There's no need to introduce most of you to meditation, I suppose, but just in case you haven't heard of it or practiced it yourself, it has several performance and health benefits, like improving attention, fighting undesirable habits such as addictions, and managing stress - one of its most important benefits. Stress is known to be associated with increased incidence of a wide range of health issues, and in today's highly competitive, detached, social media influenced world, young adults already are showing signs of significantly increased incidence of stress related illnesses, up to 30% in some cases.
How to start? You could use any reputable guided course. I did the Headspace 365 days course which starts from 5 minutes and goes gradually to 20 minutes. It's not available for free but here is a short version:
The biggest challenge is sometimes not to follow through with the guide but to just... "get it". Even after practicing the course and following the instructions it wasn't too effective for me, because of how hard it is to communicate a process which language wasn't evolved to give verbal meaning to. This explanation greatly helped me to "get it":
Good luck! And remember: if it isn't working out for you at first don't be discouraged, it could be a skill built over years, starting from a minute a day for weeks.
When I am doing shamballa and reiki, I become meditative if I am alone and in a quiet environment. But this really isn't exactly meditation. But I guess I should start too. Also thank you for this nice article.