This one always makes me laugh. Bruce Lee meditated. Almost all martial artists do. Football players meditate. NASCAR drivers, basketball players, soccer stars, hockey players, soldiers, police officers, firemen (and women), bodybuilders, and Olympians practice meditation. Gurkhas meditate! What more do you need to know?

The fact is, you don't have to sit at all to meditate. Moving meditation is absolutely a thing! It's not one that I'm particularly good at, but some people find it easier than staying still to meditate. You don't have to sit on the floor or do yoga poses or Tai Chi to meditate. Meditation is something you can do while doing those things, but they are totally separate - though not exclusive - activities.

Try it in your favorite chair. Just close your eyes and count your breaths. How you count them doesn't matter. You can count every inhale, or every exhale, or both! When you get to ten, start counting again. Don't try to control your breathing. Just count.

While chanting does help some people to meditate, I'm not one of them. You can try it if you like, but I'd recommend not chanting if it makes you feel uncomfortable. Some people find focusing on an image or a candle flame helpful. Others prefer to keep their eyes closed and focus on their breathing. My personal favorite way to meditate is to watch the flames of a campfire. I find them endlessly fascinating. Just make sure you're careful to keep that fire contained.

There are some religions that teach meditation as part of the faith, but meditation is not, in itself, religious in nature. It's not even a spiritual thing as many claim. Meditation can be practiced by anyone. That's right. Even atheists

Not true. Meditating for five minutes is still meditation. You can meditate for hours on end if you want, but you certainly don't have to. It's pretty easy to take five or ten minutes to meditate before going on with your day, and you'll find that the benefits are well worth those few minutes.

I'll bet you didn't expect to see that one here. While it's true that I first got into meditation as a means of relaxation, that's not the only thing it's used for. Meditation can even do just the opposite! It's all up to you and what you decide to do with it.

Sometimes, particularly when you're first starting out, meditation is just plain confusing. Contrary to what you may have heard, meditation doesn't require - or even seek - an empty mind. At least not in my, admittedly limited, experience. Your thoughts are likely to wander all over when you first start out, and that's okay. Sometimes, that's even the point!

There really isn't one "right" way to meditate. Meditation comes in a myriad of different forms. If you think you're bad at it, that's only because you don't know what to expect. My advice to you is to ignore that line you hear in all the movies about clearing your mind. Getting hung up on meditating the "right" way is just silly.

You'll hear a lot of things like "Greet your thoughts with love and understanding, then push them away." While the first part of that seems like a good idea in general, I fail to see the point behind that last bit. You are your thoughts. Don't push yourself away.

Since we've already talked about meditation and chanting, I'll bet it won't come as a surprise to know that silence is completely unnecessary for meditation. Some people do prefer to meditate in as quiet a place as they can find, it's true. I'm not one of them.

When I meditate, I usually put on headphones and listen to music. At least I do if I don't have a campfire handy to stare into.