“How can I have future goals and live in the present moment at the same time?”

If you’ve been asking yourself this question, you might be under the impression that being in the now excludes any goal-setting and thoughts of the future.

On the surface, the teachings of modern spiritual teachers like Eckhart Tolle can make you believe that there is nothing but the present moment.

You might also think mastering the art of living in the now requires you to drop all thoughts about past and future.

But these things don’t exclude one another. You can (and should) practice them together for a happy and fulfilling life.

In this article, I’m going to show you how you can be present and have future goals without any worry or stress.

Escape the Trap of Psychological Time

The first step is to understand the difference between psychological time and clock time.

The psychological time traps you in never-ending regret about the past and worries about the future.

Let’s say you’re having dinner with your family. You smile, look happy and engage in small talk, but your thoughts are elsewhere.

In your mind, you keep going back to that important project that you’ve been on working on for months. You worry that without your complete attention it’s going to fail.

Then you imagine what would happen if it does fail. All the hours and money you put into making it happen will be wasted, and you’ll have to start over or come up with a new idea.

Can you see how insane this is?

By immersing yourself in negative thoughts, you made the worst-case scenario a reality. In your head, you already failed. And on top of that, you feel all associated negative emotions.

To escape the trap of psychological time you need to use clock time. Which brings up to the next point.

Do The Only Thing You Can Do Right Now

The opposite of psychological time is the clock time. Here’s how it works.

When you use clock time, you are living in the present but peripherally aware of your past and future.

You know what happened to you in the past, but it doesn’t affect your life now.

You have a goal and want to achieve it, but you’re not imagining what might go wrong.

Instead, you know where you are right now and what you need to do.

Being present doesn’t mean that you dismiss logical thinking and common sense.

For example, if you know that there may be some challenges on the way to your goal you realize that fully. You do not live in denial.

By being aware of the obstacles and challenges, you are taking the right action now.

It may be that the only action you can take now is to plan. Then make a plan, do what you have to do in the present circumstances.

Related: 7 Simple Ways to Get Better at Single-Tasking

Take One Step at a Time

Making an action plan can pull you into the “prediction mode” where you start thinking about all the things. Don’t let your mind do that.

Take a deep breath, let the planning flow from an inner state of calm and presence.

In this very moment, you are where you are supposed to be. You do not need to hurry or prove anything to anyone.

Write down all the tasks that you need to do. Put them on your calendar, set reminders, and rest in the knowledge that everything will be accomplished in its own time.

Then start going towards your goal by taking one step at a time. Each step will be fully rooted in the present moment, and any action arising out of it will be powerful and intentional.

How long to meditate if you’re just starting out?

It’s a common worry among new practitioners because they are not sure if they are doing everything the right way.

Meditation is a very unusual activity for the unprepared mind. It makes you sit in one place for a period of time doing nothing but watching your breath.

Sounds simple, but for our busy mind, that is a tough task to complete.

Usually, when you meditate for the first time, you might notice restlessness in the body, impatience, and boredom.

And when that happens 1 minute seems like 5 minutes, and 5 minutes seems like 10. And the whole process feels like an eternity.

So you start to wonder how much meditation is enough or can you meditate too much.

Don’t worry, I’ve written this article to dispel all the doubts that you might have about how long to meditate for beginners.

I found advice given by 8 world-renowned meditation teachers and put them in one place so that you don’t have to play a guessing game anymore. Keep reading to find out what each of them has to say about what is the right amount of time to meditate.

1. Answered by Thich Nhat Hanh

Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is a global spiritual leader, poet, and peace activist, revered throughout the world for his powerful teachings and bestselling writings on mindfulness and peace. His key teaching is that, through mindfulness, we can learn to live happily in the present moment—the only way to truly develop peace, both in one’s self and in the world.

For beginners, it is better to sit no longer than 20 or 30 minutes¹. During that time, you can readily obtain total rest. The technique for obtaining this rest lies in two things — watching and letting go: watching your breath, and letting go of everything else. Release every muscle in your body. After about 15 minutes or so, it is possible to reach a deep quiet filled with inner peace and joy. Maintain this quiet and peace.

