In collaboration with Fresh toast
Meditating is a very personal practice, but one study found that a certain amount of time provides significant benefits and relieves stress.
Meditation includes a lot of benefits. Depending on your perspective, meditation can be used to strengthen spiritual connections, to deal with anxiety, or to decompress yourself before completing an important activity. However, when you are just starting out, it is difficult to know how long each session lasts and whether it works or not.
There is no direct answer and it all depends on how long you meditate, however, according to Healthline, to measure the effectiveness of a meditation session, you need to consider four factors: frequency of practice, duration, compliance with instructions, competence, and enjoyment.
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Different studies found that the more people meditated, the more effective it was. How consistent people were and how repetitive it also mattered. Finally, people’s competence in the meditation session was also important, implying that while time and commitment are important, the focus is also key.
An important study performed on meditators who had little experience, found that meditating for 13 minutes a day for an eight-week period was enough for people to experience decreased negative moods, increased attention span, better memory, and less anxiety.
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Thirteen minutes seems like a long time for inexperienced meditators, so competition is also important. Headspace explains it, when meditating, if you feel too long, it usually is. “If the session feels unbearable and continues to be unbearable and we are not able to discover the source of this resistance, it is not a well-spent time.” While the session should be a bit challenging, it shouldn’t be unbearable or demotivating.
If you are a beginner, start slow, with 3-5 minute sessions. Be consistent with your practices, allowing yourself to stretch that amount of time in an organic and intuitive way. Once you’ve reached 10 or 15 minutes, you’ll start to notice noticeable improvements.
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