When is the best time to meditate?

First thing in the morning
Recommended for: daily meditation practice
Laura Maciuika, EdD, clinical psychologist and author of Conscious Calm: Keys to Freedom from Stress and Worry: Your routine first thing in the morning sets the tone for the entire day. Before breakfast is generally a good time to meditate. But for beginners, especially folks who are feeling stressed out, meditating at all can be daunting. In that case, I recommend simply putting your attention on slower, deeper breathing—even for just five minutes—early in the day before getting busy with anything.

End of your workday
Recommended for: daily meditation practice
Laura Maciuika: For some people, meditating at the end of the workday is the perfect way to create a natural boundary between work and the rest of life. For beginners or people who find meditation intimidating, using the breath to re-center then can work really well. It’s the intention to create a clear boundary that’s powerful. What you don’t want is to allow work thoughts to run into the evening so that you’re neither still at work nor really fully at home. You can miss out on life that way!

Whenever you’re stressed
Recommended for: as-needed mini-meditation
Stacey Shipman, MEd, stress management specialist, yoga teacher, and founder of HealthySouthShore.com: Throughout the day, it’s helpful to meditate for a few minutes whenever you feel overwhelmed or pressed for time. Meditation can help you settle your mind, feel more relaxed, and think clearly about an appropriate next step or action. It sounds counterintuitive (“I don’t have time to meditate, I have so much to do!”). But it’s often the thought of having too much to do rather than actually having too much to do that can create the stress. Meditation can help you feel better and less overwhelmed.