— Thich Nhat Hanh

2. Answered by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Jon Kabat-Zinn is internationally known for his work as a scientist, writer, and meditation teacher engaged in bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine and society. He is Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he founded its world-renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic (MBSR) in 1979, and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society (in 1995).

There’s no real prescription, but I would say it’s good to try 15 minutes²: long enough so that you get really bored and antsy and learn how to make room for unpleasant moments. You have to have it be long enough so that you experience a lot of different body and mind states like the discomfort from being still. Then that becomes your teacher instead it being bad or an impediment to being mindful.

You notice any thoughts, like ‘I hate this,’ ‘It’s boring and stupid’ and then recognize that these are just thoughts. You may have a lot of emotions like impatience and frustration and think, ‘Well I just can’t meditate’ and perhaps you get down on yourself or decide to throw in the towel. But the whole point is just to notice the play of the mind and body, and not taking things personally when they aren’t.

— Jon Kabat-Zinn

3. Answered by Sharon Salzberg

Sharon Salzberg had played a crucial role in bringing meditation and mindfulness practices to the West and into mainstream culture since 1974 when she first began teaching. She is the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA and the author of ten books including NY Times bestseller, Real Happiness, her seminal work, Lovingkindness, and Real Love.

Usually, when people start sitting, we say that 5 minutes is enough³. You don’t have to think, “I’ve got to sit here for six hours.” You don’t have to get into some pretzel-like posture and suffer! Just choose an object of awareness—maybe the breath—and rest your mind there. You know that it’s not going to be 9,000 breaths before your mind wanders. It’ll likely be one. Maybe three, maybe just a half a breath!

The most important moment in the whole process is the moment after you’ve been distracted, after you’ve been lost or fallen asleep or whatever. That’s when you have the chance to be truly different. Instead of judging and berating yourself, you can practice letting go and beginning again. That’s the core teaching.

— Sharon Salzberg

4. Answered by Jack Kornfield

Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West.

Select a regular time for practice that suits your schedule and temperament. If you are a morning person, experiment with a sitting before breakfast. If evening fits your temperament or schedule better, try that first. Begin with sitting 10 or 20 minutes at a time⁴. Later you can sit longer or more frequently. Daily meditation can become like bathing or toothbrushing. It can bring a regular cleansing and calming to your heart and mind.

— Jack Kornfield

5. Answered by Joseph Goldstein

Joseph Goldstein has been leading insight and lovingkindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where he is one of the organization’s guiding teachers. In 1989, together with several other teachers and students of insight meditation, he helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

To start with I think it’s good to set an amount of time that you feel workable, that inspires you to do it, that is not going to feel too daunting. So people could choose almost any amount of time. It can be 20 minutes or half an hour⁵. The important thing is the regularity of it. Pick an amount of time that you really feel committed to doing every day. It’s the everyday-ness that is going to build the practice.

Over time people may find that they get comfortable with that amount of time and they may feel, “What it would be like to extend it for 10 or 15 minutes?” So there is no absolute number that we need to work with. I think it’s starting with what feels doable and actually inspires one to do it and then gradually expand the time as one feels necessary. At a certain point, for people who have developed a strong practice sitting an hour a day would be great. Some people sit 2 hours a day, so there is no upper limit.

— Joseph Goldstein

6. Answered by Tara Brach

Tara Brach has been practicing and teaching meditation since 1975, as well as leading workshops and meditation retreats at centers throughout North America and Europe. She is the founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW) and the author of Radical Acceptance (2003) and True Refuge (2013).

Deciding in advance the duration of your sit can help support your practice. For many, a good time frame is between 15-45 minutes⁶. If you sit each day, you’ll gradually experience noticeable benefits (e.g., less reactivity, more calm) and be more inclined to increase your sitting time.

If you’re just beginning a meditation practice, you might want to experiment with the length of time that you meditate. You might choose to meditate for just five minutes once or twice a day, and increase the time by five minutes a day until you reach a length of time that you can commit to on a daily basis.

