your thoughts, the more they’ll pop up. Bring your attention back to your breath each time, and with a little practice the sense of calm will begin to increase.

We tend to live such stressful lives, it’s little wonder we find it hard to be still. Here are a couple of pointers:

— Try to find a comfortable, alert sitting position — try sitting at the front of the chair to keep a comfortably straight back, and tuck your chin slightly under to lengthen your spine.

— Even if you’re feeling restless, commit to finishing the session. Acknowledge the urge to get up without judging or trying to change it, but bring your attention back to your breath (again and again if necessary), without giving yourself a hard time if possible.

There’s a lot whirling around inside you — noticing what you’re feeling can be surprisingly difficult. It’s a new skill you’re learning, so just be patient and see what comes up — there’s no right or wrong answer. Moods are always changing and it’s human nature to experience the complete spectrum, so you’re pretty much guaranteed to experience every single one at some time or another.

We’re so used to applying effort to achieve a particular outcome that it’s easy to ‘try’ to be still — which is the surest way to tense up! As much as you can, try to let go of any desire to be ‘good’ at meditation, and release any expectations of yourself and the process. You’ll find that just letting whatever happens, happen, is (counter–intuitively) the best way to progress.

On the one hand, don’t worry about it — you’re obviously finding it relaxing! But if you do doze off regularly, you might need to change the time of day you’re meditating, or adjust your posture — the aim is to find a balance of stillness and alertness to get the most out of each session.

It’s always a bit tricky to adjust your routine. But look at it this way — it’s less than 1% of your entire day. And it might just be the 1% that shifts the other 99% in a more positive direction.

If it’s just a day or two you’ve missed, you can restart where you left off. But you might like to start from the beginning — the sessions are designed to follow each other back–to–back. And it’s not a race, so there’s no harm in starting again at Day 1 if you get more out of it in the longer run.

For a few reasons. Firstly, it helps you to notice shifts in yourself as a result of your practice, which can flag up particular issues for you, or motivate you to keep up the positive changes. Secondly, it helps you to make sure the exercise is working, and make any necessary adjustments to improve your experience. And lastly, you’re part of a community of people around the country and the world taking part. We pool your collective feedback, so you can see how you’re all doing, get reassurance and support, and feel part of a bigger movement from your chair at home.

Learning to meditate is like learning any other skill, like driving a car — you don’t expect to hit the motorway after your first few lessons! Be patient with yourself, and take it slowly and without expecting too much, too quickly.

There’s always more to learn if you’d like. You can extend your programme, and try the Take15 or Take20 — or, if you’d like, you can go through Take10 again to really bed–down the techniques, or look out for new techniques that target specific types of emotional challenges. You can also come along to one of our one–day events, to refine your practice, get face–to–face guidance, and ask any questions you might have.

Of course, that’s what we’re here for. If you’ve got a question we haven’t answered here, please ask it below — chances are everyone else is wondering the same thing.

If you’d prefer to get face–to–face support, you might want to come to a Headspace event. See what’s coming up here.

I founded Headspace (with the help of a wonderful team) to bring the benefits of meditation to busy, modern professionals. I’ve been teaching for a long time now, and been meditating for over 20 years, so I think I’ve encountered pretty much every obstacle there is, and so can offer you firsthand guidance all the way. You can read my full story here.

All of our upcoming Headspace events are outlined here. You can also sign up for email updates, join us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get all the details of what’s coming up.

At the moment, the one-day events cost £249 per person. At the end of the day, you’ll have all the tools you need to develop your practice, so you’ll only have to attend another event if you’d especially like to. Although it’s not cheap, it really is value for money and will give you an invaluable skill for life.

Yes — at every Headspace event, the first 25 people who book a place receive one free tieket. These go fast, though, so you have to be quick off the mark! Follow us on Twitter or Facebook, or subscribe to our newsletter, to be the first to know when new events are open for booking. If you book three tickets, you’ll save 20% on the total booking price — that’s an impressive £149 off altogether! Check our event page or email info@getsomeheadspace.com to find out more.

Any. If you’re a complete beginner, you’ll develop a really good foundation over the course of the day, and will have everything you need to start meditating as soon as you get home. And if you’re a seasoned meditator, you’ll learn new ways of approaching your practice, refine your technique and have the chance to get face–to–face support on any particular questions you’ve got.

At the moment our one–day events are all held in London — it’s just logistically easier that way. But we are hoping to extend our locations in the very near future. In the meantime, we hope you’ll be able to make it to London.

We can’t help to organise your accommodation, unfortunately, but we can recommend having a look at www.tripadvisor.co.uk for community–reviewed hotels.

Definitely. It might not be one–on–one, since the events are really popular, but there are plenty of opportunities throughout the day to ask any questions and share your experiences.

You might want to try one of the meditation programmes like Take10, Take15 or Take20 — they’re a great way to keep honing your practice.

 When you sit to meditate it's actually very common to experience a bit of pain. It might be an imbalance in the body, muscular tension, or even the release of emotional tension from the ups and downs of everyday life. These feelings obviously become a bit clearer when you sit down quietly and are free from distractions. So strange as it sounds, you experience them because you have more clarity. 

 Sometimes the physical pain or emotional tension can feel a bit more ingrained. Maybe it's an old injury you've had for many years, or discomfort associated with a situation from a very long time ago. This can be more difficult to deal with as you will probably have already built up a lot of resistance to the pain.

  For most people the breath works as a really good object of meditation. But sometimes it can feel a bit uncomfortable, and for a few people it can even bring about a greater sense of anxiety or panic.

The first thing to remember is that the breath regulates itself quite happily most of the time. Even if you are unconscious, the body will continue to breathe and regulate the flow of oxygen. This is good news, as it means we don't need to worry about controlling the breath.

I think there is sometimes the assumption that when we turn our attention to the breath that we'll find a nice, deep, strong, steady rhythm coming from the stomach. But the breath is not always like that. So what tends to happen, especially if the breath is very shallow and felt more towards the chest, is that we instinctively panic a little. In fact the rhythm of the breath may even remind you of a time when you felt very anxious and this will only reinforce the idea that you need to do something, to take control. This can also happen if the breath feels very tight, heavy or sluggish.

It's important to say that this is not at all uncommon, and if you experience it sometimes you should not be at all concerned. The best thing to do in this situation is to give the mind some form of physical reassurance that you are in fact breathing, no matter what the depth or rhythm may be. This is usually done by placing a hand on the belly button. Do not try to breath, no matter what. Simply wait for the next breath and watch how the hand rises. Then wait for the out breath and watch how the hand falls. Continue in this way for as long as you need to. Again, it's important to have confidence in the body's ability to regulate the breath - it's got you this far in life without any help at all!

If when you try this there is very little movement, then try moving the hand up towards the diaphragm, or even on to the chest. It's really helpful for the mind to have that physical reassurance of movement. And don't forget to remind yourself that meditation is not about breathing in a particular way, so just let the body self-regulate. Be interested, be curious and get to know your own patterns of breathing.