1.10. How often and how long to meditate?
When we decide to meditate regularly, the question arises: How often and for how long should one meditate or pray? I would like to provide some pointers on this.
In the beginning, the duration plays a subordinate role.
What matters most is simply to start and to integrate meditation into daily life on a regular basis. Ten to twelve minutes is a reasonable starting point. For those who can do a bit more, meditating twice a day is often more effective in the beginning than a single 20-minute session.
Over time, it is advisable to extend the meditation duration to at least 20 to 25 minutes.
For ten minutes, it is possible to keep thoughts silent with strong concentration. Many beginners enter meditation with great concentration, but after about 15 minutes, this decreases, and only then do they really confront their thoughts – this is where the real process begins.
On the other hand, those who start with less concentration are already flooded with thoughts at the beginning. However, after about 15 to 20 minutes, the events begin to calm down on their own. Therefore, a meditation time of 25 minutes is a good guideline.
The desire to meditate longer usually arises on its own.
Personally, I extended my meditation time because I often reached a better state only near the end of a session—something opened up or became quieter. I wanted to experience those positive states for longer, so I gradually increased my sitting time.
When to meditate?
In general, a good time for meditation is in the morning before breakfast.
This allows you to begin the day in a better inner state. If that’s not possible, the evening before going to bed is another option. A third possibility is to pause consciously after work and insert a meditation session.
For me personally, it’s essential to prepare for meditation in the morning with physical exercises like yoga.
These exercises help me transition out of the dream state gradually. So I am already in a mindful state when I enter the meditation room.
Another beautiful option is to establish a weekly meditation evening. You can either join a local group or invite others yourself.
Note for advanced practitioners
If you’ve been meditating for a while and are wondering how long a meaningful meditation session should be, I can say the following:
A mistake I made myself was not allowing enough time for prayer.
I thought 15 to 30 minutes a day would be enough. But if we are seeking deep inner transformation, we need to invest more time. This naturally raises the question of life's priorities - because to make room for prayer, we may have to give up other things.
At some point, prayer became the most important activity in my life. By consciously rearranging my priorities, I gained a lot of time that I could devote to prayer.
During the time when we were renovating our house ourselves, I worked during the day to earn money, then immediately put on my work clothes and continued working on the house. Yet I still found time every day for two hours of yoga and prayer.
Prayer and meditation not only enrich us inwardly - they also make us more capable, focused, and fulfilled.
Prayer time and mindfulness during the day
At some point, it's no longer just about the duration of meditation, but about how long you can remain mindful throughout the day. Both are interconnected. So if you try to be mindful for longer periods, you need a stable foundation.
For me, that's about one hour of meditation per day.
Longer sessions are difficult for me, so I spread them throughout the day: 30-40 minutes in the morning, and 20-40 minutes in the evening, depending on my energy. There are people who like to meditate for several hours – if that suits them, it's great.
For me, it’s more important to integrate mindfulness into everyday life.
That’s why I rarely go beyond a total of 60 to 80 minutes. Instead, I prefer to take mindful walks, sit quietly in the garden, or carry out simple tasks in conscious awareness.
How prayer can arise from these mindful phases is something I will describe in a later chapter.
Sometimes I wake up in the night feeling the call to enter deep prayer. Then I follow the impulse and go into my meditation room or take a walk in the park.