— Tara Brach

7. Answered by Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle is a spiritual teacher and the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Power of Now and the highly acclaimed follow-up A New Earth, which are widely regarded as two of the most influential spiritual books of our time.

It needn’t take long. 10 to 15 minutes of clock time should be sufficient⁷. Make sure first that there are no external distractions such as telephones or people who are likely to interrupt you. Sit on a chair, but don’t lean back. Keep the spine erect. Doing so will help you to stay alert. Alternatively, choose your own favorite position for meditation.

Make sure the body is relaxed. Close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths. Feel yourself breathing into the lower abdomen, as it were. Observe how it expands and contracts slightly with each in and out breath. Then become aware of the entire inner energy field of the body. Don’t think about it — feel it. By doing this, you reclaim consciousness from the mind.

— Eckhart Tolle

8. Answered by Andy Puddicombe

Andy Puddicombe is the meditation and mindfulness expert, co-founder of Headspace, which teaches simple, 10-minute meditation techniques to busy professionals.

If it feels like too much time, it probably is. It’s best to approach meditation much like anything else in life: start small, build up slowly and find your own personal sweet spot. For some people, this sweet spot is 10 minutes⁸ and for others, it’s 60 minutes.

To begin with, the most important thing is finding a time length which feels achievable and keeps us feeling motivated. Without this, it will never become part of an established daily routine. Also important to remember is that when it comes to awareness and compassion, quality always trumps quantity, so it’s much better to be actively cultivating those qualities  than sitting still like a statue wondering when the session will end. (We’ve all been there!)

So what is the optimal amount? Well, science is still working that equation out. Many of the recent findings seem to be pointing at frequency rather than duration. So for example, 10 minutes a day, every day of the week, is likely to be far more beneficial than 70 minutes on one day of the week.

— Andy Puddicombe

How Long to Meditate for Beginners — The Takeaway

So if you compare all the answers given by these teachers, you’ll see that the best meditation duration for new practitioners is between 5 to 15 minutes.

In the beginning of my own journey, I aimed at 10 minutes a day. It was enough to calm my body and concentrate my attention on the breath.

It also allowed me to become more aware of my negative thoughts and persistent patterns that were causing me much pain and distress.

It was the first step, but a crucial one. I’m sure you can do it as well.

The best technique to start with is breathing meditation. That is why I made this free worksheet that you can download by clicking the button below.

Footnotes

1. Thich Nhat Hanh. The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation, p. 35↑
2. Jon Kabat-Zinn. Q&A: Jon Kabat-Zinn Talks About Bringing Mindfulness Meditation to Medicine. Time↑
3. Sharon Salzberg. You Can’t Fail at Meditation. Lion’s Roar↑
4. Jack Kornfield. Establishing a Daily Meditation. Official Website↑
5. Joseph Goldstein. 3 Ways to Build a Sustainable Meditation Practice. YouTube↑
6. Tara Brach. FAQ for Meditation. Official Website↑
7. Eckhart Tolle. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. New World Library. Kindle Edition, p. 129↑
8. Andy Puddicombe. What’s the right amount of time to meditate? Headspace↑

How often do you find yourself in boring situations?

Maybe you’re sitting in a waiting room, attending a work meeting, standing in line in a crowded coffee shop, or stuck in a traffic jam.

Do you notice how your mind tends to think about something pleasant from your past or anticipate an exciting event in the future?

When you jump back and forth in time it gives you a sense of relief, you are no longer stuck in an unpleasant situation but inhabit a delightful illusion of the mind.

What you don’t realize is that those moments when you are daydreaming are the times when you train your mind to be absent from the present moment. In other words, you train your mind to be unconscious.

I can almost hear you say, “So what’s the big deal here? I tend to daydream now and then. It can’t be that bad, can it?”

I used to think like that myself.

As I look back, the most unbearable situations for me were taking a subway to and from work, the last hour of the workday, standing in line in the supermarket.

To make the torture of waiting less painful, I would start thinking about my future plans. I would mentally go over every little thing that I needed to do. This kind of rehearsal gave a little sense of relief because I knew what I needed to do.

