How long do you recommend I meditate for?

[youngonce]

Hello, 

This is my first post and I'm new to the community. I have been meditating daily for 10 minutes over the past two weeks and feel great. Is this amount of time sufficient to start? Do you recommend that I meditate for a longer duration? I'm curious to hear about your meditation practices. 

Thanks, 

[Flowerfaeiry]

I meditate for an hour a day because it was reccomend to me after I took a meditation course. Leo also.has recommended an hour. 10 minutes is also great tho tbh. 

[wordsforliving]

Any amount of time would be great. My meditation practice is a minimum of 40 minutes a day, but is usually longer. I would say experiment with longer lengths of time and see if you are drawn to increase meditation time. Don't push yourself to do what others do, as it may not be right for you. 

My core meditation practices are Sudarshan Kriya and Sahaj Samadhi and I plan to be expanding to include other meditation practices. 

[Eph75]

Any amount is better than no amount. 

Yet, you are not going to experience the same by sitting 15 minutes as you will when you push past the hour. It changes you in a way that you will benefit from also in shorter sittings. 

As always there is a correlation between the effort and the outcome. But it's of course not just about time, it's also about quality.

I started out with 15-20 minutes and it had a certain effect. Then I pushed to an hour and it blow my mind. Then I started with two one hour sittings per day for some time and it was amazing but consumed a lot of time and interfered with life with wife and kids so I've reduced down to 40 minutes in the morning. By doing so I've definitively lost something but at the same time pushing the limits a bit has increased the quality and outcome of those 40 minutes.

Do what you feel is right, start with building up a very strong habit of meditating daily and from there adjust the time as best fits your lifestyle. But I would strongly recommend interweaving that with longer sittings once in a while, just to push how long you think you can sit and maintain concentration. Sitting is a mind game, you have to beat (let go of) the mind to kill the time. 

[youngonce]

54 minutes ago, Flowerfaeiry said:

I meditate for an hour a day because it was reccomend to me after I took a meditation course. Leo also.has recommended an hour. 10 minutes is also great tho tbh. 

Thanks! 10 minutes per day has been wonderful for me thus far and I have more or less wanted to keep it simple, create consistency and routine, and generate momentum. I started meditating many years ago but have always given up on it after a month or so. 

I have a few other questions for you.

• What type of meditation(s) do you practice? 
• How long have you been meditating? 
• Do you meditate for one hour in one sitting? Or do you break it up into a few sessions throughout the day?
• Do you meditate daily without exception, or do you ever miss a day? Do you find you lose something by missing a day? 
• Do you meditate by yourself, or do you go on retreats and/or attend a meditation group?
• Do you use a chair to meditate or do you sit on the floor using a meditation cushion?
• Do you use the gyan mudra technique or hand in palm zen style? 
• Do you focus on your breath and your third eye? Or just one or the other? 

For me, I close my eyes completely whilst sitting on my meditation cushion with an erect spine. I press my thumb to my forefinger gyan mudra style. Gyan mudra feels more natural and comfortable to me than hand in palm. When my eyes are shut I slowly breathe in and out through my nose allowing my thoughts to pass over me like clouds in the sky. If my monkey mind wanders, which it often does, I return to my breath without judgment and also focus on my third eye. I feel moments of euphoric bliss and connection when I am really tuned into my breath. Does this sound right to you? Am I doing anything wrong? Is there a name for my meditation style? I think it's Vipassana but I don't really know. 
 

39 minutes ago, wordsforliving said:

Any amount of time would be great. My meditation practice is a minimum of 40 minutes a day, but is usually longer. I would say experiment with longer lengths of time and see if you are drawn to increase meditation time. Don't push yourself to do what others do, as it may not be right for you. 

My core meditation practices are Sudarshan Kriya and Sahaj Samadhi and I plan to be expanding to include other meditation practices. 

Thank you I've never heard of your practices before. Feel free to answer the questions I've asked above if you're so inclined to. I'm interested in your responses. 
 

22 minutes ago, Eph75 said:

Any amount is better than no amount. 

Yet, you are not going to experience the same by sitting 15 minutes as you will when you push past the hour. It changes you in a way that you will benefit from also in shorter sittings. 

As always there is a correlation between the effort and the outcome. But it's of course not just about time, it's also about quality.

I started out with 15-20 minutes and it had a certain effect. Then I pushed to an hour and it blow my mind. Then I started with two one hour sittings per day for some time and it was amazing but consumed a lot of time and interfered with life with wife and kids so I've reduced down to 40 minutes in the morning. By doing so I've definitively lost something but at the same time pushing the limits a bit has increased the quality and outcome of those 40 minutes.

Do what you feel is right, start with building up a very strong habit of meditating daily and from there adjust the time as best fits your lifestyle. But I would strongly recommend interweaving that with longer sittings once in a while, just to push how long you think you can sit and maintain concentration. Sitting is a mind game, you have to beat (let go of) the mind to kill the time. 

Thank you for your insights and personal experience. I attended a meditation group many moons ago and meditated for an hour or two before, but it's been ages since I've done so. The zen master really just threw me into it at the time - maybe it's because he understands the benefits 1-hour meditations bring forth? We also did walking meditations together which was interesting. I'm thinking that for now, I want to work up to an hour as that seems really long for me and I struggle with consistency. I'm thinking that keeping it simple for now is my best bet. Feel free to answer my aforementioned questions above if you feel inclined. 

Edited April 18, 2020 by youngonce

[youngonce]

@Flowerfaeiry @wordsforliving @Eph75

I'm not sure whether or not you saw my response questions because I didn't "@" you guys. I'm new to this forum stuff and only "quoted" you guys. Feel free to respond if you are able to. 

Thank you!

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by youngonce

[Aaron p]

I do 30 mins self enquiry, then a little bit of light kriya yoga followed by looking at my hand for like 5 or 10 mins. Which usually adds up to about an hour. Once my 5meo comes I'm gonna ramp up my kriya yoga and start doing long ass 5meo retreats with kriya-SDS combo's. I've found that the legs stay painless for longer when you sit on a massive cushion with a small soft cushion barely raising you up at all. I'm also gonna cut my meditation beads so there are 10 beads and not connected at each end so I can keep track of my pranayamas without opening my eyes. Im also gonna try to find something that keeps my eyes shut and put in earphones. Maybe get an arm holder for my phone. 

Gona see how long I can SDS for. My intuition is telling me to practice do nothing as well so gona have to do that. 5meo will help lol. Gona aim for 3 days nonstop, then maybe 7 then 10 then 20. I don't know how I'm gonna eat haha I'll figure it out. I've also considered fasting for the entirety of the retreats up to 10 days. I've done long fasts before but they stretch your metabolism a lot is the only down side

Edited April 21, 2020 by Aaron p

[DivineSoda]

I would say the closer you can get to an hour, the better. But it takes a while to build up to that. You can go straight to it of course, but realize that meditation is more than just sitting still and closing your eyes. If you're daydreaming the entire time without much active participation in attention focus, then there's not much benefit. Still, better than nothing. 

Also, consistency is the most important thing. Do as long as you can while still keeping the mediation quality and consistent. As you settle into one level, you can consider bumping it up to the next. 

I would also recommend making your meditation space intentional. There's no prescription here, follow your heart. Things like a little altar with some symbol meaningful to you, burning incense, a proper zafu w/ zabuton, and a bell. A lot of people here may think that's all silly stuff, but it has certainly helped me change the quality of the meditation. 

[Eph75]

On 2020-04-18 at 7:41 AM, youngonce said:

What type of meditation(s) do you practice? 

These days essentially just "do nothing". Used to do body scans and stuff but these days I just focus on the blackness "behind" the visual field of closed eyes, where I find I can "get lost". Sometimes I focus on my hands or body just because it's fun to be in a state where the body or body parts feel detached from being.

On 2020-04-18 at 7:41 AM, youngonce said:

How long have you been meditating? 

I'm hitting the 2 year mark.

On 2020-04-18 at 7:41 AM, youngonce said:

Do you meditate for one hour in one sitting? Or do you break it up into a few sessions throughout the day?

As mentioned before, 40 min per day in one sitting. When I did 2 hours I did two 1 hour sittings, one in the morning and one in the evening.

On 2020-04-18 at 7:41 AM, youngonce said:

Do you meditate daily without exception, or do you ever miss a day? Do you find you lose something by missing a day? 

"Almost", I allow myself to slack off max one day per week, that's more a result of allowing myself to sleep in. I get up 5 AM on week days and have a strict morning routine. I don't get up until a bit later in the weekend and if it would for some reason turn "late" I allow myself to not meditate. And that's perfectly fine, it's not set in stone.

On 2020-04-18 at 7:41 AM, youngonce said:

Do you meditate by yourself, or do you go on retreats and/or attend a meditation group?

Yes, alone. No, haven't been to any retreats although I did play with the idea of going on a 10 day meditation retreat but I've been reluctant to due to next answer.

On 2020-04-18 at 7:41 AM, youngonce said:

Do you use a chair to meditate or do you sit on the floor using a meditation cushion?

I had a dark stretch where sitting was a challenge and by back and body ached a lot. I got into a rut where I experimented with sitting on different materials and so on with the goal to be comfortable with sitting on the floor so that it would lay ground for above mentioned meditation retreat. That in itself warped my mind into bad sittings, a self-fulfilling prophecy type of thing.

Now I sit in my sofa but I'm sitting on a meditation cushion so that I raise my bottom/pelvis and get a slight forward slope instead of otherwise the butt sinking into the sofa. I'm not concerned about doing it theoretically "right" these days, the results and how deep you get into the meditation is far more important than sitting in a certain way. So, with this I've let go of the meditation retreat ideas. At least for now. And the aches and mental distraction from needing to sit in a certain way has removed themselves.

On 2020-04-18 at 7:41 AM, youngonce said:

Do you use the gyan mudra technique or hand in palm zen style? 

Same thing here, I sit with my hands on a large soft cushion that i have in my lap, hands about 45 degrees upwards which is a very relaxed position. I find myself not comfortable when messing about with the hands in more theoretical positions.

On 2020-04-18 at 7:41 AM, youngonce said:

Do you focus on your breath and your third eye? Or just one or the other? 

Breath - not anymore. I did in the beginning to distract the mind from straying about. That's not needed anymore.

Third eye, yes, at times on and off and parts of meditation. Nothing set in stone, I don't believe in anything too static. Just going with the flow, do what works and shift back and forth.

[Aaron p]

Here are my notes for yoga

I think Santata's "Supreme Fire" practise is in his book "Kundalini Exposed".
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kundalini-Exposed-Disclosing-Kundalini-Awakening-ebook/dp/B079LCCDMD

That's a good chunk of the shit you need for yoga ? Follow intuition. Some of this info may be partial

Edited April 21, 2020 by Aaron p

[youngonce]

@Aaron p @DivineSoda @Eph75 Thank you all for all of the information. 

[inFlow]

@youngonce The main thing you should watch in meditation is your will power to concentrate for a prolonged time. I don't know what kind of meditation you do, but if you keep your attention on the breath keep a note how long can you keep your attention on it. This will be your only measurable growth.

My tip would be concentrate for as much as possible until you feel tired from concentrating, then just push it a little bit (as you would push yourself in the gym for a couple of more repetitions) and just stop. Don't push yourself too much especially if you are a beginner. Also try different techniques, try Kriya yoga for instance. Simple meditation is quite weak of a practice compared to other techniques, but do it no matter what. It's an essential that you meditate and grow your concentration+will power muscle.

[inFlow]

@youngonce Oh and by the way I forgot to mention this. The start of your meditation will be slow and hard, you will purge shit from the subconscious mind for a period of time up to 2 years. So I would recommend after you finish up your meditation do the "Do nothing meditation" (Leo has a video on it check it out) just sit or lay in bed open to all thoughts, just observe thoughts. This will help you to clean your system a bit quicker. Also don't be hard on yourself if your mind is not quiet, it's totally normal.

[ivory]

One of my favorite meditations teachers recommended 45 mins to an hour if you want to get serious. I do 75 mins. Start small and work your way up.

[Nahm]

@youngonce

Welcome to the forum.

There’s no one size fits all with meditation, which is indicative of it’s greater value. Here’s some suggestions, explanations & instructions for most of the commonly used practices. Godspeed!

 

[youngonce]

@Nahm @ivory @inFlow Thank you all