Is it enough to mediate 5-10 minuetes every day?

[Peter Zemskov]

I've been meditating 5-10 minutes every day for about a year (sometimes falling of course) but can't see any results. Is it normal or should I just meditate more? Because right now I don't think that 5-10 min per day are enough to get me anywhere.

[haai14]

you need to get to the 1 hour mark. add 5 min every 2 months and you will get there eventually.

even 10 min helps but you will need 10x more time that way to get results.

Edited December 18, 2017 by haai14

[egoless]

5 minutes ago, Peter Zemskov said:

I've been meditating 5-10 minutes every day for about a year (sometimes falling of course) but can't see any results. Is it normal or should I just meditate more? Because right now I don't think that 5-10 min per day are enough to get me anywhere.

The thing that you are counting your minutes so desperately prompt me that you are probably doing it wrong. Meditation if done correctly becomes one of the most pleasurable "tasks" to do. So much so that you will look forward to it instead of forcing yourself into it. Master do nothing and surrendering to the present moment technique.

[Peter Zemskov]

12 minutes ago, egoless said:

The thing that you are counting your minutes so desperately prompt me that you are probably doing it wrong. Meditation if done correctly becomes one of the most pleasurable "tasks" to do. So much so that you will look forward to it instead of forcing yourself into it. Master do nothing and surrendering to the present moment technique.

That can be the case. Even though I don't follow time so strictly, I just wrote the medium time. But you're probably right that it's not always pleasurable for me to meditate. I think I should meditate without a timer because it distracts me.

[egoless]

@Peter Zemskov

 

[Peter Zemskov]

19 minutes ago, haai14 said:

you need to get to the 1 hour mark. add 5 min every 2 months and you will get there eventually.

even 10 min helps but you will need 10x more time that way to get results.

I think you're right. At least it should be 20 min and 1 hour would be perfect

[Peter Zemskov]

3 minutes ago, egoless said:

@Peter Zemskov

 

I've done that one. It's the best option 

 

25 minutes ago, haai14 said:

you need to get to the 1 hour mark. add 5 min every 2 months and you will get there eventually.

even 10 min helps but you will need 10x more time that way to get results.

But now I'm thinking "is time really important"? I think I should meditate until y feel that it's enough. 

[ADD]

Try out mindspace, it's meditation app that has some nice guided practices. Time isn't important at all.

[haai14]

@Peter Zemskov It is. When its hardest to keep sitting your making allot of progress. If you youse "until y feel that it's enough" your ego will  use it to its advantage. You need to break that emotional difficulty and add the time, over time it will be easier.

[egoless]

@Peter Zemskov I don't use time at all. And I usually go for approximately one hour. At  roughly 20 minute mark (which I call gateway) I enter the blissful state of NOW. I am completely dissolved in the presence with close to 0 thoughts appearing in my mind. I could sit in that way for hours probably. But usually I "wake up" myself at some point.

[pluto]

Practice mindfulness or find things in life that you are passionate about and put you in a present state of love and joy and do them more and more. This is more important than meditation IMO because (in a sense) it is like meditation as you are being more in harmony with your natural self.

 

Edited December 18, 2017 by pluto

[aurum]

@Peter Zemskov

The truth is you're not going to get much on 5-10 mins a day. But if that's what it takes at the start, then you do that.

Build it like a muscle. Keep pushing yourself, but don't try to lift 300 lbs when you know you can only do 100 either.

[Joseph Maynor]

Do an hour per day for a year.  

[Nexeternity]

Try and find a weekend to do 3 hours saturday and 3 hours sunday in 1 hour sessions.  If you break through you should see some results and that will motivate you to meditate more on a regular basis without having to force yourself as much.

Once you realize in your gut how good it is for you its much easier to do more of it.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

You definitely need to do more. At least 20 minutes to get 'into the zone', and then slowly lengthen the time as you can.

Thich Nhat Hahn describes it something like this: Imagine you are a pebble thrown into a pond. You are sinking, but at first you are sort of 'wobbling' as you descend. Then, after some time, you come to rest on the bottom. This is when you are still. You can totally feel when this happens.

He also describes it as a glass of freshly-poured (apple) juice that is cloudy. Messing with the juice will not clear the cloudiness, but if you just let it sit, all the sediment sinks to the bottom and the juice becomes clear. This is like your mind in meditation.

I hope that helps.

Edited December 22, 2017 by Koyaanisqatsi

[Light Lover]

I would raise it up to 30 mins personally, as @Koyaanisqatsi said, 20 mins will only let you touch the surface of the meditation, anything lower than that and you aren't really going to get anywhere, as you have seen, you have done it for 1 year and normally by this time, if you have done-20-30 mins a day then you will experience your first 'raising' of 'conciousness' and have a seperation from your mind and be in your meditative state the whole day basically. Of course it depends if you can keep it up, 30 mins a day may not sound like alot but it is very very difficult on some days to do that without fail for a whole year or more I would try 30 mins and see how you last in it, and see if you can sustain it for a year or more, which will be enough to get some sweet results!

Of course remember you will need to find the motivation to do this first or you will crash and burn, that is guaranteed, you will not be able to hold up a habit for 1 year or more by just forcing yourself to do it, especially when it is 30 mins a day of meditation

Goodluck!!!

[pluto]

All depends on the person and their spiritual development, this time period thing is just creating more illusion within itself. You meditate until you feel really good and at peace then you either get up and carry that energy throughout the day or meditate longer for other purposes/needs. This can take 5 minutes 15, 45, 60 or more. You will know how much you need.

Edited December 22, 2017 by pluto

[Privet]

If you would study math 5 minutes a day would you become good at it? Hell no! But you could learn couple of formulas though, which is not very useful.

The more results you want the more you need to meditate. 

You need to find the reason to practice that is better than vague bunch of benefits. For example: are you curious what does it feel like when you are so concentrated that there is no thoughts? Do you get lost in thoughts most of the time of the day? How strange is that that you don't even notice how you get lost in thinking and your thoughts just rule the direction of the thought process without your control?

Also better use timer, it's like when you jog: if you decided to run 5km - run 5km, not some random amount that is 'enough'. I would recommend to try 30 minutes a day.

[Nomad]

You have a daily practice ingrained, great!

Just build on it until you get what you want.

[Afonso]

If it makes you feel good, the first month of my meditation practice was just sitting in the couch doing nothing for 10 minutes. I didn't know jack shit of what awareness was so I just sat there doing nothing. That alone was painful.