If I had no particular projects or plans, I would start thinking about something pleasant that happened to me recently, about my friends or family.

Another thing I would do was take out my phone and start reading a book. I found this particularly useful because I had no time to read when I was at home, so I used this as an opportunity to catch up with my reading goals.

But these activities served only as a temporary patch, they could never ease the tension completely. And so I would live through this drudgery day in and day out.

But mindfulness changed all of that completely. In this article, I would like to show you how it can cure boredom for you.

What you tell yourself when you are bored

You must have heard and read that you always need to be in the present moment. It’s the most common advice you hear when reading about mindfulness and meditation.

But reading about it and actually doing it are entirely different things as far as your actual experience is concerned.

Be honest: can you be fully present when you are stuck in a boring situation where you have no choice but to remain in one place and wait?

I often see people asking whether it’s beneficial to be present when they are sitting in a waiting room. After all, the experience is not so remarkable to justify the practice of presence. There are no beautiful flowers, trees or animals that you can admire in a mindful presence.

So you tell yourself, “Why not think about something pleasant like the upcoming holiday trip with my family or a funny conversation I had with my friend?”

Can you relate? Did you ever feel that way? Reflect on this before reading further.

Why mind-wandering is one of the main causes of unhappiness

The excuse not to be present when faced with boring situations is quite common among those who just started their meditation practice. You might think that practicing presence is necessary only when you feel bad and depressed.

But just like you don’t brush your teeth only when you have a toothache, you don’t practice present moment awareness only when you have anxious thoughts.

Anxiety, worry, fear, and other forms of negativity that you experience in your daily life is a consequence of mind wondering. They actually did a study called A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind and found it to be true.

When you think “I’m in a boring place now, so I’ll start thinking about something more pleasant” you are resisting your present circumstances. You don’t want to be where you are and create a conflict between your outer and inner state.

The situation in the waiting room might seem insignificant to you at that moment, and you may justify mind wondering just for that occasion. But it’s these “small” situations that add up through time and literally train your mind to always be somewhere else. In other words, you condition yourself to be unconscious.

So when real challenges come you will not be ready. You will react poorly and will not be able to sustain presence, take a step back, and be an impartial witness to your negative thoughts and emotions.

How to cure boredom with mindfulness

If you think about it, boredom is the reflection of our mind’s tendency to always want more.

More experiences, more excitement, more activities.

When you are deprived of them for a period of time, you feel impatient and restless.

But what you don’t realize is that boredom can become a perfect opportunity to practice mindfulness.

That is why I’ve put together a free worksheet with 3 simple strategies on how to cure boredom with mindfulness. You can download it by clicking the button below.

It feels normal, isn’t it? To chase the next big thing. Always plan, achieve, do your best to meet your goals.

But in that normal existence, you often forget to take a step back and appreciate the very act of doing and being aware of it.

To put it simply, you forget the art of living in the present moment that can radically transform your life.

I totally get it because I’ve done this many times without realizing it.

I used to wake up and immediately start thinking and fussing over every little thing that had to be done that day.

My mind would tailspin in the “achieving” mode and ignore everything else. I neglected my body by working late into the night and eating unhealthy food. I ignored my friends and family by burying myself in work.

I was always worried about what might happen and what I can do about it. My mind was filled with countless “what if” scenarios, and I was always anxious and dissatisfied.

So today I would like to share with you a few warning signs that you are living an unconscious life completely out of touch with the present moment.

#1

Are you trying to get somewhere other than where you are right now?

For example, what are you going to do after reading this article?

You’ll probably go back to your daily to-do list. We all have unending tasks that keep coming up no matter how fast we complete them.

This way of living is a perfect recipe for feeling constant dissatisfaction. Why? Because every progress you make moves the finish line further away.

Once you finish something, you realize that it’s not good enough. The feeling of accomplishment is quickly replaced by wanting more and more.

But if you keep living like that no matter what you achieve it will never satisfy you for long. The moment you get it, the feeling of lack will re-emerge, and the struggle will continue.

