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.