The first time Marcelle Hutchins sat down to meditate, she put on a guided session, relaxed her shoulders and tried to close her eyes. She lasted two minutes.

“I had a deadline, and I thought, ’I don’t know if I can sit still this long,’” said Hutchins, who was working as a radio journalist.

At the urging of her father, a longtime practitioner, she tried again and managed to finish a 10-minute video on her third attempt. “I remember feeling this sense of joy and relaxation,” she said. “I used to be that person who said, ‘I can’t meditate.’”

Hutchins has since become a certified meditation teacher — and serves as an example that busy, restless people who try once should try…