For how long should I meditate?

"Everyone should meditate for 30m a day. Unless you are VERY busy.

In which case, you should meditate for an hour." ~anonymous

The question "how much time should I spend on meditation?", with the unspoken subtext "please say 5m once a week at the end of yoga class is enough!!", is probably the most common question I get as a mindfulness instructor.

And I get it! We're overwhelmed with worries and things to do; we're inundated with social media promises of quick and easy fixes, and frankly, we're wired to seek out efficiency. But here's the thing...

Quick and easy is the problem, not the solution.

Quick hacks and high expectations only rev up the nervous system. Five minutes a day, just isn't enough time for a racing mind to even begin to settle. And all of the research says consistency matters most. A steady, daily practice of 12m yields more results than 30m once a week.

But choosing to spend even 12 minutes a day getting to know your own mind isn't easy - because we are creatures of habit, and there is so much momentum pulling you in the other direction.

Being still for long enough to feel yourself and quiet enough to hear yourself...

It's a radical act.

It's also where the shift begins.

Not in just doing more or doing it perfectly, but in returning, again and again to something simple and direct. A breath. A sensation. This moment.

Over time, those minutes aren't just something you fit in. They begin to change how you move through the resf of your day - they change how you respons, how you listen and how quickly you recover when things get hard.

So, no. 5 minutes onec a week probably isn't enough to create meaningful change.

But 10-15 minutes a day, practiced consistently, can be.

If you've been trying to figure this out on your own, this is exactly what we practice - together, with structure, guidance and support - in MBSR :)

You don't have to do it perfectly. You just have to begin.