Meditation in Holborn, Central London

How a Session Works

What Happens in a Session

You sit, usually on a chair rather than the floor unless you prefer otherwise, and are guided through a technique suited to your experience and what you have come for. A first session spends time on posture and breathing before moving into the practice itself, because getting comfortable matters more than people expect.

It is entirely normal for the mind to wander, repeatedly, throughout a session. That is not a sign you are doing it wrong. The practice is the noticing and returning, not the absence of thought. Your teacher will check in afterwards on what you experienced and adjust the approach for next time.

Different Approaches to Meditation

Yogic meditation, taught here by Dada Jyotirupananda, draws on a long contemplative tradition and typically works with the breath and a point of inner focus. Secular mindfulness-based approaches, more common in NHS and workplace settings, are usually simpler and framed around stress reduction rather than a wider tradition.

Neither is more correct than the other, and the practical techniques often overlap a great deal. What matters more than the tradition is whether the approach and the teacher suit you, which is why a first session is largely a conversation before any formal practice.

What the Evidence Says

Mindfulness-based approaches have a reasonable evidence base for stress and for reducing relapse in recurrent depression, and NICE recommends mindfulness-based cognitive therapy as an option for preventing relapse in people who have had several episodes of depression. Evidence for meditation more broadly, across the many different techniques and traditions, is more mixed and often limited by small study sizes.

We see meditation as a supportive practice rather than a treatment for a diagnosed mental health condition. If you have a diagnosed condition such as depression, anxiety or PTSD, please keep your GP or existing mental health support involved, and mention this to your teacher so the approach can be suited to your situation.

Safety and What to Expect

Meditation is low risk for most people. Occasionally, sitting quietly with your own thoughts can bring up difficult emotions or memories, particularly for people with a history of trauma. Tell your teacher if this happens, because the technique or pace can be adjusted, and a talking therapy may be a better starting point for some people.

Meditation teaching is not a regulated profession in the United Kingdom in the way medicine or physiotherapy is, so look for a teacher with genuine, sustained experience rather than a short course certificate. Dada Jyotirupananda has taught meditation for over forty years internationally.

Why Learn One to One Rather Than From an App

Apps and recordings are useful and cost nothing much, and for some people they are enough. Where they fall short is when something is not working and there is nobody to ask. Sitting with persistent restlessness, dozing off every time, a sore back after five minutes, or a mind that becomes more agitated rather than calmer, are all common and all have practical answers.

One to one teaching means the technique is matched to you and corrected as you go, and that you can describe what actually happened rather than guessing whether it was right. It also means the practice can be sized to your life, which for most working people means something short and regular rather than a long daily sit that quietly gets abandoned.

Building a Daily Practice

• Start shorter than you think you should. Five to ten minutes daily establishes the habit better than half an hour twice a week.
• Keep the time and place consistent, so the decision is made once rather than every day.
• Sit on a chair with feet flat if the floor is uncomfortable. Nothing is gained by an aching back.
• Expect a proportion of restless, distracted sessions. They count as practice.
• Bring the difficulties back to your teacher rather than concluding you cannot meditate.
• Use a short practice in ordinary moments too, on the bus or before a meeting, not only in the quiet of the morning.

Meditation, Breathwork or Yoga?

• Choose meditation if you mainly want to work with attention and a settled mind, sitting still.
• Choose breathwork if you want a more active, physiologically focused practice built around the breath itself.
• Choose yoga if you want to combine movement and breath with a meditative element.
• Several people combine two of these over time rather than choosing permanently.

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