How to Meditate and Live Mindfully

Meditation can be a mystery. It brings up questions. How do I meditate? Am I meditating correctly? What is the purpose of meditation? This article will answer those question in a direct and concise manner.
I would like to begin this article with a story. The story takes place each morning when I am on my way to work. I drive to the end of my road, take a left onto another road and then take a right onto a highway that brings me to work. Very often, in the evening, I drive to the end of my road, take a left onto another road, and take a right onto the highway when, actually, I should take a left to go to the grocery store. When I do this, I am on automatic pilot.
Have you ever been on automatic pilot while driving or when thinking? Each time we are on automatic pilot, we act in habitual ways and those habits become more and more ingrained — more fixed. We may sit down for meditation, and rather than focusing on our breath, or observing our thoughts, we start making a list of things to do — or we start thinking about what someone said or did that we reacted to with annoyance or irritability. We spend a lot of time thinking about the past and/or worrying about the future. So, what is like to be in the present moment and how can we be present? We can practice being in the present moment by meditating — by sitting quietly and observing what is happening right here, right now.