There's an awful lot of codswallop spoken about meditation. Most people think you have to sit contemplating your belly button and trying to keep your mind still. Nature loathes a vacuum so, happily, there's a lot of mind-resistance to trying to turn it into a vegetable. What's the point of having a Ferrari and keeping it in the garage? We should get it out onto the highway and use it for good, practical purposes - and for pleasure.

The primary purpose of meditation is to get to know and understand your own creative mind. Meditation is all about focus of your mind. We meditate without realising it. When we replay the mind-movie of our past hurts and anger, we are meditating. When the mind, through worry, focuses upon the last thing we want to have happen, we are meditating. Where do you put your focus?

Sati, a Buddhist word meaning 'awareness', is the key to meditation. One way of training the mind in Sati is to close your eyes, focus your mind on the sensation of you breathing as you experience it at the tip of your nostrils and the rise and fall of your chest; repeat a mantra in your head like: "Negative thoughts and negative suggestions have no influence on me" to the rhythm of your breathing and wait, like a cat at the mousehole of thought, for the first thoughts to arise. The idea is not to have a still mind but an aware one. Catch the thought, put a label on it - food, work, fantasy, or whatever applies. Having labelled the thought, let it go and wait for the next to arise

After a little training you will begin to catch your mind slipping into negativity as you go about your normal day's activities and do something about it. The next time you are driving behind someone doing 80 in a 100 zone, and there is a no chance of passing safely, observe your mind, then observe your breathing and repeat a mantra.

Try saying " I am..." with the breath "relaxed" with the out breath. No, you don't have to shut your eyes to do this meditation. Keep it up for the rest of the journey. Or would you prefer to focus on frustration or irritation? Try this meditation when you're next waiting in a queue to pay your grocery bill. Or would you rather rage with impatience? It's up to you.

Nobody focuses your mind for you. You CAN take control.