Meditation is an essential tool that can be used to live a better life, and in this busy world of ours, it gets pretty challenging to find the best time to meditate.
Mediation is proven to have countless benefits in your personal or professional life. Having a daily meditation session of at least one hour can drastically improve your quality of life.
Daily meditation session results in benefits such as:
- Meditation improves empathy.
- Meditation reduces stress.
- Meditation improves focus.
- Meditation helps ease anxiety and depression.
If we look at it, meditation has a lot to offer, but to receive benefits from meditation, the first thing you must do is to start practicing meditation.
For most people, the idea of meditation is so daunting; they merely try it. While in truth, meditation is quite a simple thing to start with.
As a beginner, you can start meditating just by paying attention to your breath or follow along with the steps:
- Find a quiet place, sit comfortably and relax.
- Take few deep breaths.
- Observe how you breathe in and out.
- Pay close attention to your breath.
- Watch your thoughts and how it changes your breath.
- Do nothing, just be aware.
Since you now know how to do meditation, let’s talk about the best time to meditate.
The Best Time To Meditate
The best time to meditate differs from person to person and mostly on your lifestyle.
The early morning hour is essential and practical for meditation according to the yogic culture. If you ever go to a monastery and live there for some time, you will be surprised to find the monks living in the monasteries get up by 2 am or 3 am. It is a strict discipline the monks need to follow.
Let’s get into the details:
Top meditation centers worldwide suggest morning hours as the best time to meditate and be more productive.
Scientific results also point out that getting up early can significantly impact how you live your life.
Although there is no particular and specific answer to the question “what is the best time to meditate” observing and reading about old yogic traditions and top yoga centers and meditation centers don’t fail to hint.
A famous meditation technique, Vipassana meditation, requires you to take a ten-day Vipassana course to learn the method. The course is provided at the Vipassana Center in different parts of the world.
During the ten-day vipassana meditation course, the people there wake you up at 4 am, and you have to go to the meditation hall to begin the practice. You need to follow the routine till you complete the course, which until the end of your ten days course.
The meditation session starts at 4 am and ends at 9 pm; some breaks are in the middle for breakfast, lunch and a little time for rest.
During my stay at many Vipassana courses, I found morning hours the best to meditate. Morning hours helped me dive into more profound meditative experiences. Simultaneously, noontime meditation tends to make me feel sleepy and unproductive.
The time between 4 am and 9 am is considered to be very powerful because of the following reasons:
Scientists in the field of neurological research have found out fascinating facts about how the brain functions in the morning:
- The brain produces waves which are electrical patterns.
- In the morning hours, the mind seems to work at 10.5 waves per second.
- This state is known as the alpha state.
- And it’s been called the gateway to the subconscious mind.
Why Morning is the best time to meditate
If you seek to improve your life, be it socially, financially, professionally or personally, Morning is the key to that fulfilment you desire.
But here is the thing you might want to consider before jumping into the morning routine. Just waking up is not enough. What you do after waking up is much more important.
Meditation is the one thing you must have in your morning ritual.
Top 8 reasons why morning is the perfect time to meditate:
- Meditation requires you to be in a silent space with the slightest noise and disturbances. Morning hours are “the golden silent hours” for any meditator.
- Morning comes with the least amount of disturbances from your family or cars on the streets.
- After a good night’s sleep, you become fresher in the morning and are likely to be more receptive to subtler events.
- You go into more profound meditation during the morning hours.
- The clarity after morning meditation helps you plan out your day.
- Your peace of mind stays with you throughout the day.
- You become more synced with nature.
- Morning hour shifts your mood in a positive direction.
- You are free from disturbing thoughts in the morning.
- The mind calms down faster as the brain functions at a higher frequency.
There is a particular time to meditate, but morning is much more beneficial. You can meditate any time you want. That being said, let’s have a look at other times to meditate except morning hours.
The other best time to meditate is the evening hour:
Good Time To Meditate: Evening Hour
The evening hours are best to meditate because you will be tired by all the hard work that you have done all day.
You can go for an hour-long meditation session in the evening if you can make the time for it.
Meditation in the evening will help you relax and get your energy back. Meditation in the evening hour enables you to recover your calmness and peace of mind. It is also essential that you approach meditation with a positive frame of mind. The experiences you receive also depends on how you approach meditation.
You will get good sleep and feel well-rested in the morning after a good evening meditation session.
A wise man once said, “You must never take your work into your home and your home to your office”, and meditation helps you do that.
You can meditate when you think it’s best for you in the evening.
Is noon hours the best time to meditate?
Speaking of my experiences, noon hours don’t fit for deeper meditation sessions. But it all depends per person.
Some people go for meditation after lunch during office hours, but it’s hard to find a quiet and peaceful place.
You have high chances of falling asleep. However, the solution is to go for a quick session of min 10 to 20 minutes.
Mindfulness meditation is the best for short and quick meditation sessions.
Conclusion
Morning hours are the best time to be more productive and add a positive vibe to your day.
Meditation helps you boost your productivity and positivity. Therefore morning time is the best time to meditate.
Evening meditation sessions will help you be more relaxed and help you have a good time with your friends and family.
During the noon or after lunch, it’s better to go for a short meditation session.
It may take some time to develop the habit, and you don’t need to rush.
You will get into the rhythm sooner or later.