Recently someone told me they were put off meditating because they couldn’t get up in morning to meditate before work. They were convinced that meditation was a morning activity. This made me wonder if others felt that there was a certain time that was the ‘best time’ for meditation.
What Is The Best Time To Meditate?
Morning is a popular time for Meditation. We’re rested and feel able to focus. So if morning can help you pay attention ‘better’ it’s the best time right?
Well….
Feeling refreshed might assist you to focus but it is a mistake to think that it is essential. Mindfulness Meditation can be focused on ANY sensory experience. This can include your lack of freshness, your tiredness, your irritability, emotionality and busy thoughts.
In fact practising when things are more difficult can:
- support you to manage those difficulties better as they’re happening
- help you even more to strengthen your attention skills
- be potential pathways to insight in their own right
Meditation can be an any time of the day activity. Taking Mindfulness Meditation into the busy-ness of your day can help you practice and develop your skills in more situations AND you can apply those skills to help manage challenging experiences AND to enhance the fufillment you experience from life’s joys (and much more too).
Meditation In Daily Life
There is a popular image of a meditator as someone sitting quietly and alone. This image is paired with the notion that meditation is ‘about’ being calm. So how does that square with being a busy person with many personal and professional demands?
Mindfulness Meditation is about attention. Concentration is the first of the three attentional skills of mindfulness. When we’re deeply focused on something it is inherently calming (think of being absorbed in a hobby you love). Mindfulness skills also involve analysing and opening up to sensory experience. These are the other two other skills of Mindfulness – Sensory Clarity and Equanimity. All of this attentional activity requires alertness. Mindfulness is a combination of both alertness and relaxation which is an optimum state for quality work generally.
How Can I Take Meditation Into My Busy Life?
Spreading Meditation across the course of your day begins with making some choices.
Firstly – when will you do Formal Meditation and when will you do Informal Meditation?
Formal Meditation
Formal meditation means at least 10 minutes of dedicated focus time. 10 minutes isn’t a large time investment and it can be done in stillness or in motion. As long as you are able to focus your full attention (over very nearly) on the technique for at least 10 minutes you are doing a Formal Meditation. Formal Meditation has the advantage of allowing a meditator to explore more subtle aspects of their experience.
Informal Meditation
Formal Meditation isn’t the only way to practise and grow your attention skills. Informal Meditation allows you to easily bring the practice, benefits and skills of mindfulness into your everyday activities.
Informal Practice is either:
- less than 10 minutes where your attention is fully focused on the technique.
These are called ‘Microhits’ in the Unified Mindfulness System.
Microhits allow you to do short periods of focused practice when you have moments that allows this. It could be while walking between buildings at work, during a shower, brushing your teeth, switching on your computer, sitting in your car, doing the dishes, walking to lunch or eating lunch – there are so many possibilities. They can be as short as 30 seconds (or less). You might choose to pair specific activities in your daily routine to these short periods of focused practice.
- practice you do with a reduced amount of focus (in the background while doing other things). This could be as little as 10 – 20% of your attention. It can be for as long or as little as you wish.
This is called Background Practice in the Unified Mindfulness System.
Background Practice can be done while your busy doing anything but the most mentally demanding activities. Focusing on rest with the Unified Mindfulness Feel Rest Technique can be a wonderful way to have a background practice going. Keeping a tangible link to relaxation while busy can have a huge impact on the level of stress and tiredness we feel over the course of our day.
Your Formal Practice could be 10 minutes+ sitting alone in silence if you have time and space for that. It could also be while you are walking or exercising. Being able to practice formally while moving helps make Formal Practice a little more accessible for those of us who are time poor.
How Long Should I Meditate?
If your goal is to make progress then having a period of daily Formal Meditation is important. More practice means more time to develop the skills of mindfulness so a great approach is to have BOTH Formal and Informal practice in your day. To help yourself set aside time early in your day to map out:
- when you will meditate
- what approach you will take
- what techniques you will use.
An online calendar which allows you to timeblock is a great way to map all of this. Combining this with a practice journal means you can keep track of your practice and reflect on your progress and challenges. Then you can make informed decisions about your practice. You are becoming your own coach as you learn from your practice and choose your next steps to explore.
Daily Practice Example
When you sit down to plan your day of meditation a possible structure you could use is:
Formal Practice
A minimum of 10 minute practice with your full attention (in stillness or motion)
Informal Practice
5 X 3 minute small practices with full attention
Periods of background Practice (with a small amount of attention)
Related Questions
Can I Meditate Before Sleeping?
This is a question that comes up fairly often. The answer is yes. In fact many people find Meditation enormously helpful with settling a busy mind prior to sleeping. There are many ways to approach this if it is an outcome you seek from meditation.
How do I know if I’m meditating correctly?
If you’ve made a choice about what you are going to focus on in your meditation and you are practising the skills of mindfulness then you are meditating. If you find yourself distracted and you are bringing your attention back to the focus of your meditation then you are meditating. Being distracted is not failing to meditate; it is part of the process of developing the attention skills of mindfulness.
Can I think while meditating?
If you’re a human with a brain then thinking is going to happen. Thinking is not a problem. If your meditation includes thought as part of its focus range then the activity of thought can be a part of your meditation. If you are focused on something else in your meditation and thought appears that’s fine too. It is an opportunity to practise equanimity (the ability to let sensory experience rise and fall without push or pull) which is one of the 3 skills of Mindfulness. Allowing (and welcoming) thought to go in the background while you focus on what you’ve chosen is practising a powerful skill which can give us a little breathing space from the content and impact of our thoughts.
Can I Meditate during exercise?
Exercise can be a great activity to pair with either Formal or Informal Meditation Practice (depending on the focus demands of the exercise). An exercise bike or treadmill can be great for Formal Practice or short ‘Microhits’. As with any activity it is possible to have a background practice running while you are busy.