I never had any religion or spirituality growing up. I also never felt a lack of moral grounding or sense of wonder at the world. However, I now realise that the most useful thing religion and its rituals can give you are mindfulness and focus. I have never been a particularly focused or driven person. Rather, I have tended to obsess over pleasurable activities like sport, music, video games, drinking and travel. I have also been an anxious person for a long time. Now I am grown up, I need to take control. Enter meditation.

At the core of my meditation practice is bringing my mind back in focus and back to the body and the breathing. It is this active moving of the mind’s focus to what is happening here and now which I believe can be life-changing.

Breaking out of the ruts and grooves in the mind is vital for any change to happen. Meditation can help. Staying present is vital to relief from anxiety. Meditation can help.

Once you start practicing meditation, you begin to look forward to the routine and you begin to miss it when you skip a day.

It helps with such basic skills, but these are skills we need to practice with all the stimulation and distraction in the world today.