Hi! I'm Zahra, SELF magazine's interim editor in chief and the host of our wellness advice podcast,
Checking In. In this week’s episode, we’re talking about something a ton of people have questions about (me included): meditation. Specifically, how the heck does one
actually go about starting a meditation practice? Also, for the uninitiated among us, what's the real point of trying to meditate in the first place?
Our listener question this week comes from Nan, who sums up these types of meditation questions pretty well when she says, “I guess my basic question is: What is meditation? Specifically when I'm sitting there—what do I do? Is the reward in the process of trying to distance yourself from your thoughts in some way? Is there some state of mind you're trying to achieve?” But also: “Especially during the pandemic, I want to know, why meditation, of all the things that I want to cultivate into my life.…Why should this be getting my time?”