From enhanced clarity of thoughts and improved concentration to relief from stress and anxiety, just 10 minutes a day is literally all it takes to include meditation in your life. Yoga teacher Sapna Rana Rawat explains the technique.

Sapna Rana Rawat
Yoga teacher

Steps for 10 minutes of meditation for beginners

Sit in any comfortable cross-legged meditative posture ensuring your spine is straight and elbows and shoulders relaxed.

Gently close your eyes, and visualize your whole body relaxing in a sitting posture. Slowly, take your awareness to your normal and natural flow of breath in the nostrils and observe the air flowing in and out for 30 seconds.

After 30 seconds, mentally start counting your breaths in the reverse order starting from 50. As you breathe in and out, mentally say 50, in and out say 49, then 48 and so on. Whenever you miss any count, start again from 50. Make sure the breath is normal and natural.

Once you reach 1, stop counting and observe your mental state for a few seconds and then slowly switch your awareness to your whole body sitting still.

Gently moving your fingers, bring your palms together and start rubbing to generate heat. Cover your eyelids with the energized palms and let the heat be transmitted to your eyes.

Slowly uncover and open your eyes. It is a very easy, but a highly powerful technique of meditation. Counting in reverse order keeps you alert as you generally don’t count like that and focusing on your normal breath connects you with yourself, developing self-awareness and love. This simple meditation will immediately calm your mind and slowly start influencing your behavior in a positive manner.If you’re unable to sit in a cross-legged posture, you can also do it while sitting in a chair.