#2

How much of what you’re doing is a transaction of give-and-get-back-in-return?

Do you see the value of activity only in how close it gets you to your next goal?

I used to be like that in all areas of my life, particularly in relationships with other people. I would make friends only with those who could benefit me in some way or another.

Am I saying that you should stop being selective and be friends with everyone? No. What I’m saying is that in my case all my moves were calculated. As a result, I met people who treated me the same way.

And when these relationships collapsed, I would find myself lost and angry at the world.

When you treat everything as a means to an end, you lose touch with Life. You can’t find deeper dimensions of satisfaction that come from genuine relationships that are free of egoic needs.

#3

Are you chasing fulfillment through short-lived pleasures

We all have mini addictions that keep us going whenever we feel tired or about to give up.

When you sit at your desk and have a day of work ahead of you, what is it that keeps you going?

Opening your fridge and eating your favorite meal? Having a bite at your favorite pizza place? Drinking a glass of wine?

It’s not uncommon for us to have a dysfunctional relationship with food or alcohol. We see it as a way to relax and forget about all the bad stuff that happened to us during the day or week.

We see it as a kind of reward for biting the bullet and doing everything we could to get the things done.

For example, the moment we take a sip of wine we delude ourselves into thinking that all our troubles are over and everything will be ok.

We use food and alcohol to avoid taking responsibility for our lives and our choices.

#4

Are you focusing on becoming, achieving, and attaining?

If someone asked you, “Have you achieved your biggest goal in life?” what would your answer be?

Would you say that you’re still pursuing that one that thing that will give meaning to your life?

Does it seem that success is just around the corner and all you need to do is push a little bit harder?

All my life I was striving to achieve more: make more money, buy more stuff, meet more people. And the finish line kept moving further and further away.

Nothing I ever did felt good enough, I always wanted more.

That kind of lifestyle lead to a breakdown: I felt depressed, tired, and everything seemed hopeless.

Does any of that sound familiar? Do you feel like you need to achieve more to feel fulfilled and happy?

#5

Do you think that buying more stuff will make you more complete?

What was your last most significant purchase? Did you plan it ahead by saving money or taking a small loan?

How long did you feel satisfied after buying it? A month? A week? A day?

It passes very quickly, isn’t it? The high of a new purchase. After you’ve bought it and played around a bit, it loses its magic appeal and fades into the grey mass of ordinary things.

The primary motivation behind most of our shopping habits is the need to add more to our sense of self.

We feel incomplete and want to fill that hole with stuff. But it’s never enough. No matter how many things we buy, they never satisfy us for long.

We always compare ourselves to others and want to feel bigger and more important.

In this attempt to fill a bottomless hole we forgot how to appreciate the things we already have. How to be more with less, how not to derive our sense of self from external things.

So my question to you is this: how much of your sense of self is reliant on the external things? Can you imagine yourself without your possessions? What will be left of you if you lost everything tomorrow?

#6

Are you waiting for a man or a woman to make you happy?

Movies and romantic novels make us believe that meeting “the one” could solve all our problems and give us what we truly want.

Eckhart Tolle says that the underlying condition of the ego is a deep sense of lack and incompleteness, and it’s always looking for ways to cover it up.

You start looking for one man or woman that will make you happy. When you find someone, the entire focus of your “self” becomes concentrated on that person. You form almost an obsessive attachment to that one form and call it “falling in love.”

But like any egoic need, it never feels enough. So when you realize that this person will never be able to complete you, the conflict arises, you make each other miserable, and break up.

Consequently, the cycle repeats itself over and over again. If you’re not aware of this pattern in your life, you always live in an imaginary future with a perfect person that doesn’t exist.

See if any of these patterns are present in your life and decide how you can stop them.

Most of these things we do unconsciously, meaning we’re not really aware of them and so these things keep damaging our inner and outer well-being.

I find it easier to make the first small step towards the change. Just choose one thing and work on it. Once you feel like you’ve made progress try something else. I believe you can do it if you put your mind to it.