How long do you meditate each day? (total)

[sjel]

Do you separate it into chunks? Do you meditate at the same time every day?

If it's more than 2 hours, what compelled to start meditating at such lengths?

If it's more than 8 hours, then damn. is all I have to say

[chamkigirl]

How do you define meditation?

Currently, I am in the process of living each moment watching my breathe. Of course, I don't manage it throughout the day. But, for the time that I do, I find it very powerful.

[AnthroHeart]

1 - 1.5 hours a day. I listen to Holosync by Centerpointe, 2-3 tracks of 30 mins each. It uses binaural beats so it sounds like I'm listening to rain and Tibetan singing bowls.
I don't have to focus on anything in particular as it's pretty effective on its own. I used to fall asleep because it takes me right down into delta brainwaves mainly. But then I do it around 7-8pm and I only nod off once or twice at the most.

My time varies about an hour or two each day. I started meditating like this back on August 14, 2017. I was compelled because it helps bring subconscious stuff to the surface to be dealt with. It normally feels like angst within me when this happens, and I just let it be ok, and just observe with curiosity the sensations. They work themselves out typically within up to a day or so. After like 4-6 months (a year on higher levels), which use a lower carrier wave, it causes the brain to do even more work, and by then very little can knock you off center. I'm still in the beginning level, but next level I get to record some affirmations to put into that, which they take and make them subliminal with the audio. It has 13 levels to it, so it's about an 8-10 year commitment.

I like it because I don't even really have to watch my breath. But sometimes I do take an observer stance and just observe what's coming to the surface rather than participating in it and feeling bad. After a session I can feel really good and rested. Sometimes though I do have some upheaval to work through. That's what their support team is for.

[Glow]

I answered 4-5 hours but that's an estimate and it's not like traditional meditation.

Most of that is just throughout the day when I'm not needing to productively think or solve an issue. At those times if I can do whatever I'm doing on autopilot I just remind myself to not think, instead to just listen/experience/witness. I find it a beneficial habit I'm trying to form.

[AnthroHeart]

If I count drawing as meditation, that's another 6 hours a day.

[sjel]

I answered 4-5 hours but that's an estimate and it's not like traditional meditation.

Most of that is just throughout the day when I'm not needing to productively think or solve an issue. At those times if I can do whatever I'm doing on autopilot I just remind myself to not think, instead to just listen/experience/witness. I find it a beneficial habit I'm trying to form.

I should have specified sitting meditation. I do that too, continuous mindfulness and internal studying of my beingness. I'd say I do mindfulness almost constantly, except when I forget and some very heavy or confusing vibration throws me off for a while that is always uncomfortable but leads to even deeper mindfulness. I think of it now as a gigantic obstacle that I just chose not to look directly at - until I finally look at it and it dissolves into mindfulness.

[Aion]

I don't not meditate.

[Coordinate_Apotheosis]

Where's the 'Not Enough' option??

If I had the quiet space to do so, I'd be going for 4 hours minimum each day.  I'm lucky to get 10 minutes in before something in life comes up.  Sure I can meditate with noise but it's nowhere near as satisfying as being in actual quietude.

Especially because my cat!  The moment she see's me sitting still, it's meowtime!

I...Can't remember the last time I heard total silence give or take some natural background noise.  Lately there's always a construction vehicle's booping in the distance, the sound of children or neighbors, or cars or a radio...

I miss the quiet...  I miss just sitting in it...

[Patrick]

Missing option : 5 minutes

[Spaced]

I like how you start it at 10-20 minutes, I'm lucky if I can squeeze 5 minutes in Most days I do not meditate.

[rva_jeremy]

I am very pleased that somehow, despite a lifetime of finding excuses and reasons I can't, I have been meditating every morning for the past two years. The only way I was able to accomplish this and keep it up in a way that I could feel good about was to go easy on myself and treat obstacles as challenges.

First of all, if you don't feel like meditating, don't. What you need, especially at the beginning of a practice, is positive reinforcement of what you're doing so that you seek to do the meditation rather than simply seek to have done it. So if you think there's a very good chance you won't be able to enjoy the meditation, don't bother. If you see yourself skipping over and over again, it's just an opportunity to be honest and kind with yourself about that.

Secondly, distractions can be challenges. I try to get up no later than 6:30 am just so I'll have quiet time to meditate without significant distractions. But I have beagles who howl and I share the space with my wife as well. When they are distracting, I use it as an opportunity to work with frustration and distraction. Meditation is not an escape from the real world and its distractions, in my opinion: instead, it's a way of waking up to the real world, of allowing the world to finally get through to you, as Chödrön says, and all the stimulus can be as lovingly and kindly accepted and released precisely in the same way as the thoughts that pop up in our heads. In fact, I find it much easier to deal with external stimuli nowadays than the endless discursive thoughts that continually cloud my mental sky.

In meditation, we are practicing a mentality that we ultimately seek to execute on in waking life. Therefore, there is every reason to use the things that make meditation more difficult as training on patience and detachment. I've made lots of excuses for not meditating throughout my life, but ultimately the question is not whether or not to meditate. Instead, it's whether or not to practice the kind of loving acceptance of and patience with yourself that makes meditation desirable, pleasurable, a sensible way to live. If you find yourself forcing yourself to meditate, go easier on yourself and make sure you "give yourself a hug" now and then, and afford yourself the space to determine your real desire. Also consider that you may have an overly rigid idea of what good practice looks like -- don't make some ideal of meditation a reason to be harsh with yourself. Remember: we can't tell what a productive meditation really feels like. I suspect our worst meditations are the ones that teach best, if we can be enough of a friend to ourselves to allow them to.

P.S. I have found morning reading an invaluable way to situate meditation in a wider ritual, akin to Carla's "morning offering". I do my reading before meditation, and Jim does his afterwards. But some kind of way you can make it not simply about meditation can often be helpful. Otherwise, it can be a bleak chore. I don't always want to meditate when I wake up, but after reading spiritually uplifting stuff I usually do. I also incorporate prayer and, per Jade's sage advice a few years ago, a conscious setting of intention for the day. Lately I've also been making sure to offer love to the planet. All of these things help make meditation less tedious, since it becomes not "the whole point" but merely one part in a well rounded dedication of the day.

P.P.S. I do find that longer meditations feel better, but that doesn't mean that I spend the whole time in mindless bliss. In fact, I tend to spend about half the meditation simply getting into the right head space. The longer amount of time I give myself, the more "centered" time I have, since there's nothing worse than rushing a meditation. Give yourself space, find out for yourself what connection really feels like, and understand there will be good days and bad days, with the latter teaching so very much.