Meditation Tip #2: Breathe
Take deep relaxing breaths from your diaphragm. Belly breathing may or may not come naturally for you. To practice, exhale and rest both hands lightly on your stomach with the tips of your middle fingers touching. As you breath in you should feel your fingers separate, touching again together on exhalation.
Some schools get excited about exactly which orifice you breath through. I've heard several yoga instructors even claim that airflow through one nostril or another will affect which side of your brain is more active (hmmm....). Outside of hayfever season, I prefer relaxed breathing through the nose. Do whatever works best for you.
Another aspect is the pace of breathing. I read a paper pointing out that many relaxing activities such as meditation and singing share a common element of a controlled exhalation. The theory is that replicating this breathing pattern may give the same relaxing effect. Try it and decide whether it works for you. The technique is simple: time your inhalation for around 4 seconds and your exhalation for 6 seconds.
