I think I just meditated on a train and I loved it

I'd like to outline three things I have done in the last six weeks that signal a sever change of opinion as far as meditation/mindfulness/sitting quietly goes.

1. I bought a meditation cushion on Amazon Prime because I was just so desperate for it to arrive
2. I meditated on a train
3. I found myself 'breathing through the pain' as I had my blackheads extracted this week

What has happened to me? I'd understand if you immediately hate me but I promise you, there's really something in this meditation lark.

I wasn't expecting to feel this way. I have been as annoyed as the next person with the constant barrage of mindfulness twaddle that is thrown our way on a daily basis. Because who has time to sit chanting of a morning?

But what I've realised is this. Meditation is basically just sitting quietly. And sitting quietly on your own in silence for ten minutes every day is nothing short of divine. Especially on a cute little round pillow with your legs crossed.

Rewind six weeks and meditation was on that annoying list of things that I'd faintly been meaning to do for my entire life but obviously still hadn't done. Like that weighted hula hoop that's been in its packaging behind the door for three years.You know, those things.

I'd had a brush with relaxation as a young teenager when I was struggling with anxiety and emetophobia. I was assigned homework to sit or lie down every day and methodically tense and relax every part of my body. I think at the time I didn't really see the two things being connected. Relaxation was just about calming myself down in the moment - I certainly didn't see it as a longterm strategy to deal with my mental health. And thirteen years ago, the whole 'mindfulness' thing wasn't really a thing at all.

Since then, I've learned a lot. I've had an amazing therapist (well, a couple actually) who have taken me through guided mindfulness in such an intelligent, effective way that I couldn't not make it part of my routine. I've got back into yoga, I've read countless books and articles from self help to Buddhism, I've watched documentaries and talks. And I can reliably inform you that everyone is saying exactly the same thing.

Silence that inner chatter, give yourself a break and make some space in your head. That is all that meditation is.

But don't panic. You don't need to sit alone with the silence trying to tame your wild thoughts (hi Rihanna). Because that's ten-years-down-the-line-Buddhist-monk stuff. As a novice I downloaded the Calm app which guides you over however much time you have, focusing in on your breathing and bodily sensations.

It's very much personal preference but I loved Calm straight away and I definitely prefer it to Headspace. Tamara Levitt - head of Content at the app - is also the voice of the whole thing. And she has quite a voice... So soothing.

For the last 6 weeks I've been doing ten minutes a day as part of my morning routine and if you're starting out I'd recommend it as the perfect amount of time. I either do the Daily Calm - a 10-minute guided meditation with a different theme every day - or a program, like The 7 Days of Calm or The 7 Days of Self Esteem. It really depends how I feel. And on weekends, I'll often treat myself and do both. Yes, I now treat myself to extra mediation. Who am I!?

There are also walking meditations and - I love these - Sleep Stories, to help you drift off. These are the most comforting thing I think I have ever experienced, short of having my mum actually sitting by my bedside reading a story (apparently unacceptable at 29).

The app tracks how much you've done - which is the best motivator. So it'll congratulate you on being on a seven or eight day streak, which obviously means you're less inclined to skip a day. I don't mean to boast, but in the month of September there were only six days I didn't meditate (and three of those were Bestival so don't count - I challenge anyone to successfully meditate at Bestival). October so far has been better - only two days have gone unmeditated.

Whilst it felt odd at first as I found myself getting irritated, ruled by my perfectionist thinking, it slowly came to feel really lovely. I described it in an Instagram post recently as feeling like a cooling balm slipping over my brain. Reading that back it sounds fairly disgusting, but it honestly feels like the only way to describe it.

Those few precious moments when you manage to soar above your thoughts and just 'be'.... even if you only get three breaths like that in the whole ten minutes, it feels so beneficial. The key thing to realise is that it's not about not having thoughts. It's about not getting caught up in them. Now that's the kind of sentence I would have rolled my eyes at six weeks ago.

Calm always gives you a little quote at the end of your practice and my favourite so far has been from Monk and Professor Martin Luther; 'You cannot keep birds from flying over your head but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.' I can't count the number of times I've said that to myself in the past few weeks.

The app tells me I've done nearly ten hours of mediation over the last six weeks. Seeing that figure is the most amazing thing. Ten whole hours of time devoted entirely to me and my mind feels incredible. It actually makes me feel really proud. That would have been another eye roll right there.

And don't worry, I'm still a fully functioning member of society, not some cushion-carrying, monk-in-training, muttering under her breath about birds nests. I'm just an overall slightly calmer version of myself. Not all the time, but overall, definitely.

I'm not done on the topic of meditation. More to come...