| The effect I am going for is to reduce my body's production of stress hormones. Consulting a clinical psychologist and Googling around on the phrase "mindfulness-based stress reduction" lead me to believe that 4 minutes a day suffices to get that effect. Also, those 3-5 minutes sometimes cause subjective experiences of increased calmness that tend to last the rest of the day. It probably takes longer durations to achieve some of the other effects commonly ascribed to meditation (e.g., becoming more contented). I have tried longer durations, but I judge that in my particular case they are more likely to be harmful than helpful. Specifically, I have a bit of a chronic health problem which necessitates that my immune system remain always strong and active. Getting too much sun and not getting enough sleep are 2 things that personal experiences lead me to believe are bad for me -- and according to immunology researchers, those 2 things suppress the immune system. The suppression tends to last only a few hours or a day, but that is long enough for me to notice bad effects. Meditating for hours at a time produced subjective effects in me similar to the effects of those 2 other things that suppress my immune system. So, that is one reason I avoid long meditation sessions and tend to advise other people with chronic health issues similar to mine to do the same. Sometimes (particularly, in the rare situation described in grandparent in which the first meditation session of the day ends with me looking at a web browser, looking at some file on my computer or doing something else other than meditating) I do 2 to 4 sessions (of 3 to 5 minutes each) a day, and I have not experienced the adverse health effect mentioned above on such days. By the way, a large part of time I am meditating I am resisting urges (the theme of the OP) rather than doing what most meditators describe, namely, resisting attachment to or involvement in sensations or resisting dwelling on regrets about the past or worries about the future. Specifically, urges to execute a sequence of motor actions (e.g., get out of my chair and move something that needs moving) or to plan out how to achieve some goal. |