Posture’s Important: You should make sure that your spine is upright and your head straight when you sit down for meditation. It is when you are in upright position that your mind stops from drifting away. Remember your mind and body are connected, and your mind attains balance only when your body is balanced.

Eyes Open: While meditating, you should try to keep your eyes open. You will be more alert when your eyes are open. You can keep the gaze soft when you have your eyes lowered. Most people will say that you should keep your eyes closed, but chances are that your thoughts will drift away when you close your eyes.

Silence is Must: Make sure the place you choose to meditate is silent and calm. If there is noise around, chances of you getting distracted is high. Also, start with 10 minutes of meditation before moving on to longer duration.

Counting on the breathing: Some experts suggest this method to achieve better hold on your meditation capabilities. You can count your breathing while you are inhaling as well as when you are exhaling. This gives you more power and ability to concentrate. This will also help you prevent your mind from straying away into deep and unnecessary thoughts.

Stay Focussed: Focus is very important when meditating. To stay focussed, you need to pay attention to whatever you have placed at the centre of your awareness. You can concentrate on your breathing. Some people use the flame of the candle as point of focus. This will help you concentrate better. This connects the outside world with the inside, and makes your more aware of your thoughts.

Thoughts & Emotions: Thoughts and emotions generally hinder your meditation process. Whenever you experience a thought preventing you from meditation, try to shift focus from those thoughts towards your breath. This will in fact take in a lot of efforts, but with time it will ease out. Strong emotions can also hamper your meditation process. You cannot meditate if your are angry, sad or dying of guilt. You need to free your mind of fear and other emotions before you begin meditating. It will take some effort initially.