With the increase in awareness about mental health and wellness, meditation has become a part of life for millions of people. More and more people are adopting the practice, given its positive effects on sleep, immunity, mental peace, and overall physical and mental health.
If you want to add a meditation routine to your life, it is important to understand basic things like – how long should you meditate and with what frequency.
In this post, we will dive deeper into the basic questions people have while beginning their meditation journey. We will cover questions like how long should you meditate, how often, and at what times during the day.
If you want to increase your wellness through meditation or simply enhance your meditation routine, this is the perfect place to get started. Let’s dive in.
How Long Should You Meditate?
If you are looking for a perfect answer to ‘How long should you meditate,’ unfortunately, there isn’t a concrete one yet. Meditation is unlike a HIIT workout that you do for ‘x’ number of minutes to burn ‘x’ number of worries or stressors.
While this answer is not particularly helpful, it is undoubtedly the truth.
Meditation is all about you. It is the practice of trying to have some moments of comfort from your otherwise highly stressful lives. While, as a beginner, questions like ‘How long should you meditate?’ are common, it is important to look beyond rigid measures and time frames when it comes to meditation.
If you want a good starting tip, here’s the best way to begin your meditation practice. Just like everything else, start small and slowly work on increasing your duration. If you can just do it for one minute at the beginning, that’s great. Your eventual target should be to find your sweet spot. A sweet spot is the time duration for your meditation that leaves you feeling energized and happy. For some people, it can be 10 minutes; for others, 60.
In short, it all depends on you.
How Often Should You Meditate?
Once you have figured out a manageable and comfortable time duration for your meditation practice, the next question is, ‘How often should you meditate.’
When it comes to this, quality trumps quantity by a huge margin. It is essential to have a time duration for your mediation that you can easily complete. If it starts to feel like a task and you sit like a statue wanting it to finish as soon as possible, it is counterproductive to the whole process.
Research published in the International Journal of Wellbeing found that even small durations of meditation sessions (like 13 minutes a day) are great to reap the benefits of the practice. However, frequency is the key.
Simply put, 10 minutes daily for a week is much better than 70 minutes in a day. This bite-sized approach helps us understand that meditation is not a practice that can be defined in questions like ‘How long or often should you meditate.’ It is a part of a stable lifestyle that you add to your life rather than something you do and then leave behind.
Read more: Meditation For The Modern Age – Headspace App Review
What Is The Best Time To Meditate?
While the best time to meditate varies from person to person, depending on their needs and schedules, here are a few suggestions on the best times to meditate.
1. Morning
Meditating can be extremely effective when you practice it as the first thing when you wake up. This is because morning meditation sets the perfect calming and relaxing tone for the rest of your day. It prepares you to deal with the stressors that you will encounter in your day going forward.
2. In the middle of the day, when you are stressed.
During your day, it is, albeit normal, that you feel stressed out about something or the other. We live in a world filled with triggers at every step of the way. Therefore, practicing active meditation for small durations during the course of your day or whenever you feel stressed can be great for your overall well-being.
3. End of a work day.
Practicing meditation after you finish work or college is an excellent way to unwind and de-stress. This allows you to effectively detach from the worries that surround you during the day. So, meditating at the end of the day is perfect if you don’t want your work-life or academic concerns to ruin your evenings or interfere with your family or me-time.
Read more: Mindfulness Vs. Meditation – Understanding The Difference
Conclusion:
Most people looking to begin their meditation practice have no clue about what they are getting into. They spend a lot of time trying to get perfect answers to questions like, ‘How long should you meditate,’ and much more. While these queries are natural, it is essential to understand that such measures do not bind meditation. You do it for yourself, and whatever time frames and frequencies you deem fit are perfect.
We hope this beginner’s meditation guide will help you start your practice. Looking to find the best place for meditation? Click here to know more.
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