I've heard various recommendations for meditation times:
-shortly after waking/before bed
-4am
-before breakfast/before dinner
How about functional meditation times?
I've tried each of the above schedules and while it may not seem satisfactory for hardcore meditators, the most enduring schedule I have played with in the past, and am currently embarking upon is something that may be called a functional meditation schedule:
This means,
allowing my meditation schedule to serve me. To meditate when I need: a complete mental break, to recieve insight on an important/difficult decision, or allow space and calm
after an intense conversation of some sort.
When I say meditation I'm referring to more traditional, sitting eyes closed breath-following calmness/mindfulness/deep looking/insight meditation. I assume that mindfulness and everyday walking meditation are easily interspersed and have hardly ever been confined to a single portion of the day.
This schedule especially fits my own lifestyle as a social, pre-med college student. My activities push into late night and require wakefulness in the early morning. Personally, I find exercise much more wakeful in the morning and socializing with close friends much more theraputic (and sometimes even more insightful) at night, not to mention my love of unending cuddling
.
Other reasons why I see a functional daily schedule as superior:
-It worked with exercise. The more functions exercise fills in my life the more likely I am to do it. Currently it is a stress reducer, break-time, social activity, wake-up, and sleep aide.
-Lifestyle factors clashing with meditation schedules can induce: guilt, a tendency to throw the entirety of meditation out of one's life, feeling stiff or unsocial, and undue stress.
In summary a functional meditation schedule is working traditional meditation into each day, enjoying whatever time you have for it, as many times as you may need or desire it. For others this may set into an after work meditation habit, sounds good, the most important thing is that
it works for you.
Anyone have any additional ideas about how meditation can work for you (on a short term/that day basis; the more the better)?
Or possibly critiques of why this schedule is wrong or another is better?
Any comments would be much appreciated.