Simply light a candle and focus on the flame. With practice you'll discover that the focus on breathing turns to a deeper, broader awareness. These benefits of meditation come only if you practice consistently over time. Most meditation teachers emphasize the importance of building meditation into your daily routine. Just two or three minutes a session is a good starting point.
Most practices end up suggesting anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour or more a day.
Maintaining your meditation practice Sometimes meditating is far from relaxing, and it can be excruciatingly boring. But that's partly the point of meditation to experience all parts of your existence in the here and now, and gradually developing the discipline to meditate no matter what. The support of a teacher and learning with others can be very helpful. You share the experience, stay motivated, and learn how to avoid being sidetracked into ineffective practices or counter-productive states of mind. Eventually, with practice, you begin to understand in a purely experiential way that stress is a product of your own mind.