When I led a group of college students to Europe, I found three of them curled up on the floor of a study room in our hostel. When I found out what they were doing, I began learning about meditation and mindfulness. I had learned from W. Deming to be cautious about numbers and the idea of meditating for a convenient period of time, such as an hour, made me suspicious. I read "The Relaxation Response" by H. Benson, a Harvard medical school professor, and I thought I would benefit from meditating for five to 10 minutes. Since then, I have found the timer on my iPad very convenient for giving myself a quick meditation session. I often find that short, even micro sessions or doses, of nearly anything train me faster and with less trouble than long sessions.
There are various documents and articles about the elasticity of human time perception. The best statement on duration of meditation sessions I read was by Chinese-American author and Google engineer, Chade-Meng Tan. He wrote in his book "Joy on Demand" that one conscious breath was enough to be a helpful meditation session.
A two or three minute meditation session, where I sit upright but not rigidly on a chair, and pay attention to a spot or a corner, does me some good. If I am feeling extra ambitious, I might set my iPad timer (or set Google) for 8, 9 or 10 minutes. I am not well-qualified for membership in a group of monks but I find these short, unhampered sessions very helpful.
