How Headspace app made one sceptical Hongkonger a convert to meditation

It felt like an atomic bomb went off in my head, the mushroom cloud of smoke lingering thick and heavy over me. Wherever I went and whatever I did, it was there, choking me. After a few days I decided I needed help. I needed Andy Puddicombe.

So I reached for my phone. I had resisted getting in touch since we met a few weeks earlier in Hong Kong because meditation - Puddicombe's expertise - always seemed weird and a bit woo-hoo to me, not to mention that I never quite identified with its spiritual undertones. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

"Just begin by taking some deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. No matter how stressed you're feeling, just allow thoughts and feelings to come and go. Focus on the breath," says Puddicombe, whose voice could calm a raging bull.

"Remember, the more we're able to step back and get a little bit of space between ourselves and the feeling, the more we're going to be able to unwind the situation."

After a few minutes of guided deep breathing and being present by focusing on an isolated physical sensation, I opened my eyes. The dark cloud had dispersed, at least for now.

With my first taste of Headspace I now understood its popularity. Puddicombe, a Bristol-born former monk, has managed to make meditation accessible to the masses, separating the practice from hippy-ness or religion.