Meditation: mastery that sets you free!

I started meditating by chance a year ago, on vacation in southern Portugal. A friend of mine suggested I take part in a session on the beach... Standing cross-legged facing the sea, with my hands on my thighs, I have to admit I was a bit dubious. It's so difficult for me, who can barely sit still on my towel! However, at that moment, I chose to let myself be carried along, and the magic happened, lulled by the melody of the waves and his voice helping me to find my "bearings". The approach seems simple: concentrate on your breathing, which acts as much on the brain as on the body. But in reality, as we all know, it's a bit more complicated ;-) Since then, I've persevered and ended up finding an incredible serenity, a kind of available space within myself that I never knew existed. A space of infinite calm, accessible in any situation.

If you're itching to give it a try, here's a selection of free and paid apps to help you along the way. The principles of meditation explained through short stories, exercises on various themes such as the power of a smile, knots of tension...

• Little BamBouFree for 8 meditation sessions. Subscription from 3 to 12 months, from 22 to 65 euros.
• Headspace, monthly subscription at 12.99 euros, annual subscription at 4.99 euros per month. The app, co-created by former Tibetan monk Andy Puddicombe, offers over 1,000 hours of content, tailored to a range of emotional states.
• Lili Barbery-Coulon (@lilibarbery), a former journalist, now teaches meditation and offers lives on her Instagram account: meditative, emotional, physical and energetic sessions based on the chanting of ancestral mantras.