How to practice sitting meditation: the basics in 5 minutes, plus 4 reasons people keep it up

What does sitting meditation actually involve, and how do you start? This article walks through four reasons people build it into their day, then covers the practical side — posture, how to keep going, breathing methods, the objects people like to have around them — along with the sensations that tend to come up. At the end, we share what can help you drop into the flow of a session more easily.

1. What is sitting meditation? A one-minute introduction

Sitting meditation is, quite literally, "sitting quietly." The aim is to let your thoughts settle and give your mind a rinse, so you can set down some pressure and let your mood ease. It is a very old practice, and it suits people of any age.

Sitting meditation, zen sitting and meditation tend to get mentioned in the same breath. All of them are about letting body and mind relax and sharpening your own awareness, and in English they all go by the word meditation. If you want to split hairs: sitting meditation is mainly about holding one steady posture so the mind can return to calm; zen sitting puts the emphasis on developing wisdom; and meditation centers on awareness of yourself, which is why it also comes in moving, drawing and mindful-walking forms rather than being limited to sitting.

2. What are the benefits of sitting meditation? Four worth knowing

Now that the idea is clear, why bother sitting at all? Here are the four reasons people most often give.

Benefit 1: making room to unwind

In The Effect of Mindfulness Meditation on Serum Cortisol of Medical Students, the researchers reported lower cortisol readings among those who practiced, which they linked to a steadier, more positive mood — something many people juggling a full schedule say they are after.

Benefit 2: part of a wind-down routine

Plenty of us lie down with a busy schedule, a worry or an irregular bedtime still running in the background, and the mind keeps turning things over. A short sit before bed is how many people settle into the evening.

Benefit 3: sharper awareness

Paired with mindfulness and the breathing methods below, sitting builds your capacity to notice yourself and stay with the present moment. It gives you a clearer read on what your body and your thoughts are doing, and on how to sit alongside a feeling rather than fight it — and people often find it opens up their thinking and their approach to problems. As attention steadies, work and study tend to go more smoothly too.

Benefit 4: steadier emotions

The paper Transcendental Meditation and Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials reports that awareness-building sitting practice was associated with relaxation and a steadier emotional state. Sitting is also time spent getting to know yourself, and with a calmer, more considered way of thinking, setbacks and awkward relationships tend to get handled more gently.

3. How do you actually sit? Posture and everything around it

Once the benefits are clear, you probably want to try it for yourself. To make the technique easy to pick up, we have gathered the practical details below.

(1) Where to sit

Choose the spot where you feel safest and most comfortable — a bedroom or a study works well — and keep it completely quiet, so your mind gets a genuine rest. Avoid music or video before or during a session: background sound and conversation pull your attention away, which leaves you restless and worn out rather than settled.

It is in a quiet room that you can give full attention to what you feel, hear your own breath and heartbeat, and notice the state you are in. Once you have practiced for a while and the essence of sitting and mindfulness has sunk in, you will be able to meditate anywhere at all.

(2) When to sit

Because sitting is a way to let body and mind relax and to notice where you are, it works best as part of your daily routine.

Set one alarm for just after you get up and wash, so you can go straight from the bathroom into the day's session. If you are a complete beginner, about 2 minutes is plenty; stretch it to 5 and then 10 minutes as you go, at whatever pace suits you.

(3) What to have with you

Wear something comfortable and easy to relax in, and if you like, keep one of the everyday energy tools from the Aqive range beside you — many people use them to settle the energy of the space and ease into a session.

(4) Posture and technique

• Posture: upright on a chair, cross-legged, kneeling, full lotus — whichever position you find most comfortable is the right one. So you are not stiff afterwards, sit with your spine straight, hands resting naturally on your thighs or knees, body loose, attention gathered.

• Technique: if you want the habit to stick, keep the same spot, the same seat, the same light and the same objects around you each time. The small ritual is what carries you back.

4. Breathing and mindfulness: holding attention during a session

Alongside the tips above, breathing methods and mindfulness will make your sitting time count for more.

(1) Watching the breath, staying mindful

If you are new to this, start by simply watching your breath: the feeling of air moving into and out of your nose. Notice whether the air coming in is cool or warm, the breath long or short, and whatever else you sense.

If the rhythm falls apart or other thoughts start crowding in, that is completely normal. Just stay mindful; there is no need to scold yourself for getting it wrong. Treat those thoughts as part of you, as friends even, let them drift past, and bring your attention back to the breath.

