A lot of time, there are people who are new to meditation, who have either just started meditation for a few days or are planning to start meditating, ask how long does it take for meditation for meditation to work. Very often, there are two types of people that are actually asking three very different questions. One group is asking how long do they have to meditate in a day or in a session to clear their mind. Another group is asking how many days does it take to get used to meditation so they can focus more probably during their meditation. The third group is often asking how many days of meditation does it take to begin seeing some change in your life. In the following, I will share answers for all these three questions. Let’s dive in now.
How Much Meditation Should You Have Everyday?
Meditation is like exercise for your brain. Just like exercise for our body, “the more the better” is not always the case. For most people, meditating 2 times, and 20 minutes each for each time is the recommended amount of meditation. I am one of those people who still find that a little too much and find it a little difficult to fit the second time in my meditation. Remember, the most important thing for meditation is make your mind clear. For me, having a ten-minute meditation every morning can actually help me clear my mind very effectively. I would also mention a little bit about what happens if you meditate too much. For some people, if they have to meditate longer than somewhere around 40 minutes in one single session, they would start feeling headache. I am like that too. Therefore, for those of you who are not monks who can actually meditate for hours, let’s just keep every session shorter than 30 minutes to be safe. To find out your optimal amount of daily meditation, I would actually suggest you to use the two 20-minute session suggestion as a guideline and reduce it to suit your need. Remember, having enough meditation to make your mind clear is your only goal here.
How Many Days Does It Take for to Learn How to Focus Properly
For a lot of people, meditation is not as easy as it may seem at first glance. For a lot of people, there are a few difficulties. (I will use breath meditation to illustrate for this example, but mantra meditation gives beginner very similar difficulties.) The first problem is that some people can’t focus on observing the breathing for minutes. The second problem is that when thoughts come to their conscious mind from their subconscious mind, these people think about the idea of thoughts in a very deep way. The third problem is that they fall asleep. To sum it up, there is a lack of focus and discipline. Time is really the best way to solve these problems. For me, it takes me about 2 weeks to get used to meditation and I begin to be able to meditate properly after that. Regarding how to solve the problem that you would fall asleep easier, the solution is actually very simple. Just don’t meditate when you are sleepy. If you do fall asleep during meditation, meditation isn’t really what you need at the moment. You probably need some sleep.
How Long Does It Take Before I Notice that Meditation Has Changed My Life
Many people think that meditation has the ability to change their lives. Let’s be clear and talk about what exactly meditation can do. First, meditation can make your mind feel more clear and as a result you should be able to think more clearly and rationally. It doesn’t take long to see that change in your life. Actually, as soon as you can properly focus during meditation, you can feel your more clear mind. As mentioned, it took me about two weeks to learn how to properly meditate. For a lot of people, they can meditate the first time they try. In conclusion, it really doesn’t take long for you to have a more clear mind. But the effect doesn’t last which means that you have to practice meditation daily. Think of meditation as a form of brain exercise. You will simply get out of shape if you stop doing your exercise. There’s no free lunch or one-and-done solution here. For those of you who think that meditation can make your life change because it has some super power or it can make you so much smarter, I am sorry to tell you that there is nothing magical about meditation. It is a very simple tool to make you think in a more clear and rational way. At the same time, don’t underestimate the power of clear and rational thinking. This seemingly subtle change can already give you a slight edge over others. Having a subtle advantage for a very long time, assuming that you are going to practice meditation for the rest of your life, becomes an unbelievably huge advantage. Some people like to compare meditation with compound interest. It is one of those rare things that give you small changes every day and result in a huge change when you look at it years later.
Be Patient & Don’t Have a All-or-Nothing Mentality
Meditation is not exact science. For example, there is no such thing as making your mind 100% clear. If you can make your mind 75% clear with meditation and you used to be 65% clear without, that’s already really good and I wouldn’t hesitate to meditate if I were you.
Catch the Next Bus if You Miss the Last
Practicing meditation everyday is very similar to build other good habits in your life. The biggest problem I see that causes people fail to develop such good habit is that they would blame themselves if they miss one day of practice and they simply stop doing it having blamed on themselves multiple times. You have got to have grit in order to succeed in anything, including developing a good habit like daily meditation. Grit is not just about doing one thing for a very long time. It is also about failing today but get back up tomorrow. Don’t beat yourself up if you sleep over and miss the bus. Just catch the next bus and things immediately get back on track.