How long should I meditate?

The time a person needs to spend in formal meditation sessions to gain maximum benefit depends on ever-changing individual circumstances. If you are meditating with a group, you will gain from the group energy and go further with less effort. . If you are meditating alone, without support from others, then you will have to do all the heavy lifting yourself.

My general recommendation is that a single forty minute meditation session practiced every day is a minimum effort, and scientists have proven that amount of meditation is enough to physically enlarge portions of the brain involved in awareness.

Meditation only works for those who are hungry for it, and if you cannot spare forty minutes a day you will probably not gain substantial benefits. If you wish to go faster, with clearly recognizable progress, then I suggest two or three formal meditation sessions every day.

It is of paramount importance to practice mindfulness throughout the day. To be of any real value, meditation must become a full-time way of living rather than a strictly segregated activity. Choose methods that make you feel more positive. Meditation should be a form of cosmic hedonism, not a penance one must perform as an obligation.