Meditation  is  a  mindfulness  practice,  dating  back  thousands  of   years. There  are  many  techniques  ancient  and  contemporary  available  to  develop mental  focus,  awareness,  compassion  and  cultivate  inner  peace. 

Breath work, Pranayama, is the principal grounding tool for us to move into meditation, where we can drop beneath our thoughts and work towards becoming engaged in effortlessly sustained single-pointed concentration and bliss. 
There are many techniques to help us on the way to a state of awareness and a sense of well-being. 
learn them well, find what brings you to your center. Then as you move into meditation, let it all go.

The toolbox is deep: Pranayama, visualization, mantra, a string of beads, stretching, yoga asana, Qi gong, Cd’s and audio books to name a few. 
Setting aside a specific time during the day, use a timer start with 3 min. work up to 18 min. Creating a space for your practice is very helpful, do what ever works for you, be flexible about it and be kind to your self.
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Meditation embraces a wide variety of practices, some are designed to induce relaxation, clear the mind ease health concerns. Build energy, transport us to compassion, love, patience, generosity and forgiveness. Before long you will build a personal meditation practice that can be easily accessed anywhere fitting your individual needs
You will build a daily practice that helps you establish serenity and space in your mind/body. Like all arts it takes discipline,and the work you do stays with you remember it is called a practice. 
 
​Let your thoughts harmonize themselves with the movement of the breath. Don’t hold your breath and don’t hold on to a thought. The breath comes, a thought comes. Let that breath go as you let that thought go. 
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Some benefits of meditation are:  
inner-calm,balance, increased self-awareness. Decreased physical stress responses. Improved immune response. Induces relaxation, which increases the compound nitric oxide that causes blood vessels to open up and subsequently, blood pressure to drop. Increased empathy and cooperation with others. Decreased self-criticism.
When the breath is unrestrained, so is the mind.
Then, when the breath is under control, the mind will be tamed as well.
​"Upanishads"

                                                                                            Dawn on  the Rio Negro, Amazonas.
The scriptures call dhyāna a continuous flow – it doesn’t break. At this stage the meditator has established a steady stream of concentration on the object. It has been said that you don’t do dhyāna, it just happens. Swami Satchidananda says that this is a stage which develops after long practice of dhāraṇā​