There’s a lot of different ways to meditate, and things to meditate on. The most common is mindfulness and essentially boils down to observing and paying attention to everything your consiousness has available. Sounds, smells, sensations, etc. After a while your mind internally kinda shuts up, you get relaxed, stress levels drop, you notice things you hadn’t before. Long term your telomeres get longer (bits of sacrifical DNA that protect your actual DNA). Anxiety drops, inflammation drops, depression drops, you end up more in control of your emations, more rational, better attention span, more self aware, less lonely somehow, improves sleep. And that’s just what science has found so far

The benefit, for me, is that it’s like stuffing a piggy bank full of calmness. Later, when I need some calmness, I can reach in and grab it via the meditative practice.

That is a large question.

Meditation is the art and practice of controlling your awareness. And by awareness I mean what you direct when you pay attention, what you concentrate when you concentrate and what gets jerked around when you are distracted.

We basically have 2 techniques. Briefly.

The first technique is “concentration” (it goes by different names). Hold your awareness upon a thing as perfectly as you can for a while. One good thing for this is the feeling of breath in the tip of your nose.

The second technique is “vipassana” (it also goes by different names). Watch all these experiences that you are having right now. All the sights, sounds, thoughts, etc. Watch all that and also watch your awareness. When you feel like you are about to react to all that by directing your awareness at this or that, to concentrate, to think, to enter a daydream, don’t do it. Just refrain from doing anything like that. Just keep watching and keep your cool.

The first technique is dead easy, just takes perseverance. Pays off fast. Shows you what we’re dealing with, with this “awareness” thing. It’s educational that way. We generally get good at the first technique then try the second technique. The first technique can also be used as prep for the second technique. It works very well for that. Makes it stronger.

Meditation makes you smarter, it gives you energy, it opens doors and windows that you didn’t even know were there. And there’s a lot there. It gets you high too.

(More specifically : Concentration improves your ability to concentrate. Improves your memory. Makes it easier to get things done. Makes your thinking sharper. Makes your willpower more powerful. And vipassana. It makes you happier. You start lucid dreaming. You become better with people. You becomes more aware.)

Basically just focus on staying present and not letting yourself get carried away by your internal monologue. It’s infinitely harder than it sounds. You can close your eyes, focus on a specific spot in a room, focus on your breathing, anything to keep yourself present and focused. Keep your mind empty as best you can.

The best advice I ever got was, when you have an intrusive thought during meditation, to acknowledge it, and let it fade away. Don’t focus on it or criticize yourself for it, as that will usually only make it harder to refocus yourself.

Meditation is super helpful for a lot of reasons, but for me personally it helped a lot with negative thinking and mental traps (like catastrophizing and stuff). It helps you to be more aware of when you’re getting carried away by thoughts, and how to push them aside and be present.

Look into mindfulness if you’re interested, it’s helped me a lot.

I learned with calm.com

They have a course of mediation for beginners or something like that and they “teach” different methods so you can choose whichever suits you the most

There used to be a 3-month trial which is enough to go through the course (I didn’t keep my subscription), I’m not sure if they still offer trials like that