To me the length of the time you spend meditating isn’t as important as meditating regularly, at least once a day. If you are a beginner it may be that at first you can only meditate for five minutes at a time before you become bored, uncomfortable or your mind wanders to the point of complete distraction – and that is fine.

Over time, as you become more adept, you will find that you are able to meditate for longer periods of time and that the time you spend meditating feels as if it has “sped up”. That is to say that thirty minutes of meditating may feel like only ten minutes has actually gone passed.

Don’t try to push yourself too hard, meditating is just like any other skill. Just as if you were training to run a marathon you wouldn’t begin with a twenty mile run, don’t expect to be able to meditate for long periods of time to begin with. Go at your own pace and soon you will find your concentration and awareness increasing to the point where you can meditate for as long as you desire.

The only real limit is the restraints you have on your time. If you have a full time job and a family then it is probably not realistic to be able to meditate for an hour three times a day. However you may be able to meditate for fifteen minutes twice or more.

Value quality over quantity.

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