Rocco123 I would like to start but there are many things to know, any advice for those starting from scratch?
I don't think there is a lot to know about meditation, it's more of an experience. You could read a book about it, and afterwards have no idea what it is. The biggest problem is that it really depends on who you ask. If you look at the above comments, there's no agreement on exactly what it is, and looking online can confuse you even more. I'd suggest [Login to see the link], but in that article there are several different approaches and they aren't the same practice, and will lead to different results. Even if I'd recommend sticking with the first approach (the numbered list titled "How to Meditate" with 7 steps, and skip the rest of the article), others here might find benefits from practices similar to the other approaches described in that article, and there are a lot more approaches that are not listed in that article, so you'd have to explore and find something that works for you.
But this is why I find it difficult to recommend anything for beginners: if meditation consisted solely of a set of physical or mental practices (like those described in that article, or some described in the above comments) to calm the mind, reduce stress, feel better, improve your focus, relax the body, "be" in the moment, experience stillness/awareness, etc. I would have no interest in it. If the 7 steps in that article (which, for some people, could be a great place to start) were all there was to meditation, I would not have any interest in it. I can get the same benefits from taking a quick 5-15 minute "nap". The practices described in an article like that may be beneficial to many people, but, to me, these are only the tip of an iceberg.
And as [Login to see the link] said above:
crickety sometimes one must go through A to get to B.
So why meditate then? (If the practices described in that article are "A", then what's "B"?) The answer might be in another statement by [Login to see the link]:
crickety Sometimes thought drops away and reality is revealed.
For some, these are just words, maybe cute, maybe metaphorical, maybe nonsensical. For others, a statement like that is a lot more than just words. What does it mean for "reality" to be revealed when thoughts drop away? This is the iceberg, and it's not a small one. It's the entirety of your existence, wrapped up in a practice that seems so trivial to many people (myself included, a long time ago). What if the world you think you're living in is not real (like actually not real)? (Notice that word "think", so again we're talking about "thoughts" here.) And that reality can be revealed through meditation (when your "thoughts" about the "real world" drop away)? If you think about this and its possible validity, suddenly meditation is no longer just a trendy thing to do, or just a passive way to relax: it becomes existential.
If you don't believe the statement, and you think that you're living in the real world, and that meditation is sort of like daydreaming, then you might be better off just daydreaming, and hoping that you'll feel better after your daydream. Or you could just skip the daydream ("meditation"), and do something more productive in what you perceive to be the "real world".
So this is a thought exercise, and my intent is to invite you into a world that is not what it might seem to most people. Skim through that article, re-read many of the above comments, experiment, and decide if it's for you, or if it's something worth pursuing. Good luck!