For many people, the idea of meditation can seem both appealing and overwhelming. While paying more attention seems like a positive thing, sitting still for more than 30 minutes in silence can be daunting. For some people, micro-meditations (meditations lasting about two minutes or less) can be a way to fit meditation into a busy day.
“I’ve come across research that suggests that short periods of meditation, as little as two minutes, several times a day, can be effective,” said Laura Dudley, director of the Applied Behavior Analysis Program at Northeastern University. said Laura Dudley, director of the behavioral analysis program. She added that most studies have investigated the effects of her 10 minutes of meditation compared to her 30 minutes, and found that “results are quite comparable between her two different time periods.” Ta.
Experts tell TODAY.com what meditation is, how it can help people in their daily lives, and how you can start incorporating micromeditation into your life.
What is meditation?
“Meditation is a practice,” says Dudley. “We practice sitting quietly and paying attention to our thoughts.”
There are many different ways to meditate, such as loving-kindness meditation, mantra meditation, body scan meditation, and walking meditation. Mindfulness meditation remains one of the most popular forms.
“I define mindfulness as paying attention to present-moment experiences with openness, curiosity, and a desire to be present with the experience,” says UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Institute. Diana Winston, Director of Mindfulness Education at MARC, told TODAY.com. “It’s about…calming yourself and paying attention to the present moment.”
The length of meditation probably depends on the person practicing meditation and their goals. Those with long-standing habits may enjoy meditative retreats throughout the day, while others may engage in more manageable periods of 30 to 60 minutes. Research shows that people who are starting a meditation practice are more likely to continue meditating if they start with a shorter period of time.
“Because the meditation time was short, participants were much more likely to continue their meditation practice,” Dudley says.
While meditation can help people become more mindful, Winston says people can experience mindfulness at any time. Dudley agrees that any practice is most effective if people can take their experiences home with them.
“We hope people will benefit from the meditation cushion,” she says. “There’s really no point in meditating for 10 minutes. Just 10 minutes of meditation is such a beautiful, wonderful, peaceful experience, if you’re going to step off the cushion and spend the rest of the day feeling resentful, frustrated, angry. , it makes no sense at all.”
What are the benefits of meditation?
Experts say people who meditate regularly experience many benefits. Dudley and Winston say the benefits include:
- stress reduction
- Strengthening immunity
- lower blood pressure
- less inflammation
- Reducing feelings of depression and anxiety
- Improved sleep quality
- Improved concentration
- Decrease in resting heart rate
“[Mindfulness]can enhance mood. It can create more feelings of kindness and connection,” says the author of Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness. says Winston. “Mindfulness is a training of attention, which is very helpful.”
What is micro meditation?
Micromeditation involves introspecting for short periods of time, often several times a day. Experts say a short period of meditation can have just as many positive effects as sitting in a peaceful place for 60 minutes at a time.
“There are absolute benefits to doing this in short bursts multiple times a day to focus on the present moment, calm the mind, and develop a quality of attention that brings peace and balance,” says Winston. says.
Dudley, who teaches an introductory mindfulness class, says she starts her students with a two-minute meditation. Some people find even 120 seconds overwhelming.
“For students who have never meditated before, two minutes can seem like a very long time,” she says. “We’re not used to sitting quietly and still for two minutes undisturbed.”
She sometimes uses that two-minute meditation to help people meditate for longer than 20 minutes, but she encourages people to stick with shorter meditations if it helps. Masu. She points out that Buddhist monk Mathieu Ricard, known as the happiest man in the world, advocates short periods of meditation.
“He talks about how two minutes twice a day for 30 days can have really positive effects,” she says.
(Ricardo is the happiest man alive after taking part in a brain study in which scientists scanned his brain and found that he had very high activity levels in his left prefrontal cortex, the brain’s happiness center.) )
Winston teaches a micro-meditation she calls STOP.
- S: Stop
- T: breathe
- ○: Observe
- P: move on
“This is a 10-second micro-meditation that I always recommend to my students,” she says. “It can be distracting when you’re angry, anxious, upset. It can give you a moment to come back to the present.”
She says MARC has a free app called UCLA Mindful that helps people interested in meditation. Experts agree that incorporating micro-meditation can be beneficial for many people.
“If you’re training for a marathon, you don’t put on your running shoes and go out on the first day and run 22 or 20 miles,” Dudley says. It can also be applied to meditation.”
