How to Meditate for One Hour

How to Meditate for 1-hour

Sometimes, meditating for 10 minutes can feel like forever. If you’re here— it means that you’re interested in going deeper in your meditation practice. If you’re looking to extend the time you’re able to be in meditation, I recommend starting small. While there are teachers— me included!— who advise students that it is less about the amount of time spent, and more about the consistency of showing up day after day. It’s the dedication and devotion to the practice than the amount of time spent. 

That being said, I’ve spent up to 14 hours a day in meditation during meditation retreats and vipassanas. If you’re curious about my experiences and lessons learned from vipassanas— click here.

If you want to extend the amount of time you’re spending in meditation, you can consider adding on one minute a day for a few weeks or months until you feel comfortable seated for longer periods. You don’t have to dive from 10 minutes of meditation into a full hour!

Again— that being said, here is a step by step guide for how to meditate for an hour. It is not a single seated meditation where you don’t move at all for a full hour. It’s important to move the body in between static seated meditation to prevent too much physical discomfort from arising. Below is a “routine” you can follow and try for yourself— see how it goes!

If you’d like to meditate with me (for free!) on Insight Timer— click here. 

Step By Step Guide for Meditating for 1-hour

Stage 1: Focus Attention on the Breath (14 minutes)

Sit in an easy meditation position. Whether cross-legged or in half lotus, or full lotus.

5 minutes: Begin with normal breathing.

5 minutes: Move to deep breathing.

2 minutes: Then move to yogic breathing which involves inhaling and exhaling in a perfect continuous movement, so slowly that very little sound is heard. When you inhale, inhale extra air at the top of the movement feeling the air reach the very bottom of the lungs and expand the ribs fully. When you exhale, empty the lungs completely and pull the abdominal muscles near the spine.

2 minute: Normal breathing

Open your eyes

Stage 2: Stretching (10 minutes)

Bend forward with your legs crossed. Extend the arms outward, fold forward over your knees. Switch sides so that whichever leg was on top or in front, is now behind the other.

Bridge pose

Boat pose

Fish pose

Back to cross-legged and bring your awareness back to the breath.

Stage 3: Gentle Dynamic Movement (7 minutes)

Move slowly between child’s pose to seated with hands in prayer. This is a following continuous movement to repeat ten times or more.

Stage 4: Vibrational Energy Building (17 minutes)

5 minutes: Sit in lotus, half lotus, or cross-legged. Place your hands on the clavicle, underneath the throat. And make a sound deep in your throat that is the sound of bees. Hum with your lips pressed together and feel the uplifting vibrations course through your throat and your body.

Move to shavasana

Normal breathing

Deep breathing

Normal breathing

Deep inhaling holding, then exhale fully through your mouth as slowly as possible.

Listen to a mantra or calming music and continue with normal breathing.

Stage 5: OM Chanting  (12 minutes)

5 minutes: Sit in lotus or another comfortable seated position. Breathe with either normal breathing or deep breathing. Draw awareness to your third eye and chat OM quickly as if the OM is circling a bowl.

2 minutes: Normal breathing

5 minutes: Lower to shavasana

Slowly come back to life and inhale love, life, energy, and joy.

Who taught me this meditation sequence?

Full credit for this sequence goes to Rajendra Neupane, fondly called Raj, who was my meditation teacher at Nepal Yoga Home. Raj guided my fellow yoga teacher training students and me in learning how to meditate for an hour at a time. Most students had limited to moderate experience meditating, and meditating for an hour seemed daunting. Raj was patient, kind, and had a contagious exuberance to him that extended into his teachings. At the end of every class, he had us all put two thumbs up and chant, with enormous grins on our face: “Yes, I do yoga every day. Yes, I meditate every day.”

Raj takes delight in every moment. He smiles from ear to ear, and pays close attention to those around him.

His most influential words to me were:

One day you plant a seed, the next day you expect fruit. Is that possible? Impossible.

I encourage you to reflect on these simplistic sounding words. This is the truth of all action and endeavors. It takes time. You cannot be attached to the fruit. Your purpose is to plant seeds. Only this. Meditation is like the waves slowly working a rock into a grain of sand, it takes an enormous amount of time before deep change can be seen. The process is slow. Be patient.

Raj also taught me that the development of consciousness is very important.

“The point is transformation. The purpose is to know our own mind, body, and heart. The mission is to minimize suffering and maximize happiness.”

Raj certainly appears to have maximized his happiness. It was through Raj’s meditation training that I drew closer to my center.

With grace and gratitude, thank you for being a part of the Wild Yoga Tribe, Raj.