For many, the idea of meditation sounds both appealing and overwhelming. Being more mindful seems like it could be positive, but sitting still for a half hour or more in silence feels daunting. For some, micro meditation — mediation lasting about two minutes or less — can be a way to incorporate meditation into a busy day.
“I came across research that is suggesting that meditation as short as two minutes a couple of times a day can be beneficial,” Laura Dudley, director of the applied behavior analysis program at Northeastern University, tells TODAY.com. She adds that most research examined the effectiveness of 10 minutes of meditation compared to 30 minutes and found that “the results were pretty comparative over the two different durations.”
The experts tell TODAY.com what meditation is, how it helps people in their daily life — and how they can start to introduce micro meditation into their lives.
What is meditation?
“Meditation is a practice,” Dudley says. “We’re practicing sitting in silence or practicing paying attention to our thoughts.”
There are many ways to meditate, including loving kindness meditation, mantra meditation, body scan meditation or walking meditation. Mindfulness meditation remains one of the more common forms of it.
“I define mindfulness as paying attention to our present moment experiences with openness, curiosity and a willingness to be with that experience,” Diana Winston, the director of mindfulness education at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC), tells TODAY.com. “It’s … calming ourselves, bringing our attention into the present moment into the here and now.”
The length of a meditation likely depends on the person practicing it and their goals. Some with a longstanding habit might enjoy a dayslong meditative retreat while others engage in more manageable time of about 30 to 60 minutes. There’s research that indicates that people trying to start a meditation practice remain…
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