A metre is a cycle of pulses with a pattern of accents on top. Choose a cycle and how its pulses are grouped into beats, from the familiar 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 to 7/8 as 2+2+3, 11/8, or a cycle of your own, and listen while the cycle is drawn as a circle. In some metres every beat is the same length; in others a beat of three pulses sits beside beats of two, and the beat level itself is uneven.
Things to try: compare 6/8 with 3/4 at the same pulse rate; they have the same six pulses and differ only in grouping. Play 7/8 as 2+2+3, then as 3+2+2, and feel where the long beat sits. Switch off the beat clicks in 2+2+3 and check whether you still hear the limp. Push the tempo up in 11/8 until you stop counting pulses and start feeling five uneven beats.