Anahana
Meditation for everyday life
Find simple ways to begin, build a practice, and explore meditation at your own pace.
Start with the basics
Learn what meditation is, how to begin, and what to expect.
How to meditatePractices people are exploring
Your path
- How To Meditate
Start here
A short session before bed can settle the day down.
The basic steps work as a first response to a stressful stretch.
The same steps used to calm the mind are the ones that sharpen it.
The place most people start: posture, breath, and what to do with a wandering mind.
The core steps, in plain terms, for anyone starting out.
- Mindfulness Meditation
Being present
Noticing the body without judging it can loosen the grip of a racing mind at night.
A way of noticing stress as it happens, rather than only after it has built up.
Training attention to stay with one thing is the same skill mindfulness practices.
A gentler entry point than a formal sitting practice, built around noticing rather than doing.
Paying deliberate attention to the present moment, without trying to change it.
- Guided Meditation
Led practice
A voice to follow can be easier to stay with than silence when the mind is busy at night.
Following an instructor's voice removes one thing to manage during a stressful day.
Useful when sitting in silence keeps drifting into other thoughts.
Often the easiest way in: someone else keeps time and gives the mind something to follow.
Meditation led by an instructor's spoken instructions, in real time or recorded.
- Meditation Benefits
Why it helps
What the evidence says about meditation and sleep, and where it falls short.
The physical and mental effects of a regular practice on stress, in plain terms.
What a regular practice is associated with for attention and concentration.
Worth reading before starting, so the expectations are realistic from the outset.
An honest account of what a regular practice is, and is not, associated with.
- Sleep Meditation
Wind down
Practices built specifically to help the body and mind settle before sleep.
A stressful day can make sleep harder; this is one way to work with that at night.
Less about sharpening attention than about letting it go for the night.
A narrower, easier place to start than a general practice, if sleep is the main concern.
Meditation practices aimed at falling asleep or sleeping more soundly.
- Transcendental Meditation
A mantra practice
A twice-daily practice rather than a bedtime one, though some practitioners use it to wind down.
Developed in part as a way of reducing stress through routine, silent repetition.
A structured technique with its own claims about attention, taught by certified instructors.
Usually taught in person over several sessions, unlike most of the other techniques here.
A specific, trademarked technique using a silently repeated mantra, taught by certified instructors.
Explore different approaches and keep the ones that feel useful to you.
Browse all Meditation guides
Browse every meditation guide, from basics to specific practices.
- Abundance
- Alexander Technique
- Body Scan Meditation
- Chakra Meditation
- Gematria
- Gratitude Meditation
- Guided Meditation For Anxiety
- How to Relax Your Mind
- Jon Kabat Zinn
- Kindness
- Loving Kindness Meditation
- Manifestation
- Meditation for Anxiety
- Meditation for Kids
- Meditation Techniques
- Mind Body Connection
- Mindfulness
- Mindfulness Exercises
- Morning Meditation
- Night Meditation
- Self Awareness
- Silva Method
- Spirituality
- Visualization Meditation
- Walking Meditation