Timings

[JonW]

I'm with barbs55 on this. At the moment I'm more comfortable meditating to a timer. Whenever I've tried without a timer, my meditations tend to be fairly brief and I'm even more conscious of time. However that might change when I become more experienced.

[Gareth]

I'm nearly three years into meditating, and I have always used a timer. When you have a busy life, sometimes you need to fit your meditation into a specific gap in your day that is say 30 minutes. Besides, time sometimes does some strange things while yoa are meditating. I prefer to keep track of how much practice I've done.

[rara]

but also clearly we live in a world where our own 'time' is very precious, and most of us aren't living in circumstances where we can choose to meditate for however long it is, much as we might like to! If I can't have some indication of time I will not be able to commit to practice at all, as I haven't got the freedom in my day to day life to do so because of other family responsibilities.

Yes, there are a number of variables and conforming to what you already have is important unless you chose to change it. Thank you for the elaboration, that made things much clearer.

However, your original question raises questions in your own mind...perhaps look at possibilities on how you can flex this. Could you wake earlier? Could you do more spot meditations throughout the day etc...

[rara]

Or meditate by counting seconds to yourself in your own mind. Hehe, that would be ace for concentration in itself!

[rara]

Sorry, multiple posts. It's just that you appear to be trying to squeeze things in so I just want to suggest exploring different ways of using meditation and mindfulness which will benefit you 24 hours a day. It's just about changing your mindset and being open to the exploration. I'm a big advocate...it was the best thing that I did that changed my whole outlook on life!

[piedwagtail91]

i always use a timer, it was one i made using audacity software and some bells from one of our guided meditations.. it has bells set at the times that i wanted.
i needed something to get practices to fit set times when i started to lead practices at our reunions and some practitioner meetings.
my view is that there's nothing wrong with it, it allows me to meditate without having the thoughts about 'how long have i done' coming to mind.
we recently had a full day retreat but the practices had to fit a reasonably flexible schedule so it was down to the person leading to set the time.
but i agree it's down to personal choice.
if you get 18 people in a practice you'll get 18 different experiences.
do what feels right.