After a week of practice, you can go a step further: when a thought surfaces, try to understand why it came, watch the way your mind wanders, get to know yourself, and learn to sit alongside your feelings.

(2) Counting the breath

Besides watching it, counting the breath is a way to hold your attention in place and stop it drifting.

Keep breathing in and out naturally, then put your attention on the flow of air. Feel it come in from the tip of your nose down to the lower dantian (roughly 3 finger-widths below the navel) as you breathe in, and count 1 silently. As you breathe out, feel it travel from the lower dantian back out through your nose, and silently count 2. Carry on from there.

Once you have been counting for a week or more, you can also put your attention on the way the light shifts around you or on the smallest sounds in the room, and take in the state of the energy nearby.

(3) Belly breathing

Belly breathing is another option during a session — a way to deepen the breath and let body and mind loosen.

In ordinary breathing your chest rises and falls with the air. In belly breathing you deliberately draw the air down into your abdomen so that your belly rises and falls instead. On the in-breath, push the belly out and take in plenty of air; on the out-breath, draw it in and push as much air out as you can. If a full belly breath is beyond you at first, practice in short stretches and deepen the in-breath and out-breath gradually.

Belly breathing draws in more air, and people find it lets them settle more deeply.

5. What might come up during a session? A quick rundown

As you work through the methods above, you will notice thoughts crowding in during a session, and afterwards you may get ringing in the ears or pins and needles in your legs. All of this is normal in the early weeks.

When a thought surfaces, there is no need to get anxious or push back against it — just bring your attention back to the breath and let yourself ease. As your body gets used to sitting, the ringing and the pins and needles tend to settle down too.

Most people also feel their body sway a little. One explanation is that as you go deeper, your muscles let go at the same time, so your legs and body twitch and tremble slightly — much like the movements that happen as you fall asleep. Another account has it that the spiritual energy inside you has been switched on and is clearing what was stuck, which produces the swaying. Either way, swaying during a session is entirely natural.

6. Everyday energy tools for your practice: how Aqive can help you settle

That is the tour of sitting meditation. If you would like to be more at ease and more focused while you sit, Aqive's pieces are made to help you drop into the flow of a session.

Aqive was founded by Prof. Si-Chen Lee, former President of National Taiwan University, together with Dr. Hsiung-Kuang Tsai, Bruce Liao, Yves Lin and Bill Koh. It is one of the first brands to bring torsion field research into everyday products, exploring the possibilities of body and mind with an open, accepting and sustainable outlook, grounded in scientific theory and backed by knowledgeable, attentive service, so that you can find your way to a settled state.

Building on Prof. Si-Chen Lee's research, Aqive makes everyday energy tools that give you room to ease and to steady yourself from the inside. Four pieces stand for the range:

Qi Ease Vita: Qi Ease Vita is built around torsion field technology, using a special coil design to generate a torsion field, with a 369 Hz frequency added to settle the space around you. It gives busy people under pressure a way to set the room for calm.

Qi Ease Vita is light, easy to carry and easy to look after. Clip it to a bag or wear it round your neck day to day, or set it on your desk or by the bed to clear the air and quiet the clutter in your head; the pared-back shape looks good in a room too. It suits office workers, travelers and your own space at home.

Qi Box: inside Qi Box, clear quartz energy and sacred words such as Buddha and Guanyin set up an oscillation of qi, carried by a copper plate that can rest against the skin. Many users describe it as a way to clear the air around them and let their mood ease, so the day feels easier to enjoy. Hold it in your palm, or rest it on an acupressure point to notice the movement of qi, and use it alongside your sitting practice.

Qiramid: Aqive brings together the structure of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, sacred words and crystal energy to turn and clear the energy of a space. For people under pressure or with a sensitive constitution, it belongs in the bedroom or the studio, keeping the energy of the room steady so you can ease and come back to quiet.

Qi Wristband: the Qi Wristband holds an amethyst qi plate, with sacred words arranged inside it in a particular structure, alongside a micro-current circuit board that works with the body's own micro-currents to amplify the effect. Wearers describe feeling steadier and more focused.

The Qi Wristband is the size of an ordinary watch, so it is easy to keep with you, and it needs no power at all to do its work. Following the idea that the body's energy flows out on the left and in on the right, wearing it on the left wrist is for settling yourself and the right is for guarding your energy field; switch between them however suits you.