It all started by accident. After a panic attack, courtesy of London Underground delays, my GP recommended that I take control and try meditation. I expected the stereotypes; bare-footed vegans banging drums and chanting in a candlelit room. So it was a pleasant surprise to find twelve quite ordinary people.

As things developed I now teach a class made up of teachers, drivers, pensioners, secretaries and working mothers. All of them have completely different needs and reasons why they are there. The common denominator is that they want to learn how to take control of their stress and anxiety and some want to use something that complements their prescribed medication.

It's a startling fact that stress related illness costs industry over £4 billion a year (CBI 2003) and yet it is only now that work life balance issues have been truly recognised by businesses. Meditation is just one simple way of taking control of stress in your life. Meditation requires no equipment, special clothing or exorbitant gym membership. All it requires is a bit of time.

Before meditation can be fully explored you have to learn how to breathe. Many scorn the idea that they need to be taught how to breathe. That first intake of breath at birth becomes a natural rhythm in us and should not need to be explained. But learning how to control your breath and be in charge of your breathing is the first step in learning how to meditate.

There are some simple ways of checking to see if you are breathing properly.

A good way to see if you are doing it right is to lie or sit with your hand resting on your stomach. Breathe normally, and see if your stomach moves your hand up and down. If your hand is still, then you are only using the top part of your lungs. Try to push your hand up with each breath as you breathe in. When you find that your hand is moving with each breath, then you are making use of the lower sections of your lungs, and will probably find that you can breathe in for longer.

Whatever you want to call it, meditation is about focusing your mind and learning how to achieve a sense of calm and well being. Guided meditation in a class can help you to escape from everyday life and take you to peaceful beaches, mountain tops and meadows. You can buy tapes now that have guided meditations on them that you can use at home.

Whatever you think about meditation I can only say that it is worth a go. Taking control of stress in our lives, saying no and putting yourself higher up on the priority list can appear to be an overwhelming task but as the Dalai Lama has said 'Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.'boxed-text