Meditation relaxes the body, calms the mind and brings you closer to your goals in life.

Those unfamiliar with meditation often have the misconception that it’s about stopping your thoughts. Meditation doesn’t stop you from thinking, but it can free you from unwanted thoughts that have too much control over you and cause tension.

Meditation has the power to change your life and make you into a more efficient human being. It does this through its two main components: relaxing the body and quieting the mind.

This process starts each time you sit down, either in a chair or on the floor, and relax your body one part at a time, from the toes on your feet to the hairs on your head. To keep your focus on your body and the present moment, and not be carried away by distracting thoughts, you can concentrate on slowly inhaling and exhaling. Some people prefer to focus on an object, like a candle’s flame, or to repeat a special mantra.

Like any other skill, meditation takes time and practice, so don’t be discouraged if it’s a while before you’re sitting peacefully in the moment and not engaging with those disruptive thoughts.

The more regularly you meditate, the more effective it will be, so it’s wise to start out twice a day. And with constant practice, you’ll soon start to notice the effects, even when you’re simply going about your day. Eventually, the time will come when a negative or stressful thought will appear and just as quickly vanish while you remain calm and clear-headed.

Once you achieve this clear mind and relaxed body, you can begin to reap the rewards of visualization.

This is another facet of meditation; it involves picturing your ideal future self as a way to increase the likelihood of it coming to pass.

This too will take practice. At first, picturing your future self might feel like trying to see through a fogged-up window. But the more you work at it, the stronger your intentions will become until the image is imprinted in your brain. This clarity will make it feel more like a reality and therefore attainable.