How Long Should You Meditate For (The Real Truth)

Hi,

I'm Samantha and I'm here today to answer a question that many,

Many people ask and this is from beginners as well as more advanced meditators.

And that question is,

How long should I meditate for?

And I think this question comes from a feeling of wanting to do it right and wanting to get the best results from the meditation.

But the answer is that there is no perfect time to meditate for.

And sometimes people think longer is better and it's actually not true.

The most important thing about building a meditation practice is consistency.

That matters more than anything.

And you'll hear me say this a lot in my videos,

Particularly in my beginner videos,

But this is important for everybody.

Consistently showing up.

So what I would say if you're concerned about how long to meditate for is start small.

Because the smaller you go each day,

The easier it is to build a habit.

Why is that?

Because the brain loves to resist new things.

So the smaller the amount of time you spend,

The easier it is to build a habit.

And then your meditation practice can evolve.

The other thing to keep in mind is that even if you're only meditating for a few minutes,

Your mind will wander.

That's the monkey mind.

Our minds are actually designed to be thinking of lots of different things all the time.

And this is the point of meditation,

That we can bring ourselves back to the present moment,

Calm that monkey mind down.

So even if your mind wanders and you've just done a very short meditation,

That still counts.

That is still meditation.

So don't feel that you've failed because you're not doing it long enough or your mind was wandering.

We all have days where we can concentrate better than others,

Even us meditation teachers.

So don't worry about that.

So show up consistently,

Even just two minutes a day,

Even 30 seconds if you can manage it,

All of that counts.