This one change to your meditation practice will make all the difference, but most people may not want to do it
First off, if you're meditating daily then you're doing great!
Any amount of meditation on a daily basis is always better than no meditation. It is also better to meditate for 15 minutes per day than it is to meditate for 3 hours once per week. By making meditation a daily practice, it has an effect that builds on itself every day.
But aside from sitting daily, what else can ensure we see results from our committed practice?
While many apps and programs will advocate for short 5, 10, or 15 minute meditations, if you really want to see significant changes as a result of meditation then you need to start thinking along the lines of 30 to 45 minute sessions. Daily.
It's a much bigger time commitment than just a few minutes and it can be more challenging for beginners to endure--but hear me out. Because just by enduring it, you are guaranteed results.
Various studies have found that physical changes in the brain observable on MRI occur after 8 weeks of 45 minute daily practice. This doesn't mean to say changes don't happen right from your very first sitting. There have been other studies that show changes in genetic expression during a beginner meditator's very first session.
But that said, you will physically change your brain and, as a result, many aspects of your consciousness with only 8 weeks of dedicated practice. Not years. Weeks.
The reason why an emphasis on results is important is because it links cause and effect. If you know firsthand that meditation practice changes you in unique and significant ways, you are more likely to continue your practice.
But why is sitting for longer important? What different does it make in practice?
Well, there is a very good technical reason as to why longer meditations are more effective.
The mind's activity is like a ceiling fan that is constantly spinning and spinning. Learning how to sit, focus your attention, and relax without actively thinking is like learning how to flip the "off" switch for the ceiling fan. But even after it is turned off, the fan keeps spinning! The fan needs time to slow down and then to stop.
The first thing every non-meditator says to me is that they can't practice meditation because they can't stop all the thoughts in their head. And my response is always the same: you don't have to.
There is a difference between actively thinking and having thoughts pop up. We can learn to consciously control our active thinking but we cannot control thoughts popping up.
Learning to meditate is like learning how to flip that off switch for the ceiling fan. But then that doesn't mean your head wont still be chaotic and noisy; the fan is still spinning. Once you stop adding to the chaos by actively thinking, you have to give the mind time to settle down on its own. You cannot force it into silence.
The longer you sit for meditation, the more time you give your mind to slow down, decompress, and settle into wakeful silence.
Thoughts popping up, coming and going, is like the movement of the ceiling fan even after you turn it off. But if you start actively thinking about those thoughts, analyzing them and such, then it's like turning the fan back on.
Once you realize you've started down a train of thought, you need only to take a breath and redirect your focus back to the meditation technique.
As a beginner, you are mostly learning how to focus your attention without straining. How to be relaxed and focused. You are learning to recognize when you have accidentally fallen into actively thinking and then to forgive your lapse and return back to the focus of the meditation. It is the process of learning how to flip the switch and turn off the fan.
As you progress, you will be able to remain focused without actively thinking for the entire sitting. That still doesn't mean your mind will be silent. Thoughts may still whirl around.
But the longer you sit without active thinking, the more you digest and release all of these thoughts, reactions, fears, desires, triggers, and judgments.
Inner silence is not the goal, but it is the outcome
The chaotic mind is like glass of water filled with churning dirt particles. If you try to push the particles to the bottom of the cup, it will only stir things up more. You need to leave the water alone long enough and everything settles on its own.
The inner silence that you will find in meditation is nothing like how you imagine it. If you try to imagine it, it sounds rather dull and boring. But in actual experience, this inner silence isn't an absence of something. Instead it feels quite fulfilling, tasty, pleasant, and heartening. And that becomes another struggle for beginners: not clinging to the wonderful experiences/feelings that arise during meditation.
So when you can sit without active thinking and then sit long enough, you will start to have meditation sessions in which you dwell in/as an exquisite silence. That is when the meditation process itself kicks into an even higher gear, and it's when meditation itself can be an enjoyable experience.
However, and I cannot emphasize this enough, you will enjoy the benefits of meditation in your daily life well before you enjoy the actual meditation sessions. Even after just a week or two of solid daily practice, you will notice a difference.
As you become progressively free from anxieties, triggers, fixed imprints, and other forms of inner suffering, you will find the increased ease and freedom to be the best version of yourself.
Keep this in mind as you develop your daily practice.
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