Perhaps you have started your meditative journey with us already. Perhaps you have even established a meditation routine, with your regular morning and evening meditation. It’s great if you have managed to establish your personal morning and evening meditation schedule. And if you have not done so we warmly encourage you to try. For these are the main building blocks of your personal and spiritual growth. Establishing and maintaining a schedule of regular meditation is what allows us to keep our inner state in check, to maintain balance and to reconnect to the source of energy every time we sit down to meditate. This is what keeps our batteries charged.

However, you may be wondering: can we remain connected, even after we have finished our “formal” morning meditation? Can we go about our day without getting “unplugged” from the source? Can we optimize our system to save energy, so that our batteries do no completely drain in-between our meditation sessions? And Can we quick-charge our batteries in the middle of the day, while we are working, studying, running errands, or taking care of any number of commitments that we have?

The answer to all these questions is “yes”, and the key is our attention. We will introduce you to several techniques of training our attention and maintaining it throughout the day, in our new Lunchtime Meditation series starting in March.

It happens to me all the time. In fact, if I’m not careful, it probably will happen in every session that I sit down to meditate. It goes something like this.

I sit down to meditate. I’m hit with a lot of thoughts from the past or the future. I’m more conscious of something else coming up right after meditation, and so my attention doesn’t go deep enough. More than this, my attitude is somewhat superficial, nonchalant and casual – as though meditation is a daily chore and I have the typical “Let’s get this over with” feeling inside me.

Result? I barely touch even the basic benefits of meditation and worse, I end up spending 15 to 20 minutes pretending that I’ve completed my daily meditation.

With experience, I learned how to do the exact opposite – get a meaningful, profound and surreal experience out of my daily meditation by focusing on a few essential things.

The good news is that if they do, then this is a natural reaction expected from you. Science backs it up by proving that meditators are proven to be more socially conscious than most people.

So, you are likely to get annoyed by the lack of respect people have for Mother Nature. However, getting into debates isn’t the answer. Meditators use a more profound and subtler approach to contribute to increased environmental and social consciousness.

Last Friday, our instructor and experienced practitioner David Dunphy gave a very interesting introduction and guided meditation session on how our attention works over time in creating a permanent and lasting effect of meditation. While we all are familiar with what meditation can achieve for us during a session of meditation, what about the lasting and permanent effects of meditation on us?

It’s quite an interesting question that we get asked all the time and one that’s extremely important to a meditator. 5 minute and 10-minute meditations are quite popular these days. Those who offer meditation are desperate to make money in a highly competitive market where the options and choices are endless. But quick and easy is what sells and gets views on Youtube or likes on social media, which explains a plethora of quick “recharge yourself” offerings. Then there is upselling to yoga mats and other products that enhance your meditation experience.

It goes on and on….commercial intent without any consideration for the optimal time that your personal, individual journey to self-improvement and better health requires. But how long you should meditate and how much time you spend on it is something you should control and determine, rather than allow marketing professionals to dictate this.

And the point to focus here is what realistically is the time needed for meditation to be effective and beneficial for you? Some answers we give will